Hosting Plans
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Starting at / per month
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Site5 is a
medium-sized web hosting company that was founded in 1999 by Matt Lightner and
Rod Armstrong in Austin, Texas. The two were former gaming site specialists with
an enthusiasm for hosting which was prime at the time. During the naming of the
company, they avoided using the word hosting just to be unique and diverse in
future. In 2011, Matt Lightner passed away and Rod decided to sell Site5 to Ben
Welch Bolen and Joel Brown who became CEO and President of the company respectively.
Ever since its establishment, this firm has been on the forefront to fight
global warming. It has participated in different green energy initiatives
including planting of trees and active research on renewable energy.
Most of Site5’s
infrastructure is engineered to mainly serve designers and developers. As such,
it boasts very flexible and diverse pricing plans that cut across various
levels of consumers. It boasts an in-house support department that operates
24/7 via live chat feature and call system that’s reachable during business
hours. Unlike its competitors, it markets its packages without excessive
technical jargon so anyone can easily tell what each plan has in it for them.
Interestingly, it handles all server administration functions which is great
for users with limited technical knowledge. Root permissions can be obtained
while using their virtual private servers but general maintenance is the
company’s obligation.
Site5 has its
datacenter in Austin, the same location that its offices reside. As for its
hosting packages, they’re are mostly billed on a monthly basis but still
subscriptions can be made annually and biannually. It’s worth noting that the
prices advertised on their homepage are monthly rates for subscriptions paid
biannually. If you prefer monthly charges, they’re slightly costlier but
nevertheless perfect for short-term hosting.
Another amazing
feature is the free migration for existing sites and web projects from other
hosting providers. The only limitation to this free service is the number of
web projects to be per migrated per account. The terms of service state allow
for a single site transfer but does not specify the size limitation.
If for whatever reason
Site5’s hosting services are not impressive, you can cancel the contract before
the expiry of your subscription. For customers using shared web and reseller
packages, the money-back guarantee period is 45 days while VPS clients it’s 15.
Site5 offers three hosting
packages namely Shared Web Hosting, Fully-managed VPS, and Reseller Hosting.
Each package offers a decent number of plans with various web management
features to satiate the needs of each client. Any web project residing on its
servers automatically gets a United States IP address mostly because of its
single-location datacenter. Account management is via Backstage, WHM and
cPanel. In other packages, billing of the two latter control panels is done separately
from the hosting fee.
In case it’s your first
time using this web hosting provider, it helps to first contact their sales
engineer for an in-depth information about their packages. Some of web features
they advertise are unclear and not covered sufficiently in the support articles
and frequently asked questions sections. In our Site5 review, we’ll analyze the
entails of each hosting package later and how much you have to pay to enjoy
your preferred plan.
Essentially, this
entails hosting a web project or a site on a server whose hardware resources
are shared. On creating an account, Site5 allots you a web space where you
place your site files so that they can be accessed online by your target
audience. Now, the interesting thing is that Site5 doesn’t limit site size and
amount of data that’s transferred from its servers by your visitors. Put
otherwise, all plans on the shared web hosting package feature unlimited disk
space and bandwidth. What does this mean for you? You’ll not have to worry
about exceeding the disk space or bandwidth when your site grows and its files
get bigger.
Another feature
enjoyed by users of this package is easy account management. They offer free
Backstage Account Manager whose purpose is to give quick access to all account
info. It allows you to edit settings and review configurations without jumping
from one webpage to another. Some of the information viewable here includes
domain registration history, account subscription status, and billing activity.
Additionally, you can bookmark important info to ensure it’s reachable on
demand.
From your account’s
control panel, you can install popular third party scripts in a single click
using Softaculous. Site5 offers this tool for free allowing anyone to install ad
management add-ons, calendars, portals/CMS, Database tools, ecommerce apps,
libraries, guest books, image galleries, and social networking shortcuts.
