If you need a web hosting service for business or personal reasons, check out HostMonster—but be aware of its shortcomings.
The web host offers many shared, dedicated, and virtual private server (VPS) hosting options for building websites, but has several issues (such as the lack of cloud, reseller, and WordPress hosting plans) that keep it out of the league of DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds, the overall Daxdi's Editors' Choice winners for web hosting services.
Shared Web Hosting
HostMonster doesn't offer month-to-month web hosting options, which is a strike against the service.
Instead, it requires you to sign up for an annual plan.
HostMonster throws a few savings bones your way, should you sign up for a two- or three-year plan, but those who don't want lengthy commitments should turn to the excellent HostGator ($2.64 Per Month + Free Domain Registration at HostGator) , the Editors' Choice for shared web hosting, if they want to pay on a monthly basis.
The Linux-based Basic shared hosting package (starting at $9.49 per month with a one-year contract) includes a free domain name you can keep as long as you use HostMonster, free domain transfer, 50GB of storage, unlimited monthly data transfers, five email accounts, and the ability to host a single website.
The HostMonster Plus package (starting at $12.49 per month with a one-year contract) includes 150GB of storage, the ability to host 50 domains, 100 email accounts, and spam prevention.
The Prime package (starting at $14.99 per month with a one-year contract) tops all of HostMonster's shared hosting plans with a dedicated IP address, an SSL certificate, and unlimited site hosting and email.
Still, HostGator also has unlimited storage, email, domains, monthly data transfers, and Windows-based servers.
That's why it's Daxdi's top shared hosting pick.
VPS Web Hosting
If you need a web hosting setup that's more powerful than shared web hosting, but less expensive than dedicated web hosting, HostMonster has very good Linux-based VPS packages starting at $29 per month.
Regardless of the tier you select—there are four in total—you'll enjoy unlimited email and a free domain name.
The $29.99 per month Standard plan includes 2GB of RAM, 30GB of storage, and 1TB of monthly data transfers.
The $59.99 per month Enhanced package ups the RAM, storage, and monthly data transfers to 4GB, 60GB, and 2TB, respectively.
Next up the ladder is the $89.99 per month Premium plan, which comes with 6GB of RAM, 90GB of storage, and 2TB of monthly data transfers.
The top-tier Ultimate package, which is $119 per month, blesses you with 8GB of RAM, 120GB of storage, and 3TB of monthly data transfers.
Those are good plans, but our Editors' Choice for VPS hosting, Hostwinds, tops them with unlimited monthly data transfers and Windows-based options, starting at $13.50 per month.
Dedicated Web Hosting
If you are considering HostMonster's dedicated servers (starting at $109 per month), you have a variety of configurations from which to choose.
The servers can be outfitted with a Linux-based operating system and up to 1,000GB of hard drive space, 16GB of RAM, and 15TB of data transfers per month—roughly the same specs as the dedicated hosting service offered by Bluehost (the web hosts have the same parent company).
Those are solid offerings, but Hostwinds—the Daxdi Editors' Choice for dedicated web hosting—one-ups HostMonster with a choice of Linux and Windows operating systems and unlimited monthly data transfers, starting at $99 per month.
The customer service rep who I spoke with (more on that in a bit) suggested that I check out BlueHost's offerings, as that company is HostMonster's sister site.
I wouldn't.
Instead, I suggest checking out TMD Hosting (2.95 Per Month - 65% Off at TMDHosting) , the Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting.
TMD's pre-built WordPress environment (starting at $8.95 per month) comes with many WordPress-friendly features, including live malware protection and curated plug-ins that are designed to enhance your experience.
HostMonster doesn't offer cloud hosting, either.
If you're in the hunt for that type of hosting, please check DreamHost, the Daxdi Editors' Choice in that space.
As you might expect, HostMonster also doesn't have any reseller hosting plans.
Hostwinds does, however.
It's our Editors' Choice for the category, so you should definitely give it a look.
Setting Up a HostMonster Hosted Site
HostMonster gives you several tools for building a website, including Weebly, a well-known choice among web-based website-builders.
Weeby's drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more.
Weebly's free version gives you basic Weebly functionality (you can create six pages and add custom HTML), but upgrading to the $8.95 per month Professional tier offers even more flexibility (custom themes, password protected pages, and more).
Check out our Weebly review(Start for Free at Weebly) for a closer look at its offerings.
E-marketing and E-commerce
HostMonster offers Mojo Marketplace, which has email marketing tools such as DaDa Mail (starting at $34.95 per year), software that lets you send email-based newsletters to a subscriber list.
