eHost Review: Best Affordable Hosting Provider (Pros and Cons)
[eHost Logo]When it’s time to start up a new website, the selection of the best web hosting provider for your needs is one of the key decisions you have to make. You’ll want to balance price, performance, features, reliability and a number of other factors when making your choice. I believe that eHost is one of the top web hosting firms particularly for those who are just beginning to explore the possibilities of running their own sites. Sign up for low-cost eHost service through my special link, and you’ll be on your way to website success in no time!
[Image representing shared hosting]Web hosting at eHost uses a shared server paradigm. This represents a step up from free hosting, which is often undependable and sends the wrong impression to your website guests. At the same time, the budget for your new site is probably pretty tight, so wasting money on high-performance, dedicated servers isn’t cost-effective.
Shared hosting keeps your files on the same machine as other sites, and they share processing time and bandwidth accordingly. If you want to have your web pages hosted professionally without breaking the bank, this is most likely the best way to go.
eHost Overview
eHost boasts of hosting more than a million websites, and the organization has been around since the late ’90s. However, it was acquired by the Endurance International Group sometime between then and now. The enterprise underwent a complete revamp in 2015, so its current offerings must be evaluated separately from anything that occurred before that year. If you’d like to see for yourself what eHost’s services look like today, then join up for a web hosting account today.
You’ll find shared hosting and only shared hosting at eHost. This has both advantages and drawbacks. Because they only offer this single type of service, you can count on the firm to dedicate itself solely to the concerns and issues that apply to shared hosting. On the other hand, if your site should increase in traffic such that you wish to upgrade to a beefier hosting solution, you’ll have to seek out a new host at that point.
[eHost Banner]Subscriptions at eHost
Rather than confusing you by offering different tiers of service, eHost has just a single, easy-to-understand plan. You can join for years at a time or take it on a month-by-month basis. The company is proud of its 30-day, money-back guarantee whereby you’ll receive a full refund if you’re dissatisfied, for any reason, with the hosting provided during this timeframe. So there’s nothing to lose by partnering with eHost for web hosting service now.
eHost offers introductory pricing even lower than its standard rates for your first term with them. You’ll be automatically billed at the normal rate when it’s time to renew. Keep an eye out for this so that you don’t get caught by surprise.
Benefits of an eHost Account
Before you plunk down your hard-earned dough on the best web hosting solution available through eHost, you may wish to acquaint yourself of the selling points that distinguish it from other such companies. We’ve listed below some of the benefits to obtaining web hosting service through eHost:
Free Domain Name
When you opt to create your eHost account, you get a free domain name for life. This means that you can choose a compelling web address that suits the purposes of your site, and it will be renewed automatically and free of charge as long as you remain a customer in good standing. This is a better deal than many other competitors who offer a free domain but charge you for it after the first year. Only if you opt to cancel your eHost service yet still keep your domain name will you incur a one-time fee of $15.
[Upward Pointing Arrow]Unlimited Elements of eHost Membership
Unlike many web hosting providers, which cap bandwidth and storage space, eHost doesn’t set any hard limits on your usage of either of these resources. In order to prevent anyone from abusing this rule, the company reserves the right to restrict those who are consuming too much. According to information on eHost’s website, 199 out of 200 customers are unaffected by this policy because their website activities fall under the rubric of normal usage patterns.
You therefore won’t need to worry overmuch about the growth of your site causing you problems further on down the road. eHost says that the majority of users who attract account-specific restrictions are running file storage or sharing operations and not employing the firm’s services in a normal way. As long as you manage your personal or small business website as others typically do, you’ll be fine.
You’ll get unlimited domains and MySQL databases with your eHost package. This is great if you intend to run a complex site or multiple sites that require more infrastructure than some of the stingier web hosting organizations offer.
Finally, you’ll get unlimited free email addresses at your domain: both webmail and POP3/IMAP accounts. They come with anti-spam protective measures and virus checking enabled. You can arrange for mail forwarding and automatic reply generation.
[Image of a present]Extra Free Goodies
As if there weren’t enough reasons to try out eHost already, the pot is sweetened even further by the complimentary perks handed out to every new client. Use the following handy ingredients to hit the ground running when embarking on any new web project:
[Google + Bing + Yahoo Logos]1. Free Ad Credits
Sponsored search is a great way to grow the volume of visitors to any new web page. Every customer at eHost gets $100 in Google Adwords credits and another $100 to use with Bing and Yahoo. Incorporate this avenue of traffic acquisition in conjunction with SEO and your other marketing efforts for the best possible ROI.
[Screenshot of Web Building Software]2. Novice-Friendly Web Builder
eHost’s site-building software is perfect for those who lack the time, knowledge or inclination to fiddle around with esoteric code by hand. If you elect to use the website builder rather than another system for arranging your content, you’ll be able to take advantage of:
- Responsive design: Your pages will look great on traditional desktop machines as well as tablets and smartphones because they’ll be set up to adjust to the users’ screen sizes.
- Thousands of templates: Search through the myriad included designs to find one that fits the theme you seek, and then customize it according to your liking.
- WYSIWYG editing: See the effects of your changes in real time rather than having to edit and then preview the new pages.
- Drag-and-drop functionality: Reposition and rearrange your content easily with a few clicks of your mouse.
