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I’ve read some reviews about FatCow on the internet, both good, bad, and ugly. As an experienced web developer/reviewer, I decided to give them a try to compile a brutally honest review of their services.
In this guide, I’ll focus on these critical metrics: packages, pricing plans, customer support, features, and performance. After reading this review, you’ll know if FatCow is the perfect web hosting for your website. Let’s get right to it!
FatCow Review
FatCow is surprisingly one of the oldest web hosting providers. They house millions of websites due to their reliable uptime, innovative technology, and redundant hosting environment. The company was recently acquired by Endurance International Group, the hosting titan that’s also parent to BlueHost and HostGator.
FatCow only offers Shared, and WordPress plans. Both plans come with unlimited bandwidth and disk space, a 100% uptime guarantee, site management tools, search engine marketing tools, and other world-class technologies that will blow your mind away!
FatCow doesn’t have a BBB rating, but they had an overall rating of 1.6 on Trustpilot, compiled from 27 reviews.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Free domain name (every plan)
Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
99.9% uptime guarantee
Access to state-of-the-art technology
Site traffic reports
Cons
Annoying upsells on the dashboard
Premium security features and backup are not free
If you’re looking for an incredibly affordable host with stellar performance, look no further! FatCow plans are specifically for small and medium-sized business owners seeking to build or scale their online presence. Check out FatCow’s offers now!
A good web host provides a solid foundation for your website. But there are several hosts on the Internet already. How do you identify the ones with features worth your investment? Or that fits your goals?
At HostAdvice, we have a team of experts who, through vast years of experience in web hosting services, compiled a standard hosting rating methodology that enables us to evaluate each metric based on their performance. We compare them against industry standards and give them relevant scores.
Parameter
Score
Why we gave this score
PRICES
8.0
FatCow plans are affordable and the renewal rates are reasonable compared to other hosting providers that provide similar features. I gave them this score because other hosts have better features for a lesser price.
FEATURES
8.5
FatCow has plenty of premium features that will entice any first-time user – unlimited bandwidth and MySQL databases, search engine marketing tools, web analytics tools, etc. I gave them this score because key features such as SSL certificates, malware scanners, and automatic backups are not free.
PERFORMANCE
8.7
Although they provide unlimited bandwidth and disk space, they don’t have SSD storage for shared hosting. When you have high traffic, your website can slow down or crash. I gave them this score because they have a 100% uptime guarantee and 241 ms TTFB.
USER FRIENDLINESS
8.0
FatCow uses a custom control panel similar to the cPanel. You’ll easily find all the necessary tools to get your website up and running – 1-click installation for WordPress, 1-click script installs, CMAll drag & drop website builder, etc. I gave them this score because the interface isn’t intuitive, and first-time users may find it challenging to navigate the platform.
SUPPORT
9.0
FatCow offers 24/7 online support to their users via email, live tickets, personalized support, and a vast library of guides to help newbies get a foot in when using their services. However, I gave them this score because they are fast and professional in their approach.
FatCow Prices & Plans – 2023
FatCow offers only two plans – shared and WordPress hosting. Their VPS and dedicated plans were removed a few months ago, as confirmed by their customer support personnel. They refer interested users to their sister company, BlueHost.
It’s thrilling that FatCow accepts monthly and yearly subscriptions. You can opt for the monthly plan to test the waters before opting for an annual plan.
Shared Hosting
Plan name
Space
Bandwidth
Panel
Number of domains
Price
N/A
Oodles (Unlimited)
Oodles (Unlimited)
Custom control panel
Unlimited
$4.08
FatCow shared hosting plan (or the FatCow plan) is perfect for small business websites and personal projects. You get unlimited disk space, bandwidth and email accounts, website builders, shared SSL certificates, MySQL databases, etc. This is a huge plus for businesses with a limited budget and plans to scale in the future.
Also, FatCow provides access to a 1-click installation of several applications, including WordPress, HubSpot’s website grader, a $100 Google ad bonus, FTP access, and even recent versions of PHP.
