DotBlock Review: Custom Block-based VPS Plans and Alternatives

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Introduction to DotBlock Hosting:

DotBlock Hosting is a US-based hosting company located in New York’s tech valley. The company is wholly owned by HostRocket.com, who has been in business since 1999 and boasts the fact that they have provided service to more than 50K websites across shared, reseller, and dedicated hosting plans.

DotBlock is a company that specializes in VPS hosting, “virtual private server”, which is an increasingly popular option because of the many benefits that are preferred over shared hosting but without the high cost of dedicated hosting.

Services & Plans & Specializations:

DotBlock offers block-based plan options that are priced individually and scalable based on your needs.

For example: Block 1 includes a 2-core processor, 4GB of ram, unmetered bandwidth, and 50GB of SSD RAID storage Block 2 offers, 4-core, 70GB of storage, and 8GB of memory.

This goes all the way up to the top listed block, called Block 14, and for this, DotBlock provides 28-core processor, 310 GB of storage, and 56 GB of memory.

The company offers both managed and unmanaged hosting options and guarantees uptime at 99.9% with a redundancy / failover model in all their locations. If needed, you can change datacenter locations as well and they can accomplish this quickly.

Managed Hosting plans offer access to 337 scripts, free backups, configuration and software services, monitoring, and priority support. Unmanaged plans are available for those who wish to be more self-sufficient.

DotBlock is happy to walk customers and those shopping around for VPS hosting options through available plans and options and answer any questions to help people find the plan that most closely suits their needs.

DotBlock Reviews by Our Community

Overall Rating from 4 Reviews by DotBlock Customers

Support
Quality
Features
Value

Most Helpful Reviews

Gert Wieland avatar
Gert Wieland justcorebusiness.com
Jul 21, 2014

I’m running a VPS server with DotBlock since about two years, and I couldn’t be any happier. Initially, I had little idea how to administrate a server, so because of my lack of knowledge I ran into quite some issues and obstacles. But time and again, DotBlock’s stunning support team helped me out.

Not only do they go above and beyond every time I need them, they also never fail to explain what they did. A typical 😉 support ticket looks somehow like this:

Me: I’m fried, I think I just ruined my server…. Support: We just fixed it for you.

The problem was […] and here’s what we did to fix it: […]

The entire service is outstandingly reliable, and there are basically no downtimes. In two years, I remember one or two that were not caused by me "playing" with the server, and once I opened a support ticket, it was solved in minutes. What does one need to run an online business?

A reliable technical infrastructure, and a responsive support team. Dotblock simply rocks in both areas, and I wholeheartedly recommend their service. Chapeau, Dotblock, and thank you very much.

Visit Host Now →

Alex Markessinis avatar
Alex Markessinis almyz125.com
Jun 25, 2014

Owning a VPS on DotBlock has been a great experience. They are really accommodating and their support has been great. For example, I had my server in their New York data center and needed it in another location.

They migrated the server within a few hours and were very helpful throughout the entire process. I also love the fact that all of their virtual machines are hosted on Sas ssd hard drives, and for the price you can’t beat it. They let you install your own OS if you choose which is great for the more experienced users among us. All in all DotBlock has been great to me and I couldn’t see me taking my business anywhere else.

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hodba khalaf avatar
hodba khalaf wits-uae.com
Jul 12, 2015

May be they were good, but now… I believe they couldn’t stand the expansion well as their technical support team is not responding quickly and resolve problems as they used to be in the last 3 year. I am running a business in Dubai where Sunday is the first day of the week (which is a weekend at Dotblock).

I cannot imagine a hosting provider these days that does NOT have a 24/7 support. They didn’t post that on the website even in the members zone so you have to make international calls and wait in the queue just to get the message that their support during Saturdays and Sundays is between 10:00 am and 10:00 pm which is in the middle of the night here in Dubai, and I have to wait for more that 12 hours for someone to push that button and restart the node where my VPS is and send a nice message saying "an issue with the node today which led to an isolated interruption of service". I waited for 6 hours setting in the dark because the DotBlock don’t want to spend overtime for 1 technical support guy to stay in the office and call their experts when such an issue happened.

