Host Excellence In 2021: What Do Host Excellence Client Reviews Say?
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Our overview of Host Excellence…
Expert Opinion
Hear from our web hosting expert, Claire Broadley.
Best Reviews
See what 10 Host Excellence customers have to say.
Hosting Plans
Compare the best Host Excellence hosting plans and their prices.
FAQs
Most asked Questions about Host Excellence – answered!
Host Excellence Introduction
Host Excellence is a US-based web hosting company with a focus on shared hosting, although it does also offer a step-up to VPS hosting. The company emerged out of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s and has been in the web hosting business for at least 10 years.
Host Excellence is privately owned and run, with corporate locations in four countries around the world (including the USA and Ukraine).
Host Excellence Hosting Plans
There are three competitively-priced shared hosting plans offered by Host Excellence. Each offers unlimited space, bandwidth domains and subdomains.
- The basic plan is a low cost shared hosting option. This provides one free domain name and one dedicated IP. This plan restricts your email resources and the number of databases you can have, and it only allows for Linux based web hosting.
- The business plan includes two free domain names and three dedicated IP addresses. Databases are restricted again, but this plan also allows for more email space and Windows hosting, albeit with an extra monthly charge.
- The ultimate business plan is similar to the business plan but provides three free domain registrations and 15 dedicated IP addresses. This plan allows for even more email resources and only SQL databases are restricted.
- VPS hosting plans allow customers to choose between Linux or Windows web hosting and are based on three different VPS options. Each option comes with two dedicated IP addresses, burstable RAM and allows for unlimited domains and subdomains.
- H2 gives customers 10 GB storage space, 384 MB RAM and 500 GB bandwidth. This provides one Intel Xeon core processor, but it doesn’t come with a free control panel.
- H4 allows customers to purchase 50 GB space, 768 MB RAM and 1.5 TB bandwidth with 4 Intel Xeon cores and a choice of control panels.
- The H8 plan ups the customer’s storage space to 100 GB, RAM to 2048 MB and bandwidth to 2 TB. This plan provides 8 Intel Xeon cores.
There is also an affiliate programme, allowing customers to earn extra money through site referrals. Customers can also purchase an eCommerce SSL certificate, professional web design and a merchant account for transaction processing.
Host Excellence Uptime/Downtime
Host Excellence boasts 100% of satisfied customers and 99.9% uptime. Importantly, this claim is backed by a guarantee. Customers can claim credits for should the uptime fall below 99.9% in any given year (except where downtime is caused by ‘acts of God’ or where Host Excellence do not have any direct influence on events).
Host Excellence does not rent its server space – its owns its own facility. Its data center is based in Ohio and is managed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company’s server farm is continually optimized and upgraded, and features redundant cooling systems and a back up power supply to ensure it stays up and running.
Another feature of the Host Excellence hosting packages is the ability to purchase CloudFlare to help protect your site from outside attack.
Host Excellence Support
24/7 customer support is provided through live chat, phone lines (notably, the host provides both US and international numbers) and an online ticket centre. Host Excellence also provides a support centre with FAQs, video tutorials and a web hosting manual for customers to find the answers they need. There is also a blog and a status page where the company keeps customers informed of any problems that have arisen.
The Host Excellence Facebook page is not particularly active, and neither is the Twitter account, although the team do respond to customer queries when they arise.
Host Excellence in the News
Despite being a relatively long running business, Host Excellence have attracted little attention in the media, either good or bad.
Host Excellence Control Panel
Host Excellence provides its own custom control panel for customers to use with their shared hosting plan. The control panel seems fairly simple to use and is quick enough to get your head around, but it’s not as slick as something like cPanel.
For VPS hosting customers, Host Excellence offer a choice of cPanel or Plesk to administer their websites.
Host Excellence Extras
All of Host Excellence’s shared hosting packages come with a free site builder, free web templates, a free SSL certificate and a range of free scripts to install, such as WordPress, Joomla, PHP, Perl and Ruby on Rail.
Free domain names come with each web hosting account and Host Excellence support a range of eCommerce tools such as CubeCart, ZenCart and SugarCRM.
Host Excellence Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy
Host Excellence provides two 100% money-back guarantees for its customers.
- There is a standard 30-day money-back guarantee available to new customers, allowing them to cancel their service and receive a full refund, less any domain name costs. This does include setup fees, but any over-usage costs are not included.
- The Anytime money-back guarantee allows customers to cancel their account and claim back their current month’s fees and all future fees on their plan. To claim a refund, Host Excellence asks the customer to explain the reasons for the cancellation and provide suggestions on how it can improve its services.
Host Excellence Summary
Host Excellence does not offer a vast range of web hosting services, and their plans do not really stick out as offering anything particularly unique. The bespoke control panel may also put some shared hosting customers off. Having said that, 100% customer satisfaction is a bold claim, so the company must be doing something right.
The biggest selling point for Host Excellence is its guarantees which go further than many other hosting companies. The 30 day guarantee is fairly standard, but the Anytime guarantee goes beyond that, offering genuine peace of mind. Together with the 99.9% uptime SLA, Host Excellence customers have comprehensive set of guarantees to fall back on if anything does go wrong.
