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Introduction

Founded in October 2001, iPowerWeb is one of the oldest and largest web hosting brands in the industry. They are currently providing web hosting and web services for over 700,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide. iPowerWeb has recently revamped both their back-end systems and their support, and are now boasting one call resolution and less than two minute hold times! iPowerWeb is the tried and true web hosting brand among a see of fly-by-night startups

Features

You can find everything you need for your online business at iPowerWeb. Their most popular Pro Plan hosting package includes: Free Domain Name, 1,500 GB of Space, 2,500 E-mail Accounts, $100 in Free Advertising with Google & Yahoo, Google Webmaster Tools, No Setup Fees, Host Unlimited Domains, Free Web-site Builder, E-Commerce Enabled. Available by phone, email & chat 24/7.

Uptime

iPowerWeb’s newly revamped back-end is comprised a pooled server environment. This type of secure infrastructure makes it possible for any server on the network to access Web site files upon request. This type of back-end system makes for an incredibly sold and redundant platform. Since it’s the first machine available serving the Web page, it also makes it amazingly fast. The only down side to this type of platform is it doesn’t support access to the Shell (SSH), but if you are truly in need of command line access, you should probably be using a virtual private server, which iPowerWeb also offers

Customer Service

As stated in the above ‘About’ section; iPowerWeb has recently revamped their customer service. About a year ago iPowerWeb migrated all their customers to their new platform. Due to a long and sometimes rough migration, their call volume spiked and hold times got a bit on the long side. But, since the migration’s end this summer iPowerWeb’s main goal was to concentrate on customer service and the overall customer experience – and they did a good job at it. iPowerWeb is now answering calls in less than two minutes and most issues are resolved with the first call. iPowerWeb has really come a long way since July and we expect more good things form them in the near future.

Control Panel

iPowerWeb uses it’s proprietary vDeck control panel, which a lot of other hosts are now licensing. We really like this control panel and think it really goes a step further then the cumbersome cPanel platform. vDeck offers all the same features as cPanel plus more, and for those of you whom are used to cPanel, vDeck even offers you the ability to change skins to look a lot like cPanel to help you adjust.

Summary

iPowerWeb is an old and trusted host whom went though a rough patch, but seem to have rebounded better then ever. iPowerWeb is truly a one-stop shop offering everything you need for your online business including, Web hosting, Web design, SEO, PPC and much more services. We feel comfortable recommending iPowerWeb to customers of all experience levels from beginner to webmaster.

Introduction

IX Web Hosting has made a remarkable name for itself since its inception in 1999. Boasting their own data center, a highly professional website and very attractive hosting plans, they have managed to be added to the short list of companies that TheHostingChart is reviewing. Over the course of our review of IX Web Hosting, a period of many months, they continuously improved their performance, reliability and customer service, resulting in extremely quick loading websites and high customer satisfaction. All of this has contributed to their #1 rating by our review team.

Features

IX Web Hosting’s hosting plan really runs the gamut and includes a variety of features for the novice and advanced users alike. Techies will be happy with the 5-star scripting library including Joomla, phpBB, CGI, Ruby, Perl, PHP, MySQL, to name a few, as well as the unlimited bandwidth and hosting space. Novices will be at ease with the free website templates and website builders and the 140+ Do-It-Yourself Tutorials, which is helpful but could be overwhelming due to the high volume of learning possibilities.

Uptime

During our extensive hosting experience with IX Web Hosting, we have had hardly any server outages. It would be a lie to say none of our test accounts have never been down – however, the uptime track record is impressive. The question is not IF downtime happens, the question is how often it happens and how quickly your hosting company can resolve the problem, and prevent it in the future. Our overall reliability experience with IX Web Hosting is positive. IX Web Hosting employs diesel backup generators, tested weekly, to ensure that no downtime is encountered over power issues. They also perform routine upgrades to their infrastructure, and do so in as unobtrusive a way as possible, which is a plus.

