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Top 10 Web Hosting – 2012 Web Hosting Review and Rating

Bluehost Review

Bluehost is one of the most reputed web hosts in the industry. Unlike some others companies, Bluehost 100% focus on offer Shared Linux Hosting to meet the needs from web developers, individuals and small business.Website: www.bluehost.comAddress:1958 South 950 East
Provo, UT 84606

Bluehost

Rich Features

I have used Bluehost since 2007, and cannot be more satisfied with the features they are offering. As their customer, I could find almost everything required to build a web site, and below are some of them:

  • Support for all popular Scripts like php, python, ruby-on-rail, Perl, JavaScript
  • Except CPU Usage Limitation, I get the free to create unlimited MySQL, PostgreSQL, eMail address, FTP account, and subdomain; host unlimited domain in one account; and consume unlimited bandwidth.
  • Hundreds of free web site scripts from WordPress, Drupal, Joomla to eCommerce shopping cart. Bluehost now replace their 1-click to install engine from Fantastico to SimpleScripts,  which obviously bring more convenience when installing those applications as you get the options to choose the latest version of codes or a history one.
  • Linux shell access after I submit my driven license.
  • Last one is about my favourite cPanel , there is almost no learning curve when using this icon-based control panel.

Fast, Reliable & Affordable

After testing hundreds of web hosts, I keep my account with Bluehost for my personal Blog, family site and the blogs of my friends. The key reason is that after testing their product, I feel it’s much fast and reliable than most of the web hosting I have tested. And what’s more, it’s quite affordable, by following  <a href=’/go/bluehost.php’ target=’_blank’>the special discount link offered by Bluehost</a>, I only paid $3.95/month.

After some investigation, I think below are the main factors which make Bluehost outstanding:
  • Bluehost own 3 data centers, each of them provide UPS power, diesel generators, and multiple 10 gigabit fiber connections to locations around the world.
  • Their web server are equipped with 24  Opteron processors and 32 GB memory,  which are much faster and more reliable than their competitors.
  • Beside their first rate facilities, Bluehost technical staff obviously know Linux and server technology very well, they know how to optimize the server to support most of popular applications, such as WordPress,Drupal, Joomla, etc.
  • Last one is about their controversial CPU Throttling system.  give the shared hosting a VPS level support

Courteous and Professional Customer Support

Bluehost really invest a lot on their customer support system. As their customer, you could search for help from their online knowledge base. If you cannot find the answer there, you can choose to contact them via email, live chat support and toll-free phone call. Personally, I prefer using live chat, with which I could easily describe my issue and get the appropriate instruction from their customer support. And I have never waited in the queue for more than 30 seconds. Their customer support engines are well trained, and my question could always get answered.

One thing I want to mention here is their TRUE data backup. One day, I deleted my WordPress database by mistake. After contacting with little hope, and what I really get is a data restored. And it’s free of charge.

Any Time Money Back Guarantee

Bluehost is the first web host who allow their customers to ask for a refund at anytime. In the first 3 days, you could get FULL money backIn the first 30 days, you could get You can always ask for a refund when you are unhappy with the services at Bluehost – yes, even if you do it after the trial period. Bluehost is one of the few web host that allows customers to refund on pro-rated basis. Such protective policy is a huge plus to all customers and we have nothing to lose when signup with the hosting company.

By working with Bluehost, you really put the money in safe.

What Might Go Wrong with Bluehost

Below are something you should know before signing up with Bluehost

When to Consider Bluehost

Bluehost is great, but it’s not for everyone. First, you should know this is a shared web hosting, even it comes with quite many “Unlimited” features, they do limit your usage of CPU and Memory resource.

After our testing, we feel Bluehost is a great for below site:

  • If you build the website using CMS like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla, I would suggest

 

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Bluehost is criticized by some reviewers for its CPU Throttling system, but we do have different option on this one. Before we go into the details of it, let’s see how Bluehost introduces this feature.