Host Excellence Reviews by Our Community
Overall Rating from 10 Reviews by Host Excellence Customers
| Support | |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Features | |
| Value |
Most Helpful Reviews
Deborah Stewart justusdriving.com
May 05, 2018
jim tuttle
Aug 24, 2018
I have used Host Excellence to manage a golf tournament for at least 10 years. This year was a disaster in every way possible. I was told the site would be migrated ‘sometime’ but without any time parameters.
As the tournament date approached I sent many emails asking that they hold migration for at least a week so I could update tee times/results, etc. for the event. I never got an answer.
It had been two months since they said it would happen ‘sometime’. They chose two days before the event was to start to shut me down. There was zero phone support; when I finally got someone at corporate they said it wasn’t their problem.
After the event (one month) I got an email saying they would not be migrating my site after all but that it would be cancelled in September???? I honestly cannot imagine a business doing a worse job of communicating with or helping customers. Pathetic. And I am gone for good.
John Walsh onlineers.com
Jun 12, 2018
Host Excellence was ok as a Web Hosting company for many years.For the last 8 months we have been unable to login to
customers Web Sites. Now we are unable to login to our Control Panel. There is no phone support and no chat support.
The password reset functionality is not operational. We were told that HE was being taken over by Site5 and we would be informed when the migration would take place, that has not happened. I would not under any circumstances allow this company to Host My Website.
Most Popular Host Excellence Hosting Plans
| Basic Plan | Business Plan | Ultimate Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Price | $3.95 / mo (Billed as $3.95 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $7.95 / mo (Billed as $3.95 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $7.95 / mo (Billed as $3.95 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! |
| Visit Host Excellence Now | Visit Host Excellence Now | Visit Host Excellence Now |
| Plan | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| H4 Linux VPS Hosting Shared | 50GB | 1.5TB | $54.95 / mo Visit Host Now |
| H4w Windows VPS Hosting Shared | 50GB | 1.5TB | $69.95 / mo Visit Host Now |
| H8 Linux VPS Hosting Shared | 100GB | 2TB | $89.95 / mo Visit Host Now |
| H8w Windows VPS Hosting Shared | 100GB | 2TB | $104.95 / mo Visit Host Now |
Host Excellence Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Host Excellence provide domain registration services?
Domain registration services are available only with the purchase of their hosting plans.
- Does Host Excellence have a money-back guarantee?
Yes, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- What type of support is available?
They provide around the clock phone support, live chat support, and they also have an email support system. Their customer service is available in English.
- Where does Host Excellence have its datacenters?
Their datacenters are based out of Columbus, Ohio. These are fully owned — the company does not colocate resources. Their headquarters are also located in Columbus, Ohio.
- What programming languages are supported by their services?
Supported programming languages include PHP, Perl, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails, as well as ASP and ASP.NET for their Windows hosting plans.
- Does Host Excellence provide help with transferring an existing site and domain name?
Host Excellence will transfer your existing website over to their hosting for an additional fee. You can also use the tools provided in the cPanel to transfer the site yourself. This includes WordPress and Joomla websites.
- Can I have more one domain per account on their service? What about email addresses?
You can host an unlimited number of domains on each of their shared plans. Their low-tier hosting plans limit the number of email accounts to 2,500 while the top tier shared hosting plan allows for an unlimited number of email addresses.
- Do Host Excellence provide one-click installers or site builders?
They provide Site Studio if you need to build a website easily and they also offer one-click installers for WordPress, Joomla, Zen Cart, and more.
- What security measures are in place?
The company offers 24/7 monitoring, firewalls, and hot-linking and spam protection. They also offer SiteLock security which can protect your website from hackers and malware for an additional fee.
- What ecommerce features are available if any?
They offer multiple shopping carts and free shared SSL certificates. They also offer osCommerce shopping cart pre-installed and support many other open source and paid shopping cart applications.
- Can I host an image-heavy site on their services?
Their shared hosting plans provide unlimited disk space and bandwidth so you shouldn’t run into any problems.
- Does Host Excellence provide a control panel?
This company provides Parallels H-Sphere on their shared hosting plans. VPS hosting plans offer both cPanel and Plesk.
- What payment options does Host Excellence accept?
They accept all major credit card payment methods like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. They also accept PayPal. Their pricing is set up for monthly or yearly service terms, with yearly service contracts getting an overall price reduction.
- Does Host Excellence have an uptime guarantee and do they pro-rate for downtime?
This company has a 99.9% uptime guarantee that is backed by service credits for any downtime that is experienced.
- Will they backup my website for me?
They perform their own backups for internal purposes which can be requested for file restoration if something goes wrong.
However, backup services are not offered on their plans and customers are advised to perform their own backups regularly.
- Is there an affiliate program available?
Yes, they offer an affiliate program with uncapped commissions.
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HostExcellence may be going out of business!! I have been a loyal customer for 15+ years but my sites have been down for the last 2 months and there is NO phone support, NO ticket support and minimal chat support. They say they have been sold to Site5.com and domains are being migrated.
Neither Site5 nor HE can tell me why my sites are down or When they will be migrated and back up. I paid for 2 years only 6 months ago so now I guess I’m losing several hundred dollars and must now rescue and move all of my and my clients domains. Avoid this hosting company!!