WestHost Full Review: Competitive Pricing Services
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Based in Utah, WestHost is a web hosting company powered by THG Ingenuity. WestHost provides affordable web hosting to all forms of business, from local start-ups to large international businesses. WestHosts expert first-class support for cloud hosting, dedicated servers, reseller hosting, domain registration, e-commerce tools, website design, and merchant account solutions means you won't need to look further for your online needs.
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Quick Stats
Are you thinking of changing your host? WestHost offers users free migration.
WestHost is more targeted towards professionals rather than new users who are trying out. So, is WestHost what you're looking for?
Keep reading and find your answer!
Types of Hosting
Other than shared hosting, WestHost has other types. Let's take a look:
- VPS Hosting: A hosting service between dedicated and shared hosting. WestHosts VPS plan prices range between $8.00-$128.00/month.
- Email Hosting: If you want to host and create a professional email. Starting only from $0.50/month.
However, this article will focus on WestHost's shared hosting plans.
WestHost Shared Hosting
WestHost offers three types of plans to its users. These include Personal Hosting, Preferred Hosting, and Business Hosting plans. These plans come with a lot of features. Let's take a look at the table below:
WestHost three shared hosting plan details summary:
| Plans | Starter | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Websites | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | Unlimited | 200GB | Unmetered |
| E-mails | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Domains | Available | Available | Available |
| My SQL databases | 5 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Subdomains | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| SSL Certificate | Available | Available | Available |
| Starting Price | $1.00/month | $1.00/month | $3.00/month |
| Renewal Price | $5.00/month | $7.00/month | $9.00/month |
WestHost has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try their hosting service and see if it's to your satisfaction. However, the 30-day money-back guarantee is only available for the shared hosting plan (VPS and dedicated servers are not included).
Host your Website for $1 Only!
Payment Methods
You can pay for your WestHost plan using PayPal or major credit cards. There's a guide on how the payment will be processed in WestHost's knowledge base.
Ease of Use
Well, WestHost isn't the easiest web host to rely on. It has an easy sign-up process, but it's targeted towards professionals rather than beginners. That's why if you want an easy-to-use web host with excellent features, consider HostGator. It's the best hosting provider on the market.
Customer Service
WestHost provides users with support via:
- 24/7 live chat support
- Phone support
- Knowledgebase
WestHost Security
WestHost provides multiple features to make sure your hosting experience remains safe, including:
SSL Certificate
Secure sockets layer (SSL) certification is available for the Business plan.
SSL certification is essential to switch your website from HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) by adding encryption to your website. Adding the HTTPS allows for a safe transaction and allows search engine optimization (SEO) to place your website higher as a trusted website.
If your website has a username/password account system, then you will need SSL encryption.
WestHost has a dedicated IP feature provided to the Business plan, which can also be purchased separately for $5/per month in other plans.
WestHost offers the SSL certification only with the business plan and not with the Personal and Preferred plans. So if you need an e-commerce website, your only choice is with the Business plan, as an SSL certification is required for the online transaction or the web builder Ultimate Business plan.
Password Protected Directories
You can take an extra security step and place passwords on certain parts of your website.
Free Dedicated IP
A Dedicated IP can help you rank higher with search engines and reduce your domain's risk of getting blocked due to sharing the same IP address as a compromised domain.
Spam Assassin Protection
Your email is safe with spam assassin protection, filtering emails to protect you from spam and viruses.
Site Backup
WestHost provides all plans with data backup for users which means, your website structure and data remain safely stored.
Automatic Malware Removal
Websites are at risk of getting malware installed in them, which can cause many problems. The automatic malware removal ensures your website stays safe.
Load Times, Reliability, and Features
Uptime & Speed
WestHost has a 99.98% uptime, which is higher than the industry average.
WestHost provides CDN Cloudflare Hosting provided to all plans. This helps in speeding up your website by sending user data through the fast and shortest way.
This function is by uploading your website to 35 data centers spread across the globe, and when requested, the website loads from the closest center to your visitor.
