JustHost Hosting Review: Is Their Reputation Justified?

JustHost Hosting Review: Is this the best web host for your business?

About JustHost

JustHost is a UK-based company that specializes in providing shared hosting solutions for website novices. Since opening in 2008, they've become a market leader in the world of shared hosting and regularly appear on “Best Shared Host” lists. JustHost has a reputation for providing good customer support and delivering fast, responsive hosting solutions.

What Makes JustHost Unique?

The fact that JustHost is based in the UK makes them unique among larger shared hosting companies. They also have servers based in Australia, which gives them a particular advantage with regards to offering hosting on a global scale. There are other UK hosts, like 123-Reg, which is also popular, but UK based hosts are still unique among many of the US based ones which seem to be the standard.

The company clearly states their customer commitments and guarantees on their website. Touches like these always give me a great deal of confidence. However, can they deliver on those promises?

JustHost provides cross-location backup and UPS power backup. These keep servers from going offline and data from getting lost.

JustHost Online Reputation

Unfortunately, independent customer reviews don't back up JustHost's bold claims. WhoIsHostingThis.com gives the company 2.6 stars and features a mix of average reviews and a large number of 1-star reviews. Most of the negative reviews refer to a change to the support system. Many users report frustration over long wait times while getting issues resolved.

In terms of uptime and service delivery, JustHost receives above average reviews. This is reassuring, but sadly, customer support seems to let the company down. Across the board, JustHost receives average reviews of between 2 and 3 stars. The worst reviews come from TrustPilot.com, which gives JustHost just 2 stars. PC Mag also gives them a 2-star review as well, citing slow customer response as an issue.

As always, customer reviews are a mixed bag and sometimes a little hard to judge. My personal experiences with JustHost in 2011 were largely positive. The user interface was very good and uptime more than satisfactory. The support system was a little slow but very effective.

I wouldn't say JustHost is the best or the worst, personally. They're average overall, but they do have some interesting features that those new to hosting will find attractive.

Types of Hosting Offered by JustHost

JustHost specializes in providing Shared Hosting plans to startups and SMBs. Their levels of hosting all come with add-on features suitable for any website and WordPress blog.

All hosting plans come with access to the MOJO Marketplace, which has 1-click WordPress install and over 100 open-source applications developed for JustHost plans. There's also a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder and a selection of templates. I don't recommend using drag and drop builders unless they are a WordPress plugin. WordPress is very versatile , and can be moved between hosts. If you go with a limited system like a drag and drop builder, moving your website away from JustHost could be expensive or at least time consuming.

JustHost's Shared Hosting plans start at $3.95/mo.

Shared Hosting (From$3.95/mo)

Basic ($3.95/mo)

• 1 Website
• 50GB Storage
• 25 Sub Domains
• 5 Parked Domains
• 5 Email accounts
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Includes Marketing Offers

Plus ($6.95/mo)

• 10 Websites
• 150GB Storage
• 50 Sub Domains
• 25 Parked Domains
• 100 Email Accounts
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Spam Prevention
• $150 Marketing Vouchers
• $24+ a Year in Extras

Prime ($6.95/mo)

• Unlimited Websites
• Unlimited Storage
• Unlimited Sub Domains
• Unlimited Parked Domains
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Unlimited bandwidth
• $200 Marketing Offers
• $80+ a year in extras
• Spam Prevention
• Domain Privacy for 1 domain name
• Site Backup Pro

GoPro ($14.95/mo)

This plan includes everything on the Prime Hosting Plan and hosts your websites on a higher performance server.

SubDomains are prefixes to your actual domain names. You don't have to purchase them. Instead, you can instantly create one by using your cPanel. For example, shop.nywebsite.com is a subdomain. The prefix before the (dot) works as a separate domain. In this instance, my shop could have a completely new theme to my main domain. Effectively, this creates two websites in one.

Domain Parking is the ability to “park” a website or domain name on your server. Your domain won't be live on the internet and receiving visitors while it's parked. Your domain name will simply be stored on your server account.

1-Click WordPress install is one reason why JustHost might be a good WordPress hosting option.

WordPress Hosting

JustHost doesn't offer any dedicated WordPress hosting plans. However, they do support WordPress and have a lot of WordPress add-ons. You can easily host a WordPress blog on your JustHost shared hosting account.

You'll find a one-click WordPress install on cPanel. The MOJO marketplace offers over 100 open source themes and applications.

I know many hosts prefer offering dedicated WordPress hosting, but it's not strictly necessary. I've hosted WordPress on standard shared hosting plans for more than 10 years with no problems whatsoever.

