eServer.ru has been providing Russian website hosting since 2002, and its Russian-language website proclaims them to be one of the best hosting providers in Russia because of their unique software solutions. Rather than taking this at face value, let’s take a look and see.
Features and Ease of Use
This provider sells a wide range of plans from shared hosting to dedicated servers and virtual private servers. Here are the core features of the shared hosting plans:
- 99% uptime
- Free SSL certificate
- Automatic backups that can be restored via the control panel
- Free domain registration when ordering a three-month term
- 1, 10, 20, or 50 add-on domains
- 250 MB to 10 GB disk space
- Unlimited traffic
Servers are located in multiple locations. Russian servers are located in eServer’s own Tier III data center. This Tier III compliance means you can expect less than 1.6 hours downtime per year. Other servers are colocated in a Slovakian data center.
The servers use FreeBSD and Linux operating systems installed on hardware comprising Intel Xeon processors and SAS SSDs disks for faster performance. They are connected by robust Juniper and Cisco network equipment. Considering the infrastructure is so solid, it’s surprising that their uptime is only 99%, although this is at least backed by an SLA.
There are two levels of shared hosting – VIP and non-VIP – each having a range of plans with different resource levels. The non-VIP plans are compatible with the usual CMS software such as Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal as well as some less common CMS systems like UMI.CMS and 1C-Bitrix. There’s no website building tool. The VIP packages come with support for PHP (v4.4 through v5.6, not the faster v7), Perl, and C++, but unfortunately not Python or Ruby. There’s also unlimited FTP accounts and MySQL databases. All plans come with SSH access and Cron jobs to ensure your website runs optimally.
Pricing and Support
Most of the plans are affordable and are in line with (if not a little cheaper than) other companies. The prices look even better when you consider the free SSL certificates and the free domain when you purchase a plan for longer than three months. On this subject, you can purchase the plans on three, six, and twelve-month terms, with the price reducing for longer terms. Whilst there’s no money-back guarantee, you can get a pro rata refund when you cancel.
You can reach out for support 24/7 by using their telephone (local Russian phone numbers), email, or live chat. When I contacted the company through live chat within regular business hours, they responded quickly. The operator couldn’t provide an immediate answer to my question, so they took some time to research it before getting back to me.
