In the 12 months 2004, Hawk Host determined it was the proper time for it to unfold its wings and ascend to the digital skies. Although the title Hawk Host got here in a while (as much as 2008 they referred to as themselves Devoted Host), the corporate was based and headquartered in Fergus (Canada), and has since been offering shared hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, semi-dedicated internet hosting and VPS options to all varieties of companies.
According to Hawk Host, the perfect web hosting resolution is one the place the providers themselves know how one can get well from frequent issues, versus different hosts that require fixes from folks. We should agree with that, though the assertion is considerably reductive. In addition, they declare to observe the “well being” of all their servers night time and day to make sure their well timed response to any potential issues.
At the second they handle and preserve seven knowledge facilities in Europe, North America and Asia. These are located in: Toronto (Canada), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Los Angeles, New York and Dallas (the USA), Hong Kong (China) and Singapore (Singapore).
In addition to being graced with the presence of Hawk Host’s happy-go-lucky hawk-like mascot giving us the thumbs up, their web site is solely designed and fairly user-friendly. Their weblog seems like a blast for the previous with its old school visible fashion and teeny-tiny letters, however in the case of its content material, Hawk Host carries the day. This might not be essentially the most lively weblog we ever laid our eyes on, however since 2007 Hawk Host’s bloggers have been publishing information, updates and (each every now and then) how-to guides on a month-to-month foundation a minimum of, so we ought to offer them some slack.
Both Hawk Host’s web site and weblog can be found in English language solely. As for social media platforms, Hawk Host might be discovered on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, however none of their profiles feels lively sufficient.
Plans and pricing
Hawk Host’s internet hosting packages are fairly affordably priced, which suggests so much contemplating they cowl every little thing from fundamental shared and cloud internet hosting to reseller, VPS and cloud-based semi-dedicated internet hosting options. Currently, there are two plans for shared internet hosting, 5 for cloud internet hosting, three for reseller, 5 for VPS and two for semi-dedicated servers.
The most pocket-friendly possibility is shared internet hosting plan going by title “Primary” and for a $2.99 alone it consists of some candy limitless options (bandwidth, domains, databases and SSL certificates), 10GB of space for storing (SSD), a proactive malware scanning and protection, and (on high of every little thing) a free-of-charge drag-and-drop website builder by Weebly.
All these plans include a regular 30-day money-back assure, which ought to take advantage of hesitant of us relaxed.
As for strategies of fee, Hawk Host helps bank cards, PayPal, AliPay and (one thing we don’t see typically sufficient) Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Ease of use
In addition to the checklist of limitless options, all of Hawk Host’s internet hosting plans include migration assist (free-of-cost), which is at all times good to see. These plans are described in nice element, with all of their software program and technical specs listed beneath them.
When you go for the optimum plan, you’ll begin the enroll course of, the place step one considerations your area title (you possibly can register a brand new one, switch an current one, or use it as it’s whereas updating your nameservers). Since there isn’t a domain name amongst Hawk Host’s free options, you’ll should pay the worth (that’s, for those who don’t personal one) and it could value you something between $13.95 and $ $59.95 for a 12 months. After fixing the issue of preliminary area title, you’re free to arrange a vast variety of add-on domains, parked domains and subdomains.
The following steps would require so that you can resolve on a billing cycle (month-to-month, annual or a biennial one), a server location, and to think about attaching a number of the instructed add-ons (extra GB of RAM, GB of disk house, DDoS protected devoted IP or ID safety) for further money. To carry the method to an finish, you’ll be required to enter plenty of private info, create a password, fill in all concerning the fee methodology you’ll be utilizing and select whether or not to depart some extra knowledge.
With all its shared internet hosting plans, Hawk Host supplies Linux-based cPanel as its management panel of selection, which is welcome information to all non-masochistic people who wish to take pleasure in all the advantages of an easy-to-use GUI. However, these with reseller packages must go together with WHM, and VPS customers must accept Hawk Host’s custom-made management panel, which seems to be (truly) reasonably handy to make use of.
Since Softaculous and Fantastico are offered, helpful apps like WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla and plenty of extra are only a click on away.
As another, you possibly can assemble your web site with Weebly web site builder. With its drag-and-drop fashion editor, user-friendly UI and tons of templates, you’ll quickly be on the best way to make your dream web site part of actuality.
