Web Hosting Hub Review: Does This New Kid on the Block Have What It Takes?

Who is Web Hosting Hub For?

So, you want to start a blog or business website and already have an idea of the site’s design but don’t have much capital to get you started? Well, you needn’t worry or give up your website idea as Web Hosting Hub is designed specifically for this kind of situation.

Founded in the year 2001, Web Hosting Hub has flown under the mainstream radar until a while back when it came under the management of InMotion Hosting.

Now, Web Hosting Hub is one of the most recommended go-to options for webmasters who are starting out and are looking for a cheap but reliable web hosting service provider.

With affordable hosting prices as just one of its many perks, Web Hosting Hub also has several great qualities that will be discussed in detail below. The following Web Hosting Hub overview will also list any cons associated with this web host so that you can make an informed decision.

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Top Features of Web Hosting Hub’s Shared Hosting

Web Hosting Hub offers many features that are offered by other providers of shared hosting. So, what sets this web host’s shared hosting plans (including shared WordPress hosting) apart?

The Inclusion of cPanel Control Panel

Web Hosting Hub, rather than using a customized or proprietary control panel, has chosen to offer its users cPanel, an industry-leading option. It is easy to use and powerful, which means you will not have to spend too much time learning how to use your software.

What is the Control Panel For?

The control panel is the administrative area where you can keep an eye on and manage all aspects of your web hosting account. For example, you can do things like:

• Keep tabs on your monthly resource usage
• Managing your account preferences (email, password, address)
• Managing your website’s domain names
• Making backups of your website
• Creating/managing/deleting new email accounts

More importantly, the control panel is a one-stop shop where you can perform your administrative features without having to use additional tools, like a dedicated FTP program to upload files (though you can certainly do so if you would like).

Email Services

Web Hosting Hub offers secure POP3/IMAP email. You can easily forward your email and view your messages on any device.

You can create an email address for everyone on your team with room for more official addresses like [email protected] or [email protected]

They also offer unlimited email addresses, which is ideal for small businesses.

1-Click Installer – Softaculous

Thanks to this software, you can add hundreds of applications to your website at the simple click of the mouse. This allows you to add features and functionality, creating a sophisticated website with little hassle.

Some of the options available via Softaculous include:

• WordPress – a popular, full-featured content management (CMS) system
• PrestaShop – a suite of e-commerce tools
• phpBB – am easy-to-use forum/community software
• Anchor – a lightweight blogging system
• Typesetter – this is a lightweight CMS alternative to WordPress, etc.

Cheap Web Hosting

In addition to featuring very affordable prices, Web Hosting Hub also offers special discounts. As a result, you can pay as little as $3.99/month to acquire hosting services.

Annual Contracts

However, the company doesn’t offer a month-to-month payment option but rather offers 1 to 3-year contracts. This is standard among web hosting companies — to get the best prices, you are generally “locked in” to a lengthier contract.

You Get Free Set-Up/Onboarding Assistance

One of the benefits included with your web hosting purchase is the free set-up and onboarding call designed to help you get set up and running in no time.

Helpful for Web Hosting Newbies

Just 5 minutes of signing up with Web Hosting Hub, you receive a call from one of the friendly support representatives who slowly takes you through the setup process and answers whatever questions you may have. This service is perfect for newbies and those not well versed in the technical side of setting up a website.

The onboarding call is driven by your needs — it can cover anything from getting your username/password from the Welcome email, walking through the site migration process, and so on. There’s no need to go spelunking through Web Hosting Hub’s documentation pages, trying to figure out what you need and what you don’t (though you could if you wanted to).

Any Special Tools for Online Stores?

If you’re creating an online store, you’ll be happy to know that Web Hosting Hub provides you with several e-commerce tools that can be integrated to your website.

Ranging from popular shopping tools like Cube Cart and Zen Cart, to major payment processing companies like PayPal and Google Checkout, to security tools such as a shared SSL certificate, these tools help give your website a huge head start on other competitors who are starting out like you.

