| Hosting Plan | Features | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Shared |
|
|
$4.38/month
Usual price:
|
+ people on the site right now
Publishing 10788 user reviews of 666 web hosting companies since 2007
- English
- Español
Host Europe Introduction
Host Europe is a major European hosting company, headquartered in Cologne, Germany. The company also has offices in Uxbridge, Great Britain.
Host Europe was founded in 1997 and currently employs about 600 people and it is currently the biggest privately-owned hosting company in Europe. The Host Europe Group also includes numerous regional brands, such as: 123-reg, Webfusion, Heart Internet, BrandFortress, Host Europe, Domainbox, Domainmonster, DonHost, Sign-Up.to and RedCoruna. These brands cover Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Romania, Switzerland and Spain.
Services and Specializations
Host Europe offers a wide range of services, starting with shared web hosting and virtual private servers. The company also offers root servers, dedicated root servers, cloud hosting, private cloud servers, individual servers and other related services, such as SSL certificates. The company bills itself as the go to place for all-in-one hosting, so there is not much of an emphasis on any particular service.
In addition to strong shared webhosting plans, the company offers a range of professional solutions. Customers can choose between several different packaged of root servers, virtual servers, dedicated servers, private cloud servers and so on. The plans are flexible, too.
While there is no clear focus on any particular niche, Host Europe stands out as a provider of professional hosting packages, namely dedicated servers and cloud hosting. These services include managed hosting as well as Über Managed Hosting, which includes consulting, additional management services and more. These plans are marketed to business users, who need professional assistance in setting up their IT infrastructure.
Several reseller plans are available as well, including managed plans. The company also offers comprehensive cloud plans, as well as various SaaS and IaaS products and services.
Host Europe Infrastructure
Host Europes primary datacenters are located in Cologne. The two facilities are estimated to have capacity for around 24,000 servers. The datacenters are underpinned by a 20 GigE Backbone, along with direct links to DE-CIX and LINX, and an external, multi-redundant 180Gbps connection for different carriers. Host Europe and its regional subsidiaries are estimated to have upwards of 200,000 private and corporate customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The company uses hardware from tier-one vendors, namely Dell, Juniper Networks, Cisco, F5 and others. The servers are based on Intel processors, including desktop Core series products and Xeon series server parts.
In terms of software, Host Europe relies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), VMware virtualization solutions, Odin virtual server systems and the Plesk control panel. Microsoft, Sun, Juniper, Cisco, Kaspersky, F5 and KPN are also listed as the companys technology partners.
Support and Customer Service
Host Europe offers 24/7 support by phone and email. The company has three toll-free hotlines for users based in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. An international hotline is available as well, but it is not toll-free.
Online chat and email support is available, too. Host Europe also employs a proprietary customer information system (KIS), designed to speed up support and other services.
Customer service is available in German and English. Host Europes regional subsidiaries cater to several smaller European markets and offer service in additional, region-specific languages.
The company guarantees a response time of two hours, and a recovery time of four to eight hours. However, these are standard response times on certain plans. Standard support packages may not offer the same response times, and you need to check the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for additional details.
Security, Backup Policy, Server Monitoring
Host Europe markets a wide range of monitoring options, including the previously mentioned Über Managed Hosting, which is designed for professional customers who need complete infrastructure solutions. Consulting is available as well, along with the option of creating custom solutions tailored to meet your needs.
The backup policy includes several different options, depending on your plan. These include professional, managed backups, cloud backups and more.
In terms of security, Host Europe employs a number of advanced software and hardware features that should deliver a high level of security. As a result, the company received ISO 27001 and ITIL certificates. The backbone features multiple hardware redundancies and the infrastructure was certified by German authorities.
Uptime Guarantee
The uptime guarantee, as per the Host Europe SLA, varies from 99.9% to 99.995% depending on the service. Basic and Medium dedicated server plans have a 99.95% guarantee, while Premium and Supreme packages come with a 99.99% guarantee. This is a monthly mean.
Billing and Payment Policies
Host Europe accepts payments via SEPA and PayPal. International customers can use all major credit cards. Additional payment methods are available for certain types of customers.
Monthly billing is available on some plans (for example, shared web hosting). However, if you do not commit to a 12-month plan, you will have to pay a setup fee. All prices include 19% VAT for German users, which can be excluded for certain international markets.
Conclusion
Host Europe stands out due to its size and the scope of its services. The company has plans suitable for small publishers and e-commerce startups, but at the other side of the spectrum, it offers high-end infrastructure solutions for businesses.
Due the location of its infrastructure, it is ideally suited for European customers, namely Central and Western Europe. However, availability of 24/7 support in English, as well as the recent addition of PayPal support, could also make Host Europe attractive to international customers.
The availability of high-end plans, including several tiers of dedicated servers, cloud servers and managed hosting solutions, makes Host Europe a competitive player in the small to medium business segment. If on the other hand, you are looking for the cheapest possible shared hosting in Europe, you may want to consider alternatives.