Mojo Marketplace also contains Magento (an e-commerce application), which let me create an attractive store in just a few minutes by dragging and dropping website elements.
Security Features
HostMonster web hosting packages come with a slew of security features, including antispam and hotlink protection.
That said, if you want higher-end protection, sign up for HostMonster's Business Plus package, which comes with a SSL certificate and two kinds of antispam protection.
HostMonster's email supports DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication technology for added security.
Solid Uptime
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service.
If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services, which is obviously bad for business.
You simply can't take the chance that they'll visit someone else's business and possibly be lost to you forever as a customer.
For this testing, I used a website monitoring tool to track my HostMonster-hosted test site's uptime over a 14-day period.
Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least one minute.
The data revealed that HostMonster is very stable; it didn't go down once during the testing period.
Customer Service
I hit up HostMonster's tech support (via web chat) on a weekday afternoon to ask a representative about the differences between the company's various offerings.
A rep quickly fielded my question but didn't seem to quite understand my question.
I'm not sure if that was due to a language barrier or being overwhelmed and skimming the chat.
I later fired up the web chat on a weekday morning to ask a representative about how to import my WordPress.com setup into HostMonster.
A rep came to my aid a few seconds later and pasted a very helpful link into the chat that contained step-by-step instructions.
The person on the other side of the computer also suggested calling the 24-hour support squad if I needed step-by-step guidance.
HostMonster hosting packages come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, but Dreamhost ($2.49 Per Month for Shared Starter Plan at DreamHost) one-ups it with an impressive 97-day refund window.
There Are Better Options
HostMonster makes setting up a site or WordPress blog a breeze, but DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds—Daxdi's overall Editors' Choice winners for web hosting services—simply offer more features and flexibility.
HostMonster is good at what it does but sadly, lacks the optimized WordPress, reseller, and cloud features that would help it compete with the big boys.
Furthermore, its lack of month-to-month pricing plans may turn off some users.
Cons
No cloud, reseller, or WordPress hosting plans.
Lacks monthly hosting plans.
Skimpy email amount with certain plans.
The Bottom Line
If you need just the basics without many advanced options, HostMosnter is a web host that can get the job done.
Just be aware that there are much better options.
If you need a web hosting service for business or personal reasons, check out HostMonster—but be aware of its shortcomings.
The web host offers many shared, dedicated, and virtual private server (VPS) hosting options for building websites, but has several issues (such as the lack of cloud, reseller, and WordPress hosting plans) that keep it out of the league of DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds, the overall Daxdi's Editors' Choice winners for web hosting services.
Shared Web Hosting
HostMonster doesn't offer month-to-month web hosting options, which is a strike against the service.
Instead, it requires you to sign up for an annual plan.
HostMonster throws a few savings bones your way, should you sign up for a two- or three-year plan, but those who don't want lengthy commitments should turn to the excellent HostGator ($2.64 Per Month + Free Domain Registration at HostGator) , the Editors' Choice for shared web hosting, if they want to pay on a monthly basis.
The Linux-based Basic shared hosting package (starting at $9.49 per month with a one-year contract) includes a free domain name you can keep as long as you use HostMonster, free domain transfer, 50GB of storage, unlimited monthly data transfers, five email accounts, and the ability to host a single website.
The HostMonster Plus package (starting at $12.49 per month with a one-year contract) includes 150GB of storage, the ability to host 50 domains, 100 email accounts, and spam prevention.
The Prime package (starting at $14.99 per month with a one-year contract) tops all of HostMonster's shared hosting plans with a dedicated IP address, an SSL certificate, and unlimited site hosting and email.
Still, HostGator also has unlimited storage, email, domains, monthly data transfers, and Windows-based servers.
That's why it's Daxdi's top shared hosting pick.
VPS Web Hosting
If you need a web hosting setup that's more powerful than shared web hosting, but less expensive than dedicated web hosting, HostMonster has very good Linux-based VPS packages starting at $29 per month.
Regardless of the tier you select—there are four in total—you'll enjoy unlimited email and a free domain name.
The $29.99 per month Standard plan includes 2GB of RAM, 30GB of storage, and 1TB of monthly data transfers.
The $59.99 per month Enhanced package ups the RAM, storage, and monthly data transfers to 4GB, 60GB, and 2TB, respectively.
Next up the ladder is the $89.99 per month Premium plan, which comes with 6GB of RAM, 90GB of storage, and 2TB of monthly data transfers.
