JustHost is a web hosting provider owned and operated by its parent company, Endurance International Group. It has a single data center located in Utah, United States. JustHost is an affordable shared hosting solution for individuals and startups, as the entry-level shared hosting package is competitively-priced and packed with everything you need to quickly launch a website.
Features and Ease of Use
As a shared host, JustHost offers the typical features such as:
- POP3 and IMAP email support
- Email forwarding
- cPanel installation
- FTP and SSH access
- MySQL databases
- PHP, Python, CGI, Javascript support
- Multimedia support, including video and audio streaming
Every plan comes with unmetered bandwidth, which was a plus point, and includes access to popular drag-and-drop website builder Weebly to help beginners get their websites up and running quickly. The plans vary mainly in the amount of disk space, hosted websites allowed, and number of email accounts.
JustHost only has a single data center (located in Utah), so this may be a drawback for international customers – website loading speeds will likely be slower given the distance. However, with their one data center, their uptime rating seems decent enough – my tests yielded an average uptime of 99.97%.
While they don’t have any managed WordPress hosting plans, setting up the popular Content Management System (CMS) for your website isn’t complicated. JustHost conveniently offers a one-click installation of WordPress, just as they offer the same for other popular CMSs like Drupal, Joomla!, and Tiki Wiki. You can also enable automatic core, plugin, and theme updates for WordPress via the cPanel, which is typically a value-added feature only offered in managed WordPress solutions.
JustHost also includes SimpleScripts with all their hosting accounts, which enables the easy installation of a long list of popular scripts such as phpBB, form mail, social networking scripts, osCommerce, and Moodle. This will come in especially handy for those managing their own websites.
They do list dedicated server and VPS hosting options, but they’re tucked away at the bottom of the webpage. This is likely because these offerings are from one of their sister companies rather than from JustHost. If you choose to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server plan, JustHost will migrate you to the new hosting service accordingly.
Pricing and Support
As a shared hosting provider, JustHost only has three plans available, all of which are competitively priced. Watch out for their tricky pricing scheme, though: like many web hosting providers, JustHost lists a very low promotional rate to entice customers at first, then revert to regular prices after the initial term.
JustHost offers a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can still try out their services for a bit and cancel if you decide you don’t like it. This does come with a caveat, though: if your plan came with a free domain or if you purchased any add-ons, the refund won’t cover it.
JustHost offers 24/7 support in the form of a telephone hotline, email, and live chat. When I called their phone support service, I was connected with an agent in under a minute, who promptly and knowledgeably fielded my questions. Live chat was equally impressive, if not even more so: after half a minute of waiting, the live chat alerted me that I’d been connected to a support representative. He then answered the few technical questions I had regarding migrating my domain and setting up WordPress. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with their customer support.
How much does JustHost cost?
JustHost provides hosting plans ranging from $4 to $7, depending on the type of hosting plan you select. Below, you can find the updated pricing table (updated weekly) for your reference.
Which JustHost plan should I get?
My recommendation is to start with a cheaper plan. You can always upgrade later on. JustHost can help you with the migration to a more expensive plan. The increase in visitors many times takes longer than expected and you shouldn’t pay a lot of money until the need arises. Of course, your needs may vary, and you can consult with a hosting expert from JustHost here.
How good is JustHost’s customer support?
JustHost is not ranked as one of our top web hosts. But that can also be a result of JustHost being a small, under the radar, hosting provider. There are advantages to a small hosting company – as a customer, you are more important to them. You can also check out our comparison of the most popular web hosting services here.
