Most of the best VPNs on the market claim to be able to unblock geo-restricted content on streaming platforms like Netflix and the BBC - and that’s the big boast made by VPNLand, whose website proudly boasts that it’s a “premium stealth VPN with dedicated IPs for BBC and Netflix.” So, we decided to give it a try.
VPNLand, a virtual private network service in Canada - a country that belongs to the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes surveillance alliances; a group of nations that gather intelligence data from their various regions of the world and automatically share it. This is a bad location for a VPN, especially one billing itself as a “stealth VPN”. The service claims to have over 700 VPN servers located in 13 countries and 10,000 IP addresses around the world.
VPNLand: Pricing & plans
(Image credit: VPNLand)
VPNLand's price starts at $100 per year for the annual VPN account. This offers access to all of VPNLand’s servers. The monthly VPN account costs $15 a month for the same features as the annual VPN account.
There is also the option of customizing plans to meet the needs of individual customers; for example, an account for poker players is available for $75 monthly.
Unfortunately, there is no free VPN option here. There isn’t even a free trial available, and refunds are only given if the service doesn't work. You must provide valid proof to confirm that fact before receiving a refund.
VPNLand: Privacy & encryption
(Image credit: Future)
According to VPNLand's privacy policy, no logs are kept, and it does not keep track of DNS requests, but it may occasionally see its customers' real IP address in diagnostic logs. However, it claims not to collect any device-related data. Keep in mind that these assertions should not be taken at face value as no VPN audit has been undertaken and claims independently verified by an auditor.
Since VPNLand is based in a country that’s part of the "14-Eyes Alliance", if asked, it may disclose your personal information. We advise looking at our suggested alternative to this VPN if you are concerned about your privacy and anonymity online. AES (128–256 bit) encryption and a variety of VPN tunneling protocols, such as OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, and SSTP, are employed by VPNLand.
VPNLand: Streaming
Despite VPNLand's claims of being a streaming VPN - and specifically name-checking itself as a VPN for Netflix and BBC - when we looked for information on how to do so on the website, it only directed us to the page of another VPN service.
VPNLand: Speed & experience
For all its promises of being one of the fastest VPNs out there, the reality is far harsher, and slow. So slow, in fact, that we were unable to fully test it because our account was never activated, despite paying the price. If we’re being generous, we believe this service is no longer fully operational - but, regardless, the practice seems highly questionable. According to existing users, download speeds are average or below-average.
VPNLand: Apps
(Image credit: VPNLand)
VPNLand has tools for Windows and Mac, as well as mobile VPN apps for Android and iOS. You can even enable it on other platforms like Linux, or VPN routers through third-party applications or the firm’s manual installation guide.
VPNLand: Customer support
Email and support tickets are the two support channels that VPNLand customers can use to contact customer service. Customers can also get assistance via live chat and phone during business hours. On the service provider's website, there are useful troubleshooting guidelines, so you shouldn't have any trouble resolving common VPN issues on your own. However, we were unable to reach customer service.
VPNLand: Alternatives
You can try any of our alternative VPN services as we are not sure if this VPN is active at the time of this review.
NordVPN
NordVPN has been available for more than ten years. You can access your preferred websites without any restrictions and take advantage of online security that meets military standards. Additionally, it has a 30-day money-back guarantee, doesn't log your data, and supports multiple concurrent device connections.
ExpressVPN is based in a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, is quick and safe, unblocks major streaming platforms, supports torrents, doesn't log your data, has thousands of servers dispersed throughout the world, and is simple to use. has a 3-month free trial and allows for five connections at once.
IVPN has a no-logging policy that has been independently audited, provides a unique blend of power and usability, is relatively priced, and has servers in 45 countries.
In theory, VPN Land has some good qualities to offer - it unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and other geo-restricted streaming channels, and bills itself as a VPN for torrenting. It even allows up to 10 simultaneous connections. However, this is not the case in practice.
We observed that the provider’s website was very slow and had no security certificate. Our account was never activated. Customer support remained silent. All in all, a poor user experience.
To avoid all these issues - and at roughly the same price - we strongly recommend checking out superior alternatives.
BlackVPN promises to keep your data private – but can it deliver? We’ve put theirVPN servers to the test to see if they can match up to other products on the market, looking at popular features like VPN torrenting capabilities, quick browsing, streaming capabilities and anonymity.
The service was founded in 2009 and is based in Kowloon, Hong Kong. This is considered a privacy-friendly location, because it is outside of the Five Eyes jurisdiction and therefore other countries cannot legally request your data. There is also no mandatory data retention policy in Hong Kong, which is a positive thing for those using the service
As of the time of this review, BlackVPN only has 31 servers spread across 18 different locations. This makes it quite small compared to most VPNs, with many boasting thousands of servers dispersed across multiple nations.
Pricing & plans
To use BlackVPN you need to purchase a full year’s worth of service, with three different packages to choose from. There’s no free VPN option but you can select your plan based on the server you want to use and the features you desire.
There’s a TV option for people who want astreaming VPN to use from the UK or the US, a separate package for unrestricted P2P/Bittorrent services, or a Global Package that bundles all of their services into one package. Subscribing to their plan gets you an unlimited amount of server switches and seven simultaneous device connections.
Global
€99.00 per year
Privacy
€49.00 per year
TV
€75.00 per year
BlackVPN also offers a 14-day cash-back guarantee and a 3-day trial that doesn't require any credit card information. You can purchase their service with credit cards, PayPal, cryptocurrencies, bank transfers, gift cards, or e-wallets via PaymentWall.
(Image credit: Future)
Privacy & encryption
To protect your traffic, BlackVPN employs the military-grade 256-bit encryption standard as well as 4096-bit RSA certificates, which are unbreakable even by the most effective current computers. It also supports the PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, andOpenVPN protocols.
BlackVPN has a no-logs policy that states it doesn't keep any of your data anywhere. However when we checked the privacy policy for more details, we discovered a worrisome sentence that states the VPN will comply with data requests if forced to do so.
It also states that copyright infringement (torrenting) isn't allowed on the platform, which means the company will monitor the VPN account if it receives infringement notices from copyright owners. Therefore, they do log data. Ideally, you should use a VPN that has undergone an independentVPN audit. For this reason, we advise looking at our suggested alternatives to this VPN if you are worried about your security and anonymity online.
Streaming
The majority of market leaders claim to be VPNs for Netflix, giving you access to popular geo-restricted streaming services. When we tested BlackVPN the situation was mixed. It has servers made for VPN streaming and can unblock Netflix US, HBO NOW, Kodi media player, and Disney+. Unfortunately we weren’t able to unblock Amazon Prime Video or Hulu.
(Image credit: Future)
Speed & experience
Despite the fact that all VPNs will, in some way, slow down your connection, the best ones have a minimal impact and avoid lags or buffering. Likewise, speed can differ based on your location, connection, and internet service provider.
Our internet speed was 32 Mbps when we ran aspeed test with BlackVPN on a server in Spain; after connecting, it dropped to 11.43 Mbps. The Australian servers underwent predictably worse performance, achieving only 3.8 Mbps on a 64 Mbps test connection. Brazil reached 5.4 Mbps, which also wasn't manageable.
Apps
The BlackVPN app was simple to download and compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and routers. You'll also find mobile VPN apps for Android and iOS.
Be aware that there are multiple applications with the same name in the Google Play store so double-check that you’re downloading the right one.
Customer support
To get support, you can try their live chat option or fill out a support ticket. However, you must exercise patience; it took some time before we received a response.
We also advise looking at their knowledge base, which includes FAQs, installation instructions, troubleshooting articles, and more, before contacting the customer support.
(Image credit: Future)
Black VPN alternatives
BlackVPN is deeply inferior to many of today’s popular VPN names. If you want a safe VPN, we recommend checking out these alternative options.
NordVPN
The service has more than 5,200 servers spread across 60 different countries, offers live chat support, round-the-clock email support, military-grade internet security, and supports up to six simultaneous device connections. It also has the ability to unblock all popular streaming services.
Express VPN has servers in over 94 countries with live chat support available 24/7, and excellent security measures. It unblocks all streaming platforms, allows you to stream in HD and also allows for five simultaneous connections on devices. Additionally, it adheres strictly to no-log and privacy policies, giving you peace of mind that your information won't be disclosed.
Internet access to streaming websites from all over the globe can be unblocked using the incredibly user-friendly VPN CyberGhost. It has 24/7 live support and safeguards your data with features like an automaticVPN kill switch that cannot be turned off and has military-grade 256-bit encryption. CyberGhost can be trusted to protect your data thanks to independent audits, transparency reports, and a strict privacy policy.
BlackVPN was probably an excellent VPN platform once. However, it is now a barely working shell of a service that only has a nice website to show off and a bunch of unusable apps and servers that occasionally connect. It may unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer but what’s the point if you can’t even connect to a server in a country where such services are available?
Due to its privacy policy, BlackVPN is unable to compete with the best VPNs currently available. To be candid there are better VPNs out there that offer more bang for your buck.
Who wants a VPN with an OpenAI-powered chatbot? Yeah, me neither. But, as brands try to jump on the AI bandwagon and stand out in the crowded VPN space, that's what FlowVPN has given us
Needless to say, it's far from being one of the best VPN services on the market, but keep reading as I take a look at whether the AI chatbot offers any benefit to the VPN, how FlowVPN stacks up with the rest of the VPN market, and answer the all-important question—should you try FlowVPN for yourself?
FlowVPN isn't exactly a newcomer to the industry, rather its ultimate owner Portable LTD was formed in the UK in 2011. They're a medium-scale provider that operates "over 100 servers" in 60+ locations, but the exact number isn't publicly stated (which doesn't exactly inspire confidence).
The first real red flag for FlowVPN is the jurisdiction it's based in. The United Kingdom is part of the Five Eyes information-sharing pact, which means that it is one of the least suitable locations for a VPN provider. The relationship between GCHQ and the NSA is well documented, and both organizations are keen to undermine VPN privacy wherever possible. Combined with their lack of no-logs policy, FlowVPN isn’t a suitable choice when it comes to handling sensitive personal information.
FlowVPN pricing
FlowVPN is positioned as a cheap and cheerful budget VPN provider. There are three different plans on offer: monthly, quarterly, and annual. All of the plans offer the same functionality and features, and the only difference between them is the duration of the subscription and the prices.