TipTip: FatCow shared hosting plan starts at $4.0 per month and renews at $9.49.
WordPress Hosting
Plan Name
Space
Bandwidth
cPanel
Number of emails
Price
WP Starter
Unlimited
Unlimited
Custom control panel
Unlimited
$3.75
WP Essential
Unlimited
Unlimited
Custom control panel
Unlimited
$6.95
The FatCow WordPress plan is invaluable. First, you get access to all the features in the shared hosting. Also, they offer SSD storage space 7X faster than regular HDD storage. This means better performance for you and your audience. What’s unique is that both plans come with handpicked, pre-installed plugins, themes, personalized expert support, free domain registration, and many more.
TipTip: The WP starter plan is perfect for new bloggers expecting little website traffic. If your project is more complex, opt for the WP essential plans. This package has world-class features to manage and scale any WordPress site on the internet.
FatCow Features
Key features
Shared and WordPress hosting
1-Click app installs
Access to dedicated IP addresses
Eco-Friendly servers
24/7/365 support
After reviewing FatCow’s features and plans, I’d say the most outstanding packages are the WP essential plans. This plan covers almost everything you need to build and manage a WordPress website, from attractive themes to 1-click installation plugins. The SSD storage offerings ensure that your website is accessible at all times. You get premium SEO tools, search engine marketing tools, ad compatibility and free credits, and many more.
Performance
In this section, we’ll consider the vital metrics of a quality web host – speed, uptime, and website loading time.
I analyzed marksoskin.com, a website hosted on FatCow, to evaluate their performance. Here are the results.
The TTFB took 241 ms, which is still within Google’s standards. Your website will load faster, impacting your rankings and customer experience. This is applaudable for their price:
FatCow didn’t perform poorly in terms of website loading time. The website took 669 ms to load fully, which is also within the accepted standards:
FatCow’s Uptime is 100%. This means your website will be up every time. Fascinating, isn’t it?
Overall, the performance is 98% which is truly magnificent for a host of their size:
As an expert web host reviewer, FatCow’s performance is excellent and even better than other providers, with higher prices and better features.
Level of support
My experience with The MooCrew (FatCow’s support team) went smoothly. They offer four types of support: Live ticket, email, personalized support, and knowledge base.
Live ticket
The live support ticket is the quickest way to contact any web host. I tested FatCow’s live support ticket, and the response was almost instant. The customer support personnel were polite and professional too. I was surprised as this isn’t so with other providers within the same price range:
Email
FatCow recommends contacting them via email if you encounter issues with their terms of service:
Physical Address
This option is specifically for residents of Florida or its environs. You can walk into their office to lay your complaints:
Knowledge base
For more personalized support, FatCow has a vast library of resources comprising help articles, how-to guides, and video tutorials. They are beginner-friendly, and you’ll find almost all solutions to the issues you’ll encounter while using the platform. Use the search button to filter the preset categories for faster results:
Personalized support
This feature is only available for WordPress package subscribers. Since I opted for the shared hosting plan, I couldn’t test this feature:
User-Friendliness – Ease of use
Registration
Getting an account set up on FatCow is easy. Simply click on the ‘Get Started’ icon:
Next, you’ll be directed to add your existing domain name or create one if you don’t have one yet:
Follow the prompts and complete your purchase. They accept payments from all credit cards and PayPal.
FatCow control panel
FatCow uses a customized control panel, a fresh breath of air from the traditional cPanel. If you’re already familiar with cPanel, you’ll have no issues navigating the platform:
You’ll find all the tools for building and managing your website in the control panel, from the Weebly website builder to the FTP manager. With the 1-Click installation tool, you can install Drupal, WordPress, and Magento in one click.
Although they tried to be as minimalistic as possible, I’ve seen other hosts within the same range but with a better and more attractive UI. I’d love to see some improvements in the future.
Installing WordPress on FatCow
Building a WordPress website on FatCow is also a smooth process. FatCow dedicated an entire section to discussing this in detail.
