Hostwinds Review

Hostwinds is a web hosting company that was founded in 2010 with a focus on providing high-quality hosting services at affordable prices. The company offers a range of hosting plans that cater to the needs of different users, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. Hostwinds prides itself on providing fast and reliable hosting services with exceptional customer support, all while offering some of the most competitive pricing plans in the industry. 

The company also offers a variety of additional features and tools, such as website builders, one-click installs for popular applications, and free SSL certificates. With its focus on providing user-friendly hosting services and personalized support to its customers, Hostwinds has gained a reputation for being one of the most innovative and trustworthy hosting providers in the industry. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at Hostwinds’ hosting plans, features, and performance, to help you decide if it’s the right hosting provider for your needs.

Overview

Hostwinds is a web hosting provider founded in 2010, offering a range of hosting services including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, and reseller hosting. With a focus on customer satisfaction, Hostwinds prides itself on providing reliable, affordable, and secure hosting solutions for businesses and individuals of all sizes.

Their plans come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 customer support, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Hostwinds also offers a range of helpful tools and features, including a website builder, cPanel control panel, and free website migrations.

Customer Support

Hostwinds 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, Hostwinds 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 Hostwinds 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 live chat, phone, or email, depending on the client’s preference.

Hostwinds 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 Hostwinds provides.

In addition to their live support and knowledge base, Hostwinds 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, Joomla, and Drupal.

Overall, Hostwinds 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 Hostwinds support team and their online resources are always available to help.

Plans & Pricing

Hostwinds is a web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting services including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. They focus on providing reliable and flexible hosting solutions with a variety of features and resources. In this article, we will provide an overview of the plans, products, and pricing available at Hostwinds. For more detailed information, please visit their official website at https://www.hostwinds.com/.

Hostwinds 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.

VPS Hosting

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

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is a powerful hosting solution that provides maximum performance and control.

Hostwinds also offers additional services such as domain registration, SSL certificates, and website migration services for an additional cost.

It’s important to note that these prices may vary depending on the length of the contract and any additional services you may choose.

Ratings

• Overall Score: 88/100
• Reliability: 80/100
• Usability: 86/100
• Customer Support: 84/100
• Features: 90/100

Highlights

• Hostwinds Review

Hotwinds Walkthrough

Hostwinds was established in October 2010 to provide low-cost web hosting services accompanied by exceptional service and support to small business owners.

Hostwinds is a web hosting provider that offers business solutions at small business costs with personal and exceptional customer support.

Hostwinds have grown significantly over time. The company services thousands of customers and has its headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its data centers are located in Dallas, Texas, and Seattle, Washington, respectively.

In this Hostwinds Review, we’ll take an in-depth look at its performance, reliability, and pricing.

Is it really worth your money hosting your website with this provider? Read on to find out!

Getting Started With Hostwinds 

To get started, head on to the Hostwinds website. 

On the homepage, you will be greeted with a space-themed page. You will see the types of web hosting they offer in the navigation menu on the upper part, or you can also scroll down to see a detailed overview of their hosting services. 

Shared Hosting – A shared web hosting package equipped with cPanel 

VPS Hosting – A fully managed VPS hosting plan 

Linux VPS Hosting 

Windows VPS Hosting 

Dedicated Hosting – A high-performance dedicated server hosting 

Cloud Hosting – A virtualized private server with dedicated resources 

Reseller Hosting – Start your web hosting business without dealing with structural issues 

As usual, for this Hostwinds review, we’ll go for their cheapest Shared Hosting plan – the basic plan priced at $6.74 per month. 

Once you have browsed and decided the hosting plan you’re going for, click Get Started. 

This will prompt you to a page where you can sign-up or log in to your account. 

But because we are signing up for a new account, we’ll fill out the tab on the left side. 

The tab you will see upon submitting the sign-up form would be the client information. Here, you need to type in your full name, address, and phone number. 

Scrolling down, you need to set up the domain name you wish to use. 

Note: Shared hosting plans do not come with a free domain name. 

The next step would be the Package Information. Here, you get to choose which billing cycle you prefer. Bear in mind that the longer the commitment, the lower the price you’ll pay for your web hosting service. 

You can also choose which data center location you want to use, as well as the hosting plan itself. Optional add-ons can also be found here if you’re going to boost your website’s security and performance. 

The last tab you’ll find on this page is the Payment Information tab. Here, you have the option to pay via Credit Card, using PayPal, or using your preferred Cryptocurrency. 

Once done, click Complete Order. 

After this, you should receive an email stating that your order is being processed, and your account should be activated shortly. 

And you’re all set! 

Using and Managing Your Website on HostWinds 

Once your account has been activated, you may now proceed to the Login page. 

Here, you need to enter the login information you registered upon signing up – email and password. 

After you’ve logged in successfully, you will be greeted with your Hostwinds account dashboard. 