The top-tier Ultimate package, which is $119 per month, blesses you with 8GB of RAM, 120GB of storage, and 3TB of monthly data transfers.
Those are good plans, but our Editors' Choice for VPS hosting, Hostwinds, tops them with unlimited monthly data transfers and Windows-based options, starting at $13.50 per month.
Dedicated Web Hosting
If you are considering HostMonster's dedicated servers (starting at $109 per month), you have a variety of configurations from which to choose.
The servers can be outfitted with a Linux-based operating system and up to 1,000GB of hard drive space, 16GB of RAM, and 15TB of data transfers per month—roughly the same specs as the dedicated hosting service offered by Bluehost (the web hosts have the same parent company).
Those are solid offerings, but Hostwinds—the Daxdi Editors' Choice for dedicated web hosting—one-ups HostMonster with a choice of Linux and Windows operating systems and unlimited monthly data transfers, starting at $99 per month.
The customer service rep who I spoke with (more on that in a bit) suggested that I check out BlueHost's offerings, as that company is HostMonster's sister site.
I wouldn't.
Instead, I suggest checking out TMD Hosting (2.95 Per Month - 65% Off at TMDHosting) , the Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting.
TMD's pre-built WordPress environment (starting at $8.95 per month) comes with many WordPress-friendly features, including live malware protection and curated plug-ins that are designed to enhance your experience.
HostMonster doesn't offer cloud hosting, either.
If you're in the hunt for that type of hosting, please check DreamHost, the Daxdi Editors' Choice in that space.
As you might expect, HostMonster also doesn't have any reseller hosting plans.
Hostwinds does, however.
It's our Editors' Choice for the category, so you should definitely give it a look.
Setting Up a HostMonster Hosted Site
HostMonster gives you several tools for building a website, including Weebly, a well-known choice among web-based website-builders.
Weeby's drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more.
Weebly's free version gives you basic Weebly functionality (you can create six pages and add custom HTML), but upgrading to the $8.95 per month Professional tier offers even more flexibility (custom themes, password protected pages, and more).
Check out our Weebly review(Start for Free at Weebly) for a closer look at its offerings.
E-marketing and E-commerce
HostMonster offers Mojo Marketplace, which has email marketing tools such as DaDa Mail (starting at $34.95 per year), software that lets you send email-based newsletters to a subscriber list.
Mojo Marketplace also contains Magento (an e-commerce application), which let me create an attractive store in just a few minutes by dragging and dropping website elements.
Security Features
HostMonster web hosting packages come with a slew of security features, including antispam and hotlink protection.
That said, if you want higher-end protection, sign up for HostMonster's Business Plus package, which comes with a SSL certificate and two kinds of antispam protection.
HostMonster's email supports DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication technology for added security.
Solid Uptime
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service.
If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services, which is obviously bad for business.
You simply can't take the chance that they'll visit someone else's business and possibly be lost to you forever as a customer.
For this testing, I used a website monitoring tool to track my HostMonster-hosted test site's uptime over a 14-day period.
Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least one minute.
The data revealed that HostMonster is very stable; it didn't go down once during the testing period.
Customer Service
I hit up HostMonster's tech support (via web chat) on a weekday afternoon to ask a representative about the differences between the company's various offerings.
A rep quickly fielded my question but didn't seem to quite understand my question.
I'm not sure if that was due to a language barrier or being overwhelmed and skimming the chat.
I later fired up the web chat on a weekday morning to ask a representative about how to import my WordPress.com setup into HostMonster.
A rep came to my aid a few seconds later and pasted a very helpful link into the chat that contained step-by-step instructions.
The person on the other side of the computer also suggested calling the 24-hour support squad if I needed step-by-step guidance.
HostMonster hosting packages come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, but Dreamhost ($2.49 Per Month for Shared Starter Plan at DreamHost) one-ups it with an impressive 97-day refund window.
There Are Better Options
HostMonster makes setting up a site or WordPress blog a breeze, but DreamHost, HostGator, and Hostwinds—Daxdi's overall Editors' Choice winners for web hosting services—simply offer more features and flexibility.
HostMonster is good at what it does but sadly, lacks the optimized WordPress, reseller, and cloud features that would help it compete with the big boys.
Furthermore, its lack of month-to-month pricing plans may turn off some users.
Cons
No cloud, reseller, or WordPress hosting plans.
Lacks monthly hosting plans.
Skimpy email amount with certain plans.
The Bottom Line
If you need just the basics without many advanced options, HostMosnter is a web host that can get the job done.