Moreover, you can view site statistics using AWStats irrespective of the shared
hosting plan that you pick. It allows you to access logs, errors logs,
subdomain stats, visitor info, etc.
Site5 offers domains
and subdomains which provide a pathway to your website. Depending on the plan
your account is on, you can host one or multiple domains and point them to
specific locations of your website. Additionally, Site5 provides email and web
statistics functionality for the domain and its sub.
As for the hardware,
shared web servers are powered by 64GB RAM, RAID-10 hard disk, and dual E5-2630
Sandy Bridge processors with 8 cores each.
Pricing Plans
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HostBasic
Charging $6.95 per
month on a biannual subscription, hostBasic provides unmetered disk space,
unlimited bandwidth, and web space capable of hosting a single website. Other
perks include free migration, free backups, and 99% uptime guarantee. Annual
subscription costs an average of $8.95 per month.
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HostPro
Costing $10.95 per
month on a biannual contract, this plan gives unmetered disk space, bandwidth,
and space to host an unlimited number of websites. If using a monthly contract,
it will cost you $12.95 per month while annual contracts $11.95 per month.
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HostPro + Turbo
This plan is closely
similar to HostPro in features (unlimited sites, bandwidth, and disk space).
However, it comes with a Turbo add-on that accelerates site loading speeds. It
costs $13.99 per month on a biannual contract, $14.95 per month on an annual
subscription, and $19.95 on a monthly basis.
Reseller services
involve purchasing web hosting accounts in bulk and distributing them to third
parties at a commission. Site5 allows for complete anonymity meaning your
clients will never find out you are a Site5’s reseller. To facilitate this, all
reseller servers have custom domain names that are completely anonymous and in
no way pointing back to the company’s registered title. The same concept
applies to DNS services which do not mention Site5 anywhere in the public WHOIS
record. Put simply, the company provides the best hosting platform for your
reselling services but never takes the credit even when your brand grows.
Reseller accounts
arrive with free billing software whose purpose is to take care of payment
services by your clients. Site5 offers WHM control panel and its license which
gives full permission to use the all-in-one management tool. With it, you can
manage your clients number, provide support services, and monitor payment. It
also allows you to integrate secure socket layer into the network to make
websites exchange info with browsers securely. Your clients will share a single
SSL certificate but you can apply for a dedicated cert from Wildcard if the
free one is insufficient.
An amazing and unique
gesture by Site5 is the free reseller hosting book that’s written by Abrahim
Ikasud. The book equips resellers with web hosting skills and knowledge on
expectations and challenges of the field. Also, it helps in directing resellers
on where to get clients, retaining them, and being competitive in the field. It
is a manual for both experts and novices in the web hosting and reselling
niches.
Pricing Plans
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Starter
With the server
location being in US, this plan costs $25.95 per month while on an annual
subscription. It is ideal for anyone starting up a reselling firm or has less
than 20 clients. It offers a disk space of 50GB, 500GB bandwidth, WHM control
panel, and unmetered resold accounts. The money back guarantee period is 45
days.
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Standard
Costing $36.95 on an annual
subscription, this plan is perfect for medium-sized web host reselling companies
with around 50 clients. The account features 80GB of disk space, 700GB
bandwidth, unmetered resold accounts, domain reseller portal, and custom DNS
settings. If looking for short term contract, you can pay for the plan on a
monthly basis.
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Premier
Costing $54.95 per
month, premier plan is great for large and medium-scale resellers with over 100
clients. It offers 120GB hard disk space, 1000GB bandwidth, free billing
software, free backups, WHM control panel, free migration services when coming
from another hosting provider.
Virtual Private
Servers offer dedicated hosting by splitting a single server into multiple
independent system units. Site5 provides this service using KVM VPS technology
and runs the files of the units using solid state drives. It eliminates the bad
neighbor effect where one user in a shared resource environment exceeds normal
allocation. The company isolates each VPS account into a fully independent unit
which gives you more control over resources. This way, the web experience is
ameliorated and downtime completely lessened.
