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JustHost Review: Are They Any Good?

Today I’ll be doing a JustHost review. With so many hosting companies available, it can be hard to choose the right one. Those that have survived are platforms that offer something unique in their services or pricing structure.

JustHost is a company that has built its reputation on providing hosting services at low prices. However, this might not be the whole story. Let’s dive into the review to learn more about JustHost and what they’re offering.

What is JustHost?

JustHost was founded by Chris Phillips in 2002. They offer a shared hosting platform for individuals, businesses, and organizations. In 2012, EIG purchased JustHost and made it part of their larger platform services. Other Hosts EIG own include companies such as BlueHost and HostGator.

Since its purchase in 2012, JustHost has been integrated into EIG which means that they often share support with other web hosting companies. I would personally say that this is a bad thing, as EIG isn’t known for their support. I’ve written an article about why people hate EIG companies if you’d like to learn more about them.

JustHost itself is built on the premise of offering simple features for low prices. This means that while they do not offer as much as many of their competitors, what they do is focused on what they believe most customers want. The approach does have its merits in seeking out a niche audience, but there are issues that arise with such a plan.

JustHost Hosting Plans

JustHost offers only one type of plan, a shared hosting plan for its customers. There are three types of packages under this plan, basic, pro, and prime. All plans offer the following services;

• Unmetered Bandwidth
• One Domain
• Standard Performance

Basic: $3.95 per month

• 1 Website
• 50GB Website Space
• 5 Parked Domains
• 25 Sub Domains
• 5 Email Accounts w/100MB Storage per Account

Pro: $6.95 per month

• 10 Websites
• 150GB Website Space
• 20 Parked Domains
• 50 Sub Domains
• 100 Email Accounts w/500MB Storage per Account
• $150 Marketing Offers
• 1 SpamExperts for Prevention of Spam
• Over $24 per Year in Extras

Prime: $6.95 per month

• Unlimited Websites, Website Space, Parked & Sub Domains
• Unlimited Email Accounts & Email Storage
• $200 Marketing Offers
• 1 SpamExperts for Prevention of Spam
• 1 Domain Privacy
• SiteBackup Pro for Backup Protection
• Over $80 per Year in Extras

All things considered, having only a shared hosting plan is disappointing. Other hosting companies provide options which include reseller, cloud, and individual server packages. While shared hosting plans are the most common, there are many business owners who feel more comfortable with hosting plans that offer more security.

JustHost Pros

There are some benefits to selecting JustHost as your web hosting company.

• Free Domain
• Instant Server Provisioning
• Integration Features
• Solid Uptime

Lots of freebies seems to be the area which JustHost excels. The free domain is just one of the many different services that JustHost provides for free. In addition, the instant server provisioning is a great feature. This allows you to sign into your account and not have to get on the phone for verification. This saves considerable time when you are first starting out.

The many add-ons along with integrations that JustHost provides means that you can access more than 100 open source applications easily. You also get free advertising credits with Bing and Google which is great for starting online sales.

It’s worth noting that JustHost did well in our uptime tests. They finished around average overall.

JustHost Cons

Unfortunately, despite all the considerable advantages, JustHost has more than the usual number of downsides for a hosting company.

• No Automated Backups
• Middling Customer Support
• Deceptive Price Structuring
• Slow Page Speeds
• Too Much Upselling

Not having backups automated can be a real pain, especially when you rely on them daily. They do offer weekly backups, but there is no guarantee that they will support that feature. It is rather odd that JustHost lacks this capability, but that is only one issue.

The customer support system is not good to say the least. It’s problematic when most of the directions guide you to a Frequently Answers page. If you’re answer isn’t there you’ll just become more frustrated. We found that quite often it does not have the answers you need. Add to this a live chat feature that seems no more helpful than their Twitter responses and you have issues.

Their $3.95 monthly rate is real, but only if you pay for the first three years in advance to lock in the price. While a one-year advanced payment might be acceptable, three-years is asking too much. They are not the only host that does this though. This unfortunately is somewhat common within the hosting industry.

However, even if you pay for the three years and get the $3.95 rate you might be in for a surprise. Once the plan expires you will have to pay a higher rate to keep your hosting services there.

Another contention is the slow page speeds which work in contrast to the high uptime rates. As many online business owners will tell you, page speed is crucial to customer retention. So, the slower the page speed, the more likely a potential customer will simply stop and go somewhere else.

Lastly, JustHost upsells are on the excessive side. If only they put half that effort into their customer service, it would pay remarkable dividends. I think their efforts are focused on the wrong aspect of the business here.

Money Back Guarantee

JustHost offers the standard 30-day money back guarantee. This makes them rather typical among hosting companies. We have covered other hosting companies that offer more in our full WordPress Hosting comparison article. Either way, 30 days is likely enough time to experience the company and see if it’s a good fit for you.

JustHost Review: Final Thoughts

JustHost falls in the below average section overall for us. I won’t say that they’re the worst host around, but that there are better ones out there. I do not recommend JustHost based on this. SiteGround would be a much better option, with better support and similar prices.

Are you a JustHost user? What do you think of my JustHost review? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

 

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