Our Editor’s rated JustHost 3.5 / 5 based on user ratings, pricing, and features offered.
If you’re looking for affordable web hosting, you’ve probably come across JustHost. With each new account, you get a free domain and access to a site builder with hundreds of templates to get you started. WordPress users can benefit from JustHost’s offers 1-click install.
Need more features but don’t want to spend lots of time coding? JustHost’s Mojo Marketplace has over 100 open-source apps, plugins, and themes that you can install onto your site with one click. JustHost also offers extensive e-commerce support, so things like adding a shopping cart and checkout features are easy.
Want more traffic to your site? JustHost includes $100 in ad credits for Google and for Bing with each new plan.
In the event of lacking resources (storage, bandwidth, multiple accounts, and so on), you can scale up to VPS hosting, which offers you dedicated use of the resources used to serve up your site. JustHost offers 24/7 customer support. If you’re unhappy for any reason, you can take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee.
Founded in 2008, JustHost was a late entrant into the web hosting industry but it has kept growing consistently since inception. It was the creation of famous UK techtrepreneur Chris Phillips, and he developed JustHost while working with the “Just Develop It” group of companies.
Philips shot to fame when he sold his popular Dot5 web hosting company. He would later go on to sell JustHost as well, the company is now a subsidiary of Endurance International Group.
JustHost now has headquarters in the UK, US, and Australia, while the company’s datacenter is based in Illinois in the States.
If you’re in the market for a web hosting service provider, JustHost is one of the companies that you’re most likely going to come across. This web host offers an interesting choice of scalable web hosting options that are worth looking into.
There are dozens of companies these days that offer scalable web hosting plans. So, why should you settle for JustHost over other web hosts? Well, the following overview can help you find an answer to the question and determine whether to go for JustHost web hosting services or not.
You can choose from a variety of hosting types. Let’s survey those first, then we’ll cover more features.
Before we get started, it’s worth knowing that with every hosting plan you choose, JustHost offers free domain registration or transfer. The domain remains free for one year only, and you’ll incur the usual annual renewal fee after that.
As mentioned above, JustHost offers hosting plans on shared, VPS, and dedicated servers.
All main categories have a choice of three or more hosting plans, each package with a different feature set and price.
Shared hosting is the most inexpensive type of hosting. Many websites share the resources of one physical server, and for many, access to a shared pool of resources is sufficient for their needs.
All shared hosting plans from JustHost provide unmetered bandwidth. There are three main shared hosting plans to choose from, which include the Basic plan, Plus plan and Pro plan.
The first two plans could be a draw for webmasters on a tight budget. At those levels, though, there are limits on the number of websites you can host, disk space, and email accounts.
Pro plan is the most expensive amongst all shared hosting packages, but there are no limits on disk space, and you can host unlimited:
Website owners on the shared Pro plan also receive free advertising credits worth $300, shared SSL certificate, and one dedicated IP address.
If your website needs more resources than what a shared server can handle, JustHost’s VPS hosting plans might suffice.
VPS hosting is similar to a shared plan, but rather than having a pool of resources from which your site (and all the other sites hosted on that server) can pull from; each website gets its own allocation of resources.
Your site cannot pull resources from any other allocation, nor can any other website pull from your site’s resources.
There are four VPS packages on offer, namely Standard, Enhanced, Premium, and Ultimate. Depending on the hosting plan that you choose, your website may be hosted on a server that runs on a dual, triple or quad-core processor.
VPS features include:
JustHost limits monthly data transfer for websites hosted on virtual private servers. Limits may range between 1 and 4 TB based on the VPS plan you select.
Other features that vary from plan to plan include disk space and memory, which can range from 2-8 GB and 30-240 GB respectively. Again, JustHost VPS servers provide no support for Microsoft’s operating system.
As expected, dedicated hosting is the most expensive service that JustHost offers. A dedicated server is one where all of one server’s resources are devoted to hosting one site: yours.
