Review

HOSTING PLANS

With a homepage promising $2.75 per month hosting, numerous unlimited features, a free domain name, and an anytime money-back guarantee, Just Host appears to be a very attractive shared web hosting provider. But as we know, appearances can be deceiving.

In order to determine the long term costs of the service, one must click the small blue asterisk adjacent to the “$2.75 per month introductory offer.” Doing so will bring you to the fine print at the bottom of the page that reads, “The promotional price is for the first term only and renews at the regular rate.” Clicking the underscored “regular rate” link opens the Helpdesk Shared Hosting Prices page in a new browser window where the renewal rates for the Standard and Pro plans are listed. As you will note, these prices are significantly higher.

The same page also provides the only Standard and Pro shared plans feature comparison chart we were able to locate on the site. Both plans provide numerous “unlimited” features including: disk space, bandwidth, e-mail accounts, domains hosted, and MySQL databases. Better suited for ecommerce hosting, the Pro plan adds free lifetime registration for one domain name (vs 1 year for the Standard plan), an SSL certificate, a dedicated IP address, domain privacy, Site Backup Pro, and the ability to host a larger number of files (300,000 vs 50,000) as well as greater number of database tables (3,000 vs 1,000). Both plans include the user-friendly cPanel control and the MOJO Marketplace applications installer.

Just Host cPanel control panel. Click to enlarge.

PURCHASE PROCESS

For purposes of reviewing and testing, we purchased the cheapest available shared plan — the Standard plan. Just Host utilizes a fairly-simple — but not quite transparent — 2-step checkout process. Step 1 requires the selection of a free (for 1 year) domain name, or the entry of an existing domain name. Account and billing information as well as plan and term selections are completed in Step 2. In lieu of providing credit card information, a PayPal payment option is available.

While the checkout process may seem simple enough, we do have a number of problems with it. First, there are no asterisks adjacent to the prices in the account plan selection pulldown menu. There is absolutely no indication that the prices displayed are for the first term only and renew at significantly higher rates. That information is referred to but not provided near the bottom of the page. It does not include a link to the Helpdesk Shared Hosting Prices page. Instead it informs shoppers that the renewal rates are “available through your control panel.”

We also take issue with the fact that two additional-cost features are preselected and automatically added to the shopping cart total. You must uncheck the two boxes or you will be billed for the oversight.

Finally, the “NEXT” button at the bottom of the page is not really a “next” button at all. Clicking it does not bring you to a page where you can review your selections and the total cost. It is in fact the “SUBMIT” button. Click it and your credit card or PayPal account will be billed.

Just Host Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

SETUP

On a more positive note, within two minutes of purchasing the Standard plan, the “welcome” e-mail arrived in our inbox. In addition to a number of useful links, it contained all of the information required (nameservers, FTP login, and e-mail server) to set up our NCM test site quickly.

TESTING

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are tested for uptime and page-load speed by utilizing the services of Dotcom Monitor. Over the course of the next 10 days, our test site was checked every 15 minutes for server speed and reliability from 13 worldwide locations. In all nearly 2,000 individual checks were performed. The combined results were better than average, but not as good as our highest-ranked (and less expensive) web hosts.

Just Host Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

While Just Host did record a 100% uptime score (see test results chart above right), page-load speeds were only average. It required an average of 1.3091 seconds to load our simple 1-page test site from seven U.S. locations (New York, Virginia, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, and California), and an average of 1.6436 seconds from the 13 worldwide locations (all 7 U.S. locations plus 6 international locations: Montreal, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong — see speed test results chart right).

Pros

A+ BBB Rating

“Welcome” e-mail includes DNS, FTP, and mailserver information

24/7 phone, chat and e-mail support

Anytime money-back guarantee

Unlimited disk space

Unlimited bandwidth

Unlimited e-mail accounts

Unlimited domains

Free domain name (1-year)

PayPal payment option

cPanel control panel

100% uptime

Cons

Two additional-cost items automatically added to shopping cart

Shopping cart does not display recurring cost

Conclusion

While we are not particularly fond of Just Host’s pricing policies, a wealth of attractive features as well as above average server performance make the company worthy of consideration.

Just Host has earned 4 stars and is recommended with reservations by NCM Online.