Knownhost Review: ‘High Performance Hosting’. We Decided To Find Out.
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Our Verdict: #1 for High-End Hosting
KnownHost specializes in Linux-based VPS, dedicated, and managed hosting plans but also offers shared WordPress plans and account access via cPanel. They have four raid-10 solid-state drive datacenters in the US and Europe.
Click through on any of the KnownHost links on this page to get a discount on unlimited bandwidth shared hosting with a free SSL certificate, starting at $3.47 per month.
Pros:
- Specializes in high-end hosting
- Good value on shared, reseller, and WordPress plans
- Extensive knowledgebase via wiki
Cons:
- Support via tickets only (and pre-sale live chat)
- Linux-only hosting (no Windows)
Check out reviews from actual KnownHost customers, who give it an overall score of 4.5 stars out of 5, with outstanding ratings on support and quality across all plan types.
Is KnownHost the Perfect Host for Your Website?
Curious about something specific? Jump to our most popular sections:
- Expert review — Get the straight scoop from our expert, Claire Broadley.
- Best reviews — Read reviews by KnownHost customers.
- Hosting plans — See which plan is best for you.
- FAQ — Find answers to the most common questions about KnownHost.
If you’re looking for high-performance Linux web hosting and managed VPS, KnownHost is worth considering.
Dedicated server packages are available. All plans except Dedicated servers come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What’s the quality of their tech support? And what exactly is “managed”?
Here are some important things to know before you sign up.
About KnownHost
Founded in 2006, KnownHost is a privately-owned web hosting company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the United States.
In addition to managed VPS and managed dedicated hosting, KnownHost offers basic hosting packages. These are all cloud-based and include shared, WordPress, and reseller hosting.
Knownhost Reviews by Our Community
Overall Rating from 32 Reviews by Knownhost Customers
| Support | |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Features | |
| Value |
Most Helpful Reviews
Kevin Quinlan kqwedphoto.com
Mar 12, 2014
Very happy so far with Knownhost. I have only been with them for a few weeks, but while getting my site up and running and getting my speed to where I want it, the support has been amazing. They have email only support, and they are very responsive.
Once you send them a question they typically take a matter of minutes to respond. The best part of their support is the quality, and the depth of knowledge of the support team working there. I have contacted them dozens of times, and my questions are always quickly answered by people who know what they are doing.
Coming from a shared hosting environment to a VPS, that support is extremely important. I also love the speed, and consistency of speed my sites have now. With shared hosting, my site load times were typically 2 to 3x slower during the day.
With the knownhost vps, speed is quicker, and stays that way all the time. With Knownhost I am using one of their new Ssd-1 package with CPanel added on. Very impressed so far 🙂
Jeff Brigman codevertical.com
Jun 13, 2019
I’ve used Knownhost for over 10 years now for both personal and client projects. Through all these years I’ve used a variety of other hosts in an effort to save money, but found myself returning to them for many reasons:
1. Their Tech Support has always been great.
Even a few times when I screwed up the server and they fixed it for free.
2. Their Tech Support is available 24/7 and they always respond quick even in the early AM.
3. They provide honest and clear transparency about issues.
I had a server go down due to a hardware issue on their end. They had it resolved within an hour and provided me with a credit for that month.
4. They actually own and maintain their equipment unlike some others who resell and act like it’s their stuff.
Plus they are primarily US based (they do have a European server now though).
5. They are constantly improving their services, especially like great support for WordPress sites.
6. The uptime is amazing.
I monitor all my sites using Uptime Robot and Knownhost can definitely boast about having great uptime. Mine all average 99.99 percent. Honestly, I don’t plan on using any other host because Knownhost has proven they are the best around.
