HostMonster Review: Top Web Hosting Service

Want to make money online? Well, you have to start somewhere….

If you’re thinking of starting your own blog or online business, chances are that you’ll need a web host. Especially if you’re thinking of becoming a problogger one day! So today, I’ll take a look at a popular web hosting service which is also my personal choice: HostMonster.

Hostmonster Review: Top Web Hosting Service Features

Starting and maintaining a website can involve the use of a few tools, and HostMonster has a lot of options for all of its hosting accounts. Benefits include unlimited web hosting space, a free domain name, the ability to host an unlimited number of domains, plus it also supports international domain names.

There’s also an unlimited number of site transfers available. If you want to transfer files, you can do it via FTP. With HostMonster, you can have anonymous FTP and an unlimited number of FTP accounts as well.

In case you need tools to create your site, HostMonster provides a free drag and drop site builder; this can be handy if you aren’t familiar with hand-coding a website. There are a number of templates to choose from. You can also use a one-click installer for a wide variety of scripts.

Email Choices

You’ll need a way to communicate with your audience or customers too. You can have unlimited POP3 email support or IMAP email support; unlimited forwarding of email accounts; an unlimited email autoresponder; and to fend off spam, there’s Spam Assassin.

E-Commerce Tools

In case you want to sell products or services on your website, you’ll need some e-commerce features. You can set up an OS Commerce shopping cart or an Agora shopping cart, and apply password protected directories, a free generated certificate, a secure server and encryption.

Servers at the Ready

One advantage of working with a web hosting service instead of going the do it yourself route is that the host can keep an eye on things 24/7. HostMonster offers round-the-clock monitoring and courtesy site backups. The company uses quad processor performance servers and UPS power back-ups, which should minimize downtime on your website.

Logs

Running your website requires many moving parts, so files and logs can help you sort out your operational data. Some logs that you can utilize include a latest visitor log, bandwidth, CPU throttling, and error logs.

Going Multimedia

Nothing draws an audience like multimedia features. With HostMonster, you can support streaming video or audio; there’s Real audio and video support, and you can benefit from Flash, Shockwave, and other file types.

Bonus Features

Additional features include a bulletin board, blog support (including WordPress), mailing lists, poll and survey software, image galleries, and the ability to work with Drupal, Joomla, Ruby on Rails, and more!

And when you’re ready to promote your site, HostMonster can assist you with free search engine submissions and $50 in Google credits.

Customer Service

If you need assistance with your HostMonster account, you can check out the Help Center. It has features such as a Getting Started wizard, video tutorials, a knowledge base, cPanel documentation, and a user forum. You can also check the status of your server here.

If you need more help, technical support is available 24/7 and they have a toll free number. And with regards to billing, there aren’t long-term contracts so if you want to cancel, you won’t be hit with a cancellation fee.

Billing Plans

Let’s take a look at HostMonster’s billing plans. New customers can sign up for the promotional rate of $5.95 a month.

Once the promotional period ends, there are a few other billing plans available. A 12 Month account costs $8.95 a month; this gives you a free domain registration that will last for the duration of your hosting package, and there aren’t any set up fees. $107.40 will be due when you sign up (this covers the 12 months).

The 24 Month account costs $7.95 a month, which adds up to $190.80 due when you sign up (covers 24 months at $7.95 per month). The 36 Month account costs $6.95 a month, which comes out to $250.20 due when you sign up (36 months at $6.95 a month).

After you sign up, you can opt for additional features. A dedicated IP address is $30 a year; additional domain names are $10 each year; SSL certificates are $45 each year; and you can pay for other benefits.

Conclusion

HostMonster has a lot of options for building and hosting your website. Take a look at the demo to get a feel for the offerings and read the terms to see if the service is a good fit for your needs.