Hostwinds Review [2023]: Better Than Bluehost? The 13 Pros and 3 Cons

Last Updated on April 3, 2023 by Obaro Alidou K.

Are you looking for a solid and reliable web hosting service with a free dedicated IP Address at a relatively cheap cost to empower your website, blog or ecommerce store? Hostwinds should definitely draw your attention.

What is Hostwinds?

Founded in 2010 by Peter Holden, Hostwinds claims to be a game changer in the hosting industry. It is another independently owned company with a set of new standards. They want to make each and every single customer happy. But, does the company achieve its goal? Keep reading…

Hostwinds Data Centers

Hostwinds originally operates in two data centers in the USA (Dallas and Seattle). But the company recently put its footing in Europe with a data center in Amsterdam. If need be, clients can also geographically load and balance traffic between locations.

The infrastructure is both SAS Type II audited and considered Tier 4 Datacenters.

Hosting Locations and Network

Hostwinds first data center is located in Dallas, Texas, within the world’s first technology market center, the “Dallas Infomart”. The company has a physical presence of over 16 fiber providers.

According to Hostwinds, this competitive technology market center creates the world’s lowest bandwidth prices and they pass such prices along to their customers. Everyone wins!

Hostwinds second data center is located in Seattle, Washington. They are directly connected to the Western Building (the premier carrier hotel for the Pacific Northwest). Their facility is hardened against disaster and operated by a highly experienced team 24/7/365 according to the company.

Data Centers’ Security, Power system, and Cooling

Hostwinds’ words: Security is a huge issue faced by website owners. We want you to feel safe knowing that all of your data is protected at Hostwinds. We take security very seriously and offer:

24/7 Armed Security
All Entrances Secured with Check-in Stations
Recorded Video Surveillance
24-Hour Staffed Network Operation Center

The data center has a truly redundant A+B power. There is no single point of failure at this facility. We are able to offer our clients 100% Power SLA’s.

Cooling is not an issue at this facility. The entire data center is cooled for free via outside air. It is backed up by N+1 Chillers.

Seattle Datacenter

Security

24/7 Armed Security

Check-In Stations at Entrances

Video Surveillance

24-Hour Staffed Network Operations Center

Power

A+B Redundant Power

100% Power SLA

Cooling

Cooled via Outside Air

Backed up by N+1 Chillers

Dallas Datacenter

Security

• 24/7 Secured Entrance
• Card-key Access
• Interior and Exterior Video Surveillance
• Documented Ingress and Egress Data

Power

• 8 Megawatts with Diverse Path Utility Feeds
• Transient Voltage Surge Suppression (TVSS)
• 2 x 2 MW Generator Backup

  

Cooling

• 32 x30 Air Cooled Units in N+2 Configuration

Amsterdam Datacenter

Compliance

• ISO 9001

  

• ISO 14001
• ISO 27001
• SOC 1 Type II

Power

• N+1 redundancy
• 140,000 SF / 22.5 MW
• 2 x 2 MW Generator Backup

Cooling

• Separate doors for Hot and Cold Aisles
• Direct Current (DC) powered fans

 

Hostwinds Web Hosting Services

Hostwinds provides a variety of services including Linux shared hosting, Business Hosting, Cloud Hosting, VPS (Managed and Unmanaged), Minecraft Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Servers. They also offer Windows Hosting, but it is limited to VPS and dedicated servers.

Shared Hosting

Hostwinds shared offering is crafted for small websites and includes three plans (BASIC, ADVANCED, ULTIMATE) respectively priced at $3.29/mo, $4.23/mo, and $5.17/mo.

All three plans give you unlimited bandwidth, SSD Storage, emails, a free domain name for the first year, and a free Dedicated IP address. Apart from the price, the only difference between the plans is the number of websites you can host: 1 website (for the BASIC plan), 4 websites (ADVANCED plan), and Unlimited websites (ULTIMATE plan).

