Uptime & Reliability

99.99% uptime guarantee for VPS & Dedicated

FastHosts is one of a fairly small number of hosting companies that doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee to their shared hosting customers.  They also don’t provide public statistics regarding this.  For VPS and dedicated hosting customers, they do have a 99.99% uptime guarantee, and allow you to claim a one day price credit for each hour your site is down.

Very few people have complained about lengthy outages from FastHosts, however, so it is not too likely that you will have to claim this credit.

For shared hosting customers, the reliability has been something of a concern, which a small but still significant number of people complaining that they had ongoing issues.

Features

All the standard options plus a few nice extras

FastHosts provides their customers with all the standard options you would expect for a higher end hosting company.  With both windows and unix hosting, for example, you will be able to choose exactly what you need.  They also have hosting packages ranging from entry level shared hosting to top of the line dedicated servers that can be customized to your liking.

What is really attractive when it comes to features is that they offer a free SEO service called “TrafficDriver.” Search engine optimization tools are rarely free, especially for those that are actually effective.  This is a very nice perk that will likely be very attractive to those starting new sites or looking to drive more traffic to an existing one.

You also get a nice site builder tool, which is a nice option for newer webmasters.  One other perk is that you get an advanced email box, which really stands out against the typical web based email tools that hosts provide.

Support

Plenty of technical support options

FastHosts provides 24/7/365 technical support through both their online ticketing system and the phone, which is very nice.  They are also able to provide support through their social media accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+ (though there are some limitations on what they can do through this approach).

On top of their technical support services, they also offer a lot of user guides, a nice knowledge base, and a training center with some great information.

Pricing

Fair prices with cost savings options

At first glance the prices really don’t stand out as being that great of a deal.  Their monthly costs for all levels are right in line with what most places charge.  They do, however, offer options to pay up to three years in advance, which can get you a very significant discount.  If you are confident that you want to stick with one host for the long haul, you can get some great deals by paying up front with this company.

The many free perks that you get (see the SEO features and email box above) also help to make the price for this company’s web hosting quite attractive.

Summary

Great Choice for Demanding Websites

If you have a well established, high-traffic site, this is really a great hosting company to consider.  For smaller sites that are looking for shared hosting, you may want to think twice.  While the majority of their entry level customers are happy and get great service, the fact is that there have been a somewhat concerning number of these sites that have reported issues.

You do get a lot of nice features for the price, no matter which level you have.

Pros:

• Free SEO tools
• High quality VPS & dedicated servers
• Great customer support, even for advanced issues
• Lots of added features included

Cons:

• History of issues on shared hosting
• Custom control panel for shared hosting (cPanel or Plesk options for VPS & dedicated only)
• Only one data center location