Did you also know that
you can use the VPS to resell web spaces? Well, Site5 allows you to purchase a
server with powerful system resources and using WHM and cPanel resell the
hosting space for a profit. The service is different from the standard reseller
shared web hosting package in that the resources are 100% dedicated. Therefore,
you can oversell without affecting other users on the same server hardware.
As the name of the
package suggests, VPS hosting here is completely managed. It is Site5’s role to
keep the hosting platform working optimally instead of the user. It does this
by handling server updates, rolling out security fixes, and proactively
monitoring VPS performance. Additionally, the company updates the control
panels as soon as new stable versions are released. With this, you can easily
manage your account without worrying about technical functions that you’d find
in unmanaged environments.
When it comes to
hardware, Site5 brings on board the latest technologies in memory management,
processing power, and storage. The servers use RAID 10 storage technology which
enhances a smooth usage experience when using a bigger storage drive. Since
2016, they’ve replaced traditional SATA disks with SSDs which are more reliable
and faster. On processors, they use dual Intel E5-2630V4 processors which are
mostly found on high-end gaming systems. For memory, the server nodes have up
to 256GB RAM which can comfortably be split to more than 100 virtual machines.
Other features
supported by Site5’s VPS include shell access which is disabled by default, Cron
Jobs, FTP & SFTP, MySQL database, one-click script installer, site
analytics tools, ecommerce CMS, mailing servers, and multiple programming
languages such as Perl, Ruby, Python, and Server Side Includes (SSI).
Pricing Plans
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VPS2
VPS2 costs $62 per
month for a system with 2 CPU cores, 2GB memory, 50GB disk space, and 1TB
bandwidth. You can include in the plan cPanel or WHM for an additional $10 per
month. You’ll also have 2 dedicated IP addresses pointing to the private
server.
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VPS3
This plan costs $89
per month for a system with 2 CPU cores, 3GB memory, 1.5TB bandwidth, and 75GB
disk space. 2 IP addresses are included as well as a separately-billed use of
WHM and cPanel control panels.
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VPS4
The starting price for
this plan is $117 per month for a VPs system with 4 CPU cores, 2TB bandwidth,
100GB disk space, and 4GB RAM. The billing cycle is annual.
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VPS5
VPS5 costs $166 per
month for a virtual system with 4 CPU cores, 5GB RAM, 2.5TB bandwidth, and
125GB disk space.
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VPS6
This plan’s asking
price is $188 per month for a system with 150 GB storage space, 6GB memory, 6
CPU cores, and 3TB bandwidth.
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VPS7
Its costs $276 per
month to purchase this plan. Site5 provides a system with 4TB bandwidth, 8GB
memory, 8 CPU cores, and 200GB disk space.
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VPS8
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Currency | Admin panel | OS | Websites | Scripting | Email-Transport | Database | SSH | Databackups | Free Domain | 1-Click Installer | Websites Builder | Location | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hostPro+Turbo | - | - | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | - | - | - | ![]() |
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$ 13.95 |
hostPro | - | - | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | - | - | - | ![]() |
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$ 10.95 |
hostBasic | - | - | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
1 | - | - | - | ![]() |
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$ 6.95 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | OS | Accounts | Scripting | Database | Guarantee | Location | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Premier | 120GB | 1000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL | ![]() |
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$ 54.95 |
Standard | 80GB | 700GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL | ![]() |
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$ 36.95 |
Starter | 50GB | 500GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL | ![]() |
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$ 25.95 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | OS | Cores | RAM | Core Speed | CPU | Backups | Managed | Location | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VPS8 | 250GB | 5000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
8 | 10GB | - | 8 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 332.10 |
VPS7 | 200GB | 4000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
8 | 8GB | - | 8 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 257.40 |
VPS6 | 150GB | 3000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
6 | 6GB | - | 6 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 178.20 |
VPS5 | 125GB | 2500GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
5 | 5GB | - | 5 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 158.40 |
VPS4 | 100GB | 2000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
4 | 4GB | - | 4 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 114.30 |
VPS3 | 75GB | 1500GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
2 | 3GB | - | 2 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 89.10 |
VPS2 | 50GB | 1000GB | WHM,cPanel | ![]() |
2 | 2GB | - | 2 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 64.80 |
Site5’s long stay in
the hosting industry has grown its resources to support latest,
state-of-the-art technologies. It has a decent number of features on security,
control, performance, speed, customer support, and refunds. On this section,
we’ll explore these features in detail.