FlowVPN’s monthly plan is priced at $6.99 per month. This is pretty cheap compared to most VPN providers, especially considering there are 60+ locations on offer. Unfortunately, the discounts don’t drop much lower from here.
Their quarterly plan is priced at $18, or $5.99 per month, which is roughly a 15% discount. Here’s another issue with FlowVPN: Their discount on the monthly plan is advertised at 30%. That’s not true. I'm not sure if this is just an issue in how their marketing is coded or outright deception, but either way, it's an odd claim.
Lastly, their annual plan is priced at $50.04, or $4.17 per month, which comes out to around a 40% discount. Unlike the previous plan, the website states this one correctly.
FlowVPN does not offer a free version and, while it does offer a five-day free trial, there's no money-back guarantee period. This is a real problem, and we've received a few reports of users being unable to cancel their free trial without contacting their payment provider, and being unable to get refunds if their trial expired and they began paying before they were able to cancel. You should therefore exercise caution when signing up for the free trial. At the bare minimum, you should use a virtual credit card that you can easily cancel.
For payments, FlowVPN accepts a wide variety of options, including the classic credit/debit cards such as American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. They also offer PayPal, various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and even gift cards as an option.
Privacy and encryption
FlowVPN uses AES-128 encryption to protect your data. While this can't be cracked with current supercomputer processing power, it’s surprising that FlowVPN doesn't offer an AES-256 option for added security. This more secure standard is supported by many of the leaders in the VPN space, and its absence speaks to how FlowVPN’s overall approach to security is lagging behind current industry practice.
FlowVPN offers access to the highly secure and widely trusted OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard protocols. The inclusion of WireGuard here is a major plus, however, it can only be used on certain platforms such as iOS and Mac. Unfortunately, FlowVPN also allows you to use several insecure protocols, such as PPTP and VPN over SSH.
In terms of features, FlowVPN doesn't seem to provide even the bare minimum. There is no mention of a killswitch anywhere, let alone anything more advanced such as split-tunneling or multi-hopping. Not having a killswitch is a major failing, it provides an extra layer of security and should be included with every VPN these days. FlowVPN should add a kill switch ASAP but there are far more pressing issues with this VPN.
A no-logs policy? Ha, forget it. FlowVPN's privacy policy explicitly states that the company actively monitors usage for a broad range of illegal activities, as well as some perfectly legal ones (like sending an email with an attachment over 20MB). Client information is handed over in response to any inquiry or warrant by law enforcement, so FlowVPN essentially tells you that your traffic is being monitored.
While it seems like this VPN works in China, the lack of technical competency and awful privacy policy means I cannot recommend this VPN for use inside China (in fact, it may be dangerous to do so). Instead, I'd suggest you check out NordVPN or ExpressVPN—especially if you’re looking for a P2P-friendly VPN, as none of FlowVPN’s servers support P2P traffic.
Streaming
The good news is that FlowVPN can unblock most major streaming services, including the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. Well, sometimes. FlowVPN just cannot do this consistently and I had to try multiple servers in the hope that one would suddenly work. Even after my testing, there didn't seem to be any real pattern when it came to accessing geo-blocked content, it just randomly worked at some point. In short, FlowVPN can unblock geo-restricted content on these services, but it cannot do so smoothly or consistently.
If streaming geo-blocked content is one of your top priorities, I recommend you go for ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN will consistently and effortlessly unblock all the geo-blocked content on the major streaming services listed above, and its superb speeds mean you'll get the smoothest streaming experience possible.
Speed and experience
I tested out three different servers in various locations to get an idea of how fast FlowVPN is. All of my tests were conducted on the same 100 Mbps connection using Ookla Speedtest for consistency.
First off, I connected to the UK server. As this is the server that's closest to my actual location, you would expect to see the highest numbers here. After a few inconsistent results at the beginning of my connection, I came back an hour later and found that the best results I got were 61.40 Mbps download and 17.93 Mbps upload. Honestly, this is a pretty decent result. There are certainly faster VPNs out there, but this isn’t awful by a long shot.
I tested the server in Germany next. This connection was far more consistent, clocking in at 55.74 Mbps download and 12.84 Mbps upload. All in all, these results were roughly in line with what I expected based on the UK tests.
Finally, I tested FlowVPN's US Northeast server. This performed a little lower than expected, clocking in at 38.62 Mbps download and 7.99 Mbps upload. Like the German server, the results of all my tests were consistent, so I can surmise that their servers are working properly. All in all, these results are pretty middling, but nothing egregious.
Customer support
FlowVPN's customer support provides the bare minimum. There's no live-chat support system, which is a major downside in this category, just a basic support ticket system and an FAQ on their website.
That's not great, and it gets worse. When I tested the support ticket system, I did not receive a reply. As there's no other way of getting help, this essentially means that FlowVPN provides no customer support. The FAQ is also very barebones and does not seem to provide any valuable information whatsoever. I found it particularly disconcerting that there’s a section with no meaningful advice on which VPN protocol to use beyond recommending PPTP and L2TP over OpenVPN.
I’ve also heard reports of customers being unable to cancel their free trials because of this apparently nonexistent customer support. As the terms of service make it clear that no refund will be given once the free trial is over, this means that signing up for a trial locks you into a payment. That's a situation that's shady at best, and frankly malicious at worst.
Compatibility
FlowVPN has Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android apps. Check the fine print here, however, as these apps were not created equal. You can only use the WireGuard protocol on the Mac and iOS apps, making them vastly superior. It’s a rare case where the Apple apps are better than the Windows and Android equivalents, but it took me a few connection attempts to get the Windows app working at all. There is no mention of Linux whatsoever on the FlowVPN website.
FlowVPN allows you to use up to 10 devices at a time according to their website. This is roughly consistent with the industry standard, but this number is going up all the time and many top-tier VPN providers are switching to an unlimited subscription policy.
Alternatives
1. The best VPN overall: NordVPN
NordVPN tops our list as the best VPN overall thanks to its excellent privacy, high speeds, and integrated suite of security tools. With unbeatable content unblocking power, amazing speeds, and customizable pricing, you'll only pay for what you need. See for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and get the best VPN on the market.View Deal
2. The best VPN for beginners: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN offers a simple one-click connect interface so you can set it and forget it. Plus, it consistently unblocks Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+. Unlike FlowVPN, ExpressVPN has a strict no-logs policy that has been independently audited by third parties on an ongoing basis. With a 30-day money-back guarantee you can even put it to the test risk-free, too.View Deal
3. The best cheap VPN: Surfshark
If you've got a lot of devices to protect, or you just don't want to spend too much money on a VPN, Surfshark is a great choice. One subscription covers unlimited devices, so you can use as many as you want simultaneously. On top of fast connection speeds, Surfshark also keeps you safe with a password protection system that evaluates if your details are easy to guess, reused, or have been leaked online. Plus, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try it for yourself and see how it compares to the more expensive services.View Deal
Verdict
FlowVPN is a medium-scale VPN provider with some major issues. Their privacy policy is barely worthy of the name as it allows far too much leeway for data collection and essentially gives FlowVPN carte blanche to kick you off the platform for practically any infraction. However, it’s far more likely that you won’t be able to get the service working effectively and be left out of pocket with no chance of a refund.
Beyond the frankly abysmal customer service, the VPN is based in a Five-Eyes jurisdiction, does not support P2P, and lacks features that any decent VPN has had for years. Their VPN protocol support is also not up to industry standards, allowing for the use of several outdated and dangerous protocols
In conclusion, I simply can't recommend this VPN. The blatant logging and sharing of personal data is unacceptable, and the combo of terrible customer support and no money-back guarantee is downright predatory and leaves users unable to get their money back. In short, I’d advise you to avoid this VPN and use a top-tier VPN like ExpressVPN instead.
H&R Block has a very high profile in the USA and for good reason. It provides a range of personal tax preparation services that range from the zero outlay basic edition right on through to sophisticated paid-for variants for those with advanced filing needs.
All this is backed up with physical outlets for in-person help if you need it. Considering the base level edition costs nothing it’s very impressive and has all the features and functionality you could realistically want.
H&R Block offers a hugely flexible array of package options, which allow you to file online or work with a professional who can do a lot of the work for you. This is broken down even further, with options tailored to just how much of the work you want to do yourself.
If you do your own taxes then get started with Online, which allows you to file easily and securely from either a computer or a smartphone. Choose Free Online if you have a W-2, have kids and education costs and there’s a $0 charge per state filed too.
Deluxe Online is for maximizing credits and deductions, plus HSA contributions and currently costs $37.49 instead of the usual $49.99, plus $44.99 per state filed. You can initially start for free.
Premium Online is aimed at freelancers, contractors and investors and is currently $52.49 instead of the usual $69.99 plus $44.99 per state filed and also allows you to start for free.
Self-employed Online, meanwhile, normally costs $104.99 and is currently $78.74, plus $44.99 per state filed. It's aimed at small business owners as well as the self-employed. That too allows you to start for free.
H&R Block’s Online Assist packages on the other hand, allow you to file online with on-demand help from a tax expert, enrolled agent or CPA. Basic Online Assist costs $49.99 plus $0 per state filed and suits if you have a W-2, kids and education costs.
Deluxe Online Assist is $99.99 plus $44.99 per state filed and is for maximizing credits and deductions, plus HAS contributions. You can start for free. Premium Online Assist is aimed at freelancers, contractors and investors and is $139.99 plus $44.99 per state filed. That too allows you to start for free. Self-employed Online Assist, finally, is just that with help when you need it and costs $169.99 plus $44.99 per state filed, with a start for free option available.
H&R Block offers more however, including tax offices and virtual filing. Its Drop-Off service lets you drop off your documents at your local tax office and starts from $69 plus additional fees per state. Tax Pro Go, meanwhile, lets you get expert tax preparation remotely, from $49 plus additional fees per state. There’s a Student/Retired option for $129 plus $45 per state filed, a Family/Investor package for $199 plus $45 per state filed and a Business Owner option for $249 plus $45 per state filed package too.
Their In Office option, meanwhile, lets you work together with a tax pro and starts from $69 plus additional fees per state.
Finally, H&R Block does have downloadable software options. These include its Basic Tax Software for $29.95, for simple tax situations, Deluxe and State Tax Software, for homeowners or investors at $54.95, Premium Tax Software for self-employed/1099-MISC or rental property owners for $74.95 along with Premium and Business Tax Software for small business owners with 10 plus itemized expenses for $89.95. Additional fees may also apply for these however.
