Name: GlowHost
Plans: Shared, Reseller, Cloud, Premium Business, Media, and Dedicated.
Website: www.GlowHost.com
Summary: GlowHost is a solid host. Have thousands of happy customers. This GlowHost review shows you why.
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GlowHost is a host that begun in 2002. They are a privately owned company. A lot of site owners have not heard of them. Unknown is not a bad, though. Based out of Florida. But their datacenter is located in Atlanta, Georgia. GlowHost is a completely “green” company (like DreamHost, Hostpapa, and FatCow). They stress the importance of using solar power, paperless billing, etc. to preserve the environment.
This GlowHost review shows their features. Then, I will look at their uptime. Next, I will look at performance. Then, customer support. Lastly, a summary.
GlowHost Features
Shared Plans
Glowhost has some of the best-shared plans. They offer a 91 day Money back guarantee. Is amongst the top guarantees. Four shared plans:
- Unlimited Single Domain. $4.95/month. Space and bandwidth (unlimited).
- Unlimited Multi-Domain. $8.95/month. Unlimited space and bandwidth.
- Personal Hosting. $7.95/month. 10 GB space. 100 GB bandwidth.
- Professional Hosting. $17.95/month. 25 GB space. 250 GB bandwidth.
Comes with these features:
- CloudFlare with Railgun.
- Free Instant Setups.
- Free SEO Tools.
- SohoLaunch.
- Web Apps.
- From domain name.
- Free SSL.
Should point out that GlowHost does use the whole “unlimited” sales pitch. I have not been a fan of this for years. Because a lot of novice site owners think that they can host a big site with a shared host. However, have found that GlowHost does have an inode limit.
The prices for their four plans are fair. Other companies like WebHostingHub, GreenGeeks, and iPage have got them beat. However, none of those plans mentioned above come with CloudFlare. CloudFlare is an extra added feature that GlowHost adds to their shared plans.
Reseller Plans
Five plans:
- Level I. $24.95/month. 50 GB storage. 500 GB monthly transfer. 2 IP’s.
- Level II. $34.95/month. 80 GB storage. 700 GB monthly transfer. 2 IP’s.
- Level III. $44.95/month. 120 GB storage. 1,000 GB monthly transfer. 2 IP’s.
- Level IV. $74.95/month. 160 GB storage. 1,200 GB monthly transfer. 2 IP’s.
- Level V. $99.95/month. 200 GB storage. 1,400 GB monthly transfer. 2 IP’s.
Reseller plans come with:
- Unlimited domains support.
- Free setups.
- McAfee virus scan.
- Accept PayPal.
- 24/7 support.
- 99% uptime.
- Softaculous.
- Private and Shared SSL support.
- Free backups.
- Free restores.
- Multiple PHP versions.
Billing system (WHMCS) cost $10/month (Level I). Level II $8/month. Level III cost $6/month. For Level IV & Level V WHMCS is free.
Premium Small Business Plans
Glowhost offers premium small business plans that come in two basic options: GlowHost Semi-dedicated Servers and GlowHost Cloud Servers – VDS. The semi-dedicated servers are $69.99 a month ant the Cloud Servers are $75 a month. Both of these plans are fully managed and include affordable upgrades From shared hosting. Only with the cloud servers do you get multiple domains? Each Semi-Dedicated Server is a small share of a fully managed dedicated server meaning there will never be more than a few slices on a server. Dedicated servers also simple, great upgrades from shared hosting, before cloud or dedicated. With Cloud Servers include high availability, are cloud-based, and customizable OS and control panels.
Dedicated Plans
With plans starting at $129.00 a month, Glowhost dedicated plans offer a wealth of features. They provide excellent support with a target response time for technical issues of 20 minutes. They offer a specialized team who only deal in data migration and site transfers from other hosting companies. Furthermore, they will take care of customization for you with their dedicated server configuration wizard. There are eight dedicated plans divided into two groups: ‘do It yourself’ dedicated servers and Managed Dedicated Servers. These plans range in price from $129.00 a month up to $514.00. At a minimum, you get 8 GB RAM and 1TB HDD.
