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SmartHost Review 2024 – Is It Worth It?

Gwen Rodgers Gwen Rodgers Web Hosting Expert

SmartHost started its journey in 1998. Today, this Nevada-based web host offers cloud hosting, VPS, reseller hosting, colocation hosting, and dedicated servers. You can also get shared hosting (via servers acquired by the company), domain registration and transfer, SSL certificates, and software control panel licenses.

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Overview

SmartHost features

SmartHost, LLC, is a private company based in Henderson, Nevada, established in 1998. It started as a shared hosting business but expanded to offer VPS, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and dedicated servers to a global customer base.

It has multiple data centers in the U.S., along with one each in the U.K. and the Netherlands. As well as hosting, this company provides domain registration and transfer, SSL certificates, and software control panel licenses. SmartHost’s website supports English.

Features and Ease of Use

SmartHost offers four VPS plans for KVM NVMe SSD Linux, Windows, OpenVZ SSD/SAS, and KVM Linux storage. It also has five reseller hosting plans that are available both in the U.S. and the U.K., three cloud hosting plans, two colocation hosting plans, and eight dedicated servers.

With the company’s KVM NVMe SSD VPS plans, you get:

  • Low-1 Thread to Extreme 8 Threads CPU (at additional charges)
  • 10 GB to 20 GB NVMe SSD RAID disk space
  • 1 GB guaranteed RAM
  • 1000 GB bandwidth/1 Gbps port
  • SolusVM control panel

All these plans come with configurable resources, including server location, OS, bandwidth, CPU, control panel, etc. At an additional cost, you can get backupsDDoS protection, and server management. And you can enjoy the optimal use of your server’s software functionality with root access.

The company promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee (SLA) with all its services. For its VPS and cloud servers, SmartHost uses RAID 10 to deliver enhanced speed and data protection. With shell access (SSH) and full root access for its dedicated servers, the company gives you added protection for your sensitive data and complete control over your hosting environment.

Pricing and Support

SmartHost’s KVM NVMe SSD VPS hosting plans are cheap. To pay for these plans in USD, GBP, or EUR, you can use PayPal, credit card, cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum), Alipay, BitPay, ACH transfer, UnionPay, and WeChat/TenPay. You can even pay via mail if that interests you. The available billing periods are monthly and annually, with the annual term offering a price discount of almost 17%.

SmartHost payment

On its “Terms of Service” page, it says that SmartHost won’t offer a money-back guarantee or a 30-day refund policy unless it’s explicitly stated otherwise for a particular service.

SmartHost provides round-the-clock customer support through various channels, including phone, email, live chat, fax, support tickets, and a contact form. While attempting to use their live chat, which unfortunately wasn’t available at the time, I decided to inquire about my pre-sales questions using their support tickets. I received a response within approximately 3.5 hours.

SmartHost support

With an empty knowledge base and an announcement section with just two posts, SmartHost’s self-help tools are almost non-existent.

SmartHost announcements

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

Comparison

How does SmartHost match up to the competition?

KamateraCompareOur Score4.8Compare
Liquid WebCompareOur Score4.8Compare
SmartHostCompareOur Score4.2Compare
Tailor Made ServersCompareOur Score2.9Compare

SmartHost REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

If you’re looking for cheap VPS hosting plans with customizable resources, you should check out SmartHost. However, I would be more likely to recommend its services if it offered a free trial period or money-back guarantee.

Pros

  • 35 years of combined industry experience
  • Cheap pricing
  • Price discount on annual billing
  • Multiple payment options

Cons

  • No free trial/money-back guarantee
  • Only 99.9% uptime guarantee (SLA)

To get cheap VPS with customizable resources, check out SmartHost.
Gwen Rodgers Gwen Rodgers
Gwen is a web developer and software engineer who loves to get lost in JavaScript (and a good book). She spends her free time teaching girls how to be coders, and doing yoga on her balcony in the sunshine.
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