There is no one else making demands on the available disk space, RAM, bandwidth, and so on. Furthermore, since you (generally speaking) do not have any software-related limitations, you can install whatever you want and configure your server however you would like.
You can configure a Premium dedicated server which is equipped with:
The other lower level dedicated server options, Standard and Enhanced, cost less but the feature sets will not be as superior as what you get with a Premium JustHost dedicated server.
Once you’ve chosen a hosting plan, setting up your website with JustHost is easy. By default, JustHost offers two website building tools: Weebly and WordPress.
Alternatively, you can simply visit the MoJo Marketplace where you will find dozens of “one-click install” apps such as OpenCart, Drupal, and Joomla, just to name a few.
If you already have an existing website, JustHost can help you transfer your files to their servers.
However, you will incur a fee, which is a letdown considering that some web hosts such as GreenGeeks, InMotion Hosting, and Web Hosting Hub offer free site migration services.
No, JustHost does not offer reseller hosting. If you are interested in this type of hosting, JustHost recommends that you work with its partner, ResellerClub.
Reseller hosting is a specialized type of hosting that allows you to manage multiple websites (think 3-5 websites or more), keeping them fairly separate. In most cases, you, as a small business owner, would not be interested in such an option.
However, this doesn’t mean there is never a use for such an option. Reseller hosting is an option for those looking to start up their own web hosting business or for those looking to launch multiple websites — for example, you might be the head of a local restaurant group, and you want a separate website for each of your seven bars, cafes, and restaurants.
If your JustHost package comes with a control panel, you will get a version of the cPanel control panel that has been modified by JustHost. You’ll get the award-winning interface for which cPanel is known, but JustHost has made some changes that make the overall product even easier to use.
This is a boon for small business owners: you want a user-friendly tool to interact with your web hosting account. Even though cPanel has been modified, you can be assured of its ease-of-use and time-saving features.
The ease factor will save you money, time and headaches.
With the cPanel control panel, you can do things like:
Essentially, the control panel is your one-stop shop for everything related to your website’s hosting.
Previously, JustHost had a ‘test drive’ feature so you could check out their improved cPanel, however, that no longer seems to be active. In fact, their entire site seems like it has been downgraded in the last few years to be simpler.
The type of hosting plan and server that you choose from JustHost will have an impact on site performance. If you opt for the lower tier shared hosting plans, your website will run on a standard server.
The top-end Pro package is the only one among all shared hosting plans that host websites on “high performance” servers.
Based on hosting specification details posted on JustHost’s website, better-performing servers with dual, triple or quad-core processors are only available with VPS plans and dedicated hosting plans.
Most web hosting companies specify what percentage of uptime to expect should you host your website on their servers. The industry standard is 99.9%, and many web hosts that meet this requirement use it as a popular selling point. However, JustHost specifies no number on their Network and Server Uptime Agreement page.
On the plus side, the company’s data centers have proven to be reliable and many satisfied customers on the web that rate JustHost services highly.
JustHost does not charge penalty fees for leaving their network in case of server downtime. They also refund the unused portion of your hosting agreement if you’re not paying for hosting on a month-month basis. In other words, only annual or longer contracts are eligible for this offer.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are an essential part of making sure that your site loads as quickly as possible for your users.
CDNs are basically a large network of servers that cache your website. When someone navigates to your site from their browser, the files required to render and load your site are then sent from the server that is geographically the closest to the user. By reducing the distance the files have to transfer, the overall transfer time for your files decreases.
Small business owners need to make sure their websites load fast: research shows that even a one-second delay in site loading time can cause you to lose 7% or more of potential customers.
And in the summer of 2018 Google started using the site loading speed as a ranking factor for mobile searches. For any website, slow loading speed will kill engagement and conversions.
Cloudflare, one of the premier CDN providers, is included free of charge with your JustHost account. As a JustHost user, you can easily enable Cloudflare for your website. JustHost has set up most of the required integration already, so you just need to make a few clicks in the Domains section of your account control panel to get your Cloudflare account up and running.
