Dotster Review

Dotster is a web hosting and domain name registration company that has been providing hosting services since 1998. The company offers a range of hosting plans that cater to the needs of different users, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. Dotster also offers a variety of domain name registration services, including domain name search, domain name transfer, and domain name management tools. 

With its focus on providing reliable hosting services and domain name registration services at affordable prices, Dotster has gained a loyal following of customers who appreciate the company’s customer-centric approach. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at Dotster’s hosting plans, domain name registration services, features, and performance, to help you decide if it’s the right hosting and domain name registration provider for your needs.

Overview

Dotster is a web hosting and domain registrar company that offers a range of hosting solutions to businesses of all sizes. Founded in 1998, the company provides shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting plans, as well as domain registration and website builder tools. 

Dotster’s hosting plans include unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts, a user-friendly control panel, and 24/7 customer support. The company also offers a variety of additional features and tools, such as easy-to-use website builders, one-click installs, and free advertising credits. 

With its focus on providing reliable hosting solutions, Dotster has gained a reputation for being one of the most trusted hosting providers in the industry. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at Dotster’s hosting plans, features, and performance, to help you decide if it’s the right hosting provider for your business needs.

Customer Support

Dotster is a web hosting company that provides a range of hosting solutions, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. Along with their hosting services, Dotster offers a variety of customer support options to help their clients get the most out of their hosting experience.

One of the key customer support options from Dotster is their 24/7/365 support team. This team of experienced technical experts is always available to assist with any hosting-related issues or questions that clients may have. They can provide support via phone, live chat, or email, depending on the client’s preference.

Dotster also provides a comprehensive knowledge base on their website. This knowledge base includes a wealth of information on hosting-related topics, including how to manage your hosting account, troubleshoot common issues, and configure your website. Clients can use the knowledge base to find answers to their questions or to learn more about the hosting services that Dotster provides.

In addition to their live support and knowledge base, Dotster provides a range of tools and resources to help clients manage their hosting services. For example, their control panel provides easy access to server settings, application management tools, and other important details about your hosting service. They also offer a variety of integrations with popular applications like WordPress and Joomla.

Overall, Dotster provides a comprehensive set of customer support options for their hosting clients. Whether you need help resolving technical issues or simply want to learn more about the hosting services they provide, the Dotster support team and their online resources are always available to help.

Plans & Pricing

Dotster is a web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting services including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and VPS hosting. They specialize in providing affordable and reliable hosting solutions for individuals and small businesses. In this article, we will provide an overview of the plans, products, and pricing available at Dotster. For more detailed information, please visit their official website at https://www.dotster.com/.

Dotster offers various hosting plans with different features and resources. They have different pricing tiers based on the amount of resources and features you need.

Here is a breakdown of the available plans and their pricing:

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is an affordable and easy-to-use hosting solution for small websites.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting is optimized for WordPress websites and includes pre-installed WordPress, automatic updates, and more.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is a scalable hosting solution that allows you to have more control over your hosting environment.

Ratings

• Overall Score: 82/100
• Reliability: 82/100
• Usability: 82/100
• Customer Support: 81/100
• Features: 83/100

About Dotser

Overview

Dotster is a web hosting company established in the United States that began as a domain registrar before expanding its services. Dotster claims excellent performance, 24/7 support, including three well-structured packages with certain infinite features (as well as a few freebies) for an affordable price, despite its restricted product selection. 

Dotster launched its great achievement as a trademark registrar in 1998 in Vancouver, Canada. They would eventually expand their services to include web hosting options, which are primarily targeted towards bloggers, start-ups, and small businesses in general. 

Their purpose, they state, is to deliver “strong and trustworthy” hosting-related services, as well as all of the web tools needed to establish or build a thriving business, but without busting the bank. Dotster today serves over 3 million consumers, as the total continues to rise. 

They’re also a member of the Endurance International Group (EIG), an industry behemoth that owns Bluehost, HostGator, HostMonster, HostNine, Arvixe, and a long list of other hosting businesses. Dotster’s servers are now housed at a data center in Burlington, Massachusetts, which is equipped with HVAC and completely redundant power systems. 

To become a clean web hosting company, Dotster began purchasing renewable energy credits equal to 150 percent of server energy use, which not only offsets but also increases their carbon footprint by 50%. Every Dotster client so becomes a part of an effort to create life on The planet a little greener. 

Dotster’s main website is straightforward in design and hence easy to use, yet it isn’t overflowing with information on the firm and its services. The site is only available in English and the cost is displayed in USD, along with the bulk of similar US-based suppliers. 

If you’re curious about Dotster’s social media presence, you may find them at Facebook and Twitter, albeit both profiles have been inactive since 2020.

Pros

• Cost-effective pricing
• Customer service available 24/7
• All plans have unlimited storage.
• Free website builder with drag-and-drop functionality
• Build your website using managed WordPress or another CMS.
• Flexible price options and infrastructural options are available.