Here, you have an overview of your web hosting service, Actions tab where you can perform different tasks such as cPanel login, webmail login, change passwords, upgrade or downgrade your hosting plan, change your domain, and cancel your subscription. 

HostWinds Control Panel 

cPanel is the most popular control panel in the hosting industry, and for excellent purpose: it is easy to use. The control panel allows you to manage your files, databases, email accounts, and other website hosting-related duties. 

Email 

You can establish custom email accounts for your domain in the Emails section of cPanel. There are tools available for creating new emails, configuring forwarders and autoresponders, dealing with spam, and more. 

Domains 

You may add new domains to your account, set up parked domains, create subdomains, arrange redirects, and much more under the Domains section of cPanel. Before you can configure cPanel, you must first have a domain registered and linked to your server. As a result, solely adding it to cPanel will have no effect. 

File Management 

You can backup your cPanel account, view and alter files stored in your account, evaluate your disk consumption, and even create and manage FTP accounts through the files section of cPanel.

Databases 

Many current websites would be impossible to build without a database, which works invisibly behind the scenes to handle the website’s content. Briefly said, the database stores all of the information on your website, including all pages, posts, and personal information. 

Metrics 

Regular monitoring of numerous website analytics is crucial for your sales and economics. You may study a range of statistics, track mistakes, and monitor bandwidth usage in the Metrics area. 

This is where you can find out where your traffic is coming from, how many visitors you have, and which parts of your website are being used the most. 

Security 

Among the most important things you need to do is make your website secure. You could use the tools in this section to limit SSH access, block IP addresses, and prevent the hotlinking of your photos. You may also manage your website’s security certificates from here. 

Software 

You can enhance the functionalities of your site by accessing the software area. There are important tools accessible here to help you configure software on your website. Softaculous simplifies the installation of popular website programs such as WordPress and Drupal. 

Softaculous can be used to test many types of software as well as to start developing WordPress sites. 

Advanced 

This category comprises activities that are uncommon but beneficial to your website’s advancement.

Preferences

The Preferences area allows you to customize numerous cPanel functions. Under Change Language, for one, you can change the display language; you can also update your Contact Information and perhaps reset your cPanel password under this area.

HostWinds Website Builder

Weebly Website Builder 

Weebly website builder is a drag-and-drop site builder included in the shared and business hosting plans. This tool is ideal if you are a small business owner who is just getting started and wants to build simple websites on your own. You can personalize the layout with different themes and make it mobile-friendly.

Softaculous Apps Installer

Softaculous Auto-Installer 

You can install dozens, if not hundreds, of apps on your hosting account with the Softaculous Auto Installer. Using WordPress as an example, you can set up an entire blog site in moments.

HostWinds Customer Support

Hostwinds offers 24/7 customer support, and you may reach their support team via Live Chat, Email, or by submitting a Support Ticket.

In our case, we chose live chat support to receive a fast response regarding our queries. You can simply click the live chat widget on the lower part of the homepage, and you will be connected to a customer rep in a few seconds.

Here’s how it went:

We would commend their customer support. We felt their friendliness throughout the conversation, and he was very knowledgeable and polite as well.

We’re pleased to know that Hostwinds has a prompt and professional live chat support service that handles the necessities of its consumers. 

Hostwinds also provides phone support, which allows you to speak with an actual person if you want immediate assistance, and a knowledge base where you can look for tutorials and articles if you prefer not to talk to people.

Buyer’s Guide For HostWinds 

Plans and Pricing 

Shared Hosting plans start at $6.74/month.

Hostwinds shared hosting plans provides appealing, cost-effective Linux-based shared hosting services in three varieties: Basic, Advanced, and Ultimate. Starting at $8.99 per month, the basic shared hosting plan includes unlimited monthly data transfers, unlimited storage, a free dedicated IP address, and the option to host a single domain.

Advanced shared hosting, which starts at $10.99 per month, expands on Basic by allowing you to host up to six domains.

The ultimate shared hosting plan adds the ability to host an unlimited number of domains for $12.99 per month. If you want a Hostwinds shared hosting package with room to grow, there’s not much need to choose anything other than the Ultimate plan unless you’re on a tight budget.

Hostwinds, like other web hosting companies, offers discounts if you join up for many months or even years.

VPS Hosting

A Virtual Private Server is for customers who want to construct their websites on servers with far more power than shared web hosting. Your website still uses server space with VPS hosting, but there are considerably fewer other sites competing for resources.

VPS hosting is more expensive than shared hosting, but it is well worth the cost if you anticipate a high traffic volume. VPS sites are also more secure because virtualization isolates part of their resources.

Hostwinds offers four levels of fully managed Linux and Windows-based services to choose from.

Linux VPS Hosting plans start at $8.24/month.

