
You hear about a lot of hosting companies here on Clickfire, and it’s not just because we’re on an immortal quest to discover the best one for your readers. Well, okay, that’s exactly what we’re doing – and part of that quest means not only reviewing the individual companies themselves, but pitting them against each other in hand-to-hand combat and comparing their features directly.
Sites like HostMonster and Just Host are why we do this thing in the first place – they’re quality hosting sites that offer a lot of bargain for the dollar, which means you end up keeping things simpler on your end while they’re busy trying to keep you stocked with features and services.
These are two of the better hosting sites I’ve personally come across, and a quick glance at the features and pricing should convince you of the same. Let’s take a closer look – table style.
For more, read HostMonster Review and Just Host Review
Features
What’s the main difference between the two hosting companies here? Surprisingly, very little. The big issues – disk space, band with, add-on domains and the like – are both “unlimited” whether you decide to go with Just Host or HostMonster. That’s good news. But we aren’t satisfied with looking at just a few variables, so here’s some extra information to wrap your mind around:
Feature | HostMonster | Just Host |
| Disk Space | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwith | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Add-on Domains | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Money-back guarantee | Uptime guarantee | Anytime |
| Dedicated IP | Unspecified | “Available” |
| Anonymous FTP | Unspecified | Yes |
| POP3 Email Accounts | “Support” Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Autoresponding | Yes | Yes |
| Mail Forwarding | Yes | Yes |
| MySQL Databases | Yes | Yes |
| Google AdWords Credit | $75 | $50 |
| International Domain Names | Yes | Yes |
| CGI | Yes | Yes |
| PHP 5 | Yes | Yes |
| Spam Assassin Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24 hours/day | 24 hours/day |
| Python | Yes | Yes |
| Ruby on Rails | Yes | Yes |
| Flash | Yes | Yes |
It’s one of the most comparable matchups we’ve had here at Clickfire, which means the rest of the battle will have to be settled via steel cage match. Or, you know, looking at their pricing options, I guess.
Pricing
Pricing Commitment | HostMonster | Just Host |
| 1 Year | $5.95/month | $6.95/month |
| 2 Years | $5.95/month | $5.95/month |
| 3 Years | $5.95/month | $4.95/month |
| Monthly | Unspecified | $8.95/month |
Conclusions there? Well, dang it, the sites are still pretty comparable. Just get the Just Host 2-or-3-year plan and you’re locked in at the stable HostMonster prices. (By the way, if your interest is piqued with all of this HostMonster talk, be sure to check out our Hostmonster Review here at Clickfire.) We do like the lower price of the lower-commitment 1-year HostMonster plan, but that’s just a slight advantage, and not something to write home about.
Separating the Two
If we know all of these features and prices are pretty much the same, how do you really separate the two host companies? Well, a few issues that you’ll likely have to discover on a personal level, such as:
- Customer service quality
- Uptime percentage
- Ease of billing
These are only things you can really discover once you’re a customer at either HostMonster or Just Host (speaking of which, Just Host has also been reviewed at Clickfire). Which means that, sadly, we can’t give you a definitive answer here. But, hey, sometimes it’s nice to know that there’s not only one good option for your hosting needs. If only every buying experience we had online was like that these days.



You say that these are 2 of the better quality sites you’ve come across, but have you actually been a customer of both? I had a site hosted on Just Host and the entire experience was terrible. Their support is a joke. Their system would repeatedly automatically block my IP for no reason, making my own site unavailable to me, they have no communication between their support and billing departments, poor record keeping and overall just a very unpleasant experience. I transferred away from them as soon as I was able. So between the two hosts, I would recommend against Just Host.
Alex, it sounds like Just Host’s firewall settings needed to be toned down. I’ve seen this happen with other hosts as well who are paranoid about client sites getting hacked. Support and billing should be the easy part, but so many seem to get that wrong.