Hostiserver review

Launched in 2012, Hostiserver is a pet project of an ambitious team of IT-professionals who wanted to find a perfect mixture of high-grade web hosting and powerful infrastructure that will be able to meet a broad range of different needs. Today they are among the more popular choices for those in need of fully managed web hosting solutions, VPS in particular. Among their business partners you will find a number of noteworthy companies such as Intel, Samsung, Huawei, Dell, Supermicro and Western Digital.    

Hostiserver's head office is located in Prague (Czech Republic), but they own data centers both in Europe and the USA, as well as a global CDN. The European data center is situated in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and the North American one in Phoenix (Arizona).

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Although Hostiserver’s official website doesn’t seem too eager to inform us about the company itself, there is enough information about its products. The website’s visual style matches that of its numerous competitors, blending white and blue with a tinge of orange to break the monotonous harmony. The website is extremely easy to use and it’s available in English, Czech and Russian language.

On the downside, Hostiserver’s site doesn’t feature a blog and their presence on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) has been close to non-existent over the last few years. 

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Plans and pricing

Hostiserver offers seven different-sized VPS plans, 19 configurations for dedicated servers, global CDN, online server backups and domain registration services. The VPS plans share the same key features but vary in RAM, number of cores, GB of storage, bandwidth and (of course) pricing. As an alternative to choosing one of the predesigned VPS solutions, you have a choice to create your own and customize it as you like. If this is what you wish for, you’ll have to get in touch with Hostiserver’s technicians (via live chat) and let the magic happen.

The most affordable out of Hostiserver’s hosting solutions is a VPS plan named simply “SD-20” and for the price of $19.95 per month it will supply you with 2GB of RAM, 2 core CPU, 50GB of storage (SSD), 3TB of bandwidth and an ability to choose between two data center locations.

All of Hostiserver's managed hosting services include a money-back guarantee (a 15-day one for VPS packages and a 7-day one for dedicated servers), which is something we don’t see often enough with this sort of provider.  

When it comes to payment methods, Hostiserver supports credit/debit cards (Visa and MasterCard), e-pay, PayPal, WebMoney and wire transfers.

Ease of use

Some of the key free features you’ll be getting with Hostiserver’s VPS solutions includes assistance with choosing and customizingyour  server’s configuration, a website transfer (with no downtime), full server setup for CMS, round-the-clock monitoring, weekly automated backups and an ability to swiftly upgrade/downgrade your plan upon a request.  

Although CDN and cloud backups are offered as part of Hostiserver’s services, you’ll get them free-of-charge upon purchasing their server.

Needless to say, to get a hold of this you’ll have to sign up first. The registration data should include your full name, email address, country (although the country list is a bit limited), city, post code, address and a pretty strong password. Before submitting your data, be sure to check out Hostiserver’s terms of service and privacy policy.

After this (and verification via email), you’ll be transferred to Hostiserver’s dashboard (also referred as the client panel) where you can select the services you want to use or submit a ticket to Hostiserver’s technical team (if you haven't already). No matter how tech-savvy you are, it is good to accept a little help now and then and have an expert take care of server setup, software installation and configuration, as well as site migration on your behalf.

Since Hostiserver’s offers no control panel by default, you can ask the technical team to install it for you, which they gladly will. You can also ask them to install WordPress or any other CMS for you. With what ease you’ll manage all aspects of your website (or websites) depends on how proficient you are with a management tool you opted for, since Hostiserver’s support team (although really helpful) assumes (and rightly so) that you are already a fairly experienced user.

Speed and experience

Besides stating that their “website rocks!” Hostiserver doesn’t offer a lot of promise about the performance of the site itself. However, on the subject of speed, there is an option for all users to check the download speed from Hostiserver’s speed test servers to their own servers. Unfortunately, when we tried to do so, the site unglamorously crashed right before our eyes, hence, we decided to test the speed with a more reliable tool by the name of GTmetrix.

After performing a speed test on Hostiserver’s main site, we were blown away with the results flaunting a practically perfect performance crowned with an A (96%). The page fully loaded in mere 1.9 seconds and all of the vital web metrics (largest contentful paint, total blocking time and cumulative layout shift) were not only above the average but a textbook example of a lightning-fast performance.

Although Hostiserver fails to mention anything about an uptime guarantee (probably since there is none), there may be no practical need for one, at least according to UptimeRobot. After monitoring the uptime of Hostiserver’s main site for over a month, UptimeRobot couldn’t find a single trace of downtime presenting us with results showing an impeccable 100% of uptime.

Support

Hostiserver’s customer support can be more or less divided into two types: round-the-clock support staff primarily dealing with sales, and more in-depth support you can get upon a request and reach during the working hours (for extra cash, naturally). However, if you are a novice hoping to get some sort of a helping hand, Hostiserver might not be the best choice for you, since both VPS and dedicated server hosting are geared towards veteran webmasters that require a lot more than simple shared hosting.

Nevertheless, if you have any trouble deciding which plan is right for you, you can get in touch with Hostiserver’s support team 24/7 via live chat or telephone number. It should also be noted that there is a toll-free number, but it is exclusive to the US citizens.   

As for self-help options, with Hostiserver you’ll get a pretty brief FAQ section (right beneath each of their products) and a few how-to articles in their “Articles'' section, which is something that should have grown into a knowledgebase. Although these articles are well-written, described in detail and helpful, there are only seven of them and they have been published in 2018.

It appears 2018 is the year that Hostiserver’s customer relations department decided to simply give up, since their social media accounts stopped being updated during that year as well.

The competition

ProfitServer and Hostiserver get compared a lot and not without reason. Both hosts provide customizable VPS and dedicated server solutions for mission-critical businesses, and try to make them as budget-friendly as possible. However, in addition to this, ProfitServer provides a few shared hosting plans for those with simpler needs, as well as a wider network of data centers that covers Asia in addition to Europe and the US (while Hostiserver doesn’t).

One of the best choices for those looking for a simple shared hosting plan is US-based HostGator and it will supply you with everything needed for a successful start for a few bucks per month. Like ProfitServer, Hostgator has more on the offer besides VPS and dedicated server packages, and these include shared, WordPress and reseller hosting packages. When it comes to shared hosting, HostGator offers a myriad of novice-friendly fractures including free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, one-click installs, 24/7 customer support, comprehensive knowledgebase, money-back guarantee and a drag-and-drop website builder.

All you can find with HostGator, you can also get with fellow US-based host Bluehost. In terms of features and pricing they stand pretty close, however, with HostGator you can get your website transferred for free and get a generous 45-day money-back guarantee, while with Bluehost transfers aren’t free and you’ll get a standard 30-day one.

Hostinger is another top choice for all those on a lookout for pocket-friendly yet powerful VPS solutions backed with 24/7 support and a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. While Hostiserver’s solutions are definitely geared towards more experienced users, Hostinger is able to cover newcomers and webmasters alike. Therefore, if you haven’t seen everything yet, Hostinger is probably a way to go.

Final verdict

Those looking for a way to upgrade their websites with a highly-customizable managed VPS or a dedicated server hosting package are likely to find a suitable solution with Hostiserver. For a fair price, Hostiserver’s technical team will easily find a right plan for you, migrate your site, take care of server setup and security, schedule backups, install software for you and stay readily available around-the-clock to make sure your site is up and running at all times.

Despite all of this, if you still want managed WordPress hosting or something even simpler such as shared hosting, you may be better off with HostGator or Bluehost as your host. 

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