ITNutHosting.com review

First impression

ITNut is one of Bangladesh’s leading web hosting providers that was founded in 2014 by Reyazul Masud Riham in Bogura, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and is currently headed by Abul Bashar Robin who is their acting CEO.

They provide cost-effective solutions such as Domain Registrations, Shared Hosting including Windows-based plans, VPS Hosting, SSL Certificates, as well as Dedicated Servers for their ever-expanding customer base around the globe.

Trial Period

ITNut, in contrast to most of the industry, offers a 30-day free trial period to test out their Shared Hosting or VPS services without having to provide any payment details and to sweeten the deal even more, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee in place after you subscribe. Should you then feel unhappy with their services and feel the need to cancel, you first need to notify them, they will do an investigation and if the issue is related to their services, they will approve the refund.

It is important to note that all other services (apart from Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting), software, and licenses, are not eligible for a refund or fall within the money-back guarantee.

Billing Cycle

Shared Hosting subscribers can choose between monthly or annual plans, with a 30% discount available for the annual subscription. On the other hand, VPS plans only offer monthly subscriptions. 

Accepted payment methods include bKash, Rocket, PayPal, Stripe, or all major credit cards through SSLCOMMERZ, a payment gateway aggregator in Bangladesh.

Control Panel

ITNut provides the widely acclaimed and exceptionally reliable cPanel control panel on their Linux-based servers for Shared Hosting, and Plesk on Windows-based plans. Additionally, for their BDIX (Bangladesh Internet Exchange Trust) Hosting plans, users have the option to select between cPanel or Webuzo, which is a multi-user control panel specifically designed for cloud providers and website owners.

cPanel is incorporated into their VPS plans, but given the full root access provided, users have the flexibility to install any preferred control panel.

Limits

Their Shared Hosting plans, running on blazing-fast NVMe Solid State Drives, come in three options namely, Nut Starter, Nut Silver, and Nut Diamond. Nut Starter comes with 5GB NVMe storage, 512MB RAM, a 0.5 vCore CPU, 3x MySQL databases, and 1x POP/IMAP email account - a little lightweight to host anything more than a personal blog or website in my opinion. The Nut Silver however features 20GB NVMe space, 1GB RAM, and a 0.5 vCore CPU, but comes with unlimited MySQL databases and POP/IMAP email accounts, whilst the NUT Diamond boasts 30GB NVMe disc space, 2GB RAM, 1x vCore CPU as well as unlimited databases and email accounts.

All Shared Hosting plans come with unlimited free SSL certificates by Let’s Encrypt.

VPS plans on the other hand feature various scalable options that range from 2GB RAM, 1x vCore CPU, and 40GB SSD storage (these are not NVMe but standard SSD drives) on the Nut VPS 1 plan, right up to 192GB RAM, 32x vCore CPUs, 3840GB SSD storage on the Nut VPS 11 plan. All VPS plans come standard with a dedicated IP address and 1500MB Bandwidth.

Website Builder

Unfortunately, ITeNut does not provide a dedicated website builder as part of its product offerings. The information on their website can be a bit misleading, as it suggests the inclusion of a website builder. However, in practice, this means users can install platforms like WordPress, which is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to build websites.

Security

ITNut’s Shared Hosting plans include robust security features such as 3Gbps of DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) protection, CSF (ConfigServer Firewall) with an advanced web-based interface for firewall management, Mod Security (Modsec) for monitoring website traffic for malicious activity, and Imunify 360, a software program that prevents malicious PHP scripts from running on servers. The Innovative PHP Immunity technology enhances web application security, and Imunify360 shares data with the WAF (web application firewall) and the antivirus software, providing an extra layer of protection.

For VPS plans, cPGuard offers automated defense against malware, including intelligent threat detection, symbolic link recognition, binary threat identification, and detection of suspicious patterns. Uminify 360 is also available for VPS plans but at an additional cost.

All Shared Hosting plans come with unlimited SSL certificates by Let’s Encrypt but for those seeking advanced SSL certificates, options like Public IP SAN DV and Business Trust EV are available for purchase to enhance trust levels.

OS

All ITNut Shared Hosting plans, powered by LiteSpeed web servers with LSCache, utilize the CloudLinux OS. CloudLinux OS is a commercial Linux distribution specifically designed for shared hosting providers, and it is built on the CentOS operating system.

For their VPS plans, users enjoy a broader selection, with the flexibility to choose from Ubuntu 20.4, CentOS 7.9, AlmaLinux 8.6, Debian 11, Rocky Linux 8.4, and Suse 15.1.

Support

Customer support is available through a Ticketing System, Phone, Live Chat, or Email 24/7. The agents are eager to assist and respond promptly, typically within seconds on live chat and a few minutes via email. However, there may be instances where certain questions seem to get lost in translation. Fortunately, it doesn't require much effort to clarify and explain your inquiries to them.

Conclusion

ITNut is a reasonable option for those seeking budget-friendly Shared or VPS hosting. They maintain good uptime, and provide decent security, and