HostBrink is a Panama-based company that was founded relatively recently in 2015. They don’t state how many customers they have, but they do say that they are working with worldwide clients. Their website and support are available only in English.
Features and Ease of Use
HostBrink has a professional looking website that advertises a streamlined selection of packages including shared hosting, reseller hosting, virtual private hosting, and dedicated server rentals.
As standard, their shared hosting packages include the following features:
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- From two to six add-on domains
- Domain registration available
- SSL certificates available
- From 5 GB to 20 GB disk space
- From 50 GB to 150 GB bandwidth limits
Whilst HostBrink doesn’t go into detail about its infrastructure, I can tell you that it is fully redundant and uses top quality equipment provided by Juniper, Cisco, and Brocade. Although they advertise a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their homepage, unfortunately, this is not covered by a service level agreement, which to my mind makes it merely a marketing strategy.
They have a commitment to never overselling server space and they guarantee you can use 100% of the resources in your plan. Whilst you might expect this to be standard, the fine print for most web hosting companies actually puts a cap of 10% to 15% on resource usage.
HostBrink’s website is very clear and concise, which is excellent for new website owners but a little lacking in detail for more advanced users. Beginners will enjoy the one-click installer, but not the lack of a website builder. Experts may be a little disappointed to discover that there is no PHP or advanced scripting language support.
Pricing and Support
HostBrink’s prices are in line with other Panamanian companies but are quite expensive when compared to larger North American competitors. However, their commitment to 100% resource usage is something you don’t often find elsewhere, and even their most basic package offers a comprehensive set of features. In fact, if you can manage with 5 GB SSD storage, 50 GB premium traffic, 2 add-on domains, 3 MySQL databases, 3 FTP accounts, and 3 email accounts, then the ‘Micro’ base package is a cost-effective option.
You can commit to HostBrink’s contracts on one, three, six and twelve-month terms. You don’t get any discounts for longer-term commitments apart from a free domain with annual plans. They offer a five-day money-back guarantee, which gives you some (but not much) time to try before you buy, but in any case, there is little to be lost by commiting only month-by-month if you are unsure.
HostBrink’s 24/7 customer support can be accessed via telephone and email. I’d love to see live chat too, but I have always received polite and knowledgeable rapid replies to my emails. There is no obvious knowledge base.
