To compare the best web hosts, we hosted the same WordPress website on each one and tested performance, customer service, and value for money. Check out the results here.
AMIMOTO is a Japan-based web hosting company founded in 2006. It specializes in offering services through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) network, leveraging on Amazon’s global reach to offer premium fully-managed or self-managed hosting solutions to its clients. The company’s clients include brands such as VISA, Sharp, and Mazda. Support is available in both English and Japanese.
Features and Ease of Use
AMIMOTO primarily offers managed WordPress hosting solutions through AWS. All plans come with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and access to the AWS Content Delivery Network (CDN). E-commerce merchants can benefit from a free SSL certificate with every plan and servers with worldwide geographic proximity.
AMIMOTO’s feature list includes:
- SSD storage
- PHP 7
- phpMyAdmin
- MySQL databases
AMIMOTO also provides access to Softaculous via AWS, which gives you one-click installations for hundreds of extensions including Joomla and PrestaShop. Unfortunately, no free domain registration is offered.
All plans are run via the AWS control panel. There are also WordPress-specific features offered including WP-CLI to help you manage your website(s), staging environments for secure testing and deployment, expert WordPress support, and more.
In addition, remote access is available via SSH. Backups are performed daily and data is retained for three days. For advanced webmasters, RAM/storage can be scaled automatically, and support is offered for the Ruby and Apache programming languages.
Pricing and Support
Discounts are available on yearly plans and there is a seven-day money back guarantee on self-hosted plans. Unfortunately, there are no money back guarantees offered on the managed WordPress hosting plans.
There are ten managed WordPress hosting plans offered. CPU and memory is handled through AWS, and storage capacities on the CDN range from 50GB-5TB. Unlimited website traffic comes with all plans.
Entry-level prices are high relative to competitors. However, that’s because the amount of value you get with AMIMOTO’s feature list is great. Beginner webmasters won’t need all the features and capacity provided, but any good-sized website or e-commerce store can find what it needs here.
The quality of the price to value ratio as you move up the pricing tiers depends on your needs. The only capacity difference is the available CDN usage, which increases at a modest 1:1 price to volume average. The bigger value comes from increased network performance and WordPress installations allowed for minimal costs — an excellent value for webmasters running a large network of websites.
Support options are average. There’s a live chat option, but it’s not 24/7. However, if you connect when no representative is available, you can send an email with your question.
As you can see below, I sent an email this way and got a response within seven hours. Ticket support and a self-help knowledge base of over 100 questions is also available. Unfortunately, there is no phone support.
AMIMOTO also provides expert support plans for an additional fee. These plans cover various services such as e-commerce, maintenance, security audits, and more, offering you additional assistance when needed.
