Founded in 2008 by web entrepreneur Chris Phillips, JustHost steadily rose through the ranks of hosting providers until reaching the point of being purchased by Endurance International Group.
We haven’t been exactly secretive about our less-than-glowing opinion of EIG in past reviews, but does this mean that all companies suffer the same fate after an acquisition? Not necessarily.
Since the 2013 takeover by EIG, JustHost has largely avoided a fate similar to most EIG acquisitions: shoddy customer service, questionable uptime and dubious accounting practices. So, what sets JustHost apart from the fate other EIG brands have suffered? Keep reading to find out!
JustHost Plans / Pricing
For $2.95 for the first term of their “Basic” package, you truly get unparalleled value for a shared hosting package. Lower priced than HostGator or Bluehost, JustHost’s basic package is an excellent option for those with minimal requirements for their website.
Unmetered bandwidth and an included domain name for the life of your hosting package are just some of the benefits of JustHost shared hosting. Paying $9.95 for the first term of the highest tier shared “Pro” package means you have unlimited bandwidth, web space, e-mail, as well as CloudFlare CDN, $300 in marketing offers, and an SSL certificate for the life of your plan.
If you require a bit more computing power or freedom VPS hosting is also available, starting at $14.99 a month for the first term. Using their enhanced cPanel control panel and KVM hypervisor virtualization, VPS hosting solutions can be purchased for a relatively low price.
Should you require even more power for your site, JustHost also provides dedicated hosting, starting at $74.99 a month for the first term of your plan. With RAID 1 mirrored storage and enhanced caching part of all dedicated plans, these prove to be excellent value for your hosting needs.
It is important to keep in mind that JustHost (like many others) offers promotional pricing for the first term of your package, with regular prices kicking in afterward.
JustHost Customer Service
While multiple hosting companies have fallen victim to a drop in customer service after EIG’s acquisition, we always try to give a clean slate to everyone before evaluating this critical area.
JustHost offers 24/7 e-mail, phone, and live chat support with an extensive knowledge base also in place to help solve any issues you may have.
Our live chat experience was flawless from start to finish, and it was very pleasing to actually have a timer with updates on the chat client, even though it only took us four minutes before we were connected with a customer service rep.
Our telephone experience was also similarly positive, with our call being immediately connected at 6 AM EST on a Monday morning! The rep we were connected with answered our WordPress-related question quickly and with surprising detail.
JustHost is also one of the few hosting providers that do not provide an “uptime guarantee” to their customers. While this omission is somewhat puzzling, after learning that they offer an “anytime money back guarantee” it makes sense. If you experience any continuous issues with your website, you have the ability to cancel at any time and receive your money back.
JustHost Speed / Reliability
With servers running out of their Chicago data center on high-performance quad-core servers, it is no surprise to see them feature so highly when it comes to uptime and speed.
Page load times are also highly significant, and JustHost performs admirably in this avenue as well. With the industry standard hovering around 2-3 seconds, JustHost kept a steady 1.5-2 second page load time when we tested using Pingdom’s NYC server as a web page speed test.
CloudFlare Content Delivery Network is included for free in all hosting plans and can be easily enabled from the JustHost central control panel. Using a CDN such as CloudFlare will substantially increase your page load times.
It is worth mentioning that JustHost has received a lot of negative feedback over the internet in recent months. Social media and other hosting review sites alike are littered with various complaints regarding JustHost’s reliability. While we did not experience any specific issues when conducting this review, issues such as these can’t be overlooked.
JustHost Security
When it comes to your site’s security, Justhost has numerous default functions that are made to protect your site from any external threats.
.ht file access is given to help manage access privileges to your server, with password protected directories and SSH access also available to add and modify.
As far as JustHost’s Chicago data center goes, 24/7 network monitoring with UPS power backup and diesel power generators mean that the chances for extended network downtime are slim.
There are numerous additional services to secure your website, most of which you can add quickly and easily through JustHost’s control panel. Sitelock, SSL certificates, and Dedicated IPs can all be added on to your account for an additional fee.
JustHost Interface
JustHost uses CPanel as their control panel, with billing and account management being handled in a separate area with a different login.
Email, FTP, and other services are all readily available from within CPanel, something that doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering the popularity and usability of CPanel.
We were really impressed that JustHost gives you the ability to show/hide certain services from the main interface, as this allows the user the ability to have an even cleaner and user-friendly CPanel experience.
One click installs are also available through the Mojo Marketplace, meaning you can easily install web apps and CMS like WordPress, Joomla and more quite easily.
JustHost Hosting Conclusion
We liked
• Numerous add-ons
• Anytime money back guarantee
We weren’t so sure about
• Page load times
• Questionable customer service track record
We hated
• EIG acquisition
JustHost has achieved a positive position on what we consider to be the EIG-hosting spectrum. On top of offereing a free domain name with any hosting package you purchase, JustHost wins by providing excellent shared hosting at a low price. We can honestly say that JustHost really did surpass our expectations for this review.
Page load times could be slightly faster although we assume that using a CDN or a higher-tiered hosting plan will fix this issue.
As far as their questionable customer service, although we didn’t experience any glaring issues in our review, the sheer amount of negative feedback that JustHost has received is certainly a reason to worry.
That being said, JustHost is an excellent choice if you are looking to get into entry level hosting. With a low introductory price of just $2.95 a month and an anytime money back guarantee, give them a try and let us know what you think!
Have you had any positive or negative experiences with JustHost? Let us know in the comments below!