Review

HOSTING PLANS

Certified Hosting offers three low-cost web hosting plans: Dork, Geek, and Nerd. All three include a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space, and are backed by a no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. Technical support options include 24/7 phone, chat and e-mail/ticket.

Priced at $6.95 per month for a one-year term renewal, the Dork plan is best suited for hosting a single non-ecommerce site as the plan allows for only 1 domain. Designed for hosting multiple non-ecommerce sites and priced at $8.95 per month for a one-year term renewal, the Geek plan allows for an unlimited number of domains. Priced at $13.95 per month for a one-year term renewal, the Nerd plan is best suited for ecommerce hosting. It allows for an unlimited number of domains and adds a dedicated IP address and private SSL certificate.

Certified Hosting’s services are also scalable. For advanced webmasters Certified offers an array of dedicated server plans that include three location options: USA West Coast, USA East Coast, and Amsterdam, Netherlands. For internet marketers, web designers, and developers, Certified offers six reseller hosting plans including a 30TB managed plan coupled with an Enom reseller account that allows webmasters to offer their customers domain registration in addition to web hosting services.

Certified Hosting checkout process screenshots. Click to enlarge.

PURCHASE PROCESS

The two-step Certified checkout process is a model of simplicity that other web hosting companies would do well to imitate (screenshots right). You simply enter the domain name to be hosted in either the “Register a New Domain Name” or “I Currently Have a Domain Name” form field and click the “Proceed to Step 2” button. To complete Step 2, you first select the package type and the billing cycle from the respective pulldown menus. Your choices produce an order summary which indicates the total amount to be paid with the order as well as the billing cycle you selected. Next you agree to the terms and conditions of use by checking the associated box. Then press either the “New Customer” or “Current Customer” button to generate the “Billing Information” form. Once completed, you click the “Submit Order” button. You are done.

Certified Hosting Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

SETUP

As is our practice for testing and reviewing, we purchased the lowest-cost plan (Dork), and opted for the PayPal payment option. The “New Account Information” e-mail arrived in our inbox almost instantaneously. It included the nameserver settings, mail server settings, and control panel/FTP login — all of the information required to set up our test site (click for sample test site) quickly.

A “best practice” for shared hosting services, Certified provides the user-friendly cPanel control panel. cPanel makes managing your website easy, as set-up and administration functions are divided into sections by topic.

Included within cPanel is the newbie-friendly Softaculous applications installer. It allows for the quick installation of content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, and others. Softaculous also provides 1-click installation for ecommerce applications like OpenCart, PrestaShop, AbanteCart, and Magento.

TESTING

We are pleased to report that the page-load speed and uptime test results reinforced our positive opinion of Certified. Both fast and reliable, their cheapest plan (Dork) scored a perfect reliability rating throughout the entire test period (see uptime and speed test result charts right).

Certified Hosting Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to independent third-party, 10-day Dotcom-Monitor testing for uptime and page-load speed. Certified Hosting recorded a well above average speed of 1.4279 seconds to load our test site from 13 locations worldwide and 1.2278 seconds from 7 U.S. locations. Tested for uptime every 15 minutes from 13 worldwide locations over the 10 day test period, the Dork plan produced a perfect 100% reliability score.

Pros

Unlimited disk space

Unlimited bandwidth

24×7 phone, chat and e-mail support

Quick checkout and set up

Beginner friendly

100% reliability test result

cPanel control panel

Softaculous applications installer

Credit card, PayPal and Bitcoin payment options

Anytime money-back guarantee

20%, no expiration coupon code

A+ BBB rating

Cons

At $6.95 per month for a 1-year renewal, it is not the cheapest hosting on the market

Conclusion

Easy to purchase, set up, and manage, Certified Hosting shared plans include everything you need to launch your website quickly and easily. Perfect for beginners as well as experienced webmasters who require affordable and reliable hosting services, Certified merits your consideration.

Certified Hosting has earned 4.5 stars and NCM Online’s highest recommendation.