Zaid Markabi cetobeto.com
Mar 17, 2017
i’m using KnownHost for almost 10 months till now. i tried them with 3 Dedicated servers and 5+ VPS. their prices are some higher than other hosting providers, but they have very good and quick technical support team.
im good customer at KnownHost spending $600+ monthly
but what i hate in KnownHost, is that they are saying 30-Day Money Back Guarantee for VPS plans, but this is Not real. one of my websites on their VPS went under attack, they asked me to move it to a Dedicated server, and i did what they asked for. but they rejected to refund credits for this VPS after renewal by 10 days, i asked to refund such as 60% to cover 20 days not used yet but they rejected.
remember im very good customer spending $600/mo with them, having many Dedicated servers and VPSs. another case i have when i ordered new VPS + new Dedicated server, after 12 hours i asked them to cancel the VPS but they again rejected to refund (even i did not setup any website on the VPS, and only some hours passed after order)
i can say, Health of their servers are Good, and they have good technical support. but their Billing support is some bad, they may ask you to leave their servers if you have a lot of traffic or if you got attacked in a day.
and they will Not refund any money. something else, they does not accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
Hosting Plans
KnownHost’s services are divided into five kinds of hosting plans: Shared, VPS, Cloud, Dedicated, and Reseller hosting. But there’s a lot more to these services than may first appear.
Note that KnownHost offers Linux hosting. If you need Windows hosting, check out Liquid Web or A2 Hosting.
Managed VPS Hosting
They offer four plans for managed VPS hosting. The cheapest is their VPS-1 plan, which is just $28.00 per month on a yearly plan.
Its specs are impressive with 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB RAID-10 SSD storage, 2 TB bandwidth, and two IP addresses.
Managed and Unmanaged Cloud Plans
There are 3 managed Cloud VPS plans. They cost a bit more. The cheapest plan is Cloud-1 for $50.40 per month on a yearly plan and it includes 1 CPU core, 2 GB RAM, 75 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth, 2 IPv4 and 64 IPv6 addresses.
There are also 3 unmanaged cloud plans starting at $9.99 per month with 1 vCPU core, 2GB RAM, 25 GB cloud storage, 2TB bandwidth, 1 IPv4 and 64 IPv6 addresses.
Dedicated Server Hosting
KnownHost’s managed dedicated servers are located in its Texas datacenter. They are provided on a fully managed basis, so you don’t have to be a Unix expert to use them.
You can choose from 4 plans. The lowest-level plan is built on an Intel i7 processor but the others are built on Xeon processors. Otherwise, the plans only differ in how much resources they have.
The lowest-priced server, KH-MD1, costs $159 per month. It includes 8 GB RAM, 6 TB bandwidth, and 256 GB SSD plus 1 TB SATA storage.
Note that there is a set-up fee for all dedicated hosting plans. These range from $49 to $129.
Shared Hosting
KnownHost offers shared hosting in three different forms:
Shared Cloud
Reseller Cloud
- Managed WordPress Hosting
Shared Cloud Hosting
The only real difference between the Shared and Shared Cloud plans is that the first is hosted on traditional hardware and the second is hosted on a cloud server. Otherwise, they are the same in terms of resources, features, and price.
There are three plans: Basic, Standard, and Professional. The discounted costs range from $3.47 to $9.97 per month when you lock in these prices for a 3-year contract.
The highest-level Professional plan offers unmetered resources, whilst the Basic and Standard only offer unlimited bandwidth, and limitations in other resources like storage, email accounts, databases, and domains.
Reseller Hosting
There are four reseller hosting plans. The cheapest “Basic” plan comes with 25 GB of storage and unmetered bandwidth for $6.97 per month.
WordPress Hosting
KnownHost offers two WordPress hosting plans.
The cheaper one is $5.97 per month. It provides 50 GB of storage and can support up to 100,000 visitors. You can only host one website on the WordPress plans.
Interested in KnownHost?
Our readers can currently get great deals on KnownHost plans using this special discount link. Includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.
KnownHost Discount Coupon Codes
If you decide to purchase one of KnownHost’s hosting plans, be sure to use our discount coupons. We have two codes available:
| Offer | Valid With | Code |
|---|---|---|
30% Discount | Managed VPS & Managed Cloud hosting plans | WHT30LIFE |
*10% Discount | Any shared or reseller hosting plan | WHTHOT10 |
| * Any term, non recurring. | ||
KnownHost Infrastructure
KnownHost’s datacenters have 24/7 onsite security, redundant power, and multiple internet connections.
KnownHost runs 4 datacenters: 3 in the US and one in Europe. The three in the US are Seattle, Dallas, and Baltimore – representing the west, center, and east of the country.
