Hostek Reviewed by Our Experts: Are They Right For You?

Disclosure: Your support helps keep the site running! We earn a referral fee for some of the services we recommend on this page. Learn more

by Katie Horne

Last updated: June 26, 2019

Hostek Review

About Hostek

Hostek is a veteran in the web hosting industry. Founded in 1998, Hostek continues to offer quality solutions to its customers that are backed by top-notch customer service and include high-valuable extras, such as backup and restore services.

Is Hostek the web host for you? Read on to find out.

The TL;DR: Why Hostek?

Hostek Hosting Features

• Top-notch customer support — average support ticket response times are between 10-20 minutes
• Wide variety of hosting options, including less commonly-used technologies like Lucee and ColdFusion
• Full suite of professional services to round out its web hosting portfolio, such as load balancing and network-related services

Hostek Features

Regardless of which plan you choose, all Hostek customers benefit from the following:

• Top-notch customer support that is available 24/7
• Real-time monitoring of the infrastructure on which your website is hosted
• Hassle-free migration (if you already have a website hosted elsewhere)
• Nightly backups
• Scalable hardware, so you can meet your website’s needs without any downtime
• Security software, including anti-virus programs and firewalls
• Top-notch infrastructure
• No long-term contracts required
• 30 day money back guarantee, with prorated refunds offered at the end of the 30-day window

If you do not already have a website built, all web hosting plans come with access to Hostek’s SiteMaker program.

Looks like we don’t have any reviews for Hostek yet.

Web Hosting Options

Hostek Hosting Options

Broadly speaking, Hostek offers three types of web hosting:

• Shared
• Reseller
• Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Shared Web Hosting

Hostek offers a number of options if you are interested in shared hosting — you are not limited to Linux-only plans that offer a varying allocation of resources. Depending on the technologies that you use to build your website, app, or blog, you can choose from the following shared plan options/types:

1. Windows/ASP.NET
2. Linux/cPanel
3. ColdFusion
4. Lucee/Railo
5. Email-only

Hostek offers multiple plans for each shared hosting option, so you have some say in the amount you pay and the resources you get for your site.

Reseller Web Hosting

If you are interested in reseller web hosting, Hostek offers two types of reseller plans:

1. ColdFusion
2. Windows/ASP.NET

Unless you opt for a reseller hosting plan on a VPS server, you will be limited to hosting 100 accounts.

Virtual Private Server Web Hosting

Hostek’s Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting option is actually a cloud-based product. Hostek does not oversell its VPS servers. It guarantees your resource allocation. And each VPS is designed to be highly available.

You can choose from the following types of VPS hosting:

1. Windows
2. cPanel
3. ColdFusion
4. Lucee
5. Linux
6. SmarterMail

Note that the Linux option is an unmanaged web hosting option. This means that you will be responsible for most, if not all, of the setup, configuration, and maintenance of your server environment. The benefit of this, however, is its extremely low cost.

PCI Compliance

If you are running an online store/e-commerce website, Hostek would be a good option. The company is one of the few offering PCI-compliant solutions at all hosting levels.

Hostek’s St. Louis, MO datacenter maintains SOC 2 certification, while its Ashburn, VA datacenter maintains SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications. Hostek supports PCI compliance for both its VPS and shared hosting plans.

Choosing a Datacenter Location

Hostek Datacenter Locations

Hostek currently has data centers in St. Louis, MO, Ashburn, VA, and Reading, United Kingdom.

Purchasers of VPS hosting plans may choose the datacenter that hosts their website, but shared plans do not come with this option.

Migration Policy

You are responsible for migrating your site to Hostek, though the company offers detailed instructions for doing so seamlessly. The company has also written a blog post on how you can prepare for the migration process.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service and Technical Support

Hostek’s support material is very good. The articles are well-written, thorough, easy to use, and cover a wide variety of topics and issues that may be of interest to you.

Website Backups/Backup Policy

Hostek offers free nightly backups. The initial backup will be a full backup, with incremental backups afterward. Site files are stored for 14 days, while databases and emails are kept for 7 days.

Restoration of backup copies cannot be done by the customer; the customer must request a restore to be done by Hostek staff.