“Throttling means that our proprietary CPU Throttling System has automatically tied your account to its own dedicated core temporarily to keep your account from dominating too much CPU time. Throttling for less than 600 seconds in any given hour will not usually negatively affect your site’s performance for visitors. In some extreme cases, our admins may suspend the account until the problem(s) is/are resolved or optimized.”

So, from above, you could see that:

  • CPU Throttling is used to limit the CPU resource usage of each shared account
  • Now, the threshold is set to be “600 seconds in any given hour”
  • Once your application exceeds this CPU Throttling, your account will be suspended temporarily.

Why CPU Throttling

In a shared web hosting, all the accounts in one server are sharing the same CPU, Memory, Disk Space and the other hardware. If one account consumes too much resource, it’s inevitable to impact the benefit of the other accounts and sometime it even causes the whole server down.

So, certain level of protection should be in place to avoid a single account consumes too much resource. And this is how Bluehost CPU Throttling system comes from. They develop an application to monitor the CPU usage of each account, once an account exceeds the predefined threshold, a warning email will be sent. As their customer, you could find the tracking log and tuning tips from their official site to optimize the applications.

Bluehost has tested their system for many years, and it was formally announced by their founder Matt Heaton in 2010. Right now, this system could be licensed to the other web hosts at a very low fee.

What Practice the Other Web Hosts Follow

Besides deploying this CPU throttling system, the practices the other web hosts follow are very close.

They will monitor the overall CPU and Memory status of the server, once it comes to a risk level, system will send out a warning email to their server administrators. Their staffs start investigating on the issue and find out which account cause the problem then suspend it.

Which One is Better?

So, from above, you could see that Throttling is always there. Bluehost monitor the system at account level, and the others monitor it at server level. But which one is better?

Personally, we feel CPU throttling is the future of Shared web hosting. Just like VPS, Cloud or Dedicated Hosting, you are allocated with the dedicated resource (such as CPU, Memory, Disk Space and etc) you have purchased, shared hosting should get the same level of protection, and Bluehost CPU Throttling is definitely a better solution now.

You might can “steal” some resource when using the service from the other web hosts, but this won’t last too long, your account will be suspended sooner or later. And think about this issue at the different angle, do you want to live in a community where your neighbors could easily steal your resource? If not, then go with Bluehost, where you get protected.

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WebHostingHub Coupon

Right now, WebHostingHub is selling their product at $4.95/month, which is around 28% off, but with the special coupon link we get from WebHostingHub, you could save up to 50% at a price of $3.95/month. See below for the detail of this deal:

  • For 1 year term, the price is $5.95/month
  • For 2 years term, the price is $4.95/month
  • For 3 years term, you get the best price at $3.95/month

WebHostingHub guarantee 90 days FULL money back, and anytime prorated refund, so we would suggest you to signup a longer term service with them considering this WebHostingHub coupon is only available for the first time customer (you will be charged with regular price at $6.95 when renewing their service).

How to Claim WebHostingHub Coupon

To redeem this special price from WebHostingHub, you need to follow this special discount link offered by WebHostingHub, and then you will be automatically led to the page which allows you get the product at $3.95/month.

Like it! Check out WebHostingHub Coupon now and save big.

Before you signup WebHostingHub, we would like to suggest you to read through our WebHostingHub Review to see should you signup WebHostingHub hosting service. And in most case, we recommend WebHostingHub for web developers, website beginner, WordPress Bloggers, or Small Business.

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HostGator Coupon

Hostgator is offering 20% off for all their products in their official site right now. But with the special coupon codes given by Hostgator, you could save even more during purchasing.

HostGator Coupon

>> HostGator Coupon – 25% Off:

Coupon Code: Clue25PercentOff

Description:  25% off on all the new orders, after which their Hatchling Plan could be low to $3.71/month, and Business Plan to be $5.96/month.

>> HostGator Coupon – $24.94 Off on Reseller Plan

Coupon Code: Clue2494Off

Description: This coupon will be only applied to their Reseller plan, you could get $24.94 off on the first month, and then renew at regular price.

