HostMonster Review
HostMonster is a hosting company that was founded more than ten years ago–in 1996. The company says they host more than 100,000 domains. They are a reputable company that isn’t going anywhere. HostMonster is actually owned by BlueHost, a large web hosting company which we reviewed a while back here at Clickfire.
As is often the case with web hosting companies that are owned by larger companies, the product and service offerings are nearly identical. Like BlueHost, HostMonster only offers one plan. Except for some minor differences with the number of databases and email accounts offered, the plan at BlueHost and at HostMonster are virtually the same. The features offered are also the same and actually listed in the same order on the two web sites.
The control panels offered by the two companies vary only slightly. The BlueHost control panel has a more standard cPanel skin with only minor edits/changes. The HostMonster control panel looks different than the traditional cPanel X theme, but has all of the same features. Everything to manage email accounts, subdomains, databases, etc. is there and works as expected.
At HostMonster, you get 300 GB of space and 3,000 GB of bandwidth for about $7.95 a month if you pay yearly. The pricing is hidden well within the signup form. If you want to signup for the minimum period (3 months), it is $7.95 a month and a $30 setup fee. Pricing goes down to $5.95 if you choose to pay 24 months in advance.
As far as incentives to signup go, HostMonster is not bad. They offer a sitebuilder, $50 in free ad credits from Yahoo, and a free domain name if you pay 12 or 24 months in advance. The company will not move your site for free, which is very disappointing.
Support at the two companies is also very similar. Like BlueHost, HostMonster requires you to submit your ticket using the company’s web based interface and also has many departments listed. I tried to submit a ticket, but it kept saying my domain and password were not valid. Needless to say, that was quite frustrating. I even found out that BlueHost and HosterMonster even have the same hold music.
A call to their support department was answered within about 3 minutes after dialing. The representative seemed friendly enough, but I did have to spell my domain name three times. Apparently, to submit a ticket, you have to register with their ticket system as well. This was an annoying process that took a good ten minutes. When I asked my actual question, he asked for my domain name again. I had to kindly remind him I already spelt it out three times two minutes before.
Later, when I went to login to Squirrel Mail, the interface was in Japanese. Since I still couldn’t submit a ticket online and had given up on that process, I called again. I was connected within about 5 minutes. The guy who picked up got the language changed to English fairly quickly, but seemed like a drone. “Domain please”, “Hold on please”, “It’s fixed”, and “You’re welcome” were basically the only words spoken throughout the whole call, which lasted about 10 minutes.
In researching HostMonster, I saw several complaints about spotty and sometimes unreliable FTP connections. Other customers also had problems running scripts on HostMonster’s servers. During my testing, the FTP seemed okay. I was able to install WordPress and a CMS without any trouble.
All and all, I wasn’t that impressed by HostMonster. It seems like the company is neglected. You basically get a lot of space and bandwidth and that’s it. If you are looking for an “upload and forget about it” host, HostMonster will work out just fine. If you want or require more, I’d suggest staying clear.
Pros: Lots of space and bandwidth, inexpensive, plenty of features
Cons: Systems seem buggy, support is average at best
Bottomline: Forget HostMonster. Signup with BlueHost, which seems to be the better run of the two companies.
Rating: 
–Review and testing by Douglas Hanna for Clickfire.
December 4th, 2007
Host monster is a good hosting company with excellent shared linux hosting plans.
Pros:
Good Uptime
Reliable and secure
Cons:
Improve their Customer Service
Denver
besthosts.co.nr
April 20th, 2008
I joined them because i see so many advertisements especially from affiliates. But only last for one month. My conclusion: something that sells well is not always good.
I think i got bad experience since i joined them too early during rush. They might already have solved their problems, but sorry i urgently need a reliable host.
June 16th, 2008
There is no way hostmonster deserves only 2 star.
I think it should be more like 7 out of 5.
I used webhostingpad.com and others.
However, none of the other host except hostmonster support 24/7 contact, fast supporters, TRULY UNLIMITED DISKSPACE AND BANDWIDTH.
The true wording of hostmonster is “if you don’t use up a lot of CPU process” the diskspace and bandwidth is unlimited. Unlike other host who advertise as unlimited but are not.
June 16th, 2008
Bob, I have to admit that I wondered about the 2/5 rating myself. But, Doug clearly ran into some issues. Who knows, maybe they have been cleared up now. I’m a big fan of 24/7 support.
July 16th, 2008
I think that so called “Bob” isn’t a real person, but rather a shady HostMonster employee…I’ve seen the same comment on many site which review HostMonster.
I do not believe that HostMonster deservers 2 stars. Since I got my domain and hosting a couple of days ago, they have had 2 downtimes each over 2 hours. Not a good impression at all. I can only hope to get better uptime with this site.