Speed and expertise
With a extremely questionable analogy let’s presume that if a hawk is likely one of the quickest members of the chook kingdom, Hawk Host should be one of many quickest webhosting suppliers available on the market (proper?). What is extra, Hawk Host themselves declare that their shared internet hosting options are “quick, highly effective and budget-friendly”.
With all this in thoughts, we determined to check the pace of their important web site (through GTmetrix) and look forward to the outcomes with endurance and optimism. A minute later GTmetrix offered us with an A (97%), which is among the many greatest pace performances we have now seen for a while now. The time it took for the web page to fully load was 3.0 seconds (the common result’s 8.2) and all important internet metrics apart from one (cumulative format shift was 0.4 seconds, whereas lower than 0.1 is recommendable) have been nicely above the common rating.
With Hawk Host you’ll get an SLA-backed 99.9% uptime assure, which isn’t a lot, however it’s good to have nonetheless. After monitoring the uptime of Hawk Host’s web site for a complete month (through UptimeRobot), we obtained fairly encouraging outcomes.
Support
Hawk Host claims their assist employees is offered around-the-clock to supply help with all types of points. They might be reached through phone, stay chat, ticket, on-line contact type and e-mail. That being stated, stay chat doesn’t appear to be “alive” always, since nobody was on the job after we needed to return into contact. Discouraged by this, we determined to throw them a few questions through the ticket system and we obtained our reply (and an apt one) inside an hour.
If you worth self-sufficiency above all else, Hawk Host provides a weblog, a knowledgebase and a standing web page (for information, product updates and all alerts) and a neighborhood discussion board. This discussion board feels alive and lively, with all the questions answered precisely by Hawk Host’s employees, for essentially the most half.
Hawk Host’s knowledgebase might be reached by way of a piece titled as “Help Desk”, the place you possibly can submit a ticket or try the most recent information. The knowledgebase itself makes use of a customary user-friendly format and includes a complete of 207 articles, most of that are fairly easy-to-understand.
The competitors
Although each hosts might be described as a very good deal to first-time customers, Hostinger has webhosting options which are richer when it comes to options than Hawk Host’s. Both of them embody free SSL, one-click installer, automated backups and drag-and-drop web site builder (although it’s not free with Hostinger), amongst different issues. However, with Hostinger you’ll get a free area registration with all plans besides with the most affordable one (and the second least expensive goes for $2.59 per thirty days, which is fairly pocket-friendly as nicely), whereas there isn’t a free area with Hawk Host. In addition to this, Hostinger has Minecraft server hosting as an possibility for all of the fanatics on the market, whereas Hawk Host doesn’t.
Hawk Host’s beginner-friendly shared internet hosting plan is a bit cheaper than the one HostGator has on the provide, however each of them present a beautiful checklist of limitless options, free area and web site switch, simple installs, free SSL, normal money-back assure and free web site builder. However, HostGator can present its customers with absolutely devoted servers, whereas with Hawk Host one must settle with semi-dedicated ones.
Bluehost and Hawk Host are considerably comparable when it comes to internet hosting choices, options and pricing. However, Hawk Host is barely stronger within the context of buyer assist and limitless options (bandwidth, databases, domains and SSL certificates), whereas Bluehost provides absolutely devoted server internet hosting, has barely extra apps for one-click set up and supplies free area for customers that subscribe for a 12 months a minimum of.
Last however not least, GoDaddy is likely one of the best-known webhosting corporations within the enterprise and, due to this fact, one other sturdy competitor to Hawk Host. Although GoDaddy provides a whole vary of hosting-related providers that may match most payments, its entry-level plan leaves so much to be desired. Hence, in case your wants are easier and you’ve got a price range to fret about, give Hawk Host a go.
Final verdict
More than something, Hawk Host seems like an honest webhosting supplier that has a lot to supply to small and medium-sized companies, in addition to bloggers engaged on a shoestring price range. Besides a wide selection of internet hosting choices, some incredible limitless options, seven worldwide knowledge facilities to select from and a strong efficiency, Hawk Host will provide you with assist from very good employees (even when it typically is sluggish to reply).
If you’re nonetheless unsure they’re value testing, check out hosts similar to HostGator, Hostinger and Bluehost earlier than making any choices. Since all these hosts (Hawk Host included) present a prolonged money-back assure, there received’t be a lot worries to maintain you up at night time.