You know what, we made me loose customers so it is your time for you to loose one too. I am moving to another reliable Hosting provider as this issue is happening to me for the second time within a month. Hodba

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Hardware / Network Information

32 and 64 bit operating systems, and the ability to have pre-installed layers including: cPanel, Virtualmin, Minecraft, LAMP, Rails and more are some of the options available.

DotBlock has several datacenters and customers can choose their preference between the New York, Chicago, San Jose, and Amsterdam locations.

Each location has unique characteristics and all locations have state-of-the-art equipment, security staff and building security features, cooling technology, and more.

Security highlights include: Amsterdam’s location is outfitted with bulletproof glass New York’s location is over 10,000 square feet Chicago leverages 42 inch special raised flooring to optimize cooling capabilities San Jose features a proprietary special overhead cabling system.

Datacenter technology includes: Cisco switches and routers, diesel backup generators, advanced cooling systems, multi-connection fibre rings, fire suppression setup, and high-quality equipment throughout all locations.

Support and Customer Service Overview

DotBlock has an excellent reputation for being customer-focused with a consultative approach that helps clients gain an understanding of hosting services.

Their US -based support teams including the sales team as well as their support team are known for being responsive and extremely helpful. Their site has an extensive knowledgebase and live chat feature.

Security & Backups & Server Monitoring:

Server monitoring is included in managed plans. Premium backups are available via a fee-based model. They offer DDOS protection and in addition to included services, extra services are available at their listed billable rate (billable in 15-minute increments).

Billing & Payment Policies

DotBlock offers several payment options, including: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and PayPal. Payments are automated and recurring on the anniversary date each month based on the payment method selected.

You can save 5% with an advanced 6 month billing cycle and a 12-month advanced billing cycle saves 10% (on all but cPanel and Windows licensing pricing).

DotBlock Conclusion:

Pros of Using DotBlock VPS Hosting:

  • Platform independent infrastructure
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee with redundancy / failover systems in place
  • Excellent customer service and support available around the clock
  • Consultative support, helping customers understand web hosting better
  • High quality and easy to use management console
  • Scalable cloud VPS that allows you to scale up or down as your needs change
  • Frequently offers low cost or free trial options to try their service
  • cPanel free for managed hosting plans (fee-based otherwise)
  • Reseller hosting options available for those looking to re-sell DotBlock services
  • Free iPhone app available for easy account management
  • Free setup
  • Unmetered bandwidth

Cons of DotBlock VPS Hosting:

  • DotBlock pricing tends to be higher than some of their competitors, although many positive reviews and testimonials remark that it’s a good investment.
  • Some negative reviews about down time exist.
  • Service charges listed for additional services not covered by agreement, including software installations, admin work, domain transfers, additional IP license fees, etc.

For those looking for VPS hosting and helpful support, DotBlock VPS hosting plans can be built to meet your specific needs and the company offers migration assistance as well.

VPS HostingVPS Hosting 1VPS Hosting 2
Disk Space5GB50GB70GB
BandwidthUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Price $9.95 / mo
Usual price:  Get  % off!
$39.95 / mo
Usual price:  Get  % off!
$79.90 / mo
Usual price:  Get  % off!
Visit DotBlock NowVisit DotBlock NowVisit DotBlock Now
PlanDisk SpaceBandwidthPrice
VPS Hosting 3
Cloud
90GBUnlimited $119.85 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 4
Cloud
110GBUnlimited $159.80 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 5
Cloud
130GBUnlimited $199.75 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 6
Cloud
150GBUnlimited $239.70 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 7
Cloud
170GBUnlimited $279.65 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 8
Cloud
190GBUnlimited $319.60 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 9
Cloud
210GBUnlimited $359.55 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 10
Cloud
230GBUnlimited $399.50 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 11
Cloud
250GBUnlimited $439.45 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 12
Cloud
270GBUnlimited $479.40 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 13
Cloud
290GBUnlimited $519.35 / mo Visit Host Now
VPS Hosting 14
Cloud
310GBUnlimited $559.30 / mo Visit Host Now
More Plans +
Dana Prince

About Dana Prince

In addition to her writing work, Dana is a marketing consultant. Her background is in sales, project execution, and relationship management. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

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