4. ImHosted Hosting Review

Posted on April 4, 2008
Filed Under cheap web host, e-commerce web host, Site Builder, ImHosted Hosting, cheap web hosting, webhosting reviews, web hosting, web hosting company, web hosting deals, web hosting review, web host |

Click the following to go directly to the ImHosted Web Site.

ImHosted has a really good hosting plan at a reasonable price of $6.95 a month. This is not a hosting company that I have used myself, but it has numerous awards from a collection of different review sites, a 30 day money back guarantee, and offers live chat, email ticket and phone support. Basically, I only have three factors that led me to not use ImHosted, and one additional minor problem that could be a major factor.

1. You get one free domain name with your hosting plan, but additional domain names are rather high priced, at $15.00 each
2. There is no direct link to pricing for their different payment options without signing up for hosting. I’d like to be able to compare actual prices for the different terms before signing up.
3. The big issue is that they offer a monthly billing option. I’ve gone over my problem with hosting companies that have month to month billing, and I think it is something you should definitely avoid, unless you simply cannot afford to pay for a year of hosting all at once. The problem isn’t paying by the month, its the spammers, phishers and hackers that will take advantage of that option.
4. The minor point is that although their promo for their $6.95 a month plan says they offer unlimited domains with that plan, the features page says that they don’t. The $30 a month plan definitely says that it does have unlimited domains, but the featured plan only says unlimited sub-domains, which isn’t the same thing.

The minor point is probably just a typo on their features page, although that error is bad enough. But, if it really means that you don’t get unlimited domains, when you think you will, it could be a major problem. The price of $6.95 a month isn’t such a good deal if you can only host one domain. ImHosted also offers limited time specials that expire daily, which seemed designed to hook you into buying without searching for other options. They also have a confusing array of “coupon” specials that make it difficult to actually figure out what you’ll finally be paying for your hosting. Personally, I’d rather they just spell out their pricing, space, bandwidth and bonuses in simple straight forward terms, and not try to “market” six or seven different specials to me in such an aggressive fashion. Here are the basics for ImHosted’s Starter Hosting program;

• Free domain name for life with hosting
• Additional domain names are $15.00 a year
• ??Unlimited domains hosted?? - says so in one place, but then says only if you upgrade to $30 a month plan, somewhere else.
• 2,500 GB of space
• 25,000 GB of bandwidth per month
• 24/7 ticket, live chat and phone support
• 24 hour support response guarantee, but says average time for support is 20 minutes to 2 hours
• Online searchable help database, FAQ and tutorials
• 99.5% uptime guarantee (excellent)
• Unlimited email accounts, up to 2,500 GB combined space limit
• Unlimited MySQL databases, up to 2,500 GB space limit
• Two free Site Builders, including an online application, plus free template zone membership
• 110 easy install scripts (blogs, Joomla, Drupal, forums, etc.) included. Multiple versions of many common scripts for certain functions (like blogging). Not a big plus, unless you’re searching for a particular script
• E-commerce shopping carts included
• Free shared SSL server
• $215 in PPC Ad credits at Yahoo! and MIVA network
• Cost - $83.40 a year at $6.95 a month on monthly billing option. One of the current “coupon” specials get you two extra free months for paying annually ($5.96 a month)

Really, except for the fact that they make pricing their plans very difficult, especially when comparing them to competitors, ImHosted’s biggest drawback is the monthly payment option. If your website isn’t going to be actually selling anything (just redirecting to affiliate websites, for example) and you don’t plan on ever using email marketing, then this may never be a problem. Still, sharing a server with one of the lowlifes of the internet world might result in your site being shut down for no good reason. You’ll have to decide if that’s a risk you’re willing to take. To find out more about what they offer and the current specials, click this link to go to ImHosted Web Hosting.

Comments