HostYD.org review

First impression

Nice, easy to navigate and user-friendly website. Shared hosting packages are rather cheap: from $0.99 to $5.99 per month. The most basic package has limited disk space, however, the two other have unmetered disk space. Also, it is possible to choose the server location: USA (Secaucus) or UK (London).

Reseller packages are quite big and cheap. For instance, for $39.99/mo you can get 1000Gb of disk space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited cPanel accounts, a dedicated IP address and a free domain for life.

VPS servers are divided into two groups, depending on the virtualization: KVM and OpenVZ. The pricing is a bit higher than average, however, these servers are fully-managed. Moreover, weekly backup is included to each package. Also, you can choose one of the following server locations: USA (Chicago), UK (London), Finland (Ficolo), AU (Sydney) or Bulgaria (Sofia).

The company does not provide dedicated servers at the moment.

Trial period

The company does not offer a trial period, however, it is possible to get a refund within 30 days after the purchase. This policy is applicable only for Shared hosting packages purchased for more than 1 year. VPS servers are non-refundable.

Billing cycle

Shared hosting plans have semi-annual, annual, biennial and triennial billing cycles; Reseller packages - monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual and biennial billing cycles. VPS server can be purchased only for one month.

Control panel

cPanel is included to each Shared and Reseller hosting package. For VPS servers it is possible to install cPanel or Plesk at an additional cost. The prices vary from $15 to $30 per month.

Limits

Package limits are indicated in the plans description. Apart from them, certain restrictions can be found in the company's ToS (Terms of Services). For instance, even though it is stated on the website that the Ultra Shared hosting package has unlimited disk space, the number of inodes (files) is limited to 250 000. If your account exceeds this number, it may be disabled. Also, automated backups will not be saved, in case your account occupies more than 25Gb disk space. Due to this, we would highly recommend to double-check the ToS before purchasing a hosting package.

Security

Shared and Reseller hosting packages are a bit protected. The company provides CloudFlare anti-DDoS protection. Also, you can enable hotlink and leech protection but these are cPanel features mostly. For VPS servers HostYD provides basic (hardware) anti-DDoS protection. Basically, you need to maintain server security on your own. Backups are created once a month for Shared hosting packages and one a week - for VPS servers.

OS

CloudLinux runs on both Shared and Reseller servers. CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu are available for VPS servers.

Support

The company provides 24/7 ticket support. In order to submit a ticket, you need to either register a new account or login to the existing one. It is not possible to submit a ticket without registration. Also the company provides chat support from 4:00 am to 4:00 pm (UTC). Generally, the representatives are quick, proactive and polite. The knowledgebase is quite small, covers only basic topics.

Conclusion

This provider has its own pros and cons. On the one hand, packages are quite cheap and the characteristics look good. Also, VPS servers are fully-managed, so there’s no need to worry about server administration and maintenance. The support team is very qualified and helpful. On the other hand, the unlimited features are actually limited according to the company’s ToS. Moreover, the security level is not perfect. So, this hosting can be considered as a good one but customers should take into account its disadvantages.