Please note that while Web Hosting Hub has a dedicated page to e-commerce hosting, these plans are not any different from the ones we mentioned and described above.

Free Website Transfers With Zero Downtime

If you have a website already, migration assistance and service should be at the top of your list of things to look for in a web host.

This web host offers one of the best website transfer services. The company does all the transfer work for you free of charge and ensures you experience zero downtime.

Your Site is Tested

Additionally, during the transfer, you’re provided with progress notifications and a temporary URL where you can perform extensive tests and trials before your site is finally transferred over to Web Hosting Hub servers.

Finally, if you are interested in DIY, Web Hosting Hub has provided ample, well-written documentation on the process.

What Hosting Types and Plans are Available?

Web Hosting Hub offers three shared hosting packages: Spark, Nitro, and Dynamo.

Each one has specific offerings, and the site does an excellent job of breaking down the differences. All the packages are extremely affordable.

Spark: For Bloggers and Those Just Getting Started

Their start-up plan Spark is ideal for inexperienced newbies and is arguably one of the best startups shared hosting service. It allows for two websites, five parked domains, 25 subdomains, and 10 MySQL/postage SQL databases. Additionally, it features SSH access, free SSD, auto-installed WordPress, auto-installed shopping cart, and a free website builder.

If you are a small business owner who recognizes the importance of an online presence but the margins are thin, you might want to get up and running with the most economical option. That’s the Spark plan.

When the website beings to “pay for itself,” so to speak, you can move up to either of the more expensive and feature-rich options that let you do more.

Nitro and Dynamo: For Small Businesses

The other two hosting plans, Nitro and Dynamo, have all of the Spark plan features along with the choice of choosing which data center will host your website and unlimited websites, parked domains, subdomains, and MySQL, and postage SQL. They also feature web design discounts of 20% and 30%.

Generally speaking, Web Hosting Hub recommends that you get started with the Nitro plan if possible — it is the option the company has earmarked as “small business hosting” offering “better performance.”

Faster page load times are always a bonus when it comes to online sales (remember, even if you are not selling anything, people do not want to wait too long for your informational pages to load).

Either of these plans would make a great choice for most small businesses with limited online needs.

Performance and Uptime

Web Hosting Hub offers a 99% uptime guarantee, which is just slightly lower than the 99.9% uptime guarantee offered by most web hosts. However, the difference between this company’s servers and those of other web hosts is barely noticeable.

Independent responsive tests performed by the web host’s users show that a consistent uptime of 99.8% to 99.9%.

This same level of uptime excellence is seen in the hosting company’s performance with conducted tests showing that sites under Web Hosting Hub load in seconds.

Why Does Uptime Matter so Much?

For e-commerce sites especially, uptime is vital, since downtime is a direct factor in lost revenue. Shared hosting plans, which are typically the ones chosen by those on a budget, tend to not come with service level agreements. Basically, the host promises a set uptime and if it does not meet that target, it will credit your account based on the amount of downtime, so the next best alternative is merely to choose a reliable service.

Isolated Accounts Boost Security

Additionally, Web Hosting Hub has taken measures to isolate separate accounts, which in turn helps to minimize chances of downtime as well as reduce security issues.

Security and Backups: How Will My Site and Data be Protected?

Web Hosting Hub’s offerings here are typical for shared web hosting firms.

No Free Backups, but $1 Per Month Gets You Daily Backups

Unfortunately, Web Hosting Hub doesn’t offer free daily or weekly backups like most web hosting services. This is perhaps the downside of going with a cheap web host – you truly do get what you pay for.

However, you can always perform your own backups or choose to pay an additional $1/month to have Web Hosting Hub carry out daily automated backups of your website. With this option, the company throws in free account restorations once in every four months.

Standard Security

Security is a key factor when deciding which web hosting company to go with. That’s why Web Hosting Hub aims at providing satisfactory security services. The company uses Dell servers, which in addition to being configured to utilize PHP caching run on the latest and most stable versions of MySQL5 and PHP5.