Hostwinds Business Hosting

Hostwinds’ Business hosting is also shared hosting. The difference, though, is the number of customers per server and the amount of resources allocated.

While they host 60 clients per server on Standard Shared Hosting, they only put 50 accounts on a server for Business Hosting. And the fewer accounts on a server, the higher the resource per user and the better the performance.

Additionally, Business Hosting uses LiteSpeed Web Servers which is way faster than Apache Web Server for Standard Shared Hosting.

Coming to the plans, Business Hosting also includes the same three plans: BASIC, ADVANCED, and ULTIMATE. Again, besides the price, the only difference is the number of websites allowed.

Hostwinds Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is a cross between VPS and Dedicated servers. It provides far better performance than shared hosting and is much more stable than VPS Hosting.

Moreover, cloud hosting allows you to pay monthly or hourly (you pay only for the resources you use). And, it is more than affordable at Hostwinds ($4.17/mo + special 53% Discount from this link).

>> Check Hostwinds Cloud

WordPress Hosting

Hostwinds fairly supports WordPress software. It performed well during our tests, but this is not a managed WordPress hosting. Sure, you can host your WordPress site there, but I noticed that there is no WP-CLI or a managed WordPress caching system.

However, Hostwinds WordPress Hosting accounts meet the minimum requirements of PHP 7.3 or higher, MariaDB 10.0 (at the time of this review) or higher, Apache webserver with mod_rewrite module, and HTTPS support. In case you need more power, you can just switch to their Business Hosting which runs on the LiteSpeed webserver (up to 5x faster).

Unmanaged VPS

If you are a techy guy, and your site needs more power than shared hosting, then unmanaged VPS is made for you. Hostwinds’ unmanaged VPS gives ten different plans to choose from and, it is really affordable.

Unmanaged VPS Alternatives: InterServer A2 Hosting 

Managed VPS Hosting

This is for non-techy guys. With managed VPS, the company takes care of the server maintenance giving you the time to focus on building and growing your business. Hostwinds’ managed VPS Hosting is the most affordable I have ever seen.

But bear in mind that cPanel is not included. If you want it, you will have to pay a separate cPanel License (which is normal considering the cheap prices).

If you absolutely want cPanel with your VPS, simply buy a Managed VPS Hosting with cPanel from FastComet (See the offer 50% off)

Hostwinds also provides both managed and unmanaged VPS for Windows Hosting.

Want Managed Cloud VPS Hosting with cPanel Included? >> Check FastComet

Dedicated Hosting

Hostwinds’ dedicated hosting is quite impressive. You can get up to 3TB of storage, 128GB RAM, and unlimited monthly data transfers.

The offer starts with 10TB bandwidth, 8 IPs, and 1TB Enterprise storage for the price of $75/mo.

>>>Check Hostwinds Dedicated Server<<<

Similar dedicated Server: FastComet Liquid Web

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is renting server space to people who will resell it to their own customers.

If you want to start your own web hosting business, but don’t have enough funds to build an entire infrastructure, Hostwinds’ well-crafted reseller hosting is designed for you.

Plans start at $3.29/mo per account and allow unlimited emails, storage, and bandwidth. You pay per account and you then fix your own pricing to earn a profit per account.

Hostwinds allows resellers to provide their clients with the same plans with the same features as their own shared hosting plans.

White Label Reseller Hosting

Hostwinds also provides a White Label Reseller where you apply your own brand to your hosting business. Your clients will never notice that you are a reseller. As if it wasn’t enough, Hostwinds takes care of your clients by providing them their own support!

Moreover, instead of selling only shared hosting to your clients, Hostwinds’ white Label gives you access to their entire hosting services. You can sell both shared and VPS Hosting to your own customers.

I have been in the hosting industry for more than a decade, and Hostwinds is one of my top choices for reseller hosting. Do you want a White Label reseller? Here is your smart match.

>>>Start Your Own Web Hosting Business Today!<<<

Why Should You Choose Hostwinds Web Hosting Services?

