Features and Ease of Use
Internet Hosting Center offers a range of packages suitable for both beginner webmasters and owners of high-traffic websites. Starting with their lightweight shared hosting packages, you get features such as:
- NVMe SSD storage
- Free automatic Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates
- Free .ru domain with Basic plan or better
- One-click app installer with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, and more
- Anti-DDoS attack protection
- Google AdWords credits
- Optional dedicated IP address
- cPanel
On top of that, their use of LiteSpeed Web Server and LSCache hosted on a CloudLinux OS with CageFS setup increases the speeds, security, and stability of your web hosting accounts. More code-savvy users will also be happy to know that this host supports multiple versions of PHP from 5.2 to 7.2 in addition to CGI and Perl 5, although they don’t seem to support more advanced scripting languages such as Ruby, Ruby on Rails, or Python. Plus, they perform automatic daily backups for all their plans, which is something you’ll definitely want to have particularly if you’re running an open-source CMS such as WordPress.
That said, one major downside of Internet Hosting Center is the timing and duration of their daily automatic backups. They sometimes perform their automatic backups during peak hours, which can slow down your website. Another downside I noticed is that the admin interface doesn’t allow you to assign roles for different levels of access, e.g., administrator, accountant, technical specialist, and so on. Anyone you give access to your account will have the same level of access as you, which may prove a problem for companies with multiple people contributing to the website.
Pricing and Support
Internet Hosting Center has highly affordable and flexible plans, particularly when you consider the number of value-added features they give you. One thing I liked about this host is that even their entry-level shared hosting plan includes unlimited MySQL databases and emails: many of the basic plans from other providers are typically stripped down to the bare minimum in order to keep prices low and entice users to go for more expensive plans. That said, while inexpensive, the basic plan only gives you 1GB storage, though this should be sufficient for a simple and largely-static website.
All prices are in Russian rubles. Users who subscribe to an annual plan get two months of hosting free (which essentially means they only pay for ten months of hosting), along with a free one-year domain for first-time customers. On top of that, you get a trial period to test out their service: seven days with their regular shared hosting plans and ten days with their premium shared hosting plan.
You can reach out to the Internet Hosting Center support team through email, phone, and live chat. However, it’s worth noting that the live chat is only provided in Russian, like the rest of the website. Additionally, the hosting provider offers a knowledge base that contains helpful user guides and software downloads.
Most Internet Hosting Center customers have had very little interaction with the vendor’s support team, which is a testament to the quality of services they provide. That said, on the rare occasion when you may need the help of their technical team, you may find yourself quickly frustrated: the vendor offers very limited support over the phone. For more comprehensive support, users can only correspond via email, which can be tedious and slow when dealing with emergencies. Plus, their phone support representatives often have a boorish and unhelpful attitude.
