Netfirms Web Hosting Review | PCMag

Strong uptime, useful customer support, and feature-rich packages are just a few of the weather that you must anticipate from a very worthwhile web host. Netfirms excels in a few of these areas and drops the ball in others. Despite principally dependable servers and a beautiful assist help squad, Netfirms lacks devoted internet hosting, Windows-powered servers, and month-to-month shared internet hosting plans. For extra full webhosting, take a look at DreamHost, HostGator, or Hostwinds, PCMag’s general Editors’ Choice winners.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared internet hosting is for web sites that do not demand a lot horsepower. With this internet hosting kind, your web site shares server assets with quite a few different websites, which regularly ends in cheap web hosting. If you are simply getting began with a web based presence, shared internet hosting is an effective place to begin.

Netfirms presents three tiers of Linux-based shared web hosting, all of which require at the very least one-year commitments: Advantage, Plus, and Business. The Plus plan (beginning at $59.50 per yr) presents 5 MySQL databases, and limitless storage, e-mail, and multisite internet hosting. Netfirms shies away from stating its shared internet hosting has limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers. Instead, the service has “scalable” knowledge that ought to “help greater than 99.5 p.c” of its consumer base. It’s unlucky that Netfirms would not match the guarantees of limitless transfers supplied by a lot of the competitors.

Next up the ladder is the Advantage plan (beginning at $119 per yr), which builds on the Plus plan by providing 200 MySQL databases. The top-level Business Plan (beginning at $179 per yr) offers you limitless MySQL databases and a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. These are all respectable shared internet hosting plans that give website builders the instruments to assemble a secure on-line presence.

Still, HostGator ($2.64 Per Month + Free Domain Registration at HostGator) , stays the Editors’ Choice for a number of glorious shared webhosting plans that supply a selection of Linux or Windows servers (you will want Microsoft’s tech should you work in an ASP or ASP.NET), month-to-month internet hosting plans, and limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers. HostGator is the corporate to show to if you need versatile, feature-packed, entry-level internet hosting.

VPS Web Hosting

Netfirms would not supply cloud, dedicated, or reseller hosting, nevertheless it has digital non-public server (VPS) internet hosting. With VPS internet hosting, your web site shares a server with far fewer websites than with a shared internet hosting plan, and has assured useful resource allotments, too. If you run a small enterprise and anticipate to make use of many server assets, VPS is internet hosting to discover.

Netfirm’s VPS plans can be found in three RAM tiers: 512MB ($33 per thirty days), 1024MB ($66 per thirty days), and 2048MB ($100 per thirty days). Each plan contains limitless e-mail, two devoted IP addresses, the Linux working system, and ranging quantities of month-to-month knowledge transfers (1,000GB, 1,500GB, and a pair of,000GB, respectively) and disk area (20GB, 40GB, and 60GB, respectively). These companies are supplied by way of a partnership with Spry, a VPS internet hosting firm.

Those are strong packages, however Hostwinds (4.49 Per Month at HostWinds) presents superior VPS choices. The Editors’ Choice boasts limitless month-to-month knowledge switch and a selection of Linux- or Windows-based servers. The lack of limitless knowledge hurts Netfirms right here, too.

WordPress Web Hosting

Netfirm has three WordPress hosting plans which are much like its shared internet hosting plans. In truth, they’ve the identical names, storage totals, and annual commitments. Unlike Netfirm’s shared internet hosting plans, these WordPress plans supply limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers.

Thankfully, WordPress is straightforward to put in on Netfirm’s optimized surroundings. In phrases of making content material, Netfirms capabilities as another self-hosted WordPress set up. It’s a breeze to create posts, pages, and galleries. You can, in fact, set up your favourite WordPress themes and WordPress plug-ins.

That mentioned, TMDHosting stays the Editors’ Choice for WordPress internet hosting. The high canine offers you three tiers of WordPress internet hosting, in addition to the choice for Linux- or Windows-based servers. TMDHosting’s packages begin at $8.95 per thirty days (for limitless storage and month-to-month knowledge transfers) and scale as much as $16.95 per thirty days (for all that plus limitless website internet hosting). Its pre-built surroundings comes with many WordPress-friendly options, together with stay malware safety and curated plug-ins which are designed to boost your expertise.

Netfirms has the identical management panel as iPower and the identical internet builders: (Weebly (Start for Free at Weebly) ), the aforementioned WordPress, and File Manager, the part from which you’ll be able to add beforehand designed pages and edit HTML. A fast-start panel presents shortcuts to the web site builder, mailboxes, and area administration.

Weebly, which can also be supplied by JustHost, has a drag-and-drop interface that is very simple to make use of, and helps you rapidly create a modern-looking web site. you do not want months of internet design coaching to provide a sexy entrance finish.

E-Commerce and Security

You can add an e-commerce retailer from the net builder dashboard, nevertheless it’ll price you $2.99 per thirty days, or $35.88 per yr. Weebly’s easy drag-and-drop interface permits you to add merchandise, add product photographs, and extra. For funds, you employ Google Checkout or PayPal.

Netfirms presents plenty of safety choices, together with automated day by day backup ($1.08 per thirty days; billed yearly for $12.95), so you do not have to fret about misplaced or broken recordsdata. For e-commerce websites, you should purchase SSL certificates ($29.95 per yr) and a devoted IP tackle ($30 per yr). Email spam filters are included with all webhosting plans, which is a pleasant contact.

Uptime Results

Website uptime is among the most vital facets of a internet hosting service. While your website is down, shoppers or prospects might be unable to search out you or entry your services or products—and they won’t come again. We take internet host uptime very severely.

For this testing, I used a web site monitoring device to trace my Netfirms-hosted take a look at website’s uptime. Every quarter-hour, the device pings my web site and sends me an alert whether it is unable to contact the positioning for longer than one minute. I have a look at the info for the latest 14 days for every website’s assessment. In my latest exams, Netfirms proved very secure. In truth, Netfirms went down one temporary time throughout that two week testing interval. As lengthy because it retains on this course, you possibly can rely on it ship a rock-solid webhosting expertise.

Customer Service

I referred to as the 24/7 customer support line on a weekday afternoon to ask concerning the variations between shared internet hosting and WordPress internet hosting. I waited lower than a minute earlier than somebody fielded my name, and my questions had been answered rapidly and instantly. I referred to as the subsequent morning to ask concerning the e-mail packages that come bundled with VPS internet hosting, and the expertise was pretty much as good as the day before today’s dialog.

Likewise, I by no means needed to wait quite a lot of minutes to get assist through internet chat. In one chat, I requested how I might import a WordPress weblog. The consultant laid out the method for me in easy phrases, and answered all of my questions. You can e-mail or print your chat transcription while you’re completed, in case you wish to seek advice from it later—a pleasant contact.

Netfirms presents a 30-day money-back assure on internet hosting plans. This pales compared to DreamHost’s ($2.49 Per Month for Shared Starter Plan at DreamHost) large 97-day assure.

A Decent Web Host

At first look, Netfirms appears to a robust internet host, with its sturdy customer support and rock-solid uptime. However, cracks seem while you dig deeper and see the service’s lack of cloud servers, devoted servers, Windows servers, limitless knowledge transfers on some plans, and month-to-month shared plans. Everything Netfirms does, it does nicely, nevertheless it is not the whole webhosting expertise you get from top-notch companies, equivalent to our Editors’ Choice winners, DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds.

For extra on getting began on-line, learn our recommendations on how to create a website. You may also wish to take a look at our story on how to register a domain name for your website.