Clook Internet Introduction

Clook Internet is a UK-based hosting company located in Preston and founded in May 2002. Chris James, the company’s managing director, owns parent company Sub 6 Limited. Sister companies include Clook Internet USA and ClookCDN.

Clook Internet has a clear UK focus, and its website’s muted colour scheme suggests that the company aims to attract small businesses and professional users. However, its shared hosting is also marketed at individuals who need low-cost web space.

Clook Internet Hosting Plans
Clook Internet has four clearly-defined hosting plans: shared, reseller, managed VPS and dedicated.

● Shared web hosting is provided over three plans. All of these are Linux-based. Unusually, none of these offer unlimited resources, except for email addresses. However, the space and transfer caps will be sufficient for the average business website. Discounts are offered for annual payments.

● Reseller web hosting is also split into three plans. Again, these are Linux-based. On the lowest cost Reseller-1 plan, there’s a limit of 20 resold accounts, which is an unusual restriction. Reseller-2 and Reseller-3 offer resellers the ability to host unlimited accounts for their clients.

● The Managed vServer hosting offered by Clook Internet is a VPS package in disguise. It appears to be a Linux-only offering. Users can opt for one of three variants, from 30 GB space and 200 Gb transfer up to 90 GB space and 600 GB transfer. All are fully managed, and root access is discouraged.

● Clook Internet offers two dedicated server plans - Power and Extreme. Extreme offers two quad-core Xeon processors, double the RAM of the Power plan and double the data transfer. Both are fully managed; again, customers are encouraged not to request root access. From the references to cPanel on the Features page, we can assume both dedicated server products are Linux-only.

Clook Internet Uptime/Downtime

Clook Internet doesn’t boast about an uptime guarantee. There’s a server status page which is public, and this allows you to examine individual servers’ uptime and performance. An overall uptime figure isn’t provided, but the company claims “most” servers have provided 100% uptime.

There’s no information about its UK data centre location on the website, but I managed to deduce that it’s a shared facility.

Shared and reseller accounts are backed up daily, and the host stores incremental backups. Customers can request individual files to be restored. This isn’t always offered on shared hosting and could be a big plus for some.

Managed vServer plans and dedicated servers are all backed up on a daily basis. These backups are complete snapshot images and are offered for emergency situations only. In addition, cPanel configuration data is backed up nightly.

Clook Internet Support

Clook Internet promises support 24/7, all year round. Unusually, it also promises that its support department is entirely UK-based and isn’t outsourced to another company. It offers a support portal with links to a ticketing system, knowledge base, tutorials and a customer forum. Note that most of the forum’s contents appear to be hidden from public view.

Live chat is available, but the only option on the homepage is to chat with the sales team. I couldn’t find an option to chat with technical support staff, so I can only presume support isn’t offered this way. Telephone support is provided using both US and UK numbers.

The company has active accounts on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Staff personally interact with customers via Twitter and Facebook, but its Google+ page isn’t used at all. The team comes across as friendly and informal and seem happy to chat on social media.

Clook Internet in the News

As far as I can see, Clook Internet hasn’t experienced any major scandals that have hit the deadlines.

Clook Internet Control Panel

All Clook Internet customers are provided with cPanel, although this isn’t promoted as well as it could be. All of the information about cPanel is tucked away under a subheading under the ‘Why Clook?’ menu: that’s a shame, because it’s usually a key factor in the buying decision.

Reseller clients are also offered WHM, which is as you’d expect.

Clook Internet Extras

Clook Internet doesn’t offer any freebies. It appears the company prefers to promote solid technical support and a good quality service. Softaculous (and various scrips) are offered via cPanel, and resellers and managed server customers can request RvSkin to customise their control panel.

Resellers are allocates a single IP address; dedicated IPs can be arranged, but they cost extra, and the host says that the need for a dedicated IP must be justified before it will assign one. Dedicated IPs are also chargeable on its VPS hosting plans. Dedicated server customers receive four IP addresses as standard.

Clook Internet Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

Clook Internet offers a no-quibble 30-day money-back guarantee. Customers can simply request cancellation and get a full refund. After this time, refunds are not offered.

Clook Internet Summary

Customers on the lookout for a cheap hosting service might be put off by the resource limits on Clook Internet’s shared and reseller hosting, but this can actually be a sensible strategy. By locking down each customer to a pre-agreed resource ceiling, web hosts can protect themselves - and their customers - against resource-hogging sites which are badly configured. That makes it a solid choice for UK customers, although it is an unconventional approach.

As it is, the company seems to straddle two markets; its features are listed with pride, but the host doesn’t provide unmanaged solutions. The company’s prices will be of interest to beginners, but the copy doesn’t define some of the technical terms used to describe each package. Also, there are no free gifts on offer - not even a domain name.

Clook Internet’s website contains a lot of technical references, but the overall website copy is quite lengthy and vague. I found several mistakes as I read through each page. The company sits in a very competitive space, so it would be great if the team decided which market it wants to serve the most. That would help it to tighten up its presentation and really sell its best features.