These two features
have been Site5’s power fronts as it has dedicated so much resources to advancing
them over the years. In fact, it repeatedly won BB awards for its servers’
reliability stats proving just how much prowess it had over its competitors.
So, how exactly does it enhance performance and speed for its hosting services?
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SSD storage
In 2016, Site5
officially migrated all web projects hosted on its servers to newer solid state
drives. These devices are popular for their high-speed data transfer rates and
hardiness to failure. As such, content is transferred to and from the web space
much quicker especially on a high bandwidth infrastructure.
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Unlimited
support for MySQL databases
MySQL is an open
source database that’s popular for its data storage speeds and security. It is
up to 5 times faster than databases that use text files to store data. Site5
allows creation of unlimited number of MySQL databases which can be allotted to
multiple users with varying permissions. Edit and control of existing databases
is via phpMyAdmin which provides an online intuitive interface for the
function.
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AWStats
We’ve mentioned this
tool previously. Essentially, it allows users to access performance statistics
of projects hosted on Site5. In real time, you can view info on latest
visitors, error logs, and subdomain usage. It offers a simple way to develop
reports by providing server-side site statistics features.
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RAID 10
technology
Besides increasing
smoothness in using bigger storage drives, it enhances mirroring of data to
offsite storages. All the SSDs available in Site5’s servers support this
technology by default.
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Unmetered
resources
This applies to shared
web hosting environments where disk space are bandwidth are “unlimited”.
Unmetered does not mean infinite but rather resources that are ordinarily
sufficient for normal operation of a website. It is rare to find accounts
exceeding this quota since Site5 frequently regulates the number of user
accounts per server.
Without proper
security measures in place, web projects are at a risk of damage, unauthorized access,
and theft. Site5 employs various measures and provides a number of tools to
enhance this feature. These include:
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SSL
certificates
Site5 offers free
shared SSL certificates for all accounts. Secure Socket Layer protocol
facilitates encryption of web data so that when the web server and the browser
are communicating, theft of plain text sensitive data is impossible. You can
upgrade to paid Wildcard SSL certificates that dedicate use to a single user.
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Virtualized
machines
This is Site5’s unique
way of storing websites. Principally, it involves storing web data on
virtualized machines with redundant systems so that in case of hardware
failure, accounts can be moved to a new server readily.
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Free Backups
Site5 keeps a snapshot
of your site files every day for a week. You can download this backup files and
store them in an offsite location just in case you need to use them elsewhere.
Each account has tools and services that allow you to manage the backups
including restoration of the site to a previous state.
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Malware
Protection
Site5 partnered with
Succuri, a web security firm, to fight off malwares that exploit websites and
online services. All web projects in your account are secure from hidden
iFrames, cross site scripts, phishing attempts, and drive-by-downloads. Malware
scans are conducted every 12 hours with a cleanup process deployed instantly in
case threats are present. What’s more, the company opens a ticket to notify
account owners of steps they’ve taken to clear the threat in case the problem
recurs.
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PCI compliance
PCI stands for Payment
Card Industry, a standard that dictates security levels of the credit cards and
other payment methods. Site5 is fully PCI compliant meaning sites hosted on it
can carry monetary transactions without the risk of theft of sensitive personal
info.
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PHP Ban Script
This script blocks
services or tools that snoop or sniff data on PHP-coded sites. The rules that
govern the ban criteria can be edited on htaccess file on your public_html
folder.
