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Kagoya Review 2024 – Is It Really the Best?

Solomon Ndung'u Solomon Ndung'u Web Hosting Expert

Established in 1983, Japanese company Kagoya is a veteran of the internet age. It provides shared rental servers and other hosting solutions from its Kyoto data center.

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Overview

Kagoya-overview1

When it comes to web hosting, Kagoya Japan is a veteran company that was established in 1983, before the birth of the world wide web. It provides rental server solutions, dedicated servers, data center services, and cloud VPS solutions. This Japanese company’s website is in Japanese.

Features and Ease of Use

Kagoya’s shared hosting plans come in the form of its S11, S21, and S32 “shared rental server” packages that offer various amounts of web space, email space, and database space. The following standard features are included:

  • Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates
  • MySQL databases
  • SQLite, PostgreSQL databases
  • phpMyAdmin and phpPgAdmin support
  • PHP 7.2.12 and 7.1.24
  • Free domain
  • Cloud-based SSD servers

Kagoya’s rental servers support the latest version of the PHP programming language, and the vendor discourages the use of PHP 5.6-7.0 because it does not intend to update these versions in the future. Servers come with 10 GB of free backup space, and customers can perform automatic backups at any time. You can also restore files at any time.

Although the hosting solutions include free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, this vendor also offers advanced SSL certificates from top brands such as SureServer, GeoTrust, RapidSSL, and Secom Passport for Web.

Aside from the standard plans, other hosting options include WordPress plans, VPS plans, and managed dedicated servers. With the VMware-based cloud servers, you can choose KVM and OpenVZ for higher performance and availability.

Kagoya’s data center is conveniently located inland at Kyoto city, Japan, 50m above sea level to guard against damage from tsunamis or floods. Servers use ultra-high-speed SSDs that are much faster than traditional HDD storage.

Pricing and Support

Kagoya’s shared rental server hosting plans are reasonably priced in Japanese yen, and there is even a free shared rental server solution. You can apply for a plan online or by post, and you can pay by credit card or bank transfer.

Although a monthly billing option is available, you can get a discount by paying for 12 months hosting in advance. If you’re not sure about such a long sign-up, Kagoya offers a two-week trial period so you can try before you buy. You also get a 99.95% uptime guarantee with a compensation plan that gives back 10% of your monthly fee if the actual uptime falls short of the target.

Customers can contact Kagoya via its telephone number or by filling out a contact form. Although email support is mentioned, I couldn’t determine the support email address. There is no live chat and no ticketing system as far as I can see.

That said, the technical support team is available 24/7/365, and it actively helps customers address their issues. My contact form submission received an automated acknowledgment with a promise of a follow-up response within one business day. Indeed, within 12 hours I received the following reply in Japanese:

Kagoya-overview2

In case you’re wondering, the essence of the reply was that they would require more information to answer my question.

For self-support, Kagoya provides a pretty comprehensive knowledge base.

4.1

Pricing

A free domain name is included with some hosting plans from Kagoya

Comparison

How does Kagoya match up to the competition?

KamateraCompareOur Score4.8Compare
Liquid WebCompareOur Score4.8Compare
KagoyaCompareOur Score4.1Compare
Tailor Made ServersCompareOur Score2.9Compare

Kagoya REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

Kagoya’s I.T. services have satisfied a lot of Japanese customers since 1983, so this company must be doing something right. The only downsides for me are the limited contact methods and the typically Japanese jumbled appearance of the information on its website, although some of this might be the result of the browser translation into my native English language.

Before you make a decision, we highly recommend you check out some alternative hosting companies, which we highly recommend.

Pros

  • Ultra high-speed SSD drives
  • Latest versions of PHP 7.2.12 and PHP 7.1.24
  • Reasonably priced plans with monthly billing options
  • Two-week free trial

Cons

  • The vendor does not offer VPS hosting or dedicated servers
  • No ticketing system or live chat support
Solomon Ndung'u Solomon Ndung'u
Solomon Ndung’u is a writer, author, and SEO specialist. When he’s not working, you will find him singing his favorite tunes. He is also a confessed avid reader of The New York Times.
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