Web security is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. Hackers and other cybercriminals can do a lot of damage when they gain unauthorized access to your website’s backend.
Fortunately, JustHost secures all hosting accounts with the SiteLock Lite free malware scanner. This tool scans the sitemap of your website for infections and sends an immediate email alert if malware or malicious programs are detected.
There’s also the option to subscribe for premium versions of SiteLock, which offer added protection such as web application firewall, business reputation management, and access to the SiteLock dashboard. If you intend to host an e-commerce website, JustHost offers the option to secure your website with an SSL certificate.
It’s not clear how frequent JustHost offers automatic site backups. However, this service is included in the Pro shared hosting plan. At the time of this review, JustHost claims that it does not offer mirrored or redundant backups and if any backups are provided, it will be at the company’s discretion.
On the plus side, this web host exclusively offers Linux-based hosting, so all account holders have an option to manually back up site data from cPanel.
As with most web hosting companies, JustHost offers standard support methods. These include phone, email ticketing, and live chat support.
The company also operates a support portal on its website, where users can submit support tickets, view knowledgebase articles, watch video tutorials and browse through FAQs.
There’s also a blog section on the support portal with posts on industry-related topics. While this is a decent effort on JustHost’s part to educate customers on how to run successful websites, the blog lacks updated content since it is not frequently updated.
JustHost offers a few bonuses when you choose to sign up for their web hosting services. To begin with, every hosting plan comes with a free domain name for one year. If you already have a domain, you can transfer it from the previous registrar, and JustHost will not charge you for it.
Additionally, there are free advertising credits for new sign-ups included in the marketing bundle. Users on the Plus and Pro plans receive credits worth $150 and $300 respectively, which can be used to launch pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns on Google AdWords, or Bing paid ads.
We mentioned in several places above that JustHost offers unlimited/unmetered resources. Is that the case?
Well, yes and no.
Obviously, your usage must comply with JustHost’s Terms of Service (TOS) and “consistent with the normal operation of a website.”
JustHost determines what counts as “normal” by regularly examining its customers’ bandwidth and disk utilization data using statistical tests to identify outliers (that is, your usage is in the 99.5 percentile). If the company deems that you are an outlier, you will be asked (via email) to reduce your usage. At that point, you have at least 48 hours to adjust before JustHost takes corrective action.
JustHost web hosting services may be scalable and competitively priced, but the company lags behind in a few areas. So, to give you a clear picture of what to expect here is a quick rundown of their pros and cons about JustHost’s web hosting services. So is the company any good?
If you are in the market for JustHost, you might also be considering Bluehost.
Both offer great shared hosting plans that make it easy for small businesses to get up and running. JustHost is a smaller company offering a more personalized “feel,” while Bluehost offers a large portfolio of options to its users.
JustHost might come out to be cheaper (though your mileage may vary, especially if you manage to score significant BlueHost discounts), but Bluehost offers premium options that allow you to scale up with ease (in some cases, you might do so without seeing any downtime on your website!).
If you don’t mind the few disadvantages associated with JustHost listed above, then this web host is a decent choice, especially for mid-level websites that don’t need top of the line dedicated servers.
With hosting plans for shared, VPS, and dedicated servers, JustHost is the kind of hosting provider that you can grow with over time. The best part is that they have a no-frills cancellation policy and a 30-day money-back guarantee. This lowers your risk of losing money and makes JustHost services worth trying.
That said, JustHost offers very similar hosting plans to what you will find with companies such as Bluehost, GreenGeeks, and InMotion. So, it’s always wise to compare pricing and features before making your final decision.
Here, we answer some of the most common questions asked about JustHost.
If traffic to your small business website is high and you have a lot of data housed on your website, you may want to opt for VPS or dedicated hosting.
Small businesses often require high performance, high speed, and high security of VPS or dedicated hosting. Some small businesses handling sensitive data (such as healthcare data) may have special security requirements related to regulatory compliance.
Speaking with a JustHost representative can clarify your needs and options and what the threshold is for opting for VPS hosting or dedicated server hosting.