Cons

• The product selection is rather restricted.
• The only control panel offered is vDeck.
• It might be easier to create an account.
• Upselling is prevalent, especially when you first join up.
• For some people, vDeck is not the greatest hosting management.

Plans and Pricing

Dotster provides three different sized shared server plans in an attempt to create a balance between quality and pricing (while emphasizing on cheap cost). VPS packages were also available, according to their knowledge base, but none are now on display. 

The most affordable of the 3 shared server options is “Basic,” which costs $3.75 per month. However, because this is an introductory pricing, it is only applicable for the first term of service. It’ll be instantly renewed at a normal cost when this term expires.

This package, however, enables the capacity to host 1 website, unlimited disk space, expandable month – to – month capacity, 10 MySQL databases, 5 FTP logins, limitless subdomains, and a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. 

Every plan also includes free domain registration; however, this applies to a limited number of domain names and is only valid for the first term. All of Dotster’s programs come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

A free domain, on the other hand, is non-refundable. Dotster accepts all major credit cards, PayPal, and checks/money orders as payment options (USD).

Dotster Web Hosting

• Basic Hosting – Linux (Infinite Storage), (Limitless Bandwidth), (Unlimited No. of Sites) (Price: $3.75)
• Deluxe Hosting – Linux Limitless Bandwidth, Infinite Storage, Unconstrained No. of Sites (Price: $6.75)
• Ultra Hosting – Linux Infinite Storage, Limitless Bandwidth, Unconstrained No. of Sites 

(Price: $13.75)

• Basic Hosting – Windows Infinite Storage, Limitless Bandwidth, Unconstrained No. of Sites (Price: $4.75)
• Deluxe Hosting – Windows Infinite Storage, Limitless Bandwidth, Unconstrained No. of Sites (Price: $7.75)
• Ultra Hosting – Windows Infinite Storage, Limitless Bandwidth, Unconstrained No. of Sites (Price: $14.75)

Dotster VPS Hosting

• Standard – (Storage: 20 GB), (RAM: 512 MB), (Price: $29.70)
• Pro – (Storage: 40 GB), (RAM: 1 GB) , (Price: $41.60)
• Premium – (Storage:60 GB), (RAM: 2 GB), (Price: $67.95)

How does Dotster compare to its competitors?

GreenGeeks, like Dotster, is an environmentally conscious host with data facilities in Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands, making them more appealing to a larger audience. 

Dotster’s servers, on the other hand, are entirely located in the United States. GreenGeeks also offers more complex hosting options, such as VPS and reseller hosting, in addition to able to share hosting. As a result, if you expect your company to develop steadily, GreenGeeks will provide you with more room to do so. 

Look no farther than Hostinger if you’re searching for a cheap & cheerful international host with a large range of hosting options and services supported by outstanding results and responsive 24/7 support. Hostinger can accomplish everything Dotster does, and more, thanks to a global set of data centers (which assures fast performance). 

HostGator is another notable American host that, like Hostinger, can give customers with it all Dotster can and more. Although Dotster’s infinite resources are a plus, HostGator’s feature package (which comes with free domain purchase, available web transfer, free website builder, and a 45-day money-back guarantee) is unrivaled. 

Bluehost, a well-known and well-rounded provider that offers complete scalability, 24/7 customer service, and inexpensive pricing, is another fantastic US-based option to Dotster. However, price rises after the renewal may surprise (and unpleasantly so) both Dotster and Bluehost customers.

What is the finest Dotster Plan?

If you’re only aiming to host a particular website, the Basic plan is a good place to start because it’s reasonably inexpensive and should suffice. Many of the providers in our list of the greatest hosting services for 2022, on the other hand, give greater functionality and a more useful range of features for a comparable price.

Does it cost extra to renew Dotster?

Dotster gives new clients a substantial discount on their first payment term. However, this offer terminates upon renewal, so you’ll have to pay higher prices after that.

Is Dotster’s shared hosting suitable for e-commerce?

While Dotster’s top-end plan may be suitable for an online store, it is not one of our best suggestions. Before taking the final selection, I recommend going over the checklist of the finest e-commerce hosting providers.

Which hosting provider is the most affordable?

Hostinger are some of the most affordable shared hosting services available today. Considering this, the Hostinger review revealed that it performed admirably well, clearly outperforming Dotster.

Usability

After you’ve decided on a plan, choose a billing cycle (you can be invoiced each 12, 24, even 36 months) & click “Buy Now.” This will take you to a simple domain registration page, where you must choose whether or not to register a new domain. 

To utilize a current anyone move it from another registration, you’ll have to contact Dotster’s support team and hope they can assist you. In any event, if you’re looking to register a new domain, there are a plethora of options accessible, with some costing as little as $2.99 per year and several, the expensive one, costing quite as much as $5000 annually. 

You should pay close attention to every facet of your purchase here since Dotster uses many of the standard upselling techniques, such as add-ons (including pre-checked ones) to increase the sale. As a result, the sign-up procedure may generate confusion; thus, you should be watchful, as this should not take long. 