VPS Hosting (From $19.99/mo)

All VPS Hosting plans are built on cloud server technology and come with instant provisioning. This means that your server will be up and running in a matter of minutes.

Standard ($19.99/mo)

• Dual Core Processor
• 2GB RAM
• 30GB Storage
• 1TB bandwidth
• Free Domain Name
• 1 IP Address

Enhanced ($29.99/mo)

• Dual-Core Processor
• 2GB RAM
• 60GB Storage
• 2TB Bandwidth
• Free Domain
• 2 IP Addresses

Premium ($44.99/mo)

• Triple-Core Processor
• 6GB RAM
• 90GB Storage
• 2TB Bandwidth
• Free Domain
• 2 IP Addresses

Ultimate ($59.99/mo)

• Quad-Core Processor
• 8GB RAM
• 120GB Storage
• 3TB Bandwidth
• Free Domain
• 2 IP Address

All VPS plans come with cPanel installed. JustHost VPS servers have a reputation for outstanding speed and reliability.

Dedicated Hosting (from $79.99/mo)

JustHost offers 3 levels of Dedicated Hosting starting at $79.99/mo. They offer virtually the same services as their competitors in the budget hosting space but at a heavily reduced price.

JustHost offers excellent uptime thanks to 24/7 monitoring, power backup and more.

The price for dedicated hosting is very reasonable, but you won't need hosting this powerful right now. Stick with shared hosting, WordPress optimized hosting (my favorite), or VPS if you have the money.

JustHost Servers

JustHost have servers located in Europe, USA, and Australia. All servers are Linux-based and feature advanced Quad Core Processors. They come with 24/7 monitoring, advanced security and Diesel Generator Backup. JustHost also provides cross-location backup and UPS power backup, which keep servers from going offline and data from getting lost.

JustHost makes it easy to manage your website thanks to several free features.

Features and Tools Offered by JustHost

JustHost offers free domain names and free domain transfers with all hosting accounts. All hosting plans come with cPanel and access to the MOJO marketplace. The marketplace's apps have been developed to support your hosting requirements.

The drag-and-drop website builder lacks some functionality and feels crude compared to those offered by SiteGround and GoDaddy. The templates are also pretty basic compared to those offered by other budget hosting companies. It's just one more reason to avoid their site builder.

The MOJO Marketplace offers a host of eCommerce features that makes setting up an online store relatively straightforward. These include the very popular ZenCart shopping cart. You can also host Woocommerce on your WordPress website. If you're going the ecommerce route, consider Shopify as your easy-to-use solution.

JustHost's servers JustHost are SSL secured and come with a security certificate. This allows for a safe and secure eCommerce environment for your customers.

You can choose from a host of 1-click multimedia scripts as well. They allow you to integrate streaming media into your website easily. The list of free 1-click scripts include:

• Web Forms
• Email Integration
• Image Galleries
• Surveys
• Social Media

You'll also have the ability to host your own support forums and knowledge base. The MOJO Marketplace's 1-click install options give JustHost a distinct advantage over other budget hosting companies. It's nice to have all these easy-to-install additional features in one place.

Cancellation Policies

JustHost offers a full 30-day money back guarantee. This doesn't include additional SEO features or domain name privacy. If you require a refund or need to cancel your agreement, you can access a simple-to-follow option through your control panel.

JustHost's website builder feels very basic compared to SiteGround's or GoDaddy's.

Customer Service Review

Despite the poor customer reviews, I found JustHost support helpful (if a little slow). For the purposes of this review, I was only able to test sales support. All of my questions–even the difficult ones–were answered effectively.

Unfortunately, the responses were slow. Even the most simple question got the standard, ‘Can you wait for between 3 and 5 minutes?” reply. As a result, it took over 40 minutes to get a response to basic inquiries. Other customer reviews suggest that you'll experience this a lot if you need support.

All support tickets appear to get a response within under 24 hours and most in under 4 hours. Considering Justhost doesn't offer much in the way of exceptional…anything, the lackluster customer service is why I wouldn't really recommend them.

JustHost Final Verdict

JustHost is certainly worth considering if you're new to website hosting. If you want a budget host that will support your WordPress website on a shared hosting platform, they're certainly worth looking at.

However, JustHost's drag-and-drop website builder looks outdated. Both GoDaddy and SiteGround offer much better ones. On the other hand, MOJO Marketplace offers many features for free that other hosting companies would charge a premium for.

Thanks to the popularity of WordPress, many budget hosting companies offer specialist WordPress hosting. You can host WordPress on any shared hosting platform, such as the one offered here, but the lack of options is another strike against this company.

There are tons of hosting options to consider out. Personally, JustHost doesn't make my list of top picks.

Nathaniell

What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!