>> HostGator Coupon $9.94 Off

Coupon Code: Clue994Off 

Description: Get $9.94 Off on the first order. This coupon is perfect to try out Hostgator Hatchling plan at only $0.01.

For above coupons, Hostgator haven’t stated any expired date, so we suppose it will last long. As they are really good at web hosting, in most case we would suggest you to go with “25% off” instead of “$9.94 off“. The main reason is that those Hostgator coupons are only available when the first time you work with them. If you signup a short term service with them, then you will be charged with the regular price in the next month, no coupon will be effective at that time.

How to Redeem HostGator Coupon

To redeem those Hostgator coupon, you will need to input the coupon code manually during signup. See below for the place you should enter it, where you could see the default 20% off coupon code, and you should replace it with one of coupon code we offered in above.

Before buying, don’t forget to checkout our Hostgator review to see what product from Hostgator is best for you.

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Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is the most popular type of hosting and will suit the majority of both small business and personal needs. As the word implies, shared web hostingmeans that you are sharing one server (CPU time, memory, OS, applications, etc) with some other clients of your hosting server providers, and the service provider will take the responsibility to ensure uptime, security and functionality.

Advantage

  • Low Cost. As you share the resource with the other account, the price could be much lower than the other hosting type.
  • Ease to Use. You have no need to be skilled in server management when using a shared hosting. Normally your web host will offer a free control panel (such as cPanel, Plesk, etc),with which you could easily manage email, file, database, installing Blog and more.
  • Better customer support. As shared hosting is the most profitable and competitive hosting product, and  web host str responsible for server maintenance, most of shared hosting service provider will strive to offer better support to their customers to build reputation in the industry.

Disadvantage

  • Server Restriction. In shared hosting, normally you are not allowed to install new software or change the server level setting. Some of web host might also disable the shell access to the server (you cannot telnet to the server, but could ftp file). So, before purchasing, you need to make sure the web hosts offer the features are required by your web site, which might include script support, database, and some web server setting (for example, Apache URL Rewrite module, etc).
  • Resource Constraints. Most of shared hosting will limit the consumption of CPU or Memory resource, so when your site exceed the threshold they have configured, your account might be suspended.
  • Security Risk. As you share the server with the other accounts, there might be some security risk if your web hosts haven’t setup the environment properly.

When You Should Consider Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is perfect for personal site, blog, small business site or development environment. But in below case, we don’t recommend shared hosting

  • Your site need a memory higher than 128MB
  • Daily traffic over 1000 page view, or Daily Unique IP visit is 300+
  • Need to customize the server environment and install something shared hosting don’t support normally.
  • Your site contain business critical data and need the site to be highly secured.

In above case, you should go with VPS, Cloud or Dedicated Server in which you get more control on the server, but in the other hand, those are much more expensive and you need to be more skilled to maintain the servers.

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Bluehost Coupon

Bluehost is promoting their industry most popular Linux Shared Hosting solution at $3.95/month right now. This deal will give you over 50% off when signup a 2-years service with them and it’s only given to the new customers. You will have to pay regular price when renewing the service. As Bluehost guarantee pro-rated refund at any time, we would suggest you to open a longer term account to enjoy this low price.

Here is the detail description of this deal:

Year Term Regular Price After Discount! You Save!
12 Month $8.95/Month ($107.4/year) $4.95   ($59.4) 44.7% off   ($48)
24 Month $7.95/Month ($190.8/year) $3.95   ($94.8) 50.3% Off  ($96)
36 Month $6.95/Month ($250.2/year) $3.95 ($142.2) 43.2% Off ($108)

So, as you could see, this promotion will bring you over 50% discount!

Redeem Bluehost Coupon Now!

To redeem this special Bluehost Coupon at $3.95/month, you will need to follow this:
>> Bluehost Special promotion links.

Before you signup Bluehost, we would like to suggest you to go through our Bluehost Review to see whether this is the right product you need. Normally, we recommend Bluehost for a site without heavy traffic, and it’s perfect for website beginner, WordPress Bloggers, or Small Business site.

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