Easy CGI Review
Easy CGI is by most standards, a fairly large host. Founded in 1994 as an ISP (the hosting section came four years later), they’ve prided themselves on providing word class support and services. At first glance, Easy CGI’s web site isn’t bad - it’s easy to navigate, easy to get information, and all of the things you’d expect from a web site. While EasyCGI.com not visually stunning, it does work.
From what I observed, everything seems pretty conventional with the Easy CGI. Pricing is about average for a budget host, The company’s Terms of Use is pretty standard, and there doesn’t appear to be any hidden or crazy things they get you to agree to or buy. Easy CGI seems straight forward, and seem to do a good job of communicating this. It’s nice to deal with a web host knowing they aren’t trying to rip you off.
The proof is in the pud. The Easy CGI control panel (which has no name, it’s just “Control Panel”) seems pretty generic in terms of features. It’s a little slow and clunky compared to cPanel, DirectAdmin, or the other major control panels, but it manages to get the job done without too many hassles. There’s definitely a learning curve if you’re used to the other major control panels (mainly because of layout, different wording, etc.) and with almost literally no graphics, the control panel is pretty ugly, but again, still functional. Within about 15 minutes, I was using it without any problems.
A nice thing is that Easy CGI supports lots of databases (MySQL, MsSQL, ODBC). They allow you to change the A, MX, and CNAME records from your control panel, and of course, do all of the standard email/FTP things. Webmail and stats somewhat lack, but again, are functional. FTP was pretty quick and worked without any problems. I managed to install some basic scripts (a forum system, a CMS, etc.) without any problems. There were some slight confusions with the host name (most of the time it’s localhost, but Easy CGI seems to use a different server for SQL, which is good). Once installed, everything ran fine.
There are no separate billing systems you have to deal with, which makes things easier and far less confusing. The billing functions are straight forward, easy-to-update, and simple enough. You can add/remove services, upgrade plans/features, view invoices, etc. all from your control panel, which means less hassles. There’s a built in ticket system, which seems simple enough, as well as some basic tutorials and a knowledge base.
From my experience, Easy CGI support was pretty good. I managed to figure out what I needed on my own. I didn’t really need them, but no review is complete without support contact. I called technical support and was speaking to a human about 20 seconds after dialing. Two simple questions–do you support mod_rewrite (Yes) and do you run Windows or Linux (Windows)–were answered quickly and politely. I sent the same questions via email (at noon EST) and got a helpful reply within 3 hours–pretty good for a Sunday.
Pros: Good database support, easy to contact technical support, near total control over domain/web site, fair prices and practices.
Cons: Not visually stunning, no amazingly unique features.
Bottomline: Easy CGI is a straight forward host that provides everything expected with a few nice pluses all for a fair price with pretty good service and reliability.
Rating: 
-Reviewed by Douglas Hanna
Easy-CGI sucks. I have used them for over 3 - 4 years now and they have gone from good to terrible. The sites are down very often, the support spits out canned responses for 9 out 10 support requests. The people on the phone are incompetent and have no customer service skills at all. If you want headaches go with these guys but as for me I am leaving first chance I get.
i’ve been trying to leave for a while now and i get bombarded with error messages, in some cases they totally remove the option for me to leave… i have in effect been kidnapped by easycgi.
steer clear!
I have been using EasyCgi for a while now without any problems not sure what the others have had problems with
Easy CGI really is probably the most incompetent of hosts. They actually tried to tell me that my classic asp application was not working because a virtual directory/application was not created on the folder. Anyone that has worked even remotely with asp knows that only .net applications require this functionality and that the asp dll is what handles the serving of classic asp pages not the .net framework. What the h***????? Makes me wonder who they hire. I could see if easy was mainly linux host that only offered windows as an alternative but they are windows only shop. UGH! Don’t do service with them you will regret it! Oh and they only have one connection to the internet to if that goes down so does access to your site. We have verified this in person at their facility.