ThinkHost Introduction
ThinkHost was originally called Davidzon Network Technologies and was founded in 1999 to provide green hosting for website owners who strive to be environmentally friendly. Its hosting is powered by wind and solar, and most of its employees work from home.
ThinkHost is now a part of DreamHost, a well-known hosting brand. Staff are spread across three continents, although the company’s mailing address is in Portland, Oregon in the US. Founder Vladislav Davidzon currently serves as Executive Director.
ThinkHost also focuses on providing hosting for non-profit organisations and small businesses, giving it a narrower outlook than DreamHost. It offers free or discounted hosting to certain groups, although they must be based in the US to take advantage of that; there are no specific details of its discounted plans on the website.
ThinkHost Hosting Plans
ThinkHost offers one plan, aptly named The Plan. It offers unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases and the capacity to host unlimited domains. Across the board, the features of The Plan are broadly similar to other shared Linux plans offered by many providers. The only real difference is the lack of a branded control panel; users are not offered cPanel or Plesk; instead, they have to use a custom control panel.
ThinkHost claims to be carbon neutral and plants a tree for each new customer that signs up. It does not offer any information about how its data centre is run or how its energy is sourced, beyond the fact that it’s powered by wind and solar power. For a host built on green claims, it really needs to be a little more specific.
ThinkHost Uptime/Downtime
ThinkHost offers customers a very admirable 100% uptime guarantee, but its terms aren’t that favourable when you examine the small print as the amount customers can claim is limited.
Users are credited one free day of hosting for every hour of downtime, up to a maximum of 10% per month. In real terms, that means you won’t be able to claim more than three days’ credit (i.e. 10% of 30 days).
Despite the fact that ThinkHost is proud of its green credentials, it doesn’t offer any further information on its data centre – the location, the technology used or the reasons why it’s so environmentally friendly. There is a lot of content about the importance of being environmentally and socially aware, but not many facts or case studies to reinforce these claims.
ThinkHost Support
ThinkHost’s team is based all over the world. Support is not provided via telephone or live chat. Instead, customers have to use a ticketing system.
There’s also a FAQ and a network status blog on the ThinkHost site. The company’s knowledge base and support portal is quite unattractive and appears to be in desperate need of some work. There are barely any screenshots to make the content easy to follow, and much of the help is quite basic.
ThinkHost in the News
There don’t appear to be any major news reports in the archives relating to ThinkHost.
ThinkHost Control Panel
All ThinkHost customers on its Plan must use a custom control panel. There are no screenshots or demos on the website to tell us what the control panel looks like, but it appears to be unique to ThinkHost.
ThinkHost Extras
New ThinkHost customers are treated to free scripts for their new website, anti virus and spam filtering, web design templates and a bundle of shareware, eBooks and videos. Note that some of the contents of the bundle are simply trial versions of the product and must be purchased separately, although discount vouchers are included.
ThinkHost Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy
Customers can take advantage of ThinkHost’s 14-day uptime guarantee if they’re not happy with their hosting package. This gives you a valuable chance to try out the control panel software before committing over the longer term.
To claim a refund under this guarantee, customers simply need to ask for their account to be closed within 14 days of signing up. The cost of domain registrations isn’t included in the refund policy.
ThinkHost Summary
ThinkHost has an admirable commitment to ethical, eco-friendly hosting, and it appears to be genuine in its aims and beliefs. There are no real details about its green hosting credentials, though, and it’s not clear whether the company does anything innovative to ensure its policy is met. Many large hosts purchase renewable energy credits (RECs); if this is also ThinkHost’s strategy, it’s not as unique as it may seem at first glance.
Although its single shared Linux hosting plan is perfectly respectable, the real concern with ThinkHost is the custom control panel and the poor quality support material. There’s also no telephone line for support, and no live chat, which markedly impacts its competitiveness.
If you’re in the US and you run a non-profit group, ThinkHost could provide basic (possibly discounted) webspace, and that’s a valuable plus. Small businesses would really be better off looking for a host that’s a little more rounded.
ThinkHost is a progressive hosting company that offers hosting powered
on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy. They also
provide a unique recycling initiative in that they plant a tree for
every hosting client, new and existing. This promotes the saving of
the ozone layer and also enables replenishment of fertile soil for
planting. Hosting is affordable, just $7.95 a month. and they offer
free hosting for non profit entities and businesses that share their
mission. ThinkHost offers full Cpanel support with a fantastico installer that installs popular software
such as Word Press, Joomla, b2Evolution, and phpBB to name a few.
ThinkHost also offers a 100% 14 day trial money back guarantee which will lessen the risk of loosing your money without making use of it.
Their servers are run on Open Source software called FreeBSD which is
UNIX variant software. Since it runs on UNIX you know it has to
be reliable.
One organization that they provide hosting for is also an organization
which the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America work’s
closely with. That organization is Fair Trade which helps farmers get
equal profit for equal labor. I also noticed that they service J and J
Horse Rescue a very much needed service for horses who are in abusive,
neglected care. There are several education organizations which host
their sites with ThinkHost as well as various environmental entities.
ThinkHost obtains its renewable energy from tags purchased through
solar and wind energy providers. These providers have to be certified
through Greene the leading certification and verification service for
wind and energy providers.
So if you’re looking for a green, environmentally sound, socially
conscious hosting provider ThinkHost is the plan for you. You will not regret using ThinkHost. Sign up today and save money and the environment.
Plus join a host of other companies dedicated to saving the planet. You avail an affordable service and at the same time, helped save the planet.