CDN Cloudflare also caches the Static content you have automatically, saving your bandwidth and CPU resources while making your page faster. Your data, in this case, will be loaded directly from WestHost global data centers.
CDN Cloudflare also functions to protect user data.
Features
WestHost's shared hosting plans come with several features:
- Unlimited bandwidth & space
- Unlimited 10 GB email
- Free domain name
- SEO tools
- Free setup
While WestHost has many excellent features, other web hosts like Bluehost and HostGator offer better services.
SEO Optimization Tools
This provides you with tools to make your website rank higher on search engines by setting keywords so that users can find your page easier when searching.
A professional variant is available (SEO Guru) that can scan your pages and competitor websites while providing you with e-mail reports and a Plan of action.
Server Location
WestHost's servers are found in North America. If you want your website hosted somewhere else, you can check out HostGator or Hostinger for more.
Website Builder
The Website building option provided by WestHost has different plans for users. All plans provide users with:
- Domain name + hosting
- Responsive editor
- Developer mode to edit your website when needed
- 165 existing templates for use
Website building plans include three types. These are the Essential, Business, and Unlimited Business plans.
1. Essential Plan
With this plan, a 1 x 10GB e-mail address is provided to the user, along with a 10-page limit to your website and 250 MB of storage.
This plan costs $4.46/month.
2. Business Plan
This plan upgrades the number of e-mail addresses from 1 to 1000 with a maximum capacity of 10GB remaining the same. The number of pages your website can take is also increased to 100 pages, and the storage becomes unmetered.
In addition, SSL certification is provided to your website, and a PayPal payment option is provided.
This plan costs $8.21/month.
3. Unlimited Business Plan
As the name suggests, it's the best plan for businesses integrating e-commerce features, increasing the payment options to include credit cards and debit cards. The number of pages available on your website is also increased to 1000 pages.
This plan costs $11.21/month.
Host your Website for $1.00 Only!
E-Commerce
With WestHosting, e-commerce is available, but you will probably have to go for the business plan as the SSL certificate is only provided with it.
With the Business plan, the option of adding Paypal as a payment option is provided.
However, when using the e-commerce website builder, different plans are provided, which cater to your needs more specifically from payment options delivery services.
A set of 140+ templates is available for use to create your dream e-commerce website.
1. Online Store Builder 10
This plan adds Credit card, PayPal, and Stripe's payment options to your website and allows you to preview up to 10 products on your website. That said, it is somewhat limited and is meant for new users.
This plan costs $5.96/month.
2. Online Store Builder 50
Upgrades the ten products to 50 and adds a few features, including product color variation, product tagging option, and different delivery rates.
This plan costs $9.71/month.
3. Online Store Unlimited
This plan removes the limit on the number of products that can be uploaded to your page. In addition, it adds to the existing features of the Online Store Builder 50, the ability to set different tax rates for various products, and Batch importing via the CVS feature.
This plan costs $14.21/month.
WordPress Hosting
WestHost provides plans which are customized to WordPress users. The pans include Starter, Primary, and Pro plans.
All WordPress plans provide:
- A free domain
- FTP Access
- Cloudflare CDN
- Automatic malware removal
- 50 optimized themes
- Backup service
1. Starter plan
The starter plan provides 5GB SSD Disk space, 5x10 GB Pro IMAP e-mails.
It costs $5.17/month, and its resources are recommended for up to 10,000 monthly visits.
2. Primary plan
Upgrades the disk space to 10 GB and the Pro IMAP e-mails to 25 x 10 GB.
It costs $11.17/month, and its resources are recommended for up to 25,000 monthly visits.
3. Pro plan
The disk space is upgraded to 20 GB with the Pro plan while increasing the Pro IMAP e-mails to 50 x 10 GB.
It costs $23.17/month, and its resources are recommended for up to 100,000 monthly visits.
Final Verdict
WestHost provides a wide variety of plans for different users and uses. Depending on what you need your website for, you will find a plan. The addition of the SEO optimization options and developer mode make it a friendly choice for professional use.