Again, security is crucial for digital businesses — people are unlikely to open up their wallets and spend if they do not trust your website (and by extension, you).

Also included is what’s called a suPHP tool that allows you to further enhance the security of your website.

Paid Security Options

There’s also the option of buying one of the many security features at Web Hosting Hub. Options on offer include a secure-socket-layer (SSL) certificate, anti-spam protection, McFee Virus, among others.

What Kind of Customer Service and Technical Support is Available?

When it comes to help and support for customers, Web Hosting Hub offers several options.

Direct Support: 24/7

You can go with the fast and direct option of asking the company’s support staff questions through Live Chat, telephone support, and an online help desk portal. These support channels are free of charge to users and are available 24/7.

DIY Support: Knowledgebase, Forums, Tutorials

There’s also the option of seeking answers from the numerous knowledge-bases, forums, and an education channel with a wide range of tutorials found on the official website of Web Hosting Hub. This second option is perfect when you have a general question or simply want to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of managing a website.

Ask the Community Forum

Web Hosting Hub also has a highly useful community forum where users can view postings, send out questions, and answer the queries of fellow users. The great thing about this community forum is that you can rely on expert answers.

This is because, in addition to users of the web host answering posted questions, this web hosting provider also has trained support staff manning the forum and ensuring that questions are answered within a 60-minute time frame.

Customer Support via Social Media

Lastly, Web Hosting Hub’s help and support extend to their social media platforms. Their Twitter account responds to queries in a timely fashion while their Facebook page occasionally puts outs web hosting related posts as well as links to the latest web hosting tools and information.

These posts are very useful as they enable you to keep up with the latest tech and therefore keep your website at its peak performance.

All in all, as a busy small business owner, you will not have problems finding someone to help with your questions quickly.

Is There a Money-Back Guarantee?

Web Hosting Hub offers a generous 90-day money-back guarantee. They tout it as being one of the best in the industry.

Not Prorated. Covers Hosting, not Add-Ons or Domains

Refunds are not prorated, they are full refunds, minus features you keep such as free domains and other add-ons.

For More Details, Read the Terms and Conditions

However, it’s vital that you read all the terms and conditions because it’s far from straightforward. You won’t get a 100% refund as costs of domains, privacy and SSL certificates will be deducted. Their policy states that the refund is for the hosting service only. Even if your domain name was free, they’ll deduct the normal cost. The same thing applies to any other purchases.

Bonuses/Extras

One of unique features of Web Hosting Hub that both bloggers and business owners will enjoy is access to over 400 applications that are provided to users free of charge.

Hundreds of Apps Available

This includes site builders or content management systems like WordPress, e-commerce platforms like OpenCart, and a wide range of social networking, advertising, and management applications; these apps cover every aspect of running and managing a website.

The sheer number of categories of apps gives you an idea of what’s possible. Those categories include:

1. Microblogs
2. Portals
3. CMSs
4. Forums
5. Image galleries
6. Wikis
7. Social networking
8. Ad management
9. Calendars
10. Gaming
11. Polls and analytics
12. E-commerce
13. Project management
14. ERP
15. Guest books
16. Customer support
17. Educational tools
18. Software frameworks
19. Database tools
20. Software libraries

The best part is that the available apps also happen to be the web’s most popular tools. Therefore, with these apps at your disposal, you get to run your website with the latest applications while giving your targeted audience the tools they love and are used to.

Many Web Hosts Include Softaculous

To be clear though, Softaculous is commonly included by many web hosts in their packages. And if it wasn’t you could still access it independent of your web host. Many web hosts offer a similar tool called Fantastico.

Any Extras or Bonuses?

