eHost Review

If you’re in the market for a budget-friendly host, don’t forget to check out eHost. It’s been a player in the hosting arena for more than 15 years and is now owned by Endurance International Group (EIG) (the same group that owns dozens of other hosting companies, including BlueHost, iPage, HostMonster, JustHost, and Hostgator, to name just a few). The company just underwent a major revamp and relaunch this year (2015).

In hopes of decoding what it all meant (and to determine my verdict on the revamped host), I secured a test account a few months ago and interviewed eHost personnel (Tom Jackson, Business Development Executive).

eHost Hosting Plans: What’s in the box?

It’s hard to beat a hosting cost of just $2.75 per month… and that price includes the domain name, an email address, a site builder, templates, and unlimited domains and MySQL databases. It also includes a cPanel for an online store, PayPal integration and other nifty ecommerce features, 24 x 7 phone; chat; and email support and a bunch of more tech-imperative inclusions, such as 24 x 7 network monitoring, site and visitor reports, load balanced servers… you get the idea. There’s a lot included. And, eHost offers specifically shared hosting services, so that one plan is what you get (how’s that for easy shopping?).

What can we know more about the preparation work before this?

Tom Jackson / eHost: We had to take a step back with eHost and consider what our customers and potential customers were crying out for. We noticed that a lot of people were opting for a website builder model over a cPanel, so decided to incorporate the extremely user friendly drag and drop website builder. Now, our customers will have the best of both worlds.

eHost Offer Highlights

eHost User Dashboard

Compare eHost Prices

Web Hosts	Sign Up*	Renewal*	VS eHost	Trial	WHSR Ratings	Review
eHost	$2.75/mo	$7.98/mo		45 days
A Small Orange	$4.20/mo	$4.20/mo	53% more expensive	90 days		Review
Arvixe	$4.00/mo	$14.95/mo	45% more expensive	60 days		Review
BlueHost	$3.95/mo	$6.99/mo	44% more expensive	30 days		Review
Dream Host	$7.87/mo	$8.95/mo	186% more expensive	30 days		Review
FatCow	$3.15/mo	$9.99/mo	15% more expensive	30 days		Review
GoDaddy	$4.99/mo	$6.99/mo	81% more expensive	45 days		Review
HostMetro	$2.45/mo	$2.45/mo	11% cheaper	30 days		Review
iPage	$1.99/mo	$9.99/mo	28% cheaper	30 days		Review
IX Web Hosting	$3.95/mo	$6.95/mo	1% more expensive	7 days		Review
PowWeb	$3.88/mo	$9.99/mo	1% more expensive	30 days		Review
WebHostingHub	$3.74/mo	$8.99/mo	1% more expensive	90 days		Review

* All listed prices based on 2-year subscription at time of writing (Oct 2016).

 The Ups: What I Like So Far

• Budget Choice There are many things that I like about eHost, the price being one of them; eHost is one of the most cost-effective hosts in the marketplace.
• Reliable Uptime Additionally, I’ve been impressed with the uptime: Though eHost guarantees 99.9% (and promises a one-month credit if it doesn’t deliver), my own test set has scored 100% uptime for more than 45 days! eHost is also very friendly to newbies, thanks to 1000’s of templates available through the Drag & Drop site builder and an intuitive control panel.
• Experienced Management / No Fly-by-Night Business Although EIG has its share of negative online reviews, fact of the matter is that it hosts millions of websites through various entities (Bluehost, Hostgator, and iPage, to name just a few); that experience is hard to beat and speaks to probable hosting longevity.
• 45 Day Money Back Guarantee If you feel eHost isn’t right for you within the first 45 days, the company will give you back your money.

Updates March 2016 –

Pay close attention to the Uptime Review section below. Note that my test site hosted at eHost has not gone down for one second since this review is published. That’s more than 6 months without an outage – which is very impressive for a host at this price tag.

Important to know

Of course, no host is all sunshine and roses, and eHost is no exception.

Server Resources Limitation

One thing that eHost does a bit differently than other providers is provide some transparency into the storage space and bandwidth (novel concept, indeed). Rather than using the commonly used, somewhat misleading “unlimited” label, eHost provides “unmetered” amounts, which it explains as “no set limits.” What that means is that you still need to fall within the “normal” usage amounts, which the host determines through regular statistical analyses.

That said, eHost customers are still governed by strict CPU and disk usage policies – you should know that excessive usage could result in suspension.

Some specific limitations on eHost server resources usage include (read TOS C-a & -b)

• Use twenty-five percent (25%) or more of our system resources for longer than ninety (90) seconds at a time. Activities that could cause this excessive use, include but are not limited to: CGI scripts, FTP, PHP, HTTP, etc.
• Run cron entries with intervals of less than fifteen (15) minutes.
• Run any MySQL queries longer than fifteen (15) seconds. MySQL tables should be indexed appropriately.
• The use of more than two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) inodes on any shared or reseller account may result in a warning, and if no action is taken to reduce the excessive use of inodes, your account may be suspended.

Higher Renewal Price

Also, that super cheap rate that you start with only lasts your initial term; when you renew, your monthly price will reflect the regular rate – $5.98/mo for a three-year term, $7.98/mo for a two-year term, or $9.98/mo for a one-year term.

eHost Hosting Uptime Review

eHost Uptime (Feb/Mar 2017): 100%

eHost Uptime (Jun/Jul 2016): 100%

eHost Uptime (Mar 2016): 100%

eHost Uptime (Jan/Feb 2016): 100%

eHost Uptime (Aug/Sep 2015): 100%

eHost Server Speed Test: B – Average

We ping our test site hosted on eHost from 8 different locations and compare the responses times with other web hosts. Image below displays the results for February 2016; the score of “B” is average and acceptable for a budget web host like eHost.

The bottom line

Tom, who should sign up to ehost? Who are your primary target customers?

Tom Jackson / eHost: The new and improved eHost is targeted at everyone, as the choices made throughout the service determine how technical the user can be. Want MySQL databases? Go for cPanel. Want to build a simple blog? It’s made brilliantly easy with our Drag & Drop builder. All users are catered for, regardless of their web development skill level. But of course, you can’t please everyone – the new eHost is particularly friendly to newbies. Despite this, we are proud to say the pros will not be held back.

Looking at recent outstanding server performance (so far, the test site has not gone down for 1 seconds in 2016), I think eHost deserve a 5-star.

If you’re in the market for something affordable with lots of inclusions and reliability, eHost is definitely a must-see.