Cloud Hosting
Glowhost offers a variety of features in their cloud hosting plans. There are two basic options cloud virtual dedicated servers which are $75 a month, and enterprise cloud servers which begin at $199 a month. Both of these plans are fully managed, include a private operating system, have 5-minute setup, include a Dedicated CPU and dedicated RAM. Virtual dedicated servers from GlowHost differ from enterprise cloud hosting products in their simplicity. You can choose a pre-configured system, order it, and in minutes have full root access to your cloud server. Enterprise cloud servers from GlowHost offer the following benefits: elasticity, scalability, and affordability.
Media Hosting Plans
Glowhost provides several options including FFmpeg, SHOUTcast, and podcast hosting. The GlowHost FFmpeg hosting gives lots of support for your video sharing applications. Allows you to upload and directly share video, music, and other media that have been designed to fit your website. GlowHost offers Shoutcast hosting support for your streaming audio needs. With this feature, you can have play things in real time and have a disc-jockey like feel while your playlists are playing. With GlowHost podcast hosting users can get their newest episodes out to the public very quickly.
GlowHost Performance & Uptime
Performance
Performance is important if you want your site to load fast. GlowHost does take this seriously. I like the host that use SSD hard drives. GlowHost does not use them on their plans unless asked. Found this out when talking with them on live chat. Here is what GlowHost said:
We actually do not use SSD on shared plans. They break more frequently than traditional SATA in our experience. Especially with servers that have lots of reads and writes like shared hosting has. There is a lot of hype out there. But the reality is there are better, more reliable ways. An SSD might be faster in some cases. But what good is it if it’s dead?
We instead use enterprise grade SATA drives in RAIDI which mirrors the data to more than one drive. So if a drive fails, the server will remain online. We also use hotswap so the machine does not need to be powered down to replace the faulty drive. Our main priority at GlowHost is uptime and minimal fuss. This is why we outfit all of our latest machines with RAIDI and high-speed enterprise SATA.
If you really prefer SSD. We can also build you a custom dedicated server to the specs that you want.
Research shows that other site owners are happy with the speed.
Uptime
Uptime or downtime is a big issue. A lot of site owners will learn just how important this once they sign up for a host. Then start to notice problems with downtime. GlowHost does have a guarantee. Your server will be up 99.9%.
Research shows uptime is great. Lots of sites praise them.
GlowHost Customer Support
Customer support is a must with any host. Since we do live in the technology era. There are always going to be problems. They need to be fixed fast. So, I always like to test customer support out. Did some research on their support. GlowHost does have a ticket based support system. It promises that they will respond in 20 minutes or less. I contacted them and the response time was 20 minutes exactly! Proof below.
They do have telephone support too. This is U.S. based support. You can reach out them 24/7 to help get your issues resolved. GlowHost does have a VIP phone support system where you can pay $65.00. It covers a single support incident. Meaning you talk with them as many times you want to resolve the issues. This can not be longer than an hour. Otherwise, you will be billed $65.00 per additional hour.
There is no live chat feature with GlowHost. This is my preferred way to contact any host. But, tickets get fast replies.
GlowHost has many other support options. You can have individual training sessions via AIM, MSN Messenger, Skype, Remote Desktop. However, these services will cost you. You have to schedule an appointment.
Research shows support is great. Lots of site have good things to say. Fast a replying to their customers. Very helpful. Even though they don’t have a live chat. It works for them, though.
GlowHost Review Summary
Do I recommend GlowHost? Yes. No live chat. But support tickets are answered in 20 minutes. Only SSD hard drives if you request them. Have to be on a dedicated server. At first, I was not sure. But, it works well for them. Feature rich company that actually cares about their customers. Also, they have an industry leading 91-day money back guarantee. They have thousands of happy clients. A quality host.
However, if GlowHost will not work for you. I would encourage you to check out my InMotion Hosting or RoseHosting review. Both hosts are great. Have 10+ years in the business.