Choose your preferred plan: WP starter or WP essential to building your WordPress website. I recommend the WP Essential plan if you want to enjoy juicier features. If you already have an account with FatCow, skip this step.
Next, go to the domains section on your dashboard:
Then, choose the domain where you want to install WordPress:
Go to the left side menu and click ‘DNS and Name Servers.
You’ll see a drop-down list of nameservers. Click ‘WordPress’ and then ‘Get Started:
After these steps, you’ll be redirected to choose hosting options. You can continue with the installation if you already have an existing plan. However, FatCow recommends a better-optimized plan that works perfectly with WordPress:
Enter your site name, email address, username, and password:
Lastly, click install.
Usually, this process takes a few minutes to be completed. Once done, you can go to your WordPress dashboard to customize your website as preferred.
FatCow dedicated an entire section to explaining WordPress installation in detail. Read it here.
Add an email account with FatCow
To create an email account on FatCow, click on the domains section on your dashboard. To access this feature, opt for the hosting plan that comes with a free email. You can integrate your webmail, Microsoft 365, or Google Workspace account into FatCow.
Then, choose the domain you intend to create an email address for:
Click on the left side menu, and you’ll see a drop-down list…search for Email management and click on Standard:
Next, you’ll be directed to a page to add your email account. You can add multiple email accounts as needed. Click on add email:
Add your email name and password, then click ‘Create Mailbox.
Voila! You’ll get a notification confirming that your email address has been created successfully.
Do we recommend FatCow?
Totally! I personally recommend FatCow because they’re a reliable and affordable option for individuals and small businesses looking to establish or improve their online presence. Its simple interface and world-class functionalities make it easy for users to set up and manage their websites.
In addition, FatCow offers 24/7 customer support, monthly and annual payment plans, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, ensuring that users are delighted with their service.
I love their commitment to sustainability, making it an environmentally friendly choice for those looking to reduce their carbon footprint.
I was a customer for 12+ years. they used to be great. Now they have only chat support and it takes over an hour to get a simple question answered. Please find a different host company. They have gone so downhill. Do not waste your money.
I have contacted Fatcow numerous times. YouTube videos will not even show up on our website and we are a band - so this is a big problem. My other website I have for teaching piano is the same thing. YouTube videos will not show up on iOS devices. When we have a venue checking us out and there is nothing on the website for them to view our live performances….well what’s the point of having the website! Fatcow May fix it for a few days but then it’s gone again. You want to check it out for yourself? Go to http://www.theunknowns.band and see for yourself. I am sick of this. I have at least 5 or 6 case numbers. Nothing gets permanently fixed.
I have contacted support so many times, I have about 5 case numbers so far this year and STILL the same problem. This time, it only took 4 days until the problem came back. Youtube videos on our website do not display on an iphone. This happens OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER. It's just blank where they were. This is a huge problem for my band website and for my business website.
After paying my $3,500 or so for Fat Cow to set up the site the site is up and running but with spelling and gramatical errors throughout plus one or two big glitches that Fat Cow promises to fix within 24 hours each time I talk to them over the past number of month but they never follow through ...never fix the problem. So their PR people or PR firm they outsource are very polite and cordial and make promises for immediate action but there is a complete disconnect with their technical side. Its like their PR people have no authority to actually order services to your site. So a complete waste of time talking to them....they do nothing. With a non functioning site it is now having big financial implications on my company.
The glitch problem...at the bottom of the main page no matter what theme heading/page you click on ie: Become a Licencee, or International Research Corps or Become an Investor or Host a Launch .....when you click on any of these the site goes always to 'Become an Investor' page only. So the site is non usable in its current form. In addition, the spelling and gramatical errors throughout the site make the site appear unprofessional.
I agree that FatCow's web building and marketing services were a colossal rip-off. It would require many pages to explain the many ways that I feel that i was misled. The web designer was friendly but he kept making stupid mistakes. The marketing person is very nice but he told me (after I was well into the process: it took three and a half times as long to create the website than predicted) that his marketing efforts would result in zero sales. The marketing strategy is a way to get me a presence on social media but is in not intended to sell anything. As a matter of fact, for $2,400 I did not receive a single email or phone call about my artwork or book. I explained to the marketing expert that in English "marketing" has something to do with sales. But they use their own vernacular which means that marketing means taking parts of the website (which I designed and for which I wrote the text) and posting them thrice weekly on Facebook and Twitter. He didn't protect my images from being copied when they were displayed on Facebook even though I told him to. They provided me with the most minimal products possible. (For example, I was allowed 7 images of my artwork in my Gallery plus 3 sets of artwork). The tutorial that is supposed to enable me to manage my website was useless partially because I couldn't see the screen on which he was showing me how to navigate the Wordpress software and I couldn't enlarge it either. And the instructions were confusing. For instance, at one point he says that adding images is so easy that you don't have to do anything. It turns out that, of course, you do have go through the procedures necessary to add images and accomplish all of the other tasks necessary to maintaining a website. When the website was launched, only the Home page showed and no one could open any other pages. That glitch was eventually fixed but the site had already been launched so my first impression was terrible. The reviews of my book were accessible only AFTER the BUY NOW button was clicked. Therefore, the book reviews were not available to those considering buying the book. There were dozens of other problems involving the very skills that I thought I was subscribing to. A second blog was never published although I provided it. The answer was that the web builder thought he had posted it but somehow it didn't appear. Didn't he check to see if the website worked after it was launched, to see if the book reviews were where I requested them, that the second blog be posted, etc.,etc.,etc.? DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT use their services. The website came out well in spite of their efforts but the marketing was useless. Please let my excruciatingly painful experience at least help you make a better decision than I did. I tried to give each category zero stars.
I cancelled my hosting account with them three or four years ago (or so I thought). They have continued to bill me, even after filing a BBB complaint against them a couple of months ago. They're dishonest! I would give them zero stars, if I could.
Hey Max Ostryzhko a FatCow Expert Reviewer in 2020 With respect to you but you don't know what you say about FatCow I will give you all the money they took from me if I am wrong
Terrible experience, lost so much money because them, woke up and my client website was hacked and by them, and they tried to make me paie for protection service from sitelock. So I made someone talk to sitelock and guess what? it was FatCow agent on the phone so they did it just to sell me service. Think before to use them, and they hosting price go so high the second year.
FatCow is owned by Endurance International Group (EIG), a publicly traded company that owns other hosting such as BlueHost and Hostgator.
How do I contact FatCow?
Contact them via the live chat support on their website. You can also opt for more personalized help if you are currently on the FatCow WP Essential plan.
How do I transfer my domain to FatCow?
To transfer your domain to FatCow, follow the steps below:
– Go to Domains on your dashboard and click ‘import domain.’
– Then click ‘transfer registrar here.’
– You’ll be directed to a page to add your transfer authentication code and domain name.
– Click on transfer domain, and you’re all set.
Once done with the steps listed above, you’ll get a confirmation email. The transfer may take up to 7 days to be completed.
Tip: To get your domain authentication code, contact your current web host. Find more details about how to transfer your domain to FatCow here.
What control panel does FatCow use?
FatCow uses a custom control panel. You can access all the tools needed to build and maintain your website here. The UI has a clean and minimalistic design, although it looks quite conventional.
Is FatCow a good Hosting company?
Yes! FatCow is a good hosting company and perfect for businesses and individuals looking for excellent performance at a low price. Asides from their outdated UI and limited features, everything else is excellent about the host.
HostAdvice.com provides professional web hosting reviews fully independent of any other entity. Our reviews are unbiased, honest, and apply the same evaluation standards to all those reviewed.While monetary compensation is received from a few of the companies listed on this site, compensation of services and products have no influence on the direction or conclusions of our reviews. Nor does the compensation influence our rankings for certain host companies.This compensation covers account purchasing costs, testing costs and royalties paid to reviewers.
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