What else? Here are some more helpful features and services from Web Hosting Hub:

• Free advertising credits that can be used in Google, Yahoo, and Bing in the amount of $75 for the Spark plan, $175 for the Nitro plan, and $250 for the Dynamo plan. A website is useless without visitors, so advertising on search engines is one way of generating traffic.
• Free website builder and blogging software with every hosting plan — build your own website without the need for a web designer. Templates make it easy for you to get going since you do not have to start from scratch. They also offer themes, such as Food & Drink, Home & Property. For small business owners without a budget for a design team, this builder is a fantastic option.
• 90-day money back guarantees for all hosting plans: This is 60 days more than what you will get from most web hosting services. And unlike other web-hosts, which only give you a partial refund, Web Hosting Hub gives full money refund, less the items you keep (for example, you do not get a refund of your domain registration fees, but you also keep the domain name for use elsewhere).
• Free Content Management System (CMS) software that allows you to build professional, beautiful, and interactive sites quickly. The company’s simple one-click installation feature puts several CMS software at your disposal including WordPress, B2evolution, Drupal, and so much more. So, you can choose the one you love or are familiar with.
• The freedom of choosing which of the company’s two datacenters (situated on the east and west coasts of USA) will host your website. Choose the one closest to more of your audience for faster speeds.

Need a Website for Your Small Business?

Here’s a quick comparison of WebHostingHub’s DIY option and their professional design services.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Web Hosting Hub?

So is Web Hosting Hub any good for small businesses? As always, it really depends upon what you need. If you are looking to run a massive e-commerce store with thousands of products, you should consider going with a host like SiteGround or Bluehost.

However, if you need a basic host for a brick and mortar store website or a small blog, Web Hosting Hub may be a good option. Consider the following pros and cons before making your decision.

Pros

• Free solid-state drives (SSD) which are up to 20 times faster and are more reliable over mechanical hard drives.
• Great value for money shared web hosting plans.
• All hosting plans come with a pre-installed WordPress, as well as the industry-leading cPanel control panel.
• Simple, well-guided onboarding and migration services, ideal for the non-techies.
• Offers flexible and secure email services with features such as unlimited email, SpamSafe protection, email forwarding, and more.
• Delivers award-worthy customer support.
• Offers one of the longest refund guarantees.
• All new accounts get a free domain name.
• Offers a ton of handy website and e-commerce tools.
• The company goes out of its way to keep things as simple as possible.

Cons

• Charges for website backups.
• If your business expands, there’s no way to move to a plan that can handle it, especially if you’re on the top level of the shared plan choices. The company does not offer any type of premium-level hosting, such as virtual private servers (VPS) or dedicated servers.
• Not good for developers who are looking for more access.
• No dedicated or VPS hosting plans.

Summary

If plans for your blog/business website include an expansion that will require an upgrade to WordPress hosting or more power that can only be supplied by VPS or dedicated servers, you’ll need to look elsewhere as Web Hosting Hub solely offers shared hosting.

This is Affordable and Reliable Web Hosting

However, if you’re starting your first website, have no major expansion plans, and want an affordable yet dependable web host provider, then Web Hosting Hub is a go.

The company’s low price tag, allowance of 2 to unlimited websites, quality customer service, surprisingly solid uptime, an array of premium-worthy features will more than meet your needs.

Web Hosting Hub is a reputable hosting provider with a solid history of performance and cheap pricing. If you’re considering a hosting site, Web Hosting Hub is worth a look. However and as with any web host you consider signing up with, ask lots of questions before committing to any hosting provider.

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Web Hosting Hub Frequently Asked Questions

Web Hosting Hub Plans & Prices

Web Hosting Hub focus is to provide customers with a simple pricing structure, yet affordable and without compromising on great features. Here below is an overview of their plans and current price list. For latest and most up to date prices visit WHH’s website.

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Best WebHostingHub alternatives

Our experts do everything they can to provide you with an accurate look at web hosts. But it is often most helpful to see what actual users have to say. If you’re interested in this, pop over to our sister site WhoIsHostingThis.com to read over 150 reviews from people just like you. It will really help in deciding on the right host.