The lowest tier of managed Linux VPS hosting costs $8.24 per month and includes 1GB of RAM, one CPU core, 30GB of SSD disk space, and 1TB of monthly data transfers, whereas the highest tier costs $38.24 per month and includes two CPU cores, 6GB of RAM, 100GB of SSD disk space, and 2TB of monthly data transfers.

Windows VPS Hosting plans start at $12.74/month.

In terms of hardware capacity, Windows VPS hosting plans offers the same range but at higher prices ranging from $12.74 per month to $42.74 per month.

Dedicated Hosting – A high-performance dedicated server hosting

Hostwinds offers configurable or prefabricated Linux and Windows-based dedicated servers. Dedicated hosting is a robust hosting option that sets your website on its own server. As a result, your site gets access to massive server resources, allowing it to resist enormous visitor loads.

 Cloud Hosting – A virtualized private server with dedicated resources

Hostwinds also provides cloud hosting, a type of web hosting in which CPU, RAM, and other resources are distributed over a cloud server. It differs from standard hosting except for that single server power it. The benefit is that your website is not restricted to the resources of a single server.

Cloud hosting options from Hostwinds start at $4.99 per month for a meager 1GB of RAM, a single CPU core, and 1TB of monthly data transfers. The options range from $328.99 per month for 96GB of RAM, sixteen CPU cores, 750GB of storage, and 9TB of monthly data transfers to $328.99 per month for 96GB of RAM, sixteen CPU cores, 750GB of storage, and 9TB of monthly data transfers.

Reseller Hosting – Start your web hosting business without dealing with structural issues.

Hostwind’s reseller hosting plans are similar to its shared hosting plans in that they start at $5.24 per month for unlimited email, storage, and data transfers. There are dedicated, and VPS plans for Linux and Windows and shared hosting for only Linux.

The servers have the same amount of RAM and storage as those supplied directly by Hostwinds, which is not often the case. Hostwinds also allows you to brand the servers you lease, and it offers 24/7 tech support.

Server Speed and Uptime

Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. Clients or users would be unable to access your business or even use your products and services if your website is down, and that they might never come back.

Additionally, Hostwinds offers a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

Over the past year, WebsiteSeup’s testing has yielded strong results, with an average of 99.99 percent uptime and only five outages. They achieved nearly faultless outcomes for the entire year, which is astounding!

Moving on to server speeds, a fast page speed is essential for a range of factors. For instance, 14 percent of your site’s users will quit and browse elsewhere if your page loads take too long, and one out of every two individuals expects a site to load in less than two seconds.

Hostwinds asserts that its system was designed from the start with speed in focus. To that purpose, it employs SSD Drives to boost the speed and efficiency of sites hosted on its platform. Hostwinds offers high read and write speeds and uses a Route Optimized Network to guarantee that the quickest path to connectivity is always used. 

Hostwinds has been producing sluggish speed statistics for the past year, with an average of 837 milliseconds.

Security and Backups

Hostwinds provides Website Monitoring for its shared and reseller services, which monitors your site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If your site is down, it will immediately send a help ticket on your behalf.

Hostwinds backs up your website every evening to ensure the safety of your essential data and files. If something terrible happens, such as a malware attack, you’ll be able to recover your site to a relatively recent version. You will also be able to save backups permanently and view them whenever you want. This is unusual for cheap shared hosting plans, which may only feature backups every two weeks, once a week, or not at all.

Features of HostWinds

• Minecraft server hosting
• Free domain name
• Nightly backups
• Softaculous auto-installer
• cPanel
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited disk space
• Free unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited domains
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited storage
• Free dedicated IP address
• 99.99 percent uptime guarantee
• 24/7 customer support
• Managed and unmanaged hosting options
• Weebly site builder

Pros

• 99.999 percent uptime guarantee
• Free SSL Certificate
• Good customer support
• Free website transfers
• Wide range of payment options – caters to users who want to pay using cryptocurrency
• Windows Hosting
• Linux Hosting
• Good customer service
• No hidden charges
• Ease of sign up

Cons

• Data centers located only in the US – their server locations are very limited to America and Europe, and international users outside of the mentioned continents might experience slower response times
• Their money-back guarantee does not apply to all plans
• Short money-back guarantee window – Hostwinds offers only a 2-day money-back guarantee if you opt for a short-term commitment
• No managed WordPress Hosting
• A free domain name not included in their shared hosting plans

Final Thoughts

Hostwinds is a wonderful web host for small businesses looking for unlimited storage and bandwidth, especially if you foresee a high volume of traffic to your site. Those looking for more affordable solutions, on the other hand, should seek elsewhere, as several competitors provide common attributes at lower prices.

Hostwinds demonstrated outstanding uptime, and we considered them to be a very competent and excellent service provider.

You have free SSL security, excellent customer service, and an endless amount of email accounts. Everything is on top of a limitless all-in-one solution with access to a terrific site builder and unrestricted space and bandwidth.

We hope this Hostwinds review has helped find your hosting company!