Customer Service

A cornerstone of IX Web Hosting’s success has always been well-covered customer support. Their support staff has grown dramatically over the years and continues to expand to try meeting the needs of their customers. They offer toll free phone support, web-based live chat, email support and a convenient ticketing system, all staffed 24 hours a day.

Control Panel

The basis of their control panel is H-Sphere. However, IX Web Hosting’s programming staff has modified it heavily. Both LINUX and WINDOWS hosting accounts are provided with this control panel, which functions flawlessly with accounts on both platforms. It allows you to add, remove and manage your domain names, subdomains, FTP accounts, email accounts, mailing lists, auto responders, email aliases, MIME Types, Apache Indexes, PHP / ASP configuration, mySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL databases, SQL database users, as well as cancelling and resuming your account subscription and reporting problems through trouble tickets, all from one interface.

Summary

IX Web Hosting is a top web host, thanks to their commitment to offering quality service for their vast variety of products and services. If you’re looking for both quality and quantity and constistent uptime, IX Web Hosting should be your host of choice. Check them out today

Introduction

FatCow’s Web hosting plan is a different “breed” (the puns never stop with this Web host). As a top Web host, FatCow makes every effort to make their services easy to own, easy to use and most importantly to provide real business value.

Best of all, FatCow has devoted themselves to delivering the best value and customer service experience in Web hosting. They even created a dedicated customer support team, affectionately referred to as the “MooCrew”, to meet their promise of providing the best support in the Web hosting industry.

Features

To simplify getting your personal or small business Web site up on the net, they have created and pioneered a “one plan one price” philosophy. The Original FatCow Plan offers unlimited GB of disk space, unlimited GB of monthly data transfer, unlimited email account, $75 in Yahoo/Google ad credits, WordPress, CGI, Ruby, Perl, MySQL, PHP, Python, Perl, and much more. FatCow also offers a $5/year “Mini Moo” plan, which is designed for parking web pages.

Uptime

FatCow prides itself on providing affordable and reliable service to its Web hosting customers. FatCow achieves uptime success by investing in quality hardware, UPS backup power, redundant power, tight security, fire suppression methods and multiple internet backbone providers.

Customer Service

FatCow’s main mission is to keep their customers happy. In fact, they’ve even coined the “Heifercratic Oath”, a mission statement about their customer service dedication to back up their commitment. If you’re not satisfied with their customer service you can email your complaint and it will be reviewed by a MooCrew investigator. If the complaint is legitimate, FatCow will provide you with credit equal to one month of hosting on your account. Along with the Heifercratic Oath, FatCow delivers 24/7, 365 customer support available via live chat, email and toll-free phone support.

Control Panel

Like many other hosting providers FatCow relies on the vDeck for their control panel system. The control panel is good but could be a little hard to read and navigate, especially for a beginner, since there are so many different options and services. But it’s all there – all the services you could possibly want and need to get your website off the ground.

Summary

FatCow is at the top of the herd in overall customer satisfaction and service. Their commitment to meeting the needs and demands of their customers really sets them apart from others in the Web hosting industry and as a result, is really one of the best choices in Web hosting out there. The “One Plan, One Price” is affordable, especially after the Web hosting rebate, and also knowing they back up their service with their “Heifercratic Oath”. If you’re looking for top service in your Web host, FatCow should definitely be your top choice. Check them out today:

Introduction

iPage’s tagline is “Everything web, made easy,” and those aren’t just empty words. Their main offering, dubbed “The Essential,” has everything you could want in a shared hosting plan, yet the tools are simple enough to allow novices to get started online very quickly.

Features

“The Essential” includes a free site-building tool. It’s template-based, so you don’t need to know HTML to use it; simply pick out the design you like and enter your content. Don’t let the word “template” fool you into thinking that you’ll have a generic-looking site — there are more than 100 templates to choose from, all professionally designed. Also, if a full website isn’t what you’re looking for, iPage offers a blog version of their hosting plan, which includes a WordPress installation wizard. This step-by-step guide (also available in “The Essential”) walks you through the process of setting up a blog; blogs require a database, and iPage will set that up for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Uptime

iPage serves websites off a pool of servers, so the first and fastest machine available will be the one to serve your website. iPage offers a security suite at no additional cost: your account will be scanned for viruses and malware, and your email scanned for spam. Advanced spam-filtering tools let you customize how stringent you want your spam filters to be. They’ll even give you a security badge you can post on your site to let you your visitors know that there are no viruses on your site.