H&R Block has a reassuringly safe and secure interface that includes two-step verification (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Features
Thankfully, whatever version of H&R Block you use you’ll find that it should have more than enough features to suit your requirements. The page layouts follow a familiar theme with a methodical series of steps to work through that, eventually, get you to the last stage in the process, the filing bit.
Prior to that you’ll work through basic overview screens and move on to Federal and State sections where you’ll be able to enter more personal information as well as details on your income, deductions, credits and everything else needed to produce a complete picture of your current position.
Of course, the bonus if you’ve used the service before is that much of the information gets held in the system, and you should get access to that one you’ve logged in using your username and password.
Simplistic screens with assistants along the way means this is a very straightforward tax filing system (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Performance
Being an online service means that there’s not much to go wrong in terms of performance, just as long as your internet connection remains up that is. The wizard-style arrangement of the site design means that there’s very little you need to worry about, especially when it comes to complex IRS topics that might make your progress grind to a halt.
This is where the performance of H&R Block really impresses, as it has been honed to cover changes in legislation. This is particularly useful if you’ve used the service before and need to make sure the current year doesn't pull through the wrong information from previous years.
There are versions for all with the self-employed edition proving to be very capable (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Ease of use
H&R Block’s online filing system is hardly intimidating as it follows a theme similar to others in the marketplace. After registering and doing all the foundation housekeeping you then progress through the various screens that help build up a picture of your finances.
Overall, the fit and finish of the interface is really pretty good, with not much in the way of areas that can trip you up. The experience is made all the better thanks to practical interface tweaks including the ability to import the details from your W-2, via either a PDF or a digital image of it from your phone, all of which is done securely so your prized personal information isn't compromised.
Help is always at hand if you find yourself getting bogged down with taxing questions (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Support
H&R Block has also been well thought out when it comes to the amount of online help you can get. While some of this assistance becomes available as you progress through the series of screens, there are other areas that contain more advanced information that gets pulled in from a searchable knowledge base.
Thankfully the H&R Block user experience folks have been mindful to help you stay on track while you delve into these knowledge base articles, so it’s easy to emerge from the other side in the same place. Paid-for editions also come with help from live assistants, while the 24/7 chat support adds another level of reassurance for people who’ve got a little bogged down by the process.
Having the ability to share your screen with a live expert can be valuable and saves time, so if you’re in need of a helping hand then it’s worth the additional fees - $39.99 for Free and Deluxe users, or $49.99 for the Premium and Self-Employed editions.
H&R Block has dedicated areas that can help solve some of your most troubling tax filing issues (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Final verdict
There’s a version of H&R Block tax software for everyone and, no matter which one you choose, all are very well put together. The user experience, even if you’re working with the free online model, is largely stress free too.
It's also good to know that there are plenty of help options available should you need it, even though you’ll need to spend some money if you want to get access to the best there is – a real person.
However, if you’re fairly organized and have your paperwork – digital or otherwise – to hand you can also make perfectly decent use of the built-in help sections of the H&R Block website. It's a package that sits nicely alongside the competition, including the likes of TurboTax, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, Jackson Hewitt Online, Credit Karma Tax and FreeTaxUSA.
iPage is a budget web hosting company with close to 25 years in the business, and more than a million websites on its platform.
iPage is owned and run by Newfold Digital (formerly known as Endurance International Group), the company who also owns big-name hosting competitors like Bluehost and HostGator.
iPage offers simple, low-cost shared hosting, aimed at small, low-traffic personal and business sites.
A website builder range provides an easy way to create a site, then customize its content by dragging and dropping. The top website builder plan also supports creating a web store.
WordPress hosting plans include extra features to optimize WordPress speed and security.
iPage doesn't offer more powerful VPS, dedicated or cloud server products, making it unsuitable for large business sites, or any web projects where speed and reliability are important.
Next, we'll break down the various iPage products, find out what they have to offer, and whether they could work for you.
iPage shared hosting
Shared hosting is a technology where several websites are hosted on the same physical server. This keeps prices low because the cost of the server is spread across many accounts. But the websites also share the same CPU, RAM and network connections, and if the sites get busy, that means everyone takes a big performance hit.
iPage's shared hosting is as simple as it gets, with just one plan. It's seriously cheap at $1.99 a month over three years ($7.99 on renewal), but still has a reasonable feature list. There are no storage or bandwidth limits, for instance. The plan allows you to host unlimited websites (a welcome touch, as most plans at this price only support one). There's a free domain, free SSL, a bundled website builder, 1-click WordPress installation, unlimited email addresses and more.
That's reasonable for $1.99 a month, but there are some issues here. The plan doesn't offer backups, for instance, and it costs from $2.27 a month to add them, more than doubling the price. There's no free migration, and your hosting management tools are below par. iPage uses a horribly basic 1-click WordPress installer, for example, which doesn't begin to match the top-notch Softaculous installer often used elsewhere. And its own control panel, where you'll create email accounts, work with files and more, is short on features and awkward to use.
There are potential setup complications, too. Sign up and the website insists you register a new domain or transfer an existing domain to iPage; unlike almost all the competition, there’s no option to use a domain managed elsewhere. We asked support, they said this was possible but they'd have to manually create the account for us (a hassle, and not an option most users would even realize existed.)
Compare all this with Hostinger. It's a very similar price (from $2.99 a month over four years, $6.99 on renewal), but includes backups, offers a free WordPress migration, has a far better WordPress installer and control panel, and was much faster in our tests (more on that, later). Hostinger is a far better choice for budget shared hosting, but if you need extra power and are happy to pay for it, our Best Shared Web Hosting guide has more ideas.
(Image credit: iPage)
iPage WordPress hosting
IPage's WordPress hosting plans improve on its shared hosting by preinstalling WordPress, a collection of themes and plugins, and a custom WordPress control panel. The company says its WordPress platform 'has been designed to increase load speeds by up to 2.5 times', and the premium plan ($6.95 a month initially, $10.49 on renewal) throws in specialist WordPress support, SiteLock-based security and automatic malware removal.
This is fair value - you can sometimes pay more for standard shared hosting - but the feature list is a little short.
As an alternative, IONOS' 'One' WordPress plan has very basic specs (10GB storage and supports just one website) but it includes staging, daily cloud backups and smart WordPress plugin updates, and it's priced at $18 billed monthly (no long-term contract required.)
And if you don't really need these more advanced features, after all, IONOS WordPress Essential plan supports one WordPress site, 25GB storage and 10 email accounts, and includes a free domain and wildcard SSL certificate, all for just $3 billed monthly. (Again, that's the standard deal, so you won't see a drastic price hike once the first term is up.)
IPage's VPS hosting plans are relatively ordinary: there are just three, they're Linux only, and even the starter product (1 core, 1GB RAM, 40GB storage and 1TB bandwidth) is priced at a mid-range $19.99 for the first term, renewing at $24.99.
These are managed plans (iPage looks after the technical management of the VPS for you), so the prices aren't bad, but you'll get more options and control elsewhere. Hostwinds has ten main plans, in managed and unmanaged, Windows and Linux flavors, and if you know what you're doing, you can get an unmanaged 2 core, 1GB RAM, 30GB storage and 2TB bandwidth plan from as little as $8.99 a month.
It's a similar story with iPage small range of dedicated servers (just three plans). They're a little underpowered - the $119.99 Startup plan ($149.99 on renewal) gets you a 2 core CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB disk space and 5TB bandwidth - but they don't really stand out in any way. A company like InterServer has a wider choice of servers, more configuration options, and you can find more powerful setups priced from $80 a month billed monthly.
(Image credit: iPage)
Does iPage have a website builder?
iPage has a simple website builder which aims to make it easy to create a small personal or business website. The company bundles a free version with its shared hosting plans, and we gave it a try.
The builder began by asking us what our site was about (music, food, technology etc) and whether we needed a blog. We chose a name and a free cover photo from the iPage library. There were options to tweak fonts, colors and navigation style, add a logo or contact details, but we skipped all that and our site was ready in seconds.
The free version is limited to six pages, but still created a decent site. It added Home, Menu, About and Contact pages for our restaurant site, and a simple blog. We could add sections such as maps, images, forms, videos and more, then preview and publish the results in a couple of clicks.
The website builder has a couple of paid options, too.
The Business plan supports unlimited pages, adds tools to analyze your web traffic and offers phone support, and is priced from $6.99 billed monthly.
The Ecommerce plan adds the ability to create an online store, with unlimited products, PayPal and shipping integration, and comes with priority support. It's priced from $12.99 billed monthly.
The free website builder is a worthwhile addition to iPage's free shared hosting plan. It's easy to use and could be enough to create simple, low-traffic personal and business sites. But we wouldn't pay to upgrade. The site designs are relatively basic, the editor isn't as polished or powerful, and the e-commerce plan doesn't have the features to build a quality web store.
If you're looking for a website builder and you're serious about selling online, consider Wix. Templates are top quality, there are loads of pre-built page sections and elements, and it's very easy to use. And if you need to upgrade to a web store, it doesn't compromise on functionality: there's as much power here as in regular stand-alone ecommerce platforms. Prices range from $16 a month for personal sites, to $59 for the top-of-the-range Business VIP.
(Image credit: iPage)
Is iPage easy to use?
iPage offers shared hosting, the simplest and most straightforward hosting type, which should give it an immediate usability advantage. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out that way.
One key problem is that iPage uses its own control panel and auto-installer tools. These are limited, with fewer features than the best alternatives, less reliable and more awkward to navigate.
Many hosts use Softaculous as an auto-installer, for instance. This can install WordPress and 150+ apps, has all kinds of options to ensure you get the setup you need, reliably installs apps (often in seconds) and can help you manage your app afterwards.
iPage's installer works with WordPress and its own website builder only. It has no significant setup options, doesn't delete a previous WordPress database by default, has left us looking at a 'Setting up' message for more than an hour, failed to properly install WordPress once, and doesn't have any management options (beyond deleting your installation).
This may not matter much to everyone. If you've a simple site, and once you've created it, you'll spend minimal time adding content or making changes, hosting management tools aren't so important. You might spend 15 minutes finding out how to do something, but that's about it.
But if you're a web hosting newbie, or you've a more complex site to build, maybe a blog where you'll regularly add new content, then iPage's usability issues could become a problem.
