Khimaira-GreenEarthHost (or simply, Khimaira) is an environmentally-friendly hosting business based in Virginia, U.S.A. It has been around since 1998, and its servers sit in a private data center facility in Michigan.
Khimaira’s English-language website advertises shared hosting and domain services.
Features and Ease of Use
Khimaira’s five shared hosting plans (including an an e-commerce plan) provide you with:
- cPanel control panel
- 600 MB to 6,000 MB disk space
- 1 GB to 15 GB bandwidth
- 50 to unlimited email accounts
- 5 to 20 mailing lists
- 5 to 15 MySQL databases
The cPanel control panel lets you managed all aspects of your hosting, including backups (which Khimaira performs daily). The incorporated Softaculous installer helps you install a plethora of content management and other programs such as WordPress, Drupal, Mambo, Joomla, phpBB, osCommerce, and Zen Cart. Other features include spam filters such as SpamAssassin and BoxTrapper.
Khimaira guarantees 100% uptime with a backed SLA, but what truly sets it apart is its commitment to the environment. The network operations center hosting its servers is an active member of “the Green Grid,” and the company is also an enthusiastic participant in the Virginia Green program. Every new signup results in the planting of a tree, and the company follows a paper-saving approach by sending all invoices electronically (a common practice among companies nowadays).
Pricing and Support
Khimaira’s shared hosting plans are pricey, with the starter plan costing almost four times the average industry price. You can pay for plans in U.S. dollars by PayPal, credit card, or check/money order via postal mail. Available billing cycles are monthly and annual, and you get one month free (plus a free domain) with an annual subscription.
The 30-day money-back guarantee refunds your money, minus domain fees, if you find yourself dissatisfied within the first month.
Although you can contact the customer support team via telephone, ticket, email, fax, or online contact form, I have to tell you that my support ticket submission went unanswered.
Self-support resources include a Business Manual (to help you set up your own business) and a set of “cheat sheets” for popular applications. Since I’m not sure how much help these will be for hosting advice, I’m pleased to see a nicely populated knowledge base:
