Awardspace Review: What Do Real Users Think Of Their Free Hosting?

Awardspace scores 3.5 out of five stars on 30+ customer reviews, with above-average marks for support, quality, features, and value.

Should You Host Your Site With Awardspace?

Looking for something specific? Jump to our most popular sections:

• Expert review – read our thorough analysis by hosting specialist, Katie Horne
• Customer reviews – see what actual Awardspace customers have to say
• Hosting plans – compare Awardspace hosting plans
• FAQs – find answers to the most common questions about Awardspace

Awardspace offers free, but comprehensive, web hosting services and a website builder. You might think this is just a gimmick. But the free plan isn’t even their most popular option. Their shared premium hosting is. So Awardspace might be doing something right. Follow along as I look at all of Adwardspace’s hosting plans and show you if it is a good choice for you. And if it isn’t, I’ve got some alternative hosts that might be better.

About Awardspace

Awardspace originally provided free HTML hosting, but in 2003, the company decided to offer free LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) hosting without requiring users to display banner ads. In 2005, the company began offering premium hosting plans. Awardspace featured three plans designed to meet the growing needs of existing customers for whom the free plan was no longer a fit.

 Over the years, Awardspace has added multiple types of hosting to their product portfolio. They also develop custom tools for their hosting customers, such as automatic CMS installers and custom control panels. Today, the company serves over 2.5 million customers and boasts an overall uptime of 99.9%.

Hosting Plans

Awardspace’s free plan offer substantial hosting without advertisements.

In addition to the free hosting option, Awardspace offers:

• Shared Hosting and shared WordPress Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting
• VPS (Virtual Private Server) Cloud Hosting
• Reseller Hosting

Free Hosting

Most people will probably want to start with Awardspace’s free hosting plan. Not only is the price right, but this plan also gives you an opportunity to try out Awardspace, no strings attached. The free plan is plenty capable for those with one website. You’ll get 1 GB of disk space for all of your files. As long as your monthly traffic levels don’t exceed 5 GB, you won’t have any problems. You’ll also get 1 email account and 24/7 support in case you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Shared Hosting

If you want more perks than are available with the free plan, you may want to explore Awardspace’s low-cost shared hosting plans. These plans provide:

• 10x faster network speed
• Unlimited disk space
• Extra email accounts
• Full Zacky app installer
• RAID backup
• Free SSL Certificate
• Extra development tools.

On all but their entry-level plan, Awardspace offers free domain name registration for as long as you host with them. If you want to host more than one website, you have to upgrade to a paid hosting plan. That said, even those with only one website will benefit from the features of shared hosting since Awardspace removes almost all caps on resource usage for their shared hosting users.

You can choose from 3 shared hosting plans. The option that is best for you depends on how many websites you want to host, as well as the number of monthly visits you’re expecting. Regardless of which plan you choose, all shared hosting customers get a free SSL certificate to protect your site and improve your search engine rankings, as well as 24/7 customer support with a one-hour response time guarantee.

WordPress Hosting

All semi-dedicated web hosting plans come with unlimited disk space, no limits on bandwidth, and support for an unlimited number of domain names.

Awardspace’s WordPress hosting plans are nearly identical (spec-wise) to their shared hosting plans. These plans do, however, come with a one-click WordPress installer, automatic WordPress core updates, and access to WordPress tutorials.

Semi-Dedicated Web Hosting

Most people will do just fine on a shared hosting plan, but for those with large websites that get high levels of traffic, Awardspace offers semi-dedicated hosting plans. All semi-dedicated web hosting plans come with unlimited disk space, no limits on bandwidth, and support for an unlimited number of domain names. You’ll be able to choose the database type you want (MySQL or PostgreSQL), and you’ll get fewer restrictions on the software-related changes you can make to your server. Awardspace features three semi-dedicated web hosting options from which you can choose, but at a glance, it might seem that they vary only in price. However, a deeper dive into the full features list shows that the plan you choose determines your max CPU and RAM usage and the number of database calls you’re allotted each hour. In short, the cheaper plans won’t be able to handle as much traffic as the more expensive options.

