Our review of HostForWeb

HostForWeb web hosting plans listed at Best Host Ratings:

• Budget   ($4.16 / month, 200 MB Space, 20.0 GB transfer)
• Basic   ($8.33 / month, 1500 MB Space, 125.0 GB transfer)
• Supreme   ($16.66 / month, 3000 MB Space, 250.0 GB transfer)

Company information

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HostForWeb, Inc is a web hosting company based in USA Chicago. The company has been founded in 2001 and since then is providing a full range of web hosting services starting from small shared hosting packages, reseller web hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers and Co-location services. Their facilities are located in Equinix Chicago Data Center. The Equinix Data center has access to all major global cariers including Level3, Sprint, Earthlink, SBC, AT&T, etc, which provides excellent connectivity of their hosting servers to the global network.

Equipment

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HostForWeb is using fast and stable servers for their Shared, Reseller and VPS web hosting plans. A typical server configuration includes:

4 x Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.40GHz,

4GB RAM, 70GB SCSI HDD and 70GB IDE HDD drive.

All servers are Linux/Unix based - all shared, reseller and VPS web hosting plans are using CPanel along with WebHost Manager and Virtuozzo(for the VPS).

These are very popular software packages used by most of the web hosting providers.

Services and features

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Shared web hosting plans - starting $4.95/mo. The shared hosting plans they offer has more than enough space and resources for a small and medium sized web sites. For example the less expensive web hosting plan has 200MB of webspace and 20GB of transfer by the time of that review. All shared plans include free shopping cart, many free scripts with a free installation wizard (Fantastico), online based control panel, webmail, anti-spam protection. The plans are loaded with PHP,Perl and MySQL support which gives the option of having a dynamic site, message board, web blog like MovableType, WordPress running on your site. If you are just starting your site you can order the less expensive hosting plan and upgrade later if needed.

Reseller web hosting plans - starting $19.95/mo you get a reseller plan at HostForWeb with 4GB of web space and 100GB of traffic per month. In our opinion that's a great plan for web developers and designers who are looking for place to host their sites. You can host as many sites as you wish under your reseller account as long as you are within your space and bandwidth limits. Along with the Reseller panel you are provided with access to a online based WebHostManager where you can create hosting accounts for your clients with a few clicks. The Resellers plans are also great for people who have decided to try their luck in the field of web hosting - the less expensive way to try.

VPS web hosting plans - also known as Virtual Private Server plan is almost like a dedicated server - you have full administrative access to the server, include root shell access. Usually several VPS plans are running on a single hosting server. Starting from $39.95/mo you can get a well loaded VPS with 10GB of web space and 300GB of bandwidth per month. As with the reseller plan you can host as many domain names as you wish as well as you can create your own sub reseller accounts. The plan in our opinion is suitable for heavy usage sites with a lot of traffic or for big resellers. It has fully loaded(with root access) WebHostManager and Virtuozo Control Panel - online tools that give you full control over your VPS.

If you need more than VPS you can check the Dedicated and Co-location offers that HostForWeb provide.

As the purpose of this site is mainly to cover shared hosting plans we will not go in details about the Dedicated and Co-location services. In just a few words if your site  is traffic and resource heavy and needs a server of its own HostForWeb is a good place to shop. You can get a fully loaded, managed dedicated server or host your own equipment in their facilities.

Customer service/support

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HostForWeb offers online support. They have online chat service, accessible at their main site. You can talk with a customer representative anytime you wish using the chat service - you can ask them pre-sales questions as well as request customer support service as a client. They also have online ticketing system where you can submit your support requests and inquiries. Our experience with their support system is that the tickets are usually handled in 10-20 minutes. In case your request needs an interaction by a system engineer or high-level support the request may need some more time to get resolved. The support members are prompt and competent. The support is 24/7, so you can ask them for assistance or report a problem anytime you need it. There are no additional charges for using their support system.

The support system also has a great FAQ and Knowledge base section.

Signup process

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The signup process is easy. In our opinion they can make some improvements on their order forms, though. The whole order process goes over a secure connection, which provides maximum security for your personal and billing information. They have their own merchant account and can bill your credit card directly. They are not using the services of any third party processor like ClickBank, 2co, etc.

Once you pick up your hosting plan you get to their order screen. They support all major online and offline payment methods. You can pay with your Credit Card, send them a check, make wired bank transfer or process your payment with Paypal.

Shared hosting plans are usually setup in less than an hour. The same goes with their Reseller plans. The VPS plans are usually set up in about 12 hours, but no longer than one business day. Once your account is ready you will receive your Welcome email with all the account information and you are ready to go.

There are no setup fees. You can be billed on a monthly basis or prepay for a whole year. When you pay for an year of service you get a 2 months discount.

In case you are not happy with their services or just decide to cancel for some reason, there is a 30 day full money back guarantee.

Overall experience

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In our opinion, HostForWeb is a company which you can rely upon for your online business, personal site or just email services. Their system is easy to use, even for beginners, and in the same time provides plenty of features that an experienced webmaster may need. We have been using their services for more than 2 years and currently have more than 30 sites hosted and some VPS plans with them. (That's why they are the first web hosting provider to be reviewed in our editorial section). 

Review by  V.Doyl 2005