Jimmy ParkerFastHosts
Fasthosts is a reliable and secure UK web hosting company that offers a variety of hosting solutions to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes. They offer a wide range of products, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, domain names, and website builders. Fasthosts also provides 24/7 customer service.
3.5
Pros
- 24/7 customer service.
- Variety of hosting solutions
- Affordable pricing plans
Cons
- UK-only data centers
Table of Contents
About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is a web hosting company based in the UK (headquarters is at Gloucester Quays, South West, England). It was established by Andrew Michael in 1999 and it just keeps going and going (and growing) every day. With data centers also located in the UK, it now hosts over 1 million domains not only in the area but all over the world.
This is an award-winning UK web hosting company we’re talking about here. The following are just some of its awards and accolades:
- Deloitte & Touche ranked the company as the 10th fastest growing company in Europe in 2003.
- Netcraft (an internet specialist) awarded Fasthosts as the world’s top Windows 2003 web hosting provider.
- Fasthosts has been recognized by Business XL magazine as one of today’s top 50 companies in the UK.
Fasthosts offers a lot of services like Shared, Cloud, and dedicated hosting. They also register domain names and handle business class e-mails. For this particular post, we’re going to look at their shared hosting plans.
Pricing
1. Ignite
This plan has an introductory price of only GBP 1 per month (its regular price is GBP 5.00 per month). You’re allowed to host only 1 website with it and it comes with 10GB SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth. You’ll also get basic SEO tools when you purchase this plan.
2. Momentum
As Fasthosts’ mid-range hosting plan, this package will cost you GBP 5.00 per month if you get it now (regular price is GBP 10.00 per month). It includes 3 websites, 20GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. It also comes with advanced SEO tools to help you rank your site on various search engines.
3. Ultimate
Currently priced at only GBP 10.00 (regular price is $20 per month), this is Fasthosts’ top-of-the-line offering (it’s also the most expensive). You’re allowed up to 100 websites with it and it comes with 120GB SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth. It also includes advanced SEO tools to boost your site rankings.
Here are some things to remember with regards to Fasthosts’ pricing system:
- They’re currently offering 50% discounts on all their shared hosting plans.
- As a new customer, you’ll be required to get a 1-year contract when you sign up to any of their hosting plans. Also, after the first year, you’ll need to renew at their regular prices.
- You still need to pay 20% VAT as this is not included in their pricing.
- Their Ignite package (their cheapest plan) is quite limited in features. You can only host 1 website with it and it only comes with basic SEO tools.
- Note that their Momentum plan is so much powerful than their Ignite plan. Not only can you host more websites with it, but it also comes with 2 times storage space.
- Know that Fasthosts’ Ultimate plan is waaaay more powerful than their cheaper plans combined. It comes with waaaay more websites and storage space.
- All their plans include 1 free domain for 1 year – you can save some money on this feature as some hosting companies charge for this.
- Fasthosts support popular CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and PrestaShop. They have 1-click installations for these.
- Keep in mind that Fasthosts uses SSD (Solid State Drives) storage. This is A LOT faster than the traditional drives and will ensure faster loading sites (and pages).
Support
Fasthosts has a lot of support options for its customers – namely, live chat, phone, support page, support community, system status page, and more.
You can access their live chat feature through your account (you need to be logged in).
Their phone support is available 24/7/365.
Go to Fasthosts’ support page and you’ll find a whole lot of useful materials on different topics. They even have downloadable guides in PDF format.
We also find their System status page to be very useful. It’s the place where they post system issues, maintenance schedules, and more. You can check this page every now and then to know what’s going on with them (as this will affect your site).
Pros
1. Free domain
You can save 1-year’s worth of domain cost when you sign up to any of their plans.
2. Multiple CMS app support
You can use any of today’s popular CMS platforms to run your site (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, etc.). You can install these apps with just 1 click from the control panel section of your account.
3. They use SSD drives
Having SSD drives will contribute to your site’s overall speed. Expect fast-loading pages because of this feature.
Cons
1. Unreliable customer support
Because of the mixed reviews we’ve seen regarding Fasthosts’ customer service, we can say that they’re not that reliable on this aspect of their service. Note that you need a really good customer support system when running a website as problems are unavoidable on the internet world.
Conclusion
Fasthosts is ok, it seems. Not stellar, not SiteGround level quality, but for the budget of GBP 1/mo for the first year, there’s good value to be found here.