Pros of Using Hostwinds

#1. Solid Uptime

Hostwinds guarantees 99.999% uptime and, I have been surprised to see how they perform.

When your uptime is lower than 99.94%, it is not good for your business. To find out, I ran a 3-year monitoring test (from September 2017 to May, 2020) and during that time, my website was nearly 100% up.

As you can see, December 2017 has been a bad month with huge downtimes (3 long outages in total). Other than that, Hostwinds quickly recovered and stayed up for the rest of the time (till now). there was zero downtime from December 2019 to May 2020. And, the speed is quite good (talk about that below).

#2. Fast Apache Web Server + LiteSpeed and SSD Drives for Performance

Hostwinds uses SSD Drives to make sure customers’ sites run fast. Again, I have been surprised by their server speed. The TTFB (Time To First Byte) is great. Just look at the screenshots below.

Hostwinds got “A” for the TTFB and the other metrics except for “Caching” and that is because I didn’t install any caching solution on my website during the test.

But what is the actual server speed? To get accurate data, I used another speed tool, and surprisingly, Hostwinds loading time was 701ms (0.7s) which is still good for cheap web hosting.

#3. Cheap Prices

One thing where Hostwinds is hard to beat is the price.

$3.29/month with a 53% Discount + free dedicated IP Address is hard to beat. The coolest part is you don’t need to pay for 2 or 3 years to get the Discount. Just follow this special link to get it ($39.48 only for your first year Domain name included!).

>>Check Hostwinds

#4. Unlimited Features

No matter what Hosting Plan you buy, you get:

• Unlimited SSD Storage
• Unlimited bandwidth and subdomains
• Emails and more….

#5. 60 Days Money Back Guarantee

Habitually, web hosting companies give you 30 days to try their services and, if you are not happy, you can cancel and get all your money back.

Hostwinds goes beyond those 30 days and offers a 60 day Money Back Guarantee (Great). Ok; it may not be the hassle-free anytime money-back guarantee from A2 Hosting but, 60 days is more than enough to know if a service is made for you or not.

#6. Free SSL Certificates

Protecting your website users’ data is important that is why Google started to consider SSL (HTTPS) as a ranking signal.

Hostwinds doesn’t stay back and provides free unlimited SSL certificates for all your sites. You’ll just need to go to your cPanel account and activate them or just ask the support to get helped with that.

#7. Free Website Migration

One of the most complex things for a website owner is switching to a new host, especially when you are not tech-savvy.

To save you from that frustration, Hostwinds offers a free website migration service (with zero downtime according to the company).

Ps: Bluehost charges $149 for migrating your website to their servers (beurrr!).

#8. Free Domain name

Just starting a blog? No worries; Hostwinds gives you a Free Domain Name for the first year to start with. And, it doesn’t require you to pay an additional fee for Privacy Protection.

#9. Solid SSD Cloud Hosting

Most online business owners are switching to Cloud Hosting because it’s more stable, reliable, and secure. Whether you want a more stable hosting for your blog or company’s website, Cloud Hosting is the right choice if you can’t afford a Dedicated Server.

Fortunately, Hostwinds provides one of the most powerful Cloud Hosting in the market. The cool thing is they even allow clients to pay per hour. Look at it here (53% Discount). But, keep in mind that you don’t get the traditional cPanel with Cloud Hosting here.

Therefore, if you are not tech-savvy, I highly recommend you get a Cloud Hosting Managed with cPanel from FastComet.

Interested? Get special 50% Discount on Fully Managed Cloud Hosting with cPanel.

#10. Free 24h/7/365 responsive and friendly support

Honestly, 5 years behind, I would never trust Hostwinds’ support. It was misleading most of the time and rude. But, you know what, the time has passed and they made things up.

Hostwinds today’s support is one of the most helpful and responsive I have dealt with.

#11. Free Dedicated IP Address

Unbelievable! Most hosting companies charge a fee to get a dedicated IP Address on shared hosting or require paying for the highest plan. Some even simply don’t allow you to get it on shared hosting.

