Just Host Review

Company Information

Founded: 2008
Headquarters: Burlington, MA

Plans and Pricing

Just Host offers only one hosting package which has extremely economical pricing. The prices vary depending on the length of the plan, with shorter plans costing slightly more than extended contracts. Just Host's pricing works as follows:

Just Host accepts Visa, Mastercard and American Express, as well as PayPal. Unfortunately, you cannot pay by Discover card or personal check. Every Just Host web hosting package will be automatically renewed when the contract is set to expire unless you purposely void this option.

Money Back Guarantee

Like many other web hosting companies, Just Host offers a money back guarantee to all customers. If you wish to cancel at any time, Just Host will refund the remainder of your term. You will not be able to receive credit for the domain name, registration fees or any account activation fees.

Features

Just Host's web hosting package includes an impressive range of features that will serve those both experienced webmasters and those who are building their first website. With unlimited storage and bandwidth, Just Host is a great choice for those who are hoping for a high-traffic website and those whose popularity catches them by surprise.

Hosting Features:

• Unlimited hosting space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited data transfer
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited host domains
• Unlimited sub domains
• Unlimited parked domains
• Unlimited MySQL databases

Site Building Tools:

• cPanel control panel
• CGI-BIN
• CGI Library
• FrontPage extensions
• Anonymous FTP access

Marketing Tools:

• $50 Google ad credits
• $25 Yahoo ad credits
• $50 MySpace ad credits
• $25 Miva ad credits
• $20 BidVertiser clicks
• $50 Facebook ad credits

Programming Tools:

• PHP 5
• Perl 5
• Ruby on Rails
• PHP Nuke
• Javascript

Integrated Applications:

• WordPress
• Joomla/Mambo
• B2evolution
• Flash/Shockwave
• Image galleries/Coppermine
• Polling and survey applications
• Moodle
• Browser-based email (webmail)
• SSL server
• OS shopping cart
• Agora shopping cart
• PayPal integration
• Online form builder
• Visitor reporting
• Multiple site builder options

Ease of Use

Like FatCow and other top web hosting companies, Just Host uses the cPanel control panel which is extremely easy to use. The display is exceptionally well-organized, with the exception of some advertisements which clutter the page. Nevertheless, once you begin working on your site these advertisements become relatively easy to ignore. The only thing that surprised me was that the free advertising credits were located in the center of my visual field, above the database, mail and file setup sections in the control panel, which are, of course, necessary before you are ready to advertise your site. Still, every section of the cPanel is easily identifiable and each one has graphic icons that clearly reflect what services are being provided. The left navigation of the control panel offers interesting information such as how much bandwidth transfer and disk space my site occupies, although practically speaking, this information is irrelevant since all Just Host plans offer unlimited services.

A look at the Just Host cPanel

I was excited to see that the WordPress widget was located clearly in the control panel's 'Popular Choices' section, as opposed to being buried in the Fantastico DeLuxe section which itself is often buried deeply in most web hosts' control panels. The installation process required 3 steps, which mimicked those found with other web hosts. Likewise, I encountered a problem with duplicate files that I'd seen when installing WordPress with numerous other web hosts, but a quick call to the support team resolved the problem within minutes, and I was able to complete the installation.

WordPress Installation Introductory Page

Page 1 of WordPress Installation

Error Message Regarding WordPress Installation

Last Step of WordPress Installation

Completed WordPress Skeleton

I also tried to set up an email account to see how this process compared to setting up an email with other web hosting companies. The setup process was remarkably straightforward, and it presented me with multiple options for viewing my mail, which were both helpful and impressive.

Email Setup Screen

Confirmation that Email is Working

All told, Just Host's web hosting service was comfortable, intuitive and a pleasure to use. Even the problems were quickly resolved, leaving me feeling entirely comfortable with the site building process.

Customer Support

Unlike most other web hosting providers, Just Host does not offer online chat assistance. They do, however, offer extremely helpful 24/7 phone and email support. What I found specifically helpful was that when I called the customer service center with a billing inquiry, I was told via automated recording that billing inquiries could only be answered via email. The recording, however, informed me that the estimated wait time for a return email was 30 minutes. I was impressed to receive a helpful response in only 12 minutes.

Just Host's phone support was equally impressive. I never waited on hold for more than 2 minutes, and each representative that I spoke with was courteous and helpful.

Although it would have been useful to have chat support so that I could document the responses I received, I was impressed with the consistently high level of support offered by Just Host's phone and email support.

Summary

Positive Features

• Excellent customer service
• Affordable pricing
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• Over $200 in ad credits
• User-friendly cPanel control panel

Negative Features

• Sites take 2-72 hours to propagate before you can work on them, and in some cases it may take longer
• No live chat support