Syste-mart is a Mexican-based hosting company that has been selling shared, VPS, and dedicated server packages since 2004. It has a relatively inactive Facebook page, with more than 8,000 followers. The website is available in Spanish.
Features and Ease of Use
While it sells more than just shared hosting, to give you an idea of its service, here are the core features of the shared plans:
- 99.8% uptime guaranteed
- Monthly automatic backups
- One free .com or .com.mx domain for one year
- Free Shared SSL certificate
- Up to 5GB disk space
The plans support a fairly comprehensive range of supported software e.g., CGI-BIN, Perl, PHP 4 and 5 (not the twice as fast version 7), Python, Front Page extensions, and Server Side includes. The supported databases include MySQL, PostgreSQL, phpMyAdmin, and phpPgAdmin, so there’s all the usual features you’d expect with a shared hosting plan (albeit some using older versions).
For more advanced users, you can configure Cron jobs and upon request, you can get SSH access. A little disappointingly, backups are only monthly, which seems quite risky to me. For beginners, although it’s not advertised on the website, there’s a website building tool and a one-click installer.
The plans also include a good range of e-commerce features such as osCommerce, CubeCart, a shared SSL certificate, or the option to add a paid private SSL certificate. Additionally, you’ll have access to various out-of-the-box analytics tools like AWstats, Urchin5stats, Raw access logs, and a bandwidth meter.
Customers of the shared hosting plan get a below par 99.8% uptime guarantee, while VPS customers get the industry standard of 99.9%.
Pricing and Support
Apart from the highest-tier plan (which doesn’t included enough extra to warrant the swing in price), all of the packages are good value for money. A free .com or .com.mx domain thrown in for one year, as well as a free shared SSL certificate, are nice bonuses.
You can purchase the hosting directly through the website, although the flow is a little unusual. As soon as you click on the price, you are directed in a new tab, to your PayPal account. Not a huge deal, just a bit unusual that it’s not all handled in the website.
Plans can only be bought in one month terms. VAT is included and you can increase your disk space by purchasing additional GB.
If you need support, there’s a basic contact page on the website with an online contact form or three local Mexican numbers you can use, as well as live chat (which was offline when I visited).
It’s not clear what the business hours are, however, in my experience the response time was good. I sent an email mid-morning on a weekday and received a response on the same business day, answering my questions in full.
