HostMonster Review

Full review

Do you want to get your website online without any hassle? Or do you prefer to configure your website to your own specifications and add script to enhance the site’s functionality? Both scenarios are supported by the HostMonster system. We looked into all the features available on the HostMonster plan.

Hosting

If you’re looking for an affordable, feature-packed hosting plan you can use straight out of the box then HostMonster gives you all that for $4.95 per month. There’s one main HostMonster plan that covers all the bases you need to get a website on the internet. The HostMonster plan has many positives – the first being unlimited storage and bandwidth, meaning you can scale up if you need to and you won’t need to worry about your site becoming so popular you won’t have the space to deal with your visitors. The HostMonster plan also provides for unlimited domains and unlimited email accounts. Many web host providers have gone down the all-in-one package route and we think it works if you are looking for a simple, cost effective way of getting online.

Once you’re signed up you’ll want to know what features you can use to get your website looking good, and seen by as many people as possible. HostMonster has a free site builder working with drag-and-drop features, so you can pull together a website if you haven’t already designed one. Through the control panel you can add on a number of applications for additional functionality including a bulletin board, blogs, social networking tools, image galleries, polls, surveys, and an SSL secure server for online shopping carts. For those that prefer to add scripts by hand the host provides support for all the major languages. Video and audio streaming is supported, as is Flash and a variety of other multimedia features. FTP access is allowed and you get unlimited additional FTP accounts with the HostMonster package.

The HostMonster sites are handled by the company’s own data centre with a customized Apache web server, UPS power back up and a backup generator, plus 24-hour monitoring and courtesy site backups, as you would expect from a serious web host. Uptime and reliability from HostMonster are both good.

Domains

HostMonster gives you a free domain for one year which you sign up for at the beginning of the hosting process. You can also transfer your own domains easily from other providers. A lot of other web hosting providers give you this feature and it remains a very useful addition – the ability to host unlimited domains from your single HostMonster account. When you do this you have the convenience of managing multiple sites from the same control panel, limiting the time you need to spend learning about different systems and logging in and out of different providers. You can also easily add more websites to your portfolio as your business grows, without having to switch web host. Add-on domains, parked domains and sub-domains are also unlimited.

Email

Get as many email accounts as you want with HostMonster. The hosting service provides secure POP3 and IMAP email support with unlimited forwarding email accounts, and unlimited email auto-responder.

Marketing & reporting

Get a basic set of statistics from the tools in the HostMonster control panel in order to see what kind of response your website is receiving. The host also includes free search engine submission and a free $100-worth of Google advertising credit to spend on ads to get your site noticed.

Ease of use

Navigate your way around the HostMonster system using the cPanel dashboard. The cPanel is an easy to use system that allows you to use drop-down menus to access all the tools and features in the package. Getting your website hosted online by HostMonster is simple to achieve and you can use the control panel to configure your website and create pages using the drag-and-drop page creation wizard. The whole set-up is suitable for beginners as well as more experienced web users.

Help & support

If there’s one thing that can spoil a user’s experience of a hosting service, it’s the customer support. Thankfully HostMonster supplies a number of options for getting in touch. Call on a toll-free US number or the line for outside of the US, email to open a support ticket, or use the live chat function to get your questions answered. In addition HostMonster features a selection of how-to tutorials, articles in the KnowledgeBase, a user forum and a search function.

Overall

HostMonster gives you unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited email accounts and domains, and a variety of features in a compact package. The system is easy to use and effective.