Reliability

No Uptime Promises but Details Given on Server Centre

Dotster is pretty sketchy when it comes to uptime and reliability with their hosting plans. They do not offer any kind of uptime statements or provide detailed information on the kind of stats you can expect.

Luckily, they do offer backups across all plans to give you that piece of mind, that if something should happen – you are covered. They also offer information on the Dotster servers, and state that they are held in a secure data centre with fully redundant power systems and 24/7 monitoring.

Features

Basic Tool and Feature Set With Tempting Extras

When we look at features and tools offered by Dotster, they really lack any depth and quality here but do have the tempting offer of free Adwords and Facebook credits to help you kick-start any marketing campaign.

The basic plan offered Unlimited disk space and bandwidth, along with 5 FTP logins and 10 MYSQL databases, which is basic offering that most people will be happy with. If you are looking for more features and tools then it might be worth seeing what other hosting companies are offering for the same monthly price.

Dotster also offer eco-friendly hosting with high-efficiency servers, and will plant a tree for every new eco-hosting customer.

Support

Varied Support Channels and Helpful Articles

Dotster do excel in their customer support, and offer every customer the opportunity to take advantage of contact details and knowledge bases packed with informative articles and video tutorials.

As well as a ticket system in place, you can also get hold of Dotster via social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter which usually offer customers a way to get a quick reply to simple questions.

If you live in the US, then you can also benefit from a toll-free 24/7 telephone number if you are signed up to any of the ultra hosting plans. However, there is an alternative number available for all the other plans that Dotster offer.

• Toll-Free Number
• Social Media Contacts
• Knowledge Base
• Ticket System
• Video Tutorials

• Toll-Free only for Premium Plans
• Slow response times reported

Pricing

Simple and Affordable Price Range

There are 3 different plans to choose from under their shared hosting platform, under both Windows and Linux systems. The Windows hosting solutions are slightly more expensive which is an industry standard.

For the cheapest plan you can get basic hosting with Linux for as little as $3.75 per month with the ultra hosting plan costing $13.75. For each of the alternative Windows plans you just need to add an extra $1 per month on the 3 tiered plans.

User-Friendly

Linux and Windows Plan: Some with CPanel, Some Not

It’s a bit of a 50/50 here with Dotster because they do offer the ever reliable and user-friendly CPanel control panel option to its customers, however you need to be taking out the VPS plans to be able to access it.

For the general Shared Hosting plans that run across Linux and Windows systems, you will get a Dotster custom control panel, which isn’t the most user-friendly of control panels and will take every user some time to get to grips with it.

Summary

The Hosting Platform For Beginners & Mid-Range Companies

For the basic user, Dotster offers basic features and tools to help plant the foundations for any mid-range website. If you are looking for more innovation and better features that dig deeper, then perhaps Doster isn’t for you.

The support offered is varied and offers customers the opportunity to delve into a plethora of contact methods and helpful articles or video tutorials, topped off by social media channels where you can get quick-time responses.

Finally Dotster offers perks such as marketing credits, which can lure in customers. Overall, they offer a decent service, for a decent price.

Pros

• Good Support Channels
• Website and Server Backups, Redundancy Power
• Cheap Hosting Solutions
• Windows & Linux options

Cons

• Toll-Free number only for premium subscribers
• No CPanel on cheaper tiers
• No Uptime stats
• Lack of in-depth features