You’ll be asked to enter your private (and payment) information, read the terms of service, and make a purchase when you’ve confirmed your choice. You’re trapped using vDeck as your administration GUI unless you’ve acquired a VPS hosting package (which you can’t because they became inaccessible not long ago). 

vDeck isn’t quite as good as cPanel or Plesk, but it’s also not the same black sheep of a command center family. Its interface is clear and appears to be simple to use, whether you’re installing popular software (including WordPress) or controlling your email database and FTP transfers. 

Dotster also has three “smart” site builder choices, the most affordable of which would be “Starter,” which costs $1.99 a month and only permits you to construct six-page websites. All three plans include an SSL certificate, a user-friendly graphical editor, blogging, social networking sharing, contact management, and lead capture forms, with higher-tier options including even more tempting features.

Speed & Experience

Although Dotster’s official site is mute on the matter of speed, we were pleasantly delighted with a very promising outcome when evaluating its performance (through GTmetrix). The website was loaded up within 5.3 seconds, which really is faster than the average but still not ideal. 

All of the important web metrics (biggest contentful paint, overall blocking times, and cumulative design shift) were flawless, resulting in a final grade of A (95 percent). With all of its hosting options, Dotster promises 99.9% uptime. We received a report confirming 100% uptime after analyzing the uptime quality of Dotster’s official site (through UptimeRobot) for two weeks. 

Although response times differed from day to day, they were all rather quick (267 milliseconds on average) and no downtime was detected. Overall, Dotster appears to be off to a strong start in respect of speed and stability.

Support

If you want to be as self-sufficient as possible, Dotster offers various choices, including a FAQ area, a knowledge base, and video courses. The FAQ part is straightforward and to the point. More than 500 entries are divided into 15 categories in the knowledge base (WebsiteBuilder, Domains, Websites, Database, Files, and so forth). 

Although the articles themselves appear to be straightforward, navigating the knowledge base is difficult, partly owing to the large quantity of highlighted topics. As a result, the search feature should save you time.

The video lessons part of Dotster is unpleasant on the surface, yet it may be really useful, especially for newbies. If you’d prefer to talk to someone from Dotster’s customer support team, there are a few options: 24/7 contact information, live chat, ticket, and e-mail. 

You may also contact them via Facebook & Twitter if that is more convenient for you, as interaction with consumers appears to be the entire aim of these different accounts. We should also mention that the majority of Dotster’s former customers’ negative comments in Web Hosting Geek, WHTop, and Trustpilot were about their customer support’s incompetence and inefficiency, as well as their website. 

Even if we haven’t had the same history, we think their input is valuable, especially if providing excellent customer service is among your main goals.

Customer Feedback

“I read evaluations here on site and my first impression was, “What a bunch of scammers!” I’ve worked with Dotster for ten years and have never had a problem; they’ve handled my issues both online and over the phone having a 100% resolution just at the conclusion of every conversation.” They couldn’t fix it over the phone once, so they escalated it to their resolution department, who followed up, recognized there was a problem on their end, and rectified it.I have not needed to leave because of complete communication. This is a true customer review, plus there is zero chance that all the ratings on this website are somewhat close to correct, assuming they are real at all? Another thing I noticed about this website is that you get a pop-up asking you what sort of site you want to host, and so on. Then you must furnish them with further information so that they may bombard you with marketing in an attempt to persuade you to quit Dotster, what a ruse! ” – Manny P.

“I’ve been a Dotster user since 2010.” Small concerns arose throughout time, but they were quickly resolved….until this year (2019). In January, I bought two new domain names and received an error message stating that my payment could not be processed and also that my account had been stopped. I immediately contacted Dotster’s customer service. They seemed to have no clue why my account had been suspended, so they removed it. Despite the error warning that “your transactions could not be completed,” Dotster actually charged my PayPay account. Three times for one domain, and $20 overpriced on the other. My account has not been repaired over 6 1/2 hours (yes, HOURS) on the phone with alleged supervisors over three days. I had to submit a PayPal dispute, which PayPal eventually resolved, but Dotster claims the one domain was terminated due to non-payment. My dashboard displays it as purchased and valid for one year, and Dotster was meant to provide an email verifying that the name was paid, active, and OK as of two days ago. That email has yet to arrive. And they don’t react to my email stating that they’ll get it fixed in 24 hours.” – Tammy Batley

Conclusion

To summarize, Dotster wasn’t without issues, but it is distant from being a horrible host. It has been in the business for quite some time, and its shared hosting options come with the majority of industry-standard features. 

However, they don’t offer anything that distinguishes them from other long-running hosts. More hosting kinds, services, and options are available with providers including HostGator, Bluehost, and Hostinger, all at a similarly reasonable price. Dotster may be a fantastic alternative if you want to start a blog, a basic site, or a tiny but fully-equipped online store without worrying about storage capacity, email domains, or monthly bandwidth limits.