VPS Cloud Hosting

If you want the freedom to fully control your hosting environment, and you need a plan that will support a large, highly-trafficked website, you might want to look into Awardspace’s VPS cloud hosting. You’ll also get a much more secure environment since you’re not sharing anything with others.

Awardspace offers three VPS Cloud hosting plans:

	Starter	Pro	Advanced
CPU Cores	1	2	4
Memory	1 GM	2 GM	4 gm
Storage	25 GB	50 GB	100 GB
Bandwidth Speed	50 mbits/sec	100 mbits/sec	100 mbits/sec
Total Bandwidth	2 TB	4 TB	8 TB

All plans come with root access and a dedicated IP address. By default, the Debian operating system comes pre-installed, but you can choose from other options or install your own custom distribution.

Reseller Hosting

Awardspace offers free reseller hosting, allowing you to start a new hosting company or add web hosting to your existing portfolio of services. Awardspace gives you the wholesale price, and your profits are whatever you charge minus the wholesale price you pay.

Control Panel

Awardspace includes a control panel with all hosting plans. It appears that this is a custom option created by Awardspace, but it offers pretty standard functionality. It includes account manager, orders, account closure, domain management, resource allocation and usage information, file management, email management, statistics (eg, Webalizer), and the Zacky installer.

VPS Users Get a Choice

VPS users get a specialty control panel, though they are welcome to use the general version non-VPS users get as well.

Performance and Uptime

Ultimately, the level of performance you see depends on the plan you choose, which is why many opt for a paid plan (however inexpensive), even if there is a free option available. Furthermore, all paid plans come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Datacenter

Awardspace’s datacenter is located in Sofia, Bulgaria, a country in southeastern Europe. With only one option, customers can’t choose where their site is hosted, but the datacenter itself comes with solid hardware and 24/7 monitoring to help prevent and respond immediately to issues.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Awardspace guarantees that they’ll have a response for you within one hour on paid plans.

If you run into any issues, the first place to start would be Awardspace’s robust FAQ page The FAQ features common issues with solutions. These are organized by category, such as GDPR, Domain and Subdomain Management, and General Questions. There’s also a knowledge base with more in-depth information. Awardspace has a well-organized FAQ and knowledgebase.

Ticket System and Support Team

However, if you don’t find an answer to your question in either of the self-help resources, then you can file a ticket requesting assistance (if you are a paying customer). Support is available 24/7. Awardspace guarantees that they’ll have a response for you within one hour. In terms of learning-related resources, Awardspace offers:

Tutorials

• WordPress tutorials (eg, Create an E-Commerce Website with WordPress, WordPress SEO – The Essentials, and WordPress Feature Images)
• Video tutorials (eg, How to Add a Domain, How to Delete a Database, and How to Create an FTP Account)
• Blog posts (eg, How Much Does Web Hosting Cost for a Small Business).

Payments and Billing

For all their plans, Awardspace lists the cost per month. However, the company does not offer monthly billing. You must pay upfront for a one-year contract. Awardspace accepts most major credit cards, wire transfers, Bitcoin, and PayPal.

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, Awardspace offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you cancel during this time period, you’ll receive a full refund, no questions asked.

Alternatives to Awardspace

If Awardspace is not the hosting company for you, here are some alternatives you might consider:

GoDaddy

SiteGround

SiteGround isn’t free, but if you want a solid hosting provider that offers good service, this company is worth a look. I think their shared hosting plans are comparable to Awardspace’s, and I’ve heard good things from our readers that their customer service is excellent.

Pros and Cons

Now that I’ve taken a closer look at the ins-and-outs of Awardspace, what are the highlights and lowlights of this host?

Is Low-Cost or Free Hosting Right for You?

Awardspace is not the best option for everybody. Nevertheless, their free hosting plan, as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee, makes it possible for you to try it out before deciding.  

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