WebHostingHub Introduction

WebHostingHub specialises in quality shared web hosting and seems keen to attract small businesses to their service. The company were formed in 2001 with a mission to strive towards better provision, operational excellence and state-of-the-art green technology. WebHostingHub is based in Virginia Beach in the USA and are 100% USA-based, although there is little available information regarding who owns the company.

Whilst WebHostingHub’s services are pretty standard, they also provide additional services geared towards optimising their customers’ websites. The company is keen to attract people and businesses that are relatively new to the web and want to get off to a quick start with a powerful business website.

WebHostingHub Hosting Plans

The hosting plans for WebHostingHub are limited to shared hosting. Whilst their support pages provide advice regarding the pros and cons of VPS, cloud and dedicated hosting, the website doesn’t give any indication of any availability or pricing structure.

The pricing structure is simple and based on a sliding scale. If you purchase web hosting with WebHostingHub, the cost falls on longer contracts. The cheapest available agreement runs for three years.

The shared web hosting package provides a free domain name, a free website builder, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth and allows you to have unlimited websites and email accounts.

There is an affiliate programme which customers can sign up to as well. It offers $100 for a successful referral along with a dedicated customer services contact and other benefits.

WebHostingHub Uptime/Downtime

WebHostingHub does not publish its uptime data on their website, and it does not provide any uptime guarantee. A support centre question indicated that in 2011, their servers maintained a 99.98% network uptime status. I couldn’t find any solid statement on the site to back this up.

The WebHostingHub servers are 100% factory-tested Dell servers that are located in two data centres, one on the east coast of America and one on the west coast. The data centres use Green Data Centre Technology. Unfortunately, they do not provide many other details regarding the security systems or network management.

Site backup features can be purchased for a small monthly fee.

WebHostingHub Support

The WebHostingHub support centre is available to all customers, so there’s no extra charge if you need help. The website provides several knowledge bases, forums and an education channel which provide numerous tutorials to get you up and running.

The customer support team is available through live chat, telephone help and an online help desk portal. The support team is available 24/7 and is US-based.

The WebHostingHub site also provides a useful community channel where individuals can browse questions, ask questions of their own and even answer queries from others. At the same time, WebHostingHub support staff monitor the channel and guarantee a response within 60 minutes, which is impressive.

The WebHostingHub Facebook page is active, but posts now appear to be rare. However, they do provide the occasional link to tools and information, useful for building websites. Their Twitter page is active and they appear to respond to customer queries promptly.

WebHostingHub in the News

WebHostingHub has not appeared in the media very frequently. However, ZDnet reported an issue regarding a considerable amount of spamming coming from the company early in 2012.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/webhostinghub-com-spamming-like-its-going-out-of-style-a-case-study/4731

The company has been targeted by hackers in the past. In September 2011, a number of hosted sites were defaced. The team were able to restore the majority of affected sites within 12 hours, but the control panel was made unavailable for this time. The incident didn’t appear in the news, but evidence is visible in their support pages:

http://www.webhostinghub.com/support/website/website-troubleshooting/status-of-september-tiger-mte-attack

WebHostingHub Control Panel

The WebHostingHub control panel is Cpanel, which is pretty standard in the shared hosting industry. You can login from the main home page to administer your account. The Cpanel interface user-friendly, and whilst novices can quickly get to grips with its features, it provides a number of advanced tools to learn over time.

WebHostingHub Extras

Sign up for WebHostingHub and you’ll receive a bonus $75 Google Adwords credit and a free domain name. You’ll get access to a free website builder and blogging software. Websites can be integrated with a variety of ecommerce tools, such as Cube Cart, a shared SSL certificate, Google Checkout and PayPal.

Wordpress, Nucleus and b2evolution blogging tools can be installed, and so can content management systems such as Joomla, Drupal and Geeklog. phpBB forums are available, as are a number of photo sharing tools. Unlimited FTP Accounts, sub-domains and parked domains are also featured, and you are provided with a free backup wizard if you don’t want to pay for the bolt-on.

For those who are looking to transfer their existing domain name, WebHostingHub provides a free temporary URL to get your site working correctly before attempting to transfer.

For an additional cost, WebHostingHub also offer a number of web design services including business sites, SEO services and social media consultation.

WebHostingHub Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

WebHostingHub offers a generous 90-day refund/ guarantee policy. Not all fees are refundable, though. As you might expect, the purchase of SSL certificates, domain privacy and domain names will not be returned on cancellation of the agreement.

Anyone who cancels their agreement within 90 days will receive a full refund of any costs related to the hosting service specifically. If the customer received a free domain name, the cost will be deducted from the refund as will the costs associated to a dedicated IP. Cancelling an agreement is done via an electronic cancellation form, so it’s all quite straightforward.

WebHostingHub Summary

WebHostingHub are similar to a lot of other hosting companies out there. Many of the services they offer are competitive yet comparable to the rest of the industry. Their key selling points centre around the additional services that can be bought which make them ideal for individuals and small businesses to get a quality website up and running in a quick and efficient manner. The support community will be a big selling point for some customers, particularly those who like to share ideas take an active involvement in their web hosting community (and get a guaranteed fast response).

Although the spamming story is not great news, their honesty regarding a hacking incident is commendable and they have arguably turned a damaging incident into a positive support story.

The two server farms may cause some confusion for customers, but on the other hand, it will also boost performance depending on where you are located.

Importantly, WebHostingHub is very confident in the service they provide, which in turn inspires confidence in potential customers and any clients referred through the affiliate programme - which pays well. The offer of a 90-day money back guarantee is a big selling point, particularly if you are new to shared web hosting.