9. Hostorix Web Hosting Review

Posted on February 22, 2008
Filed Under business web hosting, e-commerce web host, Hostorix Web Hosting, webhosting reviews, web hosting review, web hosting, web hosting company, web host |

Click on the following to go directly to the Hostorix Web Hosting Site

Hostorix Web Hosting’s main selling point is two-fold. To begin with, they lay claim to a proprietary technology they call their Failover Application. Second, you have to actually set up an account, and give them your email address, to even access the website to find out more about their hosting package. This second selling point is really more of benefit to them, than to you. I’m sure its meant to convey a sense of “scarcity” or “you’re special” to their web hosting (sort of like “Membership Has Its Privileges”), but all it actually does is give them your email address to use for further marketing efforts on their part.

Their only real selling point is their Failover Application, which is basically a system of dual redundant servers, connected by their application. This technology allows them to automatically switch from one server to the other, and includes daily back-ups. If a system crash or problem occurs on the first server, they switch to a second one, which contains a recent copy of your website. They can then switch you back, when the problem is corrected.

The fact is that many premium web hosts offer something very similar to this system, and if its not included in their standard hosting package, it is often offered as an upgrade for about $5-$10 a month. The claim is that this kind of set-up will get you much closer to having 100% uptime on your web site. The facts? No one can really fulfill a 100% uptime guarantee. Many web hosting companies meet that number for months on end, but at some point, the server you’re hosted on will need routine maintenance or an upgrade. Or a disaster, either natural or man made, my cause issues with power supply or data transfer. Even with dual redundant servers, this means your site will be down for some period of time, whether that period is a few milliseconds or a few minutes.

Personally, whether my site is up 99% of the time or 99.9%, or even 99.99%, isn’t really vital to me or my business. This is especially true since most premium hosts will schedule maintenance and upgrades for times when the server load is low, whenever possible. Any host that guarantees, and maintains, an uptime of 99.5% or better, is certainly doing an excellent job, and isn’t wasting their resources trying to shave a few extra tenths of a per-cent off of that downtime. I wouldn’t accept anything under 99%, but above that I think you’re basically splitting hairs. As for back-ups, most premium web hosts allow you to schedule and complete them yourself. Plus you should always have a recent copy of your website stored on your own computer, and also on some type of removable media (flash drive, DVD or CD’s, external hard drive), just in case!

Where Hostorix falls down, in my opinion, is that they offer very little in the way of basic features, and focus on this nearly 100% uptime as their primary selling point. The space and bandwidth they offer is basically enough for most websites, but a really busy or large one may run into problems. They do offer Fantastico, which is one of the leading script installation interfaces, and that gives you many of the tools you’ll need for your website. They also offer unlimited (as long as you still have space left) mySQL databases and email addresses, which is a good feature.

Their main low score, for me, is in two areas I consider important. First, there is no mention of support on their sales page or FAQ page. I assume they must have some kind of tech support, but if they don’t advertise it as a key feature, I’m not sure that its where they focus their resources. Second, although they allow sub-domains and parked domains, you can only host one actual domain per web hosting account. Considering their rather upper end price, this is a deal breaker for me. Here are the basics of their web hosting package;

• Host one domain name
• 500 MB web space
• 50 GB data transfer
• cpanel with Unix servers
• unlimited databases
• unlimited emails
• sub domains and parked domains
• Fantastico script installer (50+ scripts)
• Redundant servers w/ Failover Application & daily backups
• No mention of tech support
• Stated uptime approaching 100%
• Cost - $24.95 per month - $299.40 a year

If as close to 100% uptime as possible is something you consider vital for your particular web site, than you can find out more about Hostorix here. Hostorix Web Hosting Otherwise, you might be better off with one of the other web hosting companies that are higher in the rankings.

Comments