iWeb Introduction

Founded in 1996, iWeb is an established hosting provider based in Montreal, Canada. It was originally called Formation et Technologies Formatek and offered a range of services; the company refocused on web hosting between 1998 and 1999.

The company was privatised in 2011 and provides shared hosting services under another brand name, Funio. In terms of specialities, iWeb is focused solely on dedicated and ‘smart servers’, a modified form of dedicated server hosting.

With four data centres, 200 staff, 21,000 customers and 35,000 servers, iWeb claims to be one of the biggest providers of web hosting services in Canada.

iWeb Hosting Plans

As mentioned in the introduction, iWeb is solely concerned with premium and/or professional hosting services. Its product range focuses solely on business hosting; more affordable options like shared hosting are provided under other brand names, so they’re not covered in this review.

● The company advertises a set of dedicated server hosting plans that are fairly traditional in terms of specifications. As the price increases, so do the features; top-end plans include unmetered bandwidth. Users can choose cPanel or Plesk and all benefit from a 100% network uptime SLA. Customers on a budget can also investigate the limited-edition Warehouse Clearance area for lower cost options.

● Smart servers are essentially virtual machines, similar to virtual private servers, except that the smart server takes up all of the dedicated server’s resources - not just one slice. They can be deployed more quickly than dedicated servers because they’re hosted in the cloud. Through iWeb, customers can obtain a smart server running Linux or Windows; configuration options are broadly similar to a dedicated server.

iWeb Uptime/Downtime

Across both types of hosting plans, iWeb guarantees 100% network uptime and offers a money-back guarantee as part of this SLA; should it fail to meet its target, it’ll award clients a credit for one day’s free service for 15 minutes’ downtime, then one day per hour of downtime after that. It also gives customers a 4 hour hardware replacement guarantee.

Customers can check the system status on the iWeb site at any time. No historical data seems to be published, although customers can subscribe via email or RSS to get regular updates.

In terms of network infrastructure, iWeb operates exclusively from Canada. It owns and operates three data centres in Canada - mainly in the Montreal area - and has space in a fourth facility; in total, this provides a huge 90,000 square feet of data centre space.

Detailed information about each facility is available on its website. All are protected with biometric sensors, CCTV and secure access arrangements, while continuity is provided via cooling and air condition, diesel generators and power regulation systems. If you need to know more, iWeb provides three virtual tours on its website. It’s clearly very keen to promote its data centres as a key asset of its service provision.

iWeb Support

Support is provided 24/7/365 by iWeb’s in-house team of technical staff. Customers can contact the company by telephone or live chat; support staff provide assistance in English, French and Spanish.

In the Control Center, users can log support tickets and check the status of past requests or incidents. The company also has a knowledgebase that covers an impressive range of topics in a good level of detail, with useful screenshots.

iWeb in the News

I researched iWeb on some of the world’s biggest tech news sites, but I didn’t find any articles about its services or past performance.

iWeb Control Panel

As iWeb’s services are limited to dedicated and smart servers, users aren’t restricted to a particular range of software. Both cPanel and Plesk are offered on dedicated server plans.

On smart servers, customers are provided with a custom control panel, Control Center, which handles the actual server management. Presumably they could also install other control panel tools, although this isn’t mentioned in specifics.

iWeb Extras

As iWeb concentrates on enterprise hosting, it doesn’t focus on providing free gifts or vouchers to encourage users to sign up. Some special offers are listed on the website, but these generally relate to bandwidth or extra power rather than a free gift like a domain name.

iWeb Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

All iWeb customers can use its 30-day money-back guarantee to reclaim their fees if they’re not happy. Customers who want to cancel must use the special Account Termination form. The amount of bandwidth used on the account will be measured and a charge will be deducted from the user’s refund.

Cancelling mid-term is also possible; for this, customers need to use the Customer Hub control panel or submit a request in writing, with a signature, by fax. According to the Terms of Service, iWeb may provide a pro-rata refund in the form of an account credit.

iWeb Summary

With its commitment to enterprise hosting, iWeb is a niche hosting company that presents itself as professional, accomplished and experienced. Its website and tutorial videos have an air of Apple’s web design about them; perhaps iWeb sees itself as a ‘premium’ provider of hosting services and wants to align itself with the same aesthetics. It’s hard to find fault with its web hosting products, although they’re clearly aimed at a very specific type of customer and may not be suitable for every business.