SkyHost is a Russian hosting service provider serving Russian clients since 2004. Today, this RIPE NCC member offers various web hosting and cloud VDS plans along with dedicated server rentals, colocation, domain registration, SSL and code signing certificates, DDoS protection, network equipment, and server management services. SkyHost has two Tier III data centers in Russia that play host to its equipment and servers. SkyHost’s website is inRussian but its client area supports 25 additional languages.
Features and Ease of Use
SkyHost offers four shared hosting plans – Light, Office, Master, and Professional that come with:
- CloudLinux OS
- cPanel control panel
- Free Comodo SSL certificate
- Access via SSH, SFTP protocols
- Fast SSDs
- Automatic backups
- Anti-spam
- ionCube and Zend Guard support
- Access to cron scheduler
These plans come with unlimited traffic, MySQL database, FTP accounts, and mail accounts. However, they differ in terms of SSD storage (5GB – 25GB), and the number of sites you can host (one – 50). These plans offer you the choice of multiple PHP versions (4.4-7.0) and modules, and support Python, Perl, Ruby, and Java. To manage your domain’s DNS records, you’ll also get access to the DNS hosting zone editor.
Apart from its shared hosting plans, SkyHost also offers three 1C-Bitrix hosting plans, three file hosting plans, seven cloud VDS plans, six Windows-VDS plans, six highload VDS plans, and six dedicated server rental (in Russia and Europe) plans. It also offers colocation services and lets you rent dedicated servers with GPU. SkyHost offers 99.9% guaranteed uptime.
Offering dedicated servers with GPU on rent is a unique feature of SkyHost. You can use these servers to speed up machine learning in neural networks or your work with videos. Such servers can be also used for game projects, CAD, HPC, and other applications.
The company also offers IPv6 addresses and support. Apart from being more secure than IPv4, IPv6 also brings several benefits your way. Some of these are multicasting (that permits bandwidth-intensive packet flows such as multimedia streams to be sent to numerous destinations concurrently, thus saving network bandwidth), simplified network configuration, and support for new and valuable services like VoIP, peer-to-peer networks, etc.
Full root access via SSH to give you complete control of your hosting is another unique feature of SkyHost. The company also offers KVM-over-IP/IPMI, thus letting you enjoy network flexibility and the ability to control your server remotely.
Pricing and Support
SkyHost’s shared hosting plans are quite cheap. You can save further by opting for the annual or higher billing periods and get a free domain (.ru or .рф) in the process. You can pay for these plans in RUB (Russian Ruble) via PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, JCB, MNP, WebMoney, QIWI Wallet, PJSC Sberbank, etc. The available billing periods are monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annual, biennial, and triennial.
The company offers a 14-day free test period for its shared and 1C-Bitrix hosting plans provided you pass SMS verification.
You can contact SkyHost’s customer support through phone, email, live chat, and a ticket system. When I attempted to use the live chat, it wasn’t available, but I received a prompt response to my inquiry submitted via the ticket system.
SkyHost has a knowledge base that offers limited self-help. For its existing customers, the company also offers a “Network Status” page where customers can log in and check network updates and issues, if any.
How much does SkyHost.ru cost?
SkyHost.ru offers plans from $1 to $4. The price depends on which type of hosting plan you choose. You can see the updated pricing table (updated weekly) below.
Which SkyHost.ru plan should I get?
My recommendation is to start with a cheaper plan. You can always upgrade later on. SkyHost.ru 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 SkyHost.ru here.
How good is SkyHost.ru’s customer support?
SkyHost.ru is not ranked as one of our top web hosts. But that can also be a result of SkyHost.ru 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.
