Is*hosting review

First Impression

is*hosting is an Estonian hosting provider that was founded in 2005. They currently offer services such as VPS (virtual private servers) hosting, dedicated server hosting, data storage, and dedicated VPN services to over 50,000 seemingly happy customers and are made up of a team of over 50 highly capable hosting professionals. With a presence in over 40 countries across five continents, the company serves their customers by offering infrastructure built on Tier 3+ data centers and premium equipment. Their services are designed for projects of any size, with a strong focus on performance, security, and premium technical support that includes constant monitoring and quick issue resolution.

Trial Period

This provider doesn’t advertise a free trial period, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get one. If you would like to test out their servers before committing, you need to “request” a free trail by ordering one from their website without paying, then create a ticket asking for the free trial. They offer a short 7-day trial on Linux-based servers, and only 24 hours on Windows-based servers.

Billing Cycle

Both their VPS and dedicated server plans offer users the option to pay either monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annually. The discounts however vary. On the VPS plans they offer 5% discount on quarterly signups, 10% on semi-annual, and 15% on annual billing cycles, while on their dedicated server plans users can get 6% discount on all the subscriptions longer with the exception of the monthly option.

They currently accept a variety of crypto currencies, as well as Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay, an international card network that offers secure, convenient and cost-effective payment services, as valid payment methods.

Control Panels

is*hosting clients get more than enough options when it comes to control panels, as user can choose between ispManager, DirectAdmin, HestiaCP, aaPanel, FastPanel, or the ever popular cPanel control panel. One needs to note though that cPanel will cost extra but all the others are free of charge. If one of these don’t tickle your fancy, you are free to install any control panel you like as you get full root access too.

Limits

Their VPS server plans, all running on lightning-fast NVMe SSD drives and premium XEON processors, are available in a variety of options that range from 1x Intel Xeon 2.90 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, and 20GB NVMe disk space on the “Lite-Linux NVMe” plan, up to 1x Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 Quad Core 4x3.40GHz CPYU, 32GB DDR3 RAM, and 2x 960GB SSD storage space on the “US2-1” VPS plan, their top-tier option.

Their dedicated servers come in even more options, ranging from 1x G3250 2x3.2GHz CPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, and 500GB HDD (standard HDD not SSD) on their entry level option, the “NL3-0” plan, up to 1x AMD EPYC CPU, 1152GB DDR5 5600Mhz RAM, and 3 x 1.92TB Enterprise NVMe disk drives on the “NL4-12” plan, which is on the other end of the spectrum. Users can also build their own server to their exact needs.

Website Builder

Unlike hosting providers that offer shared hosting, is*hosting focus more on VPS and dedicated servers and therefore doesn’t offer any kind of website builder as part of their offerings. However, as their servers are unmanaged users are free to install any CMS (content management system) themselves, which will allow them to build websites quickly and without any coding knowledge.

Security

Because they focus on raw infrastructure rather than shared hosting, the security model is a bit different than what you would find with most “household name” providers. All their servers are housed within Tier 3+ data centers, which means your data are in facilities with excellent physical security, redundant power, and a stable network. On the software side, they offer constant monitoring of your server’s performance, which helps them flag any unusual activity or potential violations before they become big problems. They also offer DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack protection. The standard version is included free of charge, but you can also buy the advanced version for an additional monthly fee. Besides these measures, you are responsible for any other security features yourself.

OS

Customers that opt for their VPS server plans will get the option to choose between Linux-based operating systems that includes Ubuntu, Debian, Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, and CentOS, while Windows options include Windows 10 and 11, and Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, and 2022. They can also offer Mikrotik servers, something that one doesn’t see often. For those wondering what that is – a Mikrotik server is a high-performance networking device or virtual machine that runs a RouterOS (a Linux-based operating system designed for routing, firewalling, VPN, and bandwidth management).

Their dedicated servers on the other hand are unmanaged and comes with full root access, so you are free to install any operating system you prefer yourself.

Support

In general, providers that don’t offer shared hosting services, and focus solely on VPS and Dedicated servers, have more advanced users as customers, and for me personally that means the support they offer should also be more advanced. Luckily, is*hosting doesn’t disappoint. If users get stuck, they can reach out to their very capable support team via live chat (you probably will chat to AI first before getting transferred to a real agent) or support tickets. They reply quickly and are a pleasure to deal with. There is also a decent knowledge base available on their website should you want to do the troubleshooting yourself.

Based on the information from the site, here is a unique, conversational conclusion for is*hosting that highlights its strengths and potential drawbacks:

Conclusion

Is is*hosting worth considering? Honestly, it depends entirely on who you are. If you are the type who gets excited about choosing your own data center location across five continents and wants raw root access to tweak every single config file, this provider is for you. They do not try to sell you all-in-one packages with website builders that they know will outgrow you in six months. Instead, they give you solid, Tier 3+ hardware in places like Brazil, Serbia, or Japan and trust that you know what to do with it.

That said, if the thought of setting up your own server from scratch makes you break into a cold sweat, you should probably skip this provider. Their support team is there to keep the lights on and the network stable, not to hold your hand through installing WordPress or troubleshooting why your custom script is throwing errors.