Customers get one free full/partial restore per calendar quarter. Additional requests will be subject to a restore fee of $9.95.

Pricing

The cheapest plan you can get from Hostek (which is a shared plan running Linux and managed via cPanel) costs $5.79 per month, though Hostek occasionally offers a promotion where you can get your first three months of service for free. If offered, this discount will be available automatically when you check out.

The costs for VPS plans are much more variable than the costs for shared plans. The unmanaged Linux VPS plan costs not much more than a shared plan, but some of the more customized hosting plans, such as those for ColdFusion, can cost hundreds of dollars per month.

Hostek does not offer a trial period, but it does offer a 30-day, no hassle money back guarantee.

If you like this host…

Hostek stands out primarily due to its support for ColdFusion website and apps. If this is your niche, there are few alternatives available to you.

If you are not reliant on such technologies, consider the following web hosts:

• A2 Hosting: A2 Hosting is web hosting for developers. Its dev team is top notch, its plans are backed by excellent support, and you can built pretty much anything you want and host it with A2.
• SiteGround: If A2 Hosting is too complicated for your needs, consider SiteGround. SiteGround offers a wide variety of web hosting packages and is just an all-around excellent hosting provider.

Hostek Quick Overview

This overview will help you in comparing Hostek to other hosts.

Specializations

• Top-notch customer support
• Wide variety of hosting options
• Full suite of professional services

Plans starting at…

$5.79/mo

Migration Policy

DIY

Quality of support material

Good

Control Panel

Many options available

Datacenters Locations

US Midwest and East Coast, UK

Money-back guarantee or trial period

30 days

Backup policy/fees

Daily backups; 1 free restore per calendar quarter

Sitebuilder?

Yes

PCI Compliant?

Yes

Pros and cons of Hostek

We’ve covered a lot about Hostek, so here are the highs and lows of this host.

Hostek Pros

• Best-in-class customer service
• Support for less-commonly used technologies
• PCI compliance, even at the shared hosting level

Hostek Cons

• Limited access to backup files that are usable without Hostek staff assistance
• Limited documentation regarding SiteMaker, Hostek’s website building tool

Summary

Hostek is a solid web host provider that offers a variety of hosting options. It is focused on the lower-end of the market, since it does not offer any type of dedicated hosting option, but that does not mean that Hostek doesn’t have premium offerings.

If you are looking for niche hosting (for example, you might be using ColdFusion), you cannot go wrong with Hostek.

Most Popular Hostek Alternatives

Starts at:

$3.95

per month

(Billed as $5.99 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 Now

Read Reviews

Starts at:

$2.75

per month

(Billed as $5.99 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 Now

Read Reviews

Starts at:

$3.92

per month

(Billed as $5.99 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 Now

Read Reviews

Review Hostek

Already a Hostek customer? Write an honest & helpful review.

1 How would you rate your experience with Hostek?

Please give a star rating for Support, Features, Uptime and Value (each must be at least 1 star).

Support
Features
Uptime
Value

Next

2 Write your review

Take a deep breath and think about exactly what you want to say about Hostek.

Please be specific: we’re only interested in hearing that Hostek rocks/sucks if you can explain why.

Your review needs to be at least 50 words long. Please write some more about your experience.

Next

Back

3 About You

Please enter First Name, Last Name, Your Email, Your Website URL and accept the Terms & Conditions.

I accept the Terms & Conditions

Submit Your Review

Back

Terms and Conditions

By submitting a review, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to these terms and conditions:

1. We may reject any review for publication at any time and for any reason at our sole discretion.
2. Reviews must be entirely your own work, unique and cannot have been previously published elsewhere.
3. You hereby grant QNL a perpetual, exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free, licence to host, display and otherwise use the review for any purpose anywhere in the world.

Thank You For Your Review

Thanks! We’ve received your review of Hostek. We’ll contact you once your review has been moderated (c. 1-2 weeks).

About Katie Horne

Katie is a C# developer who became a technical writer. She is a lifelong bookworm and all-around nerd with a soft spot for gimmicks and packaging. She judges books by the cover, and she’s not sorry about it. In her spare time, she likes to swim, knit, and do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

Connect with Katie