August 11th, 2008
Hostmonster works great for me. Apart from an initial delay in getting an FTP issue sorted - since then it been quick response to requests and pretty happy.
Hostgator is also pretty good - if I wanted to host multiple domains i would go with hostmonsters - much easier - if I only had one domain to host i would go with hostgator.
Hostmonsters.com or HostGalor.com - flip a coin.
August 28th, 2008
I completely agree - the reviews about Hostmonster.com that normally can be found are faked. The system performance sucks (4 !! second server response time for a web page…), the maximum I get out of them for a FTP upload is 8 Kbps - that is about twice as much as with a dial-up connection. Their first level of support is staffed with incompetent idiots and does not have any clue about what they are doing. The availability is terrible as well. A six hour ping to their gateway showed only 5 packages lost, the server running the web services behind that had 300+ packages lost, try yourself and run only a constant ping to the one of the there hosted machines. Even if the server is pingable, it does not mean that you would be able to retrieve information from your website - the apache server is constantly (about every 54-10 minutes) rebooting because of a “user signal 1? - which is a user defined signal - most likely their “overload protection”.
This company stinks big time, and I will get in contact with the BBB to complain and will move on to another provider.
The only positive thing I have to say is that their first level support was decently responsive (within a day).
Thomas
August 31st, 2008
hostmonster is the second WORST company i have encountered in my more than 8 year experience as webmaster
with them..
1.) my sites where periodically down for like a day or more
2.) I have got lot of “account half-working” problems, such as the email service went down for days, etc
and now, prepare to hear the WORST
i got my account shut down without any warning simply because “4images have used way too much mysql”, and when i contacted them they urged me to “modify the 4images to make it less resource consuming” .. let me note here, that 4images is included as a standard feature of their hosting package.
Now let me ask.. Dear IDIOTS from hostmonster, why in the world do you provide 4images in your hosting package if you are not able to support it and are going to ban ppl who use it ?????? Also, what right do you have to shut my account down without any warning and any effort to contact me - if i didn’t do anything illegal ??
I pay you to use the service, including the scripts you provide !! if your servers cannot support the script which YOU provide and avdertise - then do not provide it !! Or UPGRADE your servers with the money i pay you !!
and believe or not - they DID NOT turn my account on !
one should SUE them and SHUT DOWN their business at all for FALSE ADVERTISEMENT (advertising that you can use the scripts in fantastico -including 4images-, and then baning you for doing so), and also sue them for HARASSING their customers which includes me not being able to get my site back as of yet because they did it right before they go home for LONG WEEKEND ! and they make me to run around their departments to find someone to talk with
To be honest here, the only hosting (which i seen) that was worse than hostmonster was the one who SOLD the server including all user accounts to another company and didn’t even bother to notify their customers .. sorry, dont remember their name - but they don’t exist anymore anyways.
Conclusion:
STAY AWAY FROM HOSTMONSTER !!
and tell ALL your friends to stay away from them !! they are nothing but a bunch of idiots !
September 30th, 2008
I had two websites on hostmonster for over a year and last weekend they migrated my site without a proper back up and completed DELETED both of my entire websites along with 900 other websites. If you have had problems with hostmonster in the last three years, please get in contact with me to join a class action law suit against them. They are claiming zero responsibility for the horrific act. Not only do they expect us to rebuild our websites at our expense they are expecting us to be o.k. with the loss of revenue this has also created. Hostmonster generates millions of dollars each month in revenue. Corporate America - enough of your passing the buck. It’s time for us to stick together and make they pay for their mistakes. Please contact me to join the class action lawsuit.
305 494 9304 icoachyou@gmail.com Nancy
September 30th, 2008
I agree with most that has been said here. Their support is completely clueless (the only word that explains it with staying politically correct), the system availability and performance the worst I have ever experienced in about 25 years of IT. My cellphone has more CPU power and memory than what they provide.
They fake independent reviews, are overstating their packages (like introducing ridiculous use policies after the contract has been executed!!) and I would love to see somebody suing the heck out of this nonserious company. Good luck!
Tom
October 5th, 2008
I stayed for 2 days with HostMonster and moved out, so I didn’t face these horrible stuff that I’m reading here (and I’m quite thankful now that I moved). I moved out of HostMostner because I was planning a blog site and they don’t support wild-card DNS in their Domain Settings (which is essential for Wordpress MU to run in subdomain mode).
October 5th, 2008
Hi coolprosu, I have been investigating setting up a WordPress MU site also and have also been looking for a host that provides wildcard DNS. Did you find a good one? Care to share? Thanks.