Hostwinds breaks the glass and provide a Dedicated IP Address for free on shared hosting. The best part: It is free!

>>>Claim Your Free Dedicated IP Now!<<<

#12. Limited Customers Per Server

The most typical thing about shared hosting is the number of accounts on a single server. Most web hosts put hundreds (or thousands) of clients on the same server.

As a result: Lower resources per client, lower performance, frequent downtimes, etc.

To limit these drawbacks, Hostwinds puts only 60 people on a single server for their Standard Shared Hosting and only 50 clients per Server for Business Hosting.

#13. HostWinds Extras Perks

• Free Website Monitoring Tool
• cPanel Control Panel
• Free CloudFlare CDN
• DDoS and Brute-force Protection
• Free Drag-and-drop Website Builder.

>> Go To Hostwinds

Cons of Using Hostwinds

As always, no company is perfect. But, it has been hard to find some drawbacks of using Hostwinds. However, there are things I don’t like about the company:

#1. No Parked Domain

Say, your website is example.com. To avoid people cheating on you, you can also buy example.org and point it to example.com.

In this case, you just need to go to your cPanel account and then add example.org as a “parked” domain.

Unfortunately, Hostwinds does not allow you to do that.

Ok; this is not a huge problem as most people don’t use it. To start a blog or build a simple website, you won’t that.

But one never knows, in case you want a parked domain, then you might consider hosts like FastComet, GreenGeeks, or InterServer.

#2. Not developer Friendly

If you run command lines, this is not your house. Hostwinds shared plans are made to host simple websites and are not crafted for developer features. Even the simple remote access to MySQL is disabled. But that is just for their shared hosting.

So If you need developer features then the perfect choice would be their Cloud plans or VPS offering. It provides the freedom to install any app or developer tool.

Nonetheless, if you want cheap shared hosting and still need developer features, you better go with A2 Hosting.

#3. Hard Refund Policy

While Hostwinds offers a 60 day money back guarantee, it is important to keep in mind that this is just for shared and business hosting. If you purchase VPS Hosting, you don’t get any guarantee.

Hostwinds Web Hosting Plans, Prices, and Features

Shared Hosting Plans

	BASIC	ADVANCED	ULTIMATE
Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage type	SSD	SSD	SSD
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Hosted Websites	1	4	Unlimited
Free Domain	For one year	For one year	For one year
Subdomains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Control Panel	cPanel	cPanel	cPanel
Price/month	$3,29	$4,23	$5,17
Renewal Price	$6.99	$8.99	$10.99
Guarantee	60 days	60 days	60 days
	More Details	View Details	View Details

Business Hosting Plans

	BASIC	ADVANCED	ULTIMATE
Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage type	SSD	SSD	SSD
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Hosted Websites	1	4	Unlimited
Free Domain	For one year	For one year	For one year
Subdomains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Control Panel	cPanel	cPanel	cPanel
Price/month	$5.64	$6.58	$7,99
Renewal Price	$11.99	$13.99	$16.99
Guarantee	60 days	60 days	60 days
	View Details	View Details	View Details

                                                 Cloud Hosting Plans

	CPU	RAM	STORAGE	Price/mo
Cloud-1	1	1GB	30GB	$4.99	Details
Cloud-2	1	2GB	50GB	$9.99	Details
Cloud-3	2	4GB	75GB	$18.99	Details
Cloud-4	2	6GB	100GB	$28.99	Details
Cloud-5	4	8GB	150GB	$38.99	Details
Cloud-6	4	12GB	200GB	$49.99	Details
Cloud-7	6	16GB	300GB	$76.99	Details
Cloud-8	8	32GB	400GB	$124.99	Details
Cloud-9	12	64GB	500GB	$214.99	Details
Cloud-10	16	96GB	750GB	$$328.99	Details