Customer Service

The iPage support team may actually be the most impressive thing about them, answering their phones in two minutes or less, on average. Their staff comes across as friendly and knowledgeable, and they’re all based in North America. If talking to an off-shore representative concerns you, you won’t have to worry about that at iPage. Plus, both their phone and their online chat are staffed 24×7, so you can reach them at any time of day or night.

Control Panel

Just because iPage gives you a free site builder doesn’t mean you have to use it! If you’re an experienced developer, you can continue using the design software that you’re used to. Plus, iPage seems to have developed a number of very useful partnerships for site development and promotion, particularly with Google. For example, your iPage control panel will provide you free access to Google’s “Webmaster Tools.” In addition to their development tools, the iPage control panel also offers a choice of shopping carts, SSL certificates, a library of open source applications you can install … everything you could expect from a shared web host.

Summary

iPage makes it easy for novices to get started with free, professional-looking website design templates and prompt, reliable, North American-based phone support. That said, iPage doesn’t sacrifice features for the sake of ease of use — experienced developers will find all the tools they need to create a powerful web presence. In addition, the peace of mind that comes with their free security suite is a real plus.

Introduction

Founded in 2003, StartLogic has earned a great reputation as a truly customer-centric Web host. A very affordable, reliable service, StartLogic has become a fan favorite for many webmasters, thanks to their cheap Web hosting plans which come with unlimited bandwidth and disk space, and also their commitment to great customer service and Web hosting support

Features

StartLogic is no slouch when it comes to offering a deeply feature-rich line of Web hosting features either. Whether you are a beginner just starting out, or a full-blown webmaster, StartLogic has a package to fit your needs. All StartLogic Web hosting plans include: Free domain and setup, unlimited bandwidth and disk space, unlimited domains, Email, WordPress, $75 in Google Adwords / Yahoo search marketing credits and much more.

Are you more of an experienced webmaster? For those techies looking for a great host, StartLogic also has Gallery 2, Joomla, MySQL, PHP, Perl, CGI-BIN, Form Mail, Guest Book, File Manager, Backup Servers, Frontpage and more.

Uptime

Start Logic’s utilizes two state-of-the-art datacenters in the Boston, MA area and offers redundant optical fiber connections and multiple internet backbone providers. They are serious about their hosting reliability for their customers and have invested in UPS backup power, redundant power, raised floors and tight security and fire suppression methods. This helps make StartLogic’s Web hosting reliability among the best available and they back it up with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Customer Service

StartLogic seems to live up to their tagline Real People, Real Service, Real Savings by offering quality 24/7, 365 phone, email and chat support mainly based out of their Phoenix, AZ location. When you call, email, or chat with one of their friendly, yet knowledgeable agents, you can count on top level Web hosting support (with someone that doesn’t talk over your head) and often one-call resolution. Response times are very quick, they ensure a fast turnaround time, and as a result, this company probably the best reputation for friendly customer service in the industry.

Control Panel

Due to StartLogic’s immensely feature rich hosting plan, sometime it takes a few seconds to weed through all the control panel extras to find the tool you are looking for. We think the control panel, though extremely easy-to-use, could be laid-out a bit clearer. It uses a vDeck platform, which lays out control panel tools in a friendly icon format.

Summary

StartLogic is a great choice if you’re looking for a cheap Web hosting plan and an even better Web hosting rebate. StartLogic offers great features, the best customer support available 24/7, and are devoted to offering the best hosting reliability. Despite the overwhelming amount of features in the control panel, it really is one of the better bargains out there. Check them out today.