Out of the box, Site5
supports cPanel, WHM, and Backstage control panels. Backstage is the default
account management tool for users who’ve not purchased WHM and cPanel. It gives
you access to account info in a single web interface page. Using it, you can
analyze the billing activity of your account, subscription status, domain
registration history, etc. Furthermore, you can engage the support team via
live chat or jump to help pages in Site5 subdomains.
For $10 per month, you
can add cPanel to your plan and enjoy the rich features which it ships to
hosting accounts. WHM license is free to resellers but you can always upgrade
to paid versions if the features of the basic version are insufficient.
Any control panel you
choose supports Softaculous script package that allows you to install third
party apps. It is ideal for novices and developers who prefer batch
installations of apps and services. You can use it to install forum apps,
frameworks, file management systems, ad management tools, polls & survey
tools, RSS Feeds, and Wikis.
Like many hosting
providers, Site5 provides a platform to communicate with consumers of its
products. It answers to everything from billing terms, account setup, upgrades,
to transfers. The main communication channels are live chat, ticketing system,
and direct calls. Additionally, it offers a wiki database that you can use to
find answers to commonly asked questions and support issues.
Interestingly,
consumers can interact with each other via community forums which are great
places to share personal experiences with the provider. It is also where
maintenance notifications are placed as well as outage announcements. Lastly,
the company sends monthly uptime reports which are great for evaluating
stability of the server hosting your web projects.
Not sure about hosting
your website with Site5? Well, the first 45 days after subscribing to their
services guarantee 100% refund if you’re unsatisfied. Nevertheless, your
account must comply to terms of service outlined here to qualify
for the reimbursement. Also, they give a
service credit in case your server’s online presence is lower than 99%.
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Site Migration
Having an existing
site hosted elsewhere? Site5 helps with migrating the web files, emails,
databases, and other data from your previous hosting provider for free. The
process takes at most 48 hours and is available from Monday to Friday between
11am and 8pm.
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Programming
Languages
These affect how your
site appears and how it reacts to visitor commands. Site5 formally supports
five programming languages namely Ruby on Rails, PHP, Perl, Python, and Server
Side Includes (SSI). Whenever a new version of the programming environment is
present, the company will ask you update your code for enhanced compatibility
and uptight security.
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Cron Jobs
Site5 offers a free
Cron Job Editor that allows you to schedule tasks that the server executes. You
can set the tool to automatically email you the output for future reference or
reporting purposes.
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Emails
Depending on your
plan, Site5 supports creation of as many email accounts as you need. It then
channels the emails via POP and IMAP which are inarguably stable protocols. The
three officially supported webmail systems are Horde, Squirrelmail, and
Roundcube.
Before we point out
the strengths and drawbacks of Site5, it’s important to mention that the
company is efficient. Over the years, it has proved beyond reasonable doubt
that it’s competitive and delivers the web hosting function exactly as it
promises. Even though it has shortcomings, definitely they are outweighed by
the fortes.
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Straightforward
prices on plans
Site5 has no hidden fees
and advertises the exact amount you will be charged for a particular plan. In
case an additional fee is necessary, it gives you a prior notification to
ensure you’re aware of the changes in the billing amount. In short, Site5 has
no gimmicks.
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Unconditional
refunds
In its terms of
service on money-back guarantee, it is clear how claims can be made, when, and
the amount to be refunded. There are no hidden conditions limiting cancellation
of a hosting contract. Moreover, the 45-day trial period is long enough to evaluate
satisfaction with the provider’s services.
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No overloaded
servers
Besides using high-end
servers, Site5 keeps the number of customers per server relatively low. It
employs the expertise of tech gurus in analysis of the number of users per
server. In the end, this enhances performance and increases reliability for
various levels of use of their service.
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In-house engineers
and certified developers
Site5 has over 60
competitive staff who innovate ultramodern features, provide helpful solutions,
and come through when customers need them. In our live interactions, the
support staff came out as fast, friendly, and very reliable.