Managed VPS Hosting Plans

	CPU	RAM	STORAGE	Price/mo
VPS-1 Linux	1	1GB	30GB	$5.17	Details
VPS-2 Linux	1	2GB	50GB	$10.34	Details
VPS-3 Linux	2	4GB	75GB	$18.80	Details
VPS-4 Linux	2	6GB	100GB	$23.97	Details
VPS-5 Linux	4	8GB	150GB	$37.60	Details
VPS-6 Linux	4	12GB	200GB	$47.00	Details
VPS-7 Linux	6	16GB	300GB	$69.09	Details
VPS-8 Linux	8	32GB	400GB	$105.75	Details
VPS-9 Linux	12	64GB	500GB	$172.02	Details
VPS-10 Linux	16	96GB	750GB	$$247.69	Details
Hostwinds Windows VPS
VPS-1 Wind	1	1GB	30GB	$7.99	Details
VPS-2 Wind	1	2GB	50GB	$13.16	Details
VPS-3 Wind	2	4GB	75GB	$21.62	Details
VPS-4 Wind	2	6GB	100GB	$26.79	Details
VPS-5 Wind	4	8GB	150GB	$43.24	Details
VPS-6 Wind	4	12GB	200GB	$2.64	Details
VPS-7 Wind	6	16GB	300GB	$77.55	Details
VPS-8 Wind	8	32GB	400	$117.03	Details
VPS-9 Wind	12	64GB	500GB	$188.94	Details
VPS-10 Wind	16	96GB	750GB	$270.25	Details

Hostwinds Minecraft VPS Hosting Details

	CPU	RAM	STORAGE	Price/mo
Minecraft-1	1	1GB	30GB	$5.17	Details
Minecraft -2	1	2GB	50GB	$10.34	Details
Minecraft -3	2	4GB	75GB	$18.80	Details
Minecraft -4	2	6GB	100GB	$23.97	Details
Minecraft -5	4	8GB	150GB	$37.60	Details
Minecraft -6	4	12GB	200GB	$47.00	Details
Minecraft -7	6	16GB	300GB	$69.09	Details
Minecraft -8	8	32GB	400GB	$105.75	Details
Minecraft -9	12	64GB	500GB	$172.02	Details
Minecraft -10	16	96GB	750GB	$$247.69	Details

Dedicated Server Plans

Dedicated plans at Hostwinds are customizable, there is no standard (See the Plans in detail here)

Hostwinds Server Resource Quotas

Here are the resources’ caps you are not allowed to exceed with Hostwinds.

Shared Hosting Resources (Inode & Entry Process)

	BASIC	ADVANCED	ULTIMATE
Concurrent connections	10	10	10
Number of emails per hour	25	25	25
Inode	250 000	250 000	250 000
	>> Check Hostwinds

Business Hosting Resources (Inode & Entry Process)

	BASIC	ADVANCED	ULTIMATE
Concurrent connections	20	20	20
Mail per hour	40	50	80
Inode	600 000	600 000	600 000
	Check Hostwinds Business

Hostwinds Coupons

Want a huge discount? Click this special link to Get 53% discount (discount applies automatically).

Hostwinds doesn’t suit your needs? Check out these Similar Hosting Companies:

FastComet GreenGeeks InterServer

Conclusion

Hostwinds tries its best to deliver a solid hosting service to clients. If you are just starting or have a small website and don’t want to spend a lot of money on hosting, Hostwinds is the perfect match.

Moreover, if starting your own web hosting business is what you want, then, Hostwinds is absolutely made for you. It provides one of the best reseller hosting offers that allows you to brand your business as you feel it, making your clients more confident.

 Overall Reasons to Go with Hostwinds

• Unlimited SSD storage
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Well-configured Apache Web Server
• 24h/7 Support
• Free Dedicated IP Address
• Fewer accounts per Server
• Uptime guarantee
• Free unlimited SSL certificates
• Great inode limits (250,000-600,000)
• Free CloudFlare CDN
• Free Weebly Site Builder

>> Go To Hostwinds

Similar Hosts: FastComet GreenGeeks A2 Hosting

Cheers!

Obaro