Downtownhost Introduction

Downtownhost was founded in May 2001 to provide dedicated and shared solutions for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Today, they’ve expanded to offer shared, dedicated, reseller, VPS plans. Headquartered in Florida and with servers in datacenters all over the world, Downtownhost continues to grow and expand their offering and their customer base.

Shared hosting

Downtownhost offers robust shared hosting packages. Every single shared hosting package includes:

• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited add-on domains
• cPanel access
• Access to the Fantastico de Luxe script library and Softaculous
• Unlimited MySQL databases
• Access to a free website builder

Their top tier packages also offer more unlimited bandwidth as well, for sites that are generating larger traffic then the lower plans can handle. All of the shared servers are run on CentOS/CloudLinux with LiteSpeed.

VPS hosting

Built on Xen and SolusVM software, Downtownhost provides robust VPS solutions for growing businesses. With root access and a choice of CentOS, Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and Fedora, Downtownhost VPS provides a high level of control for webmasters.

All of their VPS also come with one-click reinstalls and are fully managed via cPanel with daily backups for security. Like their shared hosting, their VPS packages all utilize LiteSpeed.

Dedicated hosting

The dedicated servers that Downtownhost provides all come with at least an i3 processors and are run on either CentOS or CloudLinux. Access is granted via cPanel/WHM that’s been skinned with RvSkin for a better user experience. Their dedicated servers come with unlimited databases, parks and sub domains, and unlimited email, as well as all your basic languages like php, JavaScript, Ruby, and HTML all set to go.

Reseller hosting

Downtownhost offers their reseller accounts unlimited domains, enabling as much reselling as their plan can support. Each reseller account also includes all the essential features of previous plans and is secured with shared SSL access.

Infrastructure and Datacenters

Downtownhost has servers in datacenters in seven global locations: Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, and Singapore. Each datacenter has backup power generators, 24/7 security, Tier 4 backbone providers, and constant staffing should to maintain the servers. Their shared servers are all dual quad core servers for incredibly fast speeds.

Support and Customer Service

Downtownhost provides a number of customer support and services options. They have a fully developed, categorized, and searchable knowledge base as well as tutorials, guides, and manuals. They also have a ticketing system. For live support, they have live chat and a toll free number to call for both stateside and international customers. However, when our reviewer tried, neither number worked. Of note though is that they do have a support response guarantee, promising to respond to tickets within 12 hours with an average response time of 30 minutes to an hour.

Backups and monitoring

Downtownhost backs up all their accounts every night, and should something happen will do the best they can to recover your data. However, this is a good faith gesture rather than a legal requirement – they encourage customers to back up their data themselves as well for guaranteed safety in the event of corruption or loss. Their backup system in run through R1soft continuous data protection.

With regards to server monitoring, Downtownhost has technicians with the servers 24/7/365 at the datacenter

Uptime Guarantee

Downtownhost guarantees 99.9% uptime. For routine maintenance or repairs, Downtownhost will send out an email at least two hours before. Any downtime accrued during this is not covered by the 99.9% guarantee. Otherwise, they structure their guarantee based on how long it was down for in a calendar month:

• Less than 45 minutes: no credit
• 45 minutes to 3 hours and 30 minutes: 5% credit of your total monthly bill
• 3 hours 30 minutes to 7 hours 15 minutes: 10% credit of your total monthly bill
• 7 hours 15 minutes to 14 hours 30 minutes: 15% credit of your total monthly bill
• 14 hours 30 minutes to 1.5 days: 25% credit of your total monthly bill

If it’s down for more than a day and a half your month is free.

Payment Policies and Money Back Guarantee

Downtownhost bills on the first of the month. They accept payment via MasterCard, American Express, Visa, and PayPal and you can opt to bill monthly, quarterly, semi- annually, or annually, with decreases in price as your contract length increases. They automatically bill their credit cards, but if you pay with PayPal, you have 15 days from the invoice date to pay or your account is suspended. 5 more days without payment and your account is terminated. They also have a 30 money back guarantee policy, so if you cancel before 30 days you get your money back.

Conclusion

If you’re a business looking for a host that you can grow with, then Downtownhost is a fantastic option. Their broad range of plans and packages make easy to scale your business with the right web resources. And with worldwide servers and a solid hardware infrastructure, your customers will get a fast, seamless user experience every single time.