Host Monster Web Hosting Review

Host Monster is an excellent provider of shared hosting services, with a strong support team. They exceeded most of our expectations, with the only notable exception being in billing options, where we would have preferred a month-to-month payment option. Regardless, Host Monster is an outstanding choice for shared hosting accounts. Read on for our experience in setting up an account with Host Monster.

Signup Process - Host Monster Web Hosting

Signup Process Score: 85

Host Monster promotes low monthly fees for their web hosting services but really charges an annual or biennial (paid every 2 years) fee (or adds a setup charge for shorter terms), which divided out yields the prices they advertise.

Unfortunately, this isn't revealed until a potential customer is the majority of the way through the signup process. Upfront payment, though less preferable than monthly terms, is an acceptable option for payment, but we wish Host Monster was more transparent in revealing that this is their policy.

Apart from this lone issue, signing up for an account with Host Monster was an easy and accurate process.

Quality of Services - Host Monster Web Hosting

Services Score: 92

Host Monster fared quite well when it came time to evaluate level of service, especially relative to the price of the product.

A Host Monster account includes the ability to host unlimited domains, unlimited email accounts, 100 MySQL databases, and also offers substantial storage space (300 GB) and bandwidth (3000 GB per mont). All accounts also support PHP 5 and make use of an easy to use, intuitive control panel (cPanel).

From our experience, our account performed up to all expectations. Our sites were readily accessible, loaded promptly, and experienced no downtime. Host Monster excelled on the performance evaluation.

Billing Evaluation - Host Monster Web Hosting

Billing Score: 90

While Host Monster's billing was accurate, their billing terms differ from what appears to be advertised (annual payment required, monthly price shown). We feel that month-to-month terms are a superior alternative to longer payment terms from a customer's perspective, and as a result, we have deducted points from Host Monster's score in this category.

Overall, Host Monster's billing is secure and accurately processed. If you are comfortable with annual terms, then there should be no other concerns with their billing practices. Unlike many other hosts, Host Monster conveniently accepts PayPal in addition to all major credit cards.

Support - Host Monster Web Hosting

Support Score: 96

Host Monster absolutely blew us away with their level of support when we contacted them with hypothetical support issues. We had an average wait time under 40 seconds from the time we picked up the phone to the time we spoke with a support representative.

When we spoke a service representative, they were able to resolve our questions quickly and with ease.

From a support perspective, Host Monster was a cut above most of their competitors.