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Multiple
support resources
Site5 is one of those
hosting providers that prioritizes customer experience. Besides providing
multiple quick communication channels, it has a sea of support articles and
resources on its subdomain. We found
almost all features we’ve covered here explained in detail on the segment.
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Free services
Site5 has lots of
tools, features, and services which are accessible for free and payable
elsewhere. Backups, migrations, security plugins, and powerful installers are
some of the features which you can enjoy for free.
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Active social
media presence
Today, companies are
trying their best to trade their wares over the internet. Social media is a
great platform to reach out to the consumers, therefore, finding a company that
fully embraces it like Site5 is motivating. Check out details about their
social media handles and pages here.
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Diverse
packages
Although site5
initially offered shared web hosting package, today it has a plethora of
hosting solutions from VPS, reselling programs, etc.
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Above average
load time
Over the last one
year, Site5 had an average ping of 690ms which is slightly better than the
standard 890ms.
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Great uptime
stats
Since January 2018,
its uptime has averaged 99.92% which is 0.02% higher than its promised uptime.
Find a hosting provider that delivers as much as it guarantees is not an
everyday encounter.
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Advanced
features for basic plans
Site5 offers various
advanced features even in the cheap plans which is an incredible offer for
beginners. The remarkable features include automated backups & recovery,
auto-scanning of malware, and unmetered disk space & bandwidth.
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Free control
panel
This company provides
each account a free Backstage Account Manager. This control panel is easy to
use and gives so much administrative power to the user.
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Delays in
tickets
Although the ticketing
system works, Site5 support staff can sometimes take up to a week to respond.
For urgent issues, this can be disastrous and demotivating to potential
long-term clients.
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Unmetered resources
are not truly unlimited
Although they
advertise disk space and bandwidth to be unmetered, this is often not the case.
There’s a fair usage policy which is not publicly stated during sign up.
Where is Site5 on the map?
Site5 is based in
Austin in Texas in the United States. The datacenter holding its servers is at
the same location.
Which hosting packages does Site5 offer?
Site5 offers shared
web hosting, reseller services, and VPS plans as the primary hosting packages.
You can upgrade or downgrade your account anytime to accommodate a plan that
works optimally for your needs at any given time.
Which are the supported operating environments on Site5 servers?
Linux is the
officially supported operating system on Site5 servers. As such, you can only
use scripts and apps written in coding languages that Linux supports.
Which webmail systems are supported by Site5 infrastructure?
Horde, Roundcube, and
Squirrelmail are three officially supported webmail systems by Site5. These use
IMAP and POP protocols for email exchange.
Which customer satisfaction guarantees are available at Site5?
Uptime credit and
money back guarantee. Uptime credits are issued upon facing an outage to
compensate for loss incurred during the period. Money-back guarantee is for
when a customer is completely dissatisfied with Site5’s services leading to
cancellation of the contract. The period within which this must occur is 45
days.
Any discounts for Site5 web hosting plans?
At the moment, Site5’s
annual and biannual plans are cheaper than their monthly term counterparts.
However, account owners occasionally receive coupon codes which slash an amount
off the outstanding fees.
Which programming languages can I use on a web project I want to host at
Site5?
Perl, Ruby, PHP, and
Python are some of the programming languages officially supported by Site5 and
Linux OS. However, users of VPS can run virtual machines inside their operating
environment and host web projects developed in other languages.
What’s the minimum contract term at Site5?
Site5’s minimum
contract term is one month while the maximum is 2 years (24 months). Monthly
contracts are slightly costlier than annual and biannual contracts.
Which payment systems does Site5 support?
Besides major credit
cards, you can pay via PayPal on Site5.
Is automated backup supported?
Yes. Servers
automatically backup data on their storage devices once every day and retain
the backup images for at least 7 days. Custom backup frequencies can be set at
an extra fee as well as downloading the backup images to offsite locations.