Their only European datacenter is in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Datacenter Security
These are enterprise-level hosting facilities. All datacenters have 24/7 onsite security, redundant power supplies, and multiple internet connections.
Test Downloads
Test downloads are provided for all four datacenters so that customers can decide which one is right for them. It’s especially worth doing this if your target market is outside the US.
Uptime Guarantee
KnownHost offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This is standard for the industry. For every 0.1% (or fraction) below that, you get a 10% credit toward your monthly hosting bill.
So, if their uptime drops to 99.9%, you would get a free month of hosting.
This is extremely unlikely to happen, however. KnownHost has an uptime of 99.995% verified by Hyperspin. That is exceptional. It represents less than 2 minutes of downtime per month.
Automatic Backups
As part of its management, KnownHost provides free automatic backups of your website should you ever need to restore it.
Money-Back Guarantee
Except for dedicated hosting, all plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Note that this is limited to first-time customers.
You can cancel your plan at any time and receive a pro-rated refund.
Customer Support
KnownHost provides U.S.-based support.
KnownHost customers are provided with a very thorough knowledgebase and a download library full of useful manuals and software as well as multiple ways to contact the company for account questions or technical support.
Specifically, there’s a nicely organized wiki with guides rated by difficulty and there’s a community forum organized by topic. Another resource: the KnownHost blog.
Live chat is for pre-sales: this is a good way to get questions answered when you’re still in the decision phase.
Tech Support
Customers can contact support staff 24/7/365 through the ticketing system on the website or via email.
Support Team
KnownHost offers cPanel/WHM on all their hosting plans.
KnownHost’s support team is based in the US.
Control Panels
The main control panel offered by KnownHost is cPanel (and WHM if applicable). DirectAdmin is also available on the VPS plans.
Softaculous is also provided. It allows you to easily (with one-click, more or less) install over 400 applications such as CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento.
Looking for the right host?
KnownHost plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Our readers can currently get great deals on their hosting using this special discount link.
Summary
KnownHost provides excellent high-end hosting with its managed VPS and managed dedicated server plans. However, they also offer good value with their lower-level shared, reseller, and WordPress plans.
The only real downside of KnownHost is their live support, but their ticketing system and pre-sale live chat do the job.
If you’re not bothered by the limitations of ticket-based support, KnownHost is worth considering – regardless of the kind of hosting you are looking for.
If that’s you, visit KnownHost now.
Most Popular Knownhost Hosting Plans
| Basic Shared Hosting | Standard Shared | Professional Shared | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 2TB | 2TB | 2TB |
| Bandwidth | 25GB | 25GB | 25GB |
| Price | $3.47 / mo (Billed as $3.47 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! | $6.47 / mo (Billed as $3.47 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! | $9.97 / mo (Billed as $3.47 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 Knownhost Now | Visit Knownhost Now | Visit Knownhost Now |
| Plan | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unmanaged Cloud Cloud | 2TB | 25GB | $9.99 / mo Visit Host Now |
| Basic VPS VPS | 2TB | 25GB | $28 / mo Visit Host Now |
| Standard VPS VPS | 2TB | 25GB | $49 / mo Visit Host Now |
| Pro VPS VPS | 2TB | 25GB | $63 / mo Visit Host Now |
| Basic Dedicated Server Dedicated | 2TB | 25GB | $159 / mo Visit Host Now |
Knownhost Frequently Asked Questions
- Will KnownHost help migrate my site?
Yes. If the control panel you’re migrating from is the same as the one you’re going to, then their migration team should be able to do the whole thing without any downtime. If you have special requests, KnownHost will work with you on a plan of action.
- Does KnownHost use introductory pricing?
KnownHost plans are set. However, they offer a coupon code that allows you to get half-off your first hosting period. After that, you will be charged the full amount. If you are certain you want to host with them, you are best to purchase the longest plan term.
- Does KnownHost have an affiliates program?
Yes. They pay a commission for each sale from your website. The amount you make is based upon what the referral spends. KnownHost says this can be up to $300. They pay on a monthly basis.
Most Popular Knownhost Alternatives
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Antonio M
November 25, 2019
Excellent! Support is outstanding. Great value. Highly recommend.