We used Uptime.com to measure the performance of our iPage site (Image credit: Uptime.com)
How fast is iPage?
We measure hosting performance by installing a template WordPress site on a test account, then using various tools to measure server response times and how quickly the page loads.
GTMetrix analyzed a test page and calculated how long it took for the main content to load (technically speaking, that's a value called Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). A low LCP makes your site feel snappy and more responsive, encouraging your users to stick around.
IPage's LCP was slow at 1.6 seconds, the longest wait we've seen in our last 15 hosting reviews. Most providers are somewhere in the 0.6 to 0.8 second range, significantly faster.
(Image credit: K6)
K6 is a website load testing service which measures how a site responds when it has several users active at the time. IPage coped better here, and our site handled up to 25 requests a second. But again, average response times were lower than average at 1.119 seconds.
Put it all together and iPage is slower than most of the hosts we've tested. With no high-powered or dedicated hosting, you can't upgrade to improve the situation, either. But although this makes iPage a poor choice for any kind of heavy-duty web project, it's still fast enough for personal or small business sites where you might not see 100 visitors a day.
The support site isn't as detailed as it appears (Image credit: iPage)
What is iPage's support like?
iPage offers support on the website, via live chat, and telephone (7am to 12am Eastern Time, seven days a week). That's probably enough to get by, but the best hosts do better, with a 24/7 phone line and ticket or email support, too.
We opened a live chat window to see how the service performed. A window prompted us to choose a topic, then select a category from an annoyingly short list which didn't cover our test question. We made a best guess, and entered a description of our fictitious problem in an 'Additional Information' box.
Hitting Next submitted the question, and an agent arrived very quickly, within seconds. What happened next depended very much on the issue.
iPage support had no problems with our simple technical and product queries, providing speedy and accurate replies, with occasional links to relevant help pages. Ask an unfamiliar question, though, and it's a very different story.
iPage offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but we couldn't see any document explaining how this works. And so we opened a text window and asked if the guarantee was described anywhere.
'Are we facing an issue with slowness or the control panel', asked the baffled agent? No, uptime, we explained again.
He asked for a few minutes to research the problem. Finally, he returned. 'I'd like to inform you about bandwidth', he said, going on to explain what iPage means by unlimited bandwidth. We thanked him, and left.
Our problem here isn't that our agent didn't know the answer (this probably isn't a topic that comes up often), as much as he clearly didn't even understand the question, despite us explaining it twice. Perhaps that's less likely to happen when troubleshooting web hosting issues, but it doesn't give us much confidence.
Final verdict
With no VPS or dedicated server hosting these days, iPage is all about its shared plans. These have rock-bottom prices, but they're also poor performers, awkward to use and missing some key features. IPage might work for the simplest sites, or to learn WordPress or some other web technology, but it doesn't have the power or features to handle anything more serious.
iPage FAQs
What payment types does iPage support?
iPage accepts payment by card and PayPal.
Does iPage offer refunds?
iPage has a 30-day money-back guarantee covering 'all basic hosting fees.' 'Domain registration fees, setup fees, or any fees for additional Services' are excluded.
That's a very standard guarantee, but there are a couple of exceptions you need to know about.
The first is the guarantee is valid for PayPal and card only; keep that in mind when you're paying.
The second is only first-time hosting accounts are eligible. If you've had an account before, canceled and signed up again, you won't be able to claim a refund.
Does iPage have an uptime guarantee?
iPage quotes a '99.9% uptime guarantee' for its shared hosting packages. We found no website documentation to explain what this meant, though, how it was calculated, what counts as downtime, what doesn't, and whether you might receive any compensation if the target isn't achieved.
The end result is that although iPage says it has an uptime guarantee, there's no way to assess whether it meets the 99.9% figure or not, making it essentially meaningless.
Where are iPage's data centers?
The iPage website says the company uses two data centers, but doesn't give any further details.
We entered our server IP address at iplocation.net to find out more, and the site checked it with eight geolocation services. Every one said our server was in Jacksonville, Florida.
(Image credit: iPage)
What is my iPage IP address?
Learning your web server IP address can be helpful when you're first setting up a site, for example in configuring a domain hosted elsewhere to point at your new web space.
To find your iPage server's IP address, first log into its Control Panel.
Click the Hosting Tools icon (nine dots arranged in a square).
Your server IP address is displayed as 'Website IP' in the left-hand System Settings box.
What are IPage's nameservers?
iPage's nameservers are ns1.ipage.com and ns2.ipage.com.
(Image credit: iPage)
How do I cancel a product?
Log into the iPage Control Panel. Click the Hosting Tools icon at the top of the screen. Click 'Logged in as ' at the top of the screen, and choose Hosting Renewal.
Choose the option to cancel your account today, or when it expires. These won't necessarily stop all payments; if you've registered a domain with iPage, for instance, that's a separate product and is renewed separately. Read the warnings on the Cancel page carefully for advice on this and other issues.
• Original review date: June 2022
• Yet to be replaced
• Launch price: $399.99 / £269 / AU$699
• Official price now: $349.99 / £239 / AU$599
Update: February 2024. Although it was launched back in 2020, the Nextbase 622GW is still the top model in the Nextbase dash cam range. It also continues to occupy the top spot in our list of the best dash cams, thanks to its combination of excellent 4K video quality and a comprehensive feature set, including effective image stabilization and clever what3words integration. Those skills do come with a significant outlay, though. If you’re interested in a Nextbase camera but don’t need all of the features offered by the 622GW, it’s worth looking at its sibling models. For example, the 522GW doesn’t have image stabilization, but it records 2K video and includes support for Alexa. It’s also significantly cheaper than the 622GW. That said, if you’re looking for the very best dash cam you can currently buy, we think the 622GW is worth the money. The rest of this review remains as previously published.
Nextbase has long been at the forefront of advanced dash cam tech, and its latest Nextbase 622GW model comes positively packed with the latest video recording smarts, making it one of the best dash cams on the market.
For a start, the 622GW features a new Ambarella H22 quad-core chipset, which lets you capture pin-sharp 4K footage at 30fps. Better still, the firm has installed a removable polarizing filter, which allows drivers to rotate a bezel on the front of the lens to produce beautiful, glare-free footage.
Nextbase 622GW release date and price
The Nextbase 622GW is available to buy right now for £249 / $319.99 / AU$549.99. If you're in the UK, the camera also gives you up to 30% off Nextbase's own Insurance.
When recording in normal, well-lit situations, the resulting 4K clips are up there with basic GoPro offerings, and it’s extremely easy to slow playback down to 120fps via a Super Slow Motion setting.
This is particularly useful for snaring a license plate during a hit-and-run incident, or capturing individual frames during an accident, for example.
There’s also an option to add a rear camera module that films at 1080p/30fps, but this is sold separately. On a positive note, this doesn’t require an irritatingly long wire dangling from the rear window because it neatly plugs into the side of the 622GW.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
You interact with the Nextbase 622GW via a sharp, three-inch full-color rear touchscreen display that features small icons for navigating the various menu screens. These can be a little fiddly to locate, especially when you’re driving (not advised), while the touchscreen requires obvious digit swipes before it recognizes the command.
Alternatively, there’s the option to link Amazon Alexa voice control to the 622GW via the accompanying MyNextbase Connect app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices. Once the two pieces of software are linked, you can simply say, “Alexa, ask my dash cam to take a picture” and the camera will oblige. It generally works well, although if you’re in a noisy vehicle Alexa can have trouble recognizing commands.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
Nextbase also now offers an upgrade to its coveted EmergencySOS feature in this camera, thanks to the addition of what3words geocoding.
Emergency and breakdown services are increasingly looking to the innovative geocode system to provide help faster, as the technology can precisely pinpoint a location within three meters of a stricken vehicle, for example.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
How does what3words work? If you find yourself in a remote area, this GPS alternative will let you precisely locate yourself, though you'll still need to make a phone call for help. For more serious incidents, there's also EmergencySOS, which can apparently work on very low data connection speeds (GPRS, or under 0.1Mbit/s).
Customers in all territories receive a year’s free trial of this EmergencySOS feature, but you’ll need to pay a subscription after that period.
Regardless, most of us carry a mobile phone these days, meaning EmergencySOS can be used with the accompanying app, and thanks to dual 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, cameras now tether to said app with fewer issues than previous Nextbase cams – although these issues haven’t been ironed out completely.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
Previous generations of Nextbase dash cams have been massively frustrating to use, often failing to provide a stable connection to transfer still images and video between phone and camera, but things have improved. The set-up process is still a little fiddly and time-consuming, and the Wi-Fi connection between devices sometimes fails, but we managed to retrieve some imagery and footage after a few attempts.
It is, however, much simpler to plug the camera into a laptop or PC to access the footage, and playback is far slicker this way. We could imagine the app and its connection issues becoming frustrating to use if you were desperately trying to review footage directly after an incident, and this is something Nextbase, in our opinion, needs to address.
But otherwise, the 622GW is an extremely easy camera to set up and use. Its 140-degree viewing angle isn’t the most extreme on the market, but it easily captures everything through the windscreen, and both its low-light and extreme weather recording modes, which use clever algorithms to improve the quality of the image, are great for capturing crisp footage in difficult situations.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
New image stabilization technology also does its bit to ensure buttery smooth footage, cleverly soaking up bumps and vibrations from potholes or poor road surfaces.
The improvements in sensor and processor technology means the resulting files are large, and Nextbase suggests investing in a 128GB U3 SD card, which isn’t supplied with the unit. These cost around $25 / £30 / AU$45, but opting for anything smaller will seriously restrict recording times.
Like most cameras on the market, the 622GW features a built-in G-Sensor, which will automatically save footage to the device if it detects a bump or crash. The sensitivity of this can be adjusted via the touchscreen display, but there’s also a handy Parking Mode that will automatically record footage if the G Sensor is activated, even when the camera isn’t drawing power.
The Nextbase 622GW is a clever little unit that now produces fantastic footage. Granted, the Nextbase app isn’t the easiest to use, but Alexa and what3words integration work extremely well, and have the potential to increase safety out on the road.
ScalaHosting is an experienced Dallas-based provider with 15 years of experience in the web hosting business.
ScalaHosting's range includes everything from shared hosting for simple sites, and VPS for more demanding business projects, to custom-built managed clusters (a group of servers handling the same site) with the power to manage even the largest websites.
ScalaHosting's shared hosting offers lots for your money (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
ScalaHosting shared hosting
ScalaHosting's starter shared hosting plan looks a little basic, with only 20GB storage and support for a single site. But otherwise, it delivers everything we'd expect - free domain, free SSL, free site migration, unlimited bandwidth, a 1-click WordPress installer, live chat and email support (not phone) - and some welcome extras, including remote backups of your sites for the last seven days.
It's reasonably priced, too, at $2.95 a month over three years, $6.95 on renewal.
Upgrading gets you more CPU resources, support for unlimited websites, hacking protection, priority support, and SEO advice to (hopefully) raise your Google ranking. The price jumps to $5.95 a month over three years ($8.95 when you renew), but that's fair for what you're getting.
ScalaHosting only has total of 16 hosting locations, including Amsterdam and Singapore, similar to that of A2 Hosting. Adaxially, all ScalaHosting's shared hosting plans use NVMe storage (which isn't used by many of its competitors). These type of disks are at least ten times faster than a normal SSD.
On the whole, these are quality shared hosting packages, easy to use, with all the key features you'll need, and fairly priced for what you get. A smart choice for hosting newcomers, or for small to medium personal and small business sites where speed isn't critical.
ScalaHosting WordPress hosting
ScalaHosting's WordPress plans look identical to its shared range, with the same features (as we discuss above) for the same price (from $2.95 a month). But that's not necessarily a problem, because there are decent shared plans, and there are some useful WordPress-related features, too.
The company says it will migrate as many sites as you ask for free, for instance. Many providers limit you to one, a few don't offer free migration at all.
ScalaHosting's servers are optimized for WordPress performance, with custom security rules to block '99.9% of the web attacks.'
The support team go beyond the usual server problem-solving to help you with more WordPress-specific issues, such as troubleshooting plugins.
All plans get daily backups covering the last 7 days (something we don't always see with budget WordPress offerings), while malware scans and removal keeps your site and visitors safe.
If you're looking to learn WordPress, or use it to build a small personal or business site, ScalaHosting's range more than covers the basics for a very low price. But if you're more interested in features than rock-bottom prices, WordPress, IONOS and A2 Hosting have powerful specialist plans with more powerful WordPress tools and valuable business and other extras.
All of ScalaHosting's VPS plans are fully configurable (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
ScalaHosting VPS hosting
ScalaHosting's VPS (Virtual Private Server) plans give your website more resources than shared hosting, significantly improving load times, and avoiding the slowdowns you'll often see with shared plans.
Prices look relatively high at $29.95 a month for a 2 CPU core, 4GB RAM, 50GB SSD system, but you're getting a lot for your money. Unmetered bandwidth; free migrations, domain and SSL; daily backups; WordPress backup, cloning and staging; malware and hacking protection; and no need to buy a cPanel license, because the cPanel-compatible SPanel is thrown in.
If the standard four plans don't suit your needs, you can build your own by choosing whatever mix of CPU sores (2-24), RAM (4-128GB) and storage (50GB-2000GB) works best.
There's even the option to host your VPS with Amazon AWS, instead of ScalaHosting. They're more expensive, but have far larger networks and can host your server in data centers around the world.
These aren't plans for casual users or bargain hunters, but if you're working on a heavy-duty project for medium to large or business-critical sites, ScalaHosting almost certainly has a VPS for you.
We assess website speed by using a tool called GTmetrix to calculate how long it takes to load and display the main content of a page (a figure known technically as Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). The lower the LCP value is, the faster your site pops up in the browser, and the snappier and more responsive your site feels.
ScalaHosting delivered an LCP of 0.730 seconds. That's fractionally slower than average, but still within reach of big names including GoDaddy (0.667 seconds) and GreenGeeks (0.692 seconds), and much better than budget providers such as Domain.com (1.5 seconds) and iPage (1.6 seconds.) Overall, ScalaHosting's shared hosting delivers decent performance which should cope with small to mid-range personal and business sites.
Reliability is another important element of hosting performance. Your website might download almost instantly, but if it's regularly down, your visitors won't be happy.
We assess reliability by using Uptime.com to check a test website every 5 minutes for 14 days, logging any passes and fails. Scala Hosting's result was easy to calculate because it had no failures, scoring a perfect 100% uptime. That's what we'd expect for a short test, but it's a good start. We've left the Uptime.com test running, too, and will update this review from time to time with longer-term results.
ScalaHosting's web dashboard is clear and intuitive. Log in and your hosting plan is displayed up-front. Common tools are easy to find, often just a click or two away. A 'launch cPanel' button gives you speedy access to cPanel's many hosting management tools, and the company uses the excellent Softaculous as its 1-click WordPress installer, another usability plus. We've installed a lot of test WordPress sites, and Softaculous is faster, more configurable and reliable than anything else.
We did notice a surprising security issue. Although the dashboard's 'launch cPanel' button logs you into cPanel, it doesn't establish an encrypted HTTPS connection. It's HTTP-only, which left our browser displaying a 'not secure' error. If we accessed cPanel via unprotected public Wi-Fi, that may allow others to intercept our communications and perhaps steal sensitive information.
This must be some temporary issue relating to our account, we thought, and opened a support ticket to ask. An agent replied in four minutes, but the news wasn't good. The dashboard automatically uses a URL beginning hydra.vivawebhost.com:2082, and he explained we had to use hydra.vivawebhost.com:2083 to get a secure connection, before adding: 'I will report that to our developers and they will check if this can be fixed so you will be redirected to a secure connection from your client profile as well.'
In other words, while you can securely log into cPanel via other URLs, try it from the dashboard and it creates an insecure connection as standard. Your browser should clearly warn you of the problem, so hopefully users will notice and try a different login route, but that really shouldn't be necessary. Web hosts have access to some very sensitive data, and customers have the right to expect more attention to security details than we see here.
What is ScalaHosting's support like?
ScalaHosting offers 24/7 support via its website, live chat and ticket/ email.
The web knowledgebase is smaller than average but the company makes up for it with its YouTube knowledge channel. For example, the Hosting section has only 304 articles to cover shared, VPS, and reseller hosting, domains, DNS, security, email and more. There is useful content here, but it's mixed with generic 'how to' advice, and a weak search engine can make it tricky to find what you need.
Fortunately, if the website can't help, accessing the support team is quick and easy. Our live chat sessions generally got a reply within a minute, and the agents gave accurate and helpful responses to our test questions.
Using tickets can make more sense for complex problems, and ScalaHosting performed well here, too. Replies were helpful and detailed, and arrived in anything from four to just under 40 minutes.
Final verdict
ScalaHosting's shared plans aren't the fastest we've seen, but they give you plenty of power for your cash, and could work for bargain hunters with personal or small business sites. The real highlight here is the company's professional and highly configurable VPS hosting, which has the power to handle serious business-critical sites.
ScalaHosting FAQs
What payment types does ScalaHosting support?
ScalaHosting accepts payments via card, PayPal and bank transfer.
Does ScalaHosting offer refunds?
ScalaHosting has a 30-day money-back guarantee for shared, VPS and reseller hosting, along with cloud servers and (something you won't get with all providers) SSL certificates. Dedicated servers and domain names are not included.
While that's a fairly typical guarantee, there is one catch: it's available for new customers only, which seems a little unfair. If you have one package and buy another, you're not covered by the guarantee.
Does ScalaHosting have uptime guarantee?
ScalaHosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your server has more than 0.1% unscheduled downtime over a month (around 45 minutes), you'll receive 10% credit on your hosting fees for every further 0.1% your site is unavailable. So that's 10% for 1:30, 20% for 2:!5, up to a 100% credit for a total 8:15 downtime.
(Image credit: ScalaHosting)
Where are ScalaHosting's data centers?
ScalaHosting has its own data centers in the USA (New York, Dallas) and Sofia, Bulgaria, but it also uses Digital Ocean’s data centers in Bangalore, London, Singapore, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Toronto.
That's good news, as the more data centers a host has, the more likely you can choose one near your audience, improving speeds.
Beware, though, you can't choose all of these data centers with every product. We were offered only four locations for our review shared hosting package: Dallas, New York, Europe and India.
What is my ScalaHosting IP address?
Knowing your web server's IP address can be handy when you're pointing a domain managed elsewhere to your web space.
The easiest way to find the address is with cPanel, if it's available on your account.
Log in to the Scala Hosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find your hosting product in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Log Into cPanel.
Look to the right, and your server IP address is displayed as 'Shared IP Address' in the General Information box.
(There is no 'General Information' box? Find and click the Server Information link.)
What are ScalaHosting's nameservers?
ScalaHosting's nameservers are:
ns1.scalahosting.com
ns2.scalahosting.com
How to cancel a ScalaHosting service (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
How do I cancel a ScalaHosting product?
Access your ScalaHosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find the plan you'd like to cancel in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Request cancellation.
Choose a reason, decide whether you'd like to cancel the hosting immediately or at the end of the billing period, and click Request Cancellation.
ScalaHosting warns that 'cancellation requests may take up to 7 days to be completed', so if you're looking to avoid the plan automatically renewing, don't leave this until the last minute.
The company excels in the domain world, where (according to Domainstate) it manages more than 63 million domains. To put that in perspective, not only does that put GoDaddy at number one in the domain registrar top ten, it's also more than the next nine providers have registered put together.
Measuring hosting success is more difficult, but Datanyze gives GoDaddy another first place, with around a 14% share of the hosting market (that's ahead of AWS, IONOS, Google Cloud and HostGator).
GoDaddy offers a wider-than-average range of plans, covering shared, VPS and dedicated hosting, a capable website builder, managed WordPress, and managed WooCommerce for building powerful web stores.
There's a vast catalog of supporting products, too, including SSL certificates, malware scanning, DDoS and firewall protection, a speed boosting CDN, business email hosting and more.
That's a lot to consider, but we'll explore some of the main hosting types here.
Shared hosting
There are four shared Linux hosting plans, ranging from $5.99 to $19.99 a month on the three-year plan ($8.99 to $24.99 on renewal). The starter Economy plan supports one site, a free domain, 100GB storage and unlimited bandwidth. Paying to upgrade gets you support for unlimited bandwidth and storage, along with increased processing power and speed. All plans include one-click install for WordPress and other apps via Installatron (not quite as capable as Softaculous, but better than most.)
Unusually, there's also a Windows shared hosting range. Specs and prices are similar, with plans running from $5.99 to $12.99 a month over three years ($8.99 to $16.99 on renewal). Most hosts have no Windows option, or charge a premium, so GoDaddy's plans are a major plus.
Advantages of GoDaddy's shared hosting include fast SSD storage for extra speed. Every plan comes with backups (though beware, the cheapest allows you to restore the previous day only). A choice of data centers allows your site to be hosted in North America, India, Singapore and Europe. And when it's up and running, you can manage your site with the industry-standard cPanel, a major plus.
Valuable extras include at least 2 Microsoft 365 mailboxes, free for a year. Plan lengths are more flexible than just about anyone else in the business, with the option to sign up for 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 60 or even 120 months.
The major disadvantage of GoDaddy's shared hosting is that there's no free SSL with the cheapest two plans. GoDaddy's SSL certificates start at $69.99 a year on the two-year plan ($99.99 on renewal), too, a chunky addition to the bill.
You may be able to avoid that by choosing another GoDaddy plan (see WordPress hosting, below.) But if you're only looking for shared hosting, there's plenty of money to be saved elsewhere. Hostinger's Premium Shared Hosting includes free SSL and is priced from only $2.99 a month in year one ($6.99 on renewal), less than the cost of GoDaddy's SSL certificate alone. GreenGeeks and iPage offer similar value.
GoDaddy's plans are capable, though, with valuable speedup technologies, easy management via cPanel, and a very unusual plus in the Windows hosting option. If you can live with the cost, the high-end plans may be worth a look.
GoDaddy's website is plain but supremely easy to use (Image credit: GoDaddy)
WordPress hosting
Although GoDaddy's shared hosting range makes it easy to install and use WordPress, the company's managed WordPress range adds several useful features (and a huge plus at the end of this list) for minimal extra cost.
An automated migration tool imports your existing WordPress site with a click, for instance. This should cover most people, although complex sites with a host of plugins may need a little work.
If you're starting from scratch, the plans include thousands of themes, pre-built sites and a drag-and-drop editor. We browsed the themes, and although very few stood out, chances are you'll find several that suit your needs.
Practical benefits include automatic updates for WordPress, plugins, extensions and PHP versions, maximizing performance and ensuring you always have the latest security patches.
A comprehensive backup system saves your website every day, keeps each version for a month, and you can restore any backup with a click. That's a significant improvement on the cheapest shared hosting plan, which only keeps a single backup from the previous day.
The major advantage of GoDaddy's managed WordPress plans, though, is they include a free SSL certificate for as long as you keep your plan. That saves at least $69.99 a year compared to the cheapest shared hosting plans, yet the plans are only a little more expensive at $6.99 a month on the three-year plan ($9.99 a year on renewal.)
There are a couple of potential catches. Managed WordPress plans start with just 30GB storage, compared to 100GB for the baseline shared plan. And while shared hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth, the cheapest managed WordPress plan is recommended for 'up to 25K monthly visitors', and GoDaddy will recommend an upgrade if you need more.
Still, 30GB and 800+ visits a day is plenty for many personal and small business sites. If you're looking to host a WordPress website, GoDaddy's managed WordPress plans look much better value than its shared range.
Budget alternatives start with Hostinger's shared range, where you can create multiple WordPress sites, with basic managed WordPress tools, from $2.99 a month over four years ($6.99 on renewal). It's less polished than GoDaddy, but gives you loads of features, and could be a cheap way to learn more about WordPress.
Bluehost is a little more expensive than GoDaddy, but has a wider range of plans, including support for some very professional features (video compression). Some plans also include specialist WordPress support, where you'll get general advice on design and functionality, as well as solving problems.
Liquid Web's managed WordPress has a higher price tag (even the starter plan is $15.83 a month on the annual plan), but it's super-fast and reliable, with some of the best support around, and could be a great choice for demanding, high-traffic sites. (There's a 14-day free trial available, too.)
VPS hosting
GoDaddy's VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting plans deliver better performance and far more configuration options than shared hosting, but can also be more complicated to set up and use.
VPS prices start at only $4.99 a month on the three-year plan. Sounds cheap, but that's for a very basic setup: just 1 CPU core, 1GB RAM and 20GB storage, although you do get unlimited bandwidth and automated weekly backups.
There are effectively eight plans, and most support both Linux and Windows. The top range plan gives you 8 CPU cores, 32GB RAM and 400GB storage for $99.99 a month over three years.
These prices are for unmanaged VPS, which means you're left to handle server and software updates, detect and solve crashes, and otherwise keep your system running smoothly. Even control panels are an expensive optional extra ($16 a month for cPanel or Plesk.)
If that sounds too much, you can pay for GoDaddy to manage the VPS for you. That bumps up the price by a chunky $95 a month, but it could be worth it if you're running a business-critical site. Opt for managed VPS and GoDaddy looks out for some hosting issues and fixes them itself, for instance: choose unmanaged, and that's left up to you.
GoDaddy's VPS plans stand out for offering unlimited bandwidth on even the cheapest plans. Windows support is a welcome plus, and the choice of data centers in North America, Europe and Asia could be a real performance advantage if your target audience is in a specific country.
The problem is there are competitors who do this better. At the budget end of the market, IONOS 4 core 8GB RAM VPS is only $2 a month for the first six months, $25 a month afterwards, a fraction of GoDaddy's price. And if you're looking for full management, Liquid Web has top-quality support, and is priced from $40 a month over two years ($106 on renewal) for a two core, 2 RAM setup. Choosing a GoDaddy VPS may still make sense if you already have some GoDaddy hosting products, but most people are likely to be better off elsewhere.
Dedicated hosting
Choosing one of GoDaddy's dedicated plans gets you a full server all to yourself, for the maximum possible performance and configurability. But it's also relatively expensive, as there's no-one else sharing the cost. And just as with VPS hosting, dedicated servers take experience to set up and run yourself, so you might want to spend even more money on a managed plan and leave the support team to do this for you.
GoDaddy offers only four base servers, ranging from 4 to 16 cores, and 32GB to 256GB RAM. They're available with at least 2 x 4 TB HDD drives for capacity, or 2 x 500GB for speed, running Linux or Windows, and in unmanaged and managed flavors.
Prices are reasonable at $129.99 a month over two years for an unmanaged server, rising to $529.98 for a top-of-the-range managed model. All plans offer unlimited bandwidth, unusual in the dedicated server world.
GoDaddy's dedicated range stands out for its decent hardware specs. IONOS looks cheaper, for instance, with prices starting at $45 a month for the first six months, then $65. But that's because it has 8GB RAM, a less powerful CPU and a single 240GB SSD, against 32GB RAM and 2 x 500GB SSDs with even GoDaddy's most basic plan.
The problem is GoDaddy doesn't give you much choice over the hardware you'll actually get. If you like its specs, great; but if you're looking for a bargain and can live with a more basic setup, or you need something far more powerful, you're out of luck.
GoDaddy also sells its '99.9% server uptime' guarantee as though it's a major selling point, but we'd question that. That's a common figure for shared hosting, but Liquid Web offers 100% network and power uptime SLAs.
GoDaddy may still work for you if its default servers suit your needs, but shop around before you decide. Hostwinds has twelve dedicated server plans, all very configurable, giving you plenty of choice. Liquid Web has even more, and although it doesn't offer cheap unmanaged servers, its managed dedicated server plans can be better value than GoDaddy's range.
(Image credit: GoDaddy)
Does GoDaddy have a website builder?
GoDaddy has a capable website builder which makes it easy to build a good-looking, feature-packed online home, from $9.99 a month on the annual plan ($11.99 on renewal). It's more focused on businesses than personal users (even the most basic plan has social media marketing features and payment support), but could work for anyone.
There are plenty of templates covering all kinds of site and business types. A 'filter' system instantly tweaks layouts, fonts and colors to find the best fit for you, then you can start adding your own content (using the built-in image library, if you don't have any images of your own).
Template sites can be extended with a wide range of sections, pre-built blocks covering various types of content: blogs or newsletters, image galleries, contact forms, image galleries, embedded video and audio, downloadable file links, and more.
GoDaddy's high-end website builder plans include e-commerce tools, including an online store, PayPal support, gift cards and various product-promoting options. Custom restaurant sections include a menu and price list and reservation system, and there's a more general Appointments option which allows customers to book services, classes, events or whatever else you might be offering.
This is a powerful range of products, especially for users looking to create their first business site. No need to take our or GoDaddy's word for it: you can build a website for free, with premium features available for the first seven days, plenty of time to find out if it works for you.
Alternatively, Bluehost's website builder has a similar set of features, but a big introductory discount means the most basic plan starts at just $2.95 a month ($10.99 on renewal).
(Image credit: GoDaddy)
Can I build a web store with GoDaddy?
GoDaddy offers several ways to help you build and run a web store.
GoDaddy's Website Builder, as we discussed above, is the simplest choice for first timers. Hundreds of mobile-friendly templates ensure you'll have a good-looking site right away. You can add sections like image galleries or price lists with ease, click and drag to reorganize them, then add whatever content you need.
You can try out the service for free, to get an idea of how your site might look. If you're happy, the Ecommerce plan ($16.99 a month on the annual plan, $24.99 on renewal) allows you to create product listings; create special discounts and promotions; take payments via card, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and use various shipping options to get your products delivered.
Unusually, there's even optional hardware to take payments in-store or on-the-go. Buy GoDaddy's card reader for $49, plug it into your smartphone, and you can start taking cash right away.
Experienced users might prefer GoDaddy's WooCommerce plans. These WordPress-powered solutions come with premium WooCommerce extensions to add all kinds of useful extras, covering everything from store layout and inventory management, to extra checkout and payment features, and marketing tools to keep your customers coming back.
WooCommerce isn't as straightforward to use as GoDaddy's Website Builder, but it's more capable, and prices are very similar at $20.99 a month on the annual plan, $24.99 on renewal.
If you don't need a web store right now, but might be interested in the future, another option is to buy a standard shared hosting account and use GoDaddy's auto-installer to set up WooCommerce for you. Although this won't get you any of GoDaddy's WooCommerce extensions, it'll give you time to explore WooCommerce and get a feel for how it works (and the shared hosting plans are cheaper, too).
There's plenty of choice here, but it's worth considering other providers. Bluehost also offers Website Builder and feature packed WooCommerce plans, for instance. Its high-end plans are a little more expensive, but it also gives you more choice, including a starter Business plan which supports unlimited products and costs only $9.95 a month on the annual plan ($14.99 on renewal.)
Creating a website
GoDaddy offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9% on shared hosting and most other products. That's not quite as good as it sounds, and could still allow for 40+ minutes of down time a month.
Most providers quote the same figure for shared hosting, although a few go further with their high-end products; IONOS quotes 99.99% uptime for its VPS hosting, while Liquid Web has 100% network uptime and power guarantees.
We used Uptime.com, Domain-tools' website speed tests and Bitcatcha to measure the performance of our GoDaddy site (Image credit: Uptime)
We use Uptime.com to monitor a test WordPress-based website during our hosting reviews. GoDaddy's results were a little disappointing, with five brief outages (41 minutes in total) giving an uptime of 99.11%. We can't come to any definite conclusions on this yet, because our testing time was short, and what really matters is how GoDaddy performs over the long term. But Uptime.com's monitoring will continue, and we'll update this review when we have more information.
GoDaddy's server response time was reasonable, starting at an average 520ms from our test sites. That's fractionally slower than Bluehost (433ms) and HostGator (388ms), but it's within the range we'd expect, and far better than budget providers such as iPage (1200ms) and Domain.com (1230ms).
We also use GTmetrix to load our test site and calculate its Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), a measure of how long it takes to load the main content of a page. Even if the load process hasn't finished, LCP is still an important figure; the lower it is, the faster your site will feel, and the happier your visitors are likely to be.
GoDaddy's LCP for our test site was acceptable at 667ms. As with server response times, it's a little slower than competitors including Hostinger (607ms), Bluehost (603ms) and HostGator (551ms.) But it also outperformed the likes of Hostwinds (774ms), Namecheap (789ms), IONOS (1300ms) and iPage (1600ms), and overall, GoDaddy was within the range we’d expect for a decent shared hosting account.
Installatron enables installing WordPress and hundreds of other apps (Image credit: GoDaddy )
How easy is GoDaddy to use?
While many hosting providers dump new users into a complicated control panel and leave them to figure out what happens next, GoDaddy makes a real effort to point you in the right direction.
For example, our shared hosting control panel opened with a startup wizard to help us through our next steps: building a website from scratch, migrating an existing website or uploading website files.
We chose the Build option, and the wizard prompted us for our domain name and preferred data center should serve the site (North America, India, Singapore or Europe), then created a WordPress account, installed WordPress, and even displayed the DNS records we should add to domains managed elsewhere (that last step can be ignored if you’re buying your domain from GoDaddy).
This is an excellent startup tool which covers a lot of tasks, and should make the setup process far easier for many users.
Once the site is running, GoDaddy’s custom control panel makes it generally easy to manage. Choose a plan from your product list, and you can check your site’s files, databases and backups with a click, while an Action Center offers generally useful advice.
GoDaddy provides Installatron to automatically install WordPress and many other apps. We marginally prefer Softaculous for its features and wider app support, but Installatron is a reliable platform which does everything most users are likely to need.
It’s good to see cPanel is on hand for day-to-day site management tasks. If you’ve used several hosting providers then chances are you’ll already know your way around cPanel. If you’re new, there’s a lot of power here, but common tasks such as setting up emails are simple and straightforward.
(Image credit: GoDaddy)
What is GoDaddy's support like?
GoDaddy offers 24/7 support via live chat, telephone, a support website and online community (a simple web forum).
There's no ticket support, unfortunately. That's unlikely to be an issue if you've a simple product question, or just need to know how to perform a specific task. But if you've an ongoing issue, you may have to explain it every time you connect support.
The website has a lot of useful content, and a search engine makes it straightforward to find what you need. We tried the keyword DNS, for instance, and it immediately listed the articles most likely to help: What is DNS, Change nameservers for my domains, Manage DNS records and more.
Live chat and telephone support isn't always as speedy as we'd like. We tried a live chat session, and although an agent appeared very quickly, there were lengthy gaps between his replies. It took around seven minutes for him to accept the account support PIN and be ready to answer our question, for instance.
Once we were able to talk, though, the agents did a decent job of identifying our issues, and providing clear and accurate answers.
Final verdict
GoDaddy has a wide choice of products and decent phone and email support, but you may have to spend a lot on plans and add-ons to get the features you need.
GoDaddy FAQs
Does GoDaddy offer refunds?
GoDaddy's standard refund terms give you a 30-day money-back guarantee for many hosting plans of one year and longer, but there are lots of potential complications.
If you've opted for a subscription of less than a year, the refund period drops to only 48 hours.
GoDaddy is more generous with domains. Many hosts offer no refunds on domain purchases at all, but GoDaddy offers a five-day refund period on new registrations, and at least five days on auto-renewals.
Beware: a few products have no refunds at all (cloud servers, some hosting add-ons, domain transfers).
There may be special rules depending on your location. Brazilian customers get a seven-day refund period on all products. UK and EU customers are able to cancel within 14 days of signing up, allowing them to beat the 48-hour limit, but GoDaddy reserves the right to charge for any services provided (so you may not get all your cash back).
We've given you an outline of GoDaddy's refund rules, but if the details are important to you, check out GoDaddy's full Refund Policy for the big picture.
Where are GoDaddy's data centers?
GoDaddy has data centers in North America, India, Singapore and Europe.
Sign up for a GoDaddy plan and you're able to choose which data center to host your site.
Choose the location nearest your target audience and any website data has less distance to travel, improving website speeds.
(Image credit: GoDaddy)
What is my GoDaddy IP address?
There are some situations when it's useful to know your GoDaddy server's IP address. If you're using the web hosting plan with a domain managed somewhere else, for instance, you'll probably need to create a DNS 'A record' which connects your domain to your GoDaddy web space.
To find your IP address, log into GoDaddy's account dashboard and choose My Products (account.godaddy.com/products).
Find your web hosting plan, and click Manage.
Click 'cPanel Admin' to launch cPanel.
Your GoDaddy IP address is displayed as 'Shared IP Address' in the General Information panel on the right-hand side. (If you don't see a General Information panel, look for a Server Information link).
What are GoDaddy's nameservers?
You can find the nameservers assigned to your domain in GoDaddy's control panel.
Select Manage DNS to view the domain's DNS records.
Find the NS (nameserver) records in the list, and make a note of the nameservers displayed in the Data column.
How do I cancel a GoDaddy product?
Log into your GoDaddy account, and click My Account, Manage My Products (or go to account.godaddy.com/products).
Choose the product you no longer need, and click Manage.
Click Account Actions, and choose Cancel from the drop-down list.
Click Cancel Renewal, and GoDaddy will cancel the product at the end of its term, without charging you again.
Canceling a product alone won't automatically get you a refund. If you think you qualify - you're canceling within 30 days of purchasing a one year or longer hosting plan, for instance - then contact support via live chat or telephone to see if you can get your money back.
How can I find my GoDaddy support PIN?
Contact GoDaddy support and the agent will ask for the PIN you chose when creating your account, to verify you're the account owner.
If you don't remember the PIN, you can access it from the GoDaddy account control panel (account.godaddy.com). Just click your first name, displayed at the top right of the screen, then View PIN. You can also edit the PIN from the same screen.
Opting for free web hosting often means accepting a lengthy list of restrictions, but browse the Byethost website and you might be left thinking it's better than some commercial products.
The company boasts about its unlimited data transfer, MySQL databases, addon and parked domains, for instance. There's 5GB of web space, the excellent Softaculous platform gives you automatic installation of WordPress and hundreds of other popular web applications, and there's a free website builder (with platforms) if you need it. It's ad-free, too.
This isn't quite as good as it looks. Although your site doesn't have a fixed bandwidth limit, it's limited to 50,000 hits a day. A 'hit' is a single file, so if your web pages refer to ten files on average (images, CSS or scripts), that translates to a maximum 5,000-page views a day. That's a lot for a small site, but it's not 'unlimited.'
There are other limits elsewhere, although they're less of a surprise: you're restricted to one FTP account and five email addresses, and you can't upload files larger than 10MB.
The service does give you free SSL certificates, but they're self-signed, which means visitors will see security warnings until they explicitly trust your site. That might work for a site you'll use with friends and family, but it won't impress anyone else.
Byethost does at least give you access to the key hosting technologies and tools you'd expect: PHP 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, and phpMyAdmin; DNS management for CNAME, SFP and MX records; FTP access; email accounts, custom forwarders, web mail, cron jobs, redirects, custom error pages, and more.
By default, your site will be a subdomain of byethost32.com (mysite.byethost32.com), but there are plenty of other domains to choose from: iblogger.org, is-best.net, my-board.org, mydiscussion.net, synergize.co and more.
Paid hosting plans lift the restrictions of the free products, and are available from $4.99 a month.
Dated setup instructions cover ancient AOL clients (Image credit: Byethost)
Setup
Creating your free Byethost website starts at the official signup page. This advises completing the process with Firefox, saying that 'Internet Explorer' is not recommended - wow, you don't say? - which suggests to us that it's not been changed much for a long, long time. But it's otherwise straightforward: choose your subdomain, password and site type (personal, business), hand over your email address, complete a Captcha and submit the form.
We created a test account, and the site redirected our browser to a URL on an entirely different domain, ifastnet.com, Byethost's parent company. That looks a little odd, especially as the page is plain text, with absolutely no reference to Byethost. The poor impression was confirmed by the outdated instructions on how to whitelist email addresses, as they covered Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, and AOL 7.0 and 8.0, released way back in October 2002.
We had to forcibly opt in to receive email updates from Byethost (Image credit: Byethost)
Whatever our concerns with how the signup process looks, it appeared to work well, presenting us with a 'confirm your email address' link. After clicking, a Welcome email arrived with our control panel, FTP account and MySQL credentials and URLs. But although we successfully used these details to log into our account, we noticed problems elsewhere.
The email gives you a plain HTTP link to the control panel, for instance. Follow that and you send your login details, including your email address, in plain text. Your browser should warn you about that, but we would expect a professional hosting provider to avoid this kind of mistake.
The email pointed us to a working knowledgebase for support issues. This does have some articles, but they're not all up-to-date (many are five or more years old.) It also has an HTTP URL, this time because it apparently doesn't have an SSL certificate (hardly encouraging for a web host).
(We noticed another sign of age in Byethost's Twitter link at the bottom of the page. It pointed us to the page for SecureSignup.net, the previous name for Byethost's parent company, and hasn't been updated since 2014.)
Byethost has at least fixed the video tutorials since our last review, as the links now work and there is some content available. It's very basic, though - topics include how to log in, create or delete a database, update or change your email - and is unlikely to help with most issues.
Manage your website from VistaPanel - a mildly customized version of cPanel (Image credit: Byethost)
Creating a website
Byethost users manage their hosting through VistaPanel, which the company says is a 'specially designed control panel.' Sounds good, but the reality is a bit disappointing, and it is little more than regular cPanel with a custom skin and a slightly different selection of tools (it uses Monsta as the file manager, for instance).
If you're familiar with cPanel (and maybe if you're not), uploading a static site to your web space is easy enough. We opened the file manager, followed the prompts to choose our root folder and dragged and dropped our files. They were uploaded within seconds, and the site was instantly active.
Byethost's site also offers a website builder, but this was much less successful. The problems started with an insecure HTTP-only launch page, and continued with a poorly displayed set of templates. These appear in blocks of six, with no option to filter by site type (personal, business, blog and so on), forcing you to keep clicking 'Load more themes' to work through the list.
Each template has a 'Live Demo' button, but clicking this displays an error message 'Oops! Demo configuration is not setup.' Well, thanks.
Clicking Continue prompts for your domain name and FTP credentials, in order to upload the site. That makes sense, but it's insecure, as your login is being sent over an HTTP connection.
We tried to continue, anyway, but received a 'This page isn't working' error message (HTTP error 500.)
Automatically install WordPress and other apps with Softaculous (Image credit: Byethost)
It's not all bad news, though. Byethost free hosting also includes the excellent Softaculous, a powerful platform which automates the setup of WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomla and hundreds of other apps, with the absolute minimum of hassle.
We used Uptime.com, Dotcom-tools and Bitcatcha to test the performance of Byethost (Image credit: Uptime.com)
Performance
Good support is a vital element in the best web hosting tool, especially when your service is as flaky as Byethost. But, in our experience, it's not something you'll generally get from a free service.
Byethost's free plan doesn't include live chat, but you're able to raise support tickets from the VistaPanel dashboard. We've had helpful responses in under an hour, too, beating the service you'll see from some commercial providers.
Free web hosting is never going to offer the best speeds, but it can deliver better performance than you might expect, and we run our test sites past multiple monitoring and benchmarking tools to see how good they really are.
Uptime.com automatically checked our Byethost server over a period of a week. Uptime was 100%, but average response times were a little slower than most at 325ms (typical shared hosting plans manage 200-400ms.)
Dotcom-tools website speed test simulated loading our site from 16 locations across the US and Europe. Load times were slower than usual at an average 1.2 seconds, close to twice the speed of the top commercial competition, but comparable with other free hosts (Infinity Free averaged 1.3 seconds, Free Hosting No Ads hit 1.5 seconds.)
There was better news with our final test, when Bitcatcha's website speed checker tested our website speed from 10 global locations and rated it A+ for 'exceptionally quick.'
Our own subjective experience wasn't as positive, and we would rank Byethost as a mid-range performer at best. It's good enough for simple tasks, though, and if you're interested in Byethost, it's well worth creating a simple site and trying it out for yourself.
Final verdict
Byethost has an impressive sounding feature list for a free service, but there are lots of catches (the bandwidth and disk space aren't as 'unlimited' as the website claims), and the dated content and various website issues are a concern. This web host might be worth a try if you need its specific features, but beginners should look elsewhere. Just bear in mind that the competition, even in free, is ferocious.
Opting for free web hosting often means accepting a lengthy list of restrictions, but browse the Byethost website and you might be left thinking it's better than some commercial products.
The company boasts about its unlimited data transfer, MySQL databases, addon and parked domains, for instance. There's 5GB of web space, the excellent Softaculous platform gives you automatic installation of WordPress and hundreds of other popular web applications, and there's a free website builder (with platforms) if you need it. It's ad-free, too.
This isn't quite as good as it looks. Although your site doesn't have a fixed bandwidth limit, it's limited to 50,000 hits a day. A 'hit' is a single file, so if your web pages refer to ten files on average (images, CSS or scripts), that translates to a maximum 5,000-page views a day. That's a lot for a small site, but it's not 'unlimited.'
There are other limits elsewhere, although they're less of a surprise: you're restricted to one FTP account and five email addresses, and you can't upload files larger than 10MB.
The service does give you free SSL certificates, but they're self-signed, which means visitors will see security warnings until they explicitly trust your site. That might work for a site you'll use with friends and family, but it won't impress anyone else.
Byethost does at least give you access to the key hosting technologies and tools you'd expect: PHP 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, and phpMyAdmin; DNS management for CNAME, SFP and MX records; FTP access; email accounts, custom forwarders, web mail, cron jobs, redirects, custom error pages, and more.
By default, your site will be a subdomain of byethost32.com (mysite.byethost32.com), but there are plenty of other domains to choose from: iblogger.org, is-best.net, my-board.org, mydiscussion.net, synergize.co and more.
Paid hosting plans lift the restrictions of the free products, and are available from $4.99 a month.
Dated setup instructions cover ancient AOL clients (Image credit: Byethost)
Setup
Creating your free Byethost website starts at the official signup page. This advises completing the process with Firefox, saying that 'Internet Explorer' is not recommended - wow, you don't say? - which suggests to us that it's not been changed much for a long, long time. But it's otherwise straightforward: choose your subdomain, password and site type (personal, business), hand over your email address, complete a Captcha and submit the form.
We created a test account, and the site redirected our browser to a URL on an entirely different domain, ifastnet.com, Byethost's parent company. That looks a little odd, especially as the page is plain text, with absolutely no reference to Byethost. The poor impression was confirmed by the outdated instructions on how to whitelist email addresses, as they covered Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, and AOL 7.0 and 8.0, released way back in October 2002.
We had to forcibly opt in to receive email updates from Byethost (Image credit: Byethost)
Whatever our concerns with how the signup process looks, it appeared to work well, presenting us with a 'confirm your email address' link. After clicking, a Welcome email arrived with our control panel, FTP account and MySQL credentials and URLs. But although we successfully used these details to log into our account, we noticed problems elsewhere.
The email gives you a plain HTTP link to the control panel, for instance. Follow that and you send your login details, including your email address, in plain text. Your browser should warn you about that, but we would expect a professional hosting provider to avoid this kind of mistake.
The email pointed us to a working knowledgebase for support issues. This does have some articles, but they're not all up-to-date (many are five or more years old.) It also has an HTTP URL, this time because it apparently doesn't have an SSL certificate (hardly encouraging for a web host).
(We noticed another sign of age in Byethost's Twitter link at the bottom of the page. It pointed us to the page for SecureSignup.net, the previous name for Byethost's parent company, and hasn't been updated since 2014.)
Byethost has at least fixed the video tutorials since our last review, as the links now work and there is some content available. It's very basic, though - topics include how to log in, create or delete a database, update or change your email - and is unlikely to help with most issues.
Manage your website from VistaPanel - a mildly customized version of cPanel (Image credit: Byethost)
Creating a website
Byethost users manage their hosting through VistaPanel, which the company says is a 'specially designed control panel.' Sounds good, but the reality is a bit disappointing, and it is little more than regular cPanel with a custom skin and a slightly different selection of tools (it uses Monsta as the file manager, for instance).
If you're familiar with cPanel (and maybe if you're not), uploading a static site to your web space is easy enough. We opened the file manager, followed the prompts to choose our root folder and dragged and dropped our files. They were uploaded within seconds, and the site was instantly active.
Byethost's site also offers a website builder, but this was much less successful. The problems started with an insecure HTTP-only launch page, and continued with a poorly displayed set of templates. These appear in blocks of six, with no option to filter by site type (personal, business, blog and so on), forcing you to keep clicking 'Load more themes' to work through the list.
Each template has a 'Live Demo' button, but clicking this displays an error message 'Oops! Demo configuration is not setup.' Well, thanks.
Clicking Continue prompts for your domain name and FTP credentials, in order to upload the site. That makes sense, but it's insecure, as your login is being sent over an HTTP connection.
We tried to continue, anyway, but received a 'This page isn't working' error message (HTTP error 500.)
Automatically install WordPress and other apps with Softaculous (Image credit: Byethost)
It's not all bad news, though. Byethost free hosting also includes the excellent Softaculous, a powerful platform which automates the setup of WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomla and hundreds of other apps, with the absolute minimum of hassle.
We used Uptime.com, Dotcom-tools and Bitcatcha to test the performance of Byethost (Image credit: Uptime.com)
Performance
Good support is a vital element in the best web hosting tool, especially when your service is as flaky as Byethost. But, in our experience, it's not something you'll generally get from a free service.
Byethost's free plan doesn't include live chat, but you're able to raise support tickets from the VistaPanel dashboard. We've had helpful responses in under an hour, too, beating the service you'll see from some commercial providers.
Free web hosting is never going to offer the best speeds, but it can deliver better performance than you might expect, and we run our test sites past multiple monitoring and benchmarking tools to see how good they really are.
Uptime.com automatically checked our Byethost server over a period of a week. Uptime was 100%, but average response times were a little slower than most at 325ms (typical shared hosting plans manage 200-400ms.)
Dotcom-tools website speed test simulated loading our site from 16 locations across the US and Europe. Load times were slower than usual at an average 1.2 seconds, close to twice the speed of the top commercial competition, but comparable with other free hosts (Infinity Free averaged 1.3 seconds, Free Hosting No Ads hit 1.5 seconds.)
There was better news with our final test, when Bitcatcha's website speed checker tested our website speed from 10 global locations and rated it A+ for 'exceptionally quick.'
Our own subjective experience wasn't as positive, and we would rank Byethost as a mid-range performer at best. It's good enough for simple tasks, though, and if you're interested in Byethost, it's well worth creating a simple site and trying it out for yourself.
Final verdict
Byethost has an impressive sounding feature list for a free service, but there are lots of catches (the bandwidth and disk space aren't as 'unlimited' as the website claims), and the dated content and various website issues are a concern. This web host might be worth a try if you need its specific features, but beginners should look elsewhere. Just bear in mind that the competition, even in free, is ferocious.