- All the elements you need: The site-building suite supports image galleries, nav elements, buttons and all the other details that transform mediocre websites into a winning ones.
3. Readily Available Apps
Countless web-related applications are present for you to install and keep updated automatically. Whether you intend to start a blog, run an company website, establish discussion forums, or accomplish some other goal with your site, you’ll find a robust collection of hundreds of software titles within your reach. Plenty of scripts are included so that you can get the packages you desire set up and operational with just a single click.
[Image of a cloud]4. Cloud Storage
Cloud-based computing is spreading throughout the IT world and indeed among laypeople too. It frees your data from the restrictions of being located on a single machine. Your hosting account will grant you access to 1 gigabyte of cloud storage through eHost’s partner, JustCloud. This is pretty useful for keeping your important files securely backed up and accessible without unnecessary hassles.
Technical Performance
eHost stores customers’ websites at its data center in Houston, Texas. This facility is monitored around the clock to ensure continuous, uninterrupted service. The servers are configured to balance their loads effectively so that unexpected spikes in traffic don’t lead to slowdowns or failures.
As a customer of eHost, you’ll be covered by a 99.9% uptime guarantee. For any month wherein your site was down for more than 0.1% of the time, you’ll be entitled to a free month of web hosting. Scheduled maintenance isn’t counted as downtime for the purposes of this guarantee. It’s hard to get exact reports on how often users have legitimate claims under this clause, but most third-party tracking sites state that eHost’s uptime percentages routinely beat its 99.9% claims.
[Graph or table from any uptime tracking site]Besides just being ready to serve your content whenever visitors demand it, another key factor in hosting service is the speed with which your pages are delivered. Slow responses can lead to user frustration and a corresponding decline in traffic, which is why the best web hosting concerns take steps to keep loading times down. Google has also decided to penalize web pages that take a long time to respond, so your SEO efforts could be thwarted if your hosting solution doesn’t serve up the bytes in a timely way.
[Graph or table from any website speed testing site]The speed with which various web pages show up in browsers depends on many factors, including the geographical distribution of users, any optimizations implemented by the webmaster and the richness of the media on the page. This variability makes it a challenge to accurately gauge how good a web host is when it comes to site speed, but most reviewers have found eHost to be average or even a notch above in these metrics.
[Image of a telephone or chat bubble]Customer Service
When dealing with shared hosting, customer service is one of the factors that can make or break a provider. It’s a crowded market, and people have too many options to put up with inferior service for long.
eHost is pretty strong in this department. You can get in touch with representatives via email, toll-free telephone or live chat 24/7. eHost claims on its website that phone calls are answered within two minutes. Check out what eHost web hosting is like, and you’ll receive the personalized customer service that is your due.
If you’re the type of person who likes to search for answers first before contacting support, then you’ll want to check out the knowledge base at eHost. It contains articles addressing common issues confronting users. Simply type what you’re looking for into the search field, and you’ll get a list of up to 25 articles related to that topic. There are also tutorials covering a wide range of subjects that aspiring web developers may wish to peruse, including guides on how to install popular pieces of software and instructions on configuring databases for optimal performance.
Drawbacks of eHost Web Hosting Packages
Despite the fact that I feel eHost is one of the best web hosting organizations in existence today, there are still a few bumps in the road that you might want to think about before committing in earnest:
[Image of a big question mark]Choose cPanel or Website Builder
When you create a new site at eHost, you’ll have the option to use either the cPanel – and the software that can be installed under it – or the proprietary site builder. You can’t use both at the same time. This means that if you opt for the website building interface, you won’t be able to use WordPress or another content management system simultaneously.
You do have the ability to export and import your web pages into another format later on, but this process isn’t automatic. Had eHost made its page builder a plug-in to a more popular content creation platform rather than a standalone application, this entire issue could have been avoided.
[Image of anonymous silhouette]Skimpy Corporate Website
In today’s world, where you can find out almost anything you want to know about any subject with the internet, it may seem odd that eHost’s web pages don’t exactly describe very much about itself or its services. In fact, there isn’t even an “about us” section.
I’ve managed to scrape together most of the relevant details from my own personal experience and through what other people have said so that I can present the key points to you. Nevertheless, this lack of transparency on the part of eHost is worrisome.
The site builder is one of the key features that differentiates eHost from other web hosting services, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at the website. This innovative program is only described by a short paragraph, wedged in among blurbs for “FREE Email Address” and “Best Apps on the Web.” There aren’t any screenshots of it on eHost’s site, which is a shame because, by almost all accounts, the included themes are colorful, appealing and laid out well.
Web Hosting Summary for eHost
eHost Advantages
- Inexpensive pricing
- No maximum bandwidth, storage, domains
- Many freebies included, like site builder
- One-click installation of popular apps
- Solid customer service options
- Uptime guarantee
- Free domain for life
eHost Disadvantages
- No free trial
- Minimal company website
- Website builder not compatible with some other software
After evaluating the positives and negatives of eHost, I think that it represents a solid value as one of the best web hosting companies around. When you join eHost today, you’ll receive a ton of benefits for a low monthly cost. It’s a reliable and well-respected provider of web hosting service, and you’ll get plenty of free bonuses that sometimes aren’t available from firms charging twice as much or more. If you’re new to the web, then you can create your first site at eHost in less than a day using the included builder tool.
