WestHost is a company that provides public clouds with a great set of features. They have everything prepared for you, and they offer good prices for their servers. The plans they offer can serve only small eCommerce projects or websites that don’t require extra-high performance.
WestHost provides a free domain, a dedicated IP address, and cPanel without any license fee. They have a lot of install-ready solutions, so if you are planning to host a network of websites, management will be easier with WestHost. Weak points include customer support, absence of month-based billing, and absence of mobile management tools that have already become a market standard.
Uptime & Reliability
Steady Uptime & Good Security
The SLAs of this cloud host include 99.99% uptime guarantee. That sounds promising. Moreover, uptime analysis tools say that in the last 8 years this company’s web page has been online for the same very 99.99% of time. Another plus—West Host reimburses you for every second of exceeding downtime.
As for security, they have everything a good cloud server should have, and even provide free snapshot backups. RAID-10 redundancy, SAS II and Tier-3 network are three more options that will make your servers perform at a very high level. They also stress the physical security of their datacenters and point out smoke protection, disaster-safe locations, and redundant power sources.
Features
Some Really Impressive Stuff
Along with above-mentioned RAID-10 and Tier-3, WestHost has a lot of other tools that are not offered by many of their competitors. Their cPanel has a lot of stats for you to control the cloud better: analog log file analysis, sub-domain stats, visitor tracking, AWStats—and don’t forget about unlimited features such as emails, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, etc.
Developers will also be happy to know that every server provided by WH has tools as PHP5, Python, Perl-CGI, PHP Nuke, free DNS management and phpMyAdmin. Moreover, WH grants you a free SSL certificate, snapshot backups, domain name and at least 500GB for traffic.
Feature | Description |
---|
Disk Space | Different plans have 20-90GB for storage. Not really much, but their hard drives have RAID-10 and SAS 70 Type II. |
CPU | Get 1.2GHz-5.4GHz performance that will match the needs of your project. |
Bandwidth | They offer 500GB-2,250GB bandwidth at 1000Mbit |
RAM | WestHost offers you to install 1128MB, 1880MB or 3384MB RAM on your cloud servers. |
Control Panel | Free cPanel, with a lot of install-ready software and amazing web stats. |
Operation System | They don’t give much information regarding this issue, but it seems like only Linux options (including CentOS) are available. |
Support
Support Quality Varies
The support features provided by WestHost correspond to all market standards: they have a toll-free number for US customers, email support and live chat – all 24/7. They say they don’t outsource their customer service staff. Customers’ reviews on the web say ticket response, email inquiries, and live chat take a lon time to respond, especially if your case is complicated.
WestHost also has a knowledgebase, but it’s mainly oriented on basic questions, so it’s possible that you won’t find many answers regarding fine cloud adjustments. They also have a forum and a company blog where you can discuss different cases with numerous WestHost users and stay updated about the company’s news.
- 24/7 support
- Free US phone number
- Forum, blog and knowledgebase
- US-based support
- Long ticket reaction
- Basic info in their knowledgebase
Refund & Cancellation Policy
- 30 day money back guarantee
- Full refund including initial setup fee for any reason.
- applies to all shared hosting accounts
- Does not apply to Cloud hosting, Domain Registration, Reseller accounts, Dedicated servers, SSL certificates, or Custom Services.
See the complete and updated policy by this host: http://www.westhost.com/policies/terms-conditions.html
Pricing
Fair Pricing, But Monthly Only
WestHost pricing policy has fees they charge for an adequate price, especially if you take into account their features. On the other hand, they only offer month-based billing, which means you won’t be able to deploy “quick racks” for some important cloud operations. Another nice point is their 60-day money back guarantee, which is not common among cloud hosts. Network and hardware downtime are also guaranteed reimbursement.
This cloud host does not charge for exceeding traffic. This has both advantages and disadvantages: you can plan your expenses better, but if you run out of traffic, they will disable your IP address, so if you’re out and don’t notice it, your website can stay down for quite a while.
User Friendly
Free cPanel and Lots of Software
WestHost takes care of convenient server management, so they provide their users with a free cPanel license—a rare case for a cloud host company. This market-leading tool has everything you need for easy and efficient management of your servers. However, they don’t have any mobile apps for instant cloud access, and this feature is a must-have nowadays.
Their website is planned really well – all features are explained in great detail, and you can navigate with great ease. Their set of install-ready software is another feature that will turn server management into a real pleasure: CMS platforms, blogs, forums, eCommerce tools, and more are available for one-click install.
+ Lots of tools for 1-click install
+ Free cPanel
+ Easy website navigation
Summary
WestHost is a decent cloud hosting company that has great market experience, which is one of the reasons why they provide a great set of features at affordable prices. Their clouds are good for small-to-medium web projects. Please note that their numerous advantages are shadowed by some negative points such as poor ticket support and customer service, the absence of mobile apps, hour-based billing, and downtime that can last for awhile. In general, it seems like you can trust your project to this cloud hosting company.
Pros
- Amazing set of features
- Tier-3 network
- RAID and SAS 70 type II
- Fair pricing
- Free cPanel and domain name
Cons
- No mobile apps
- Public clouds only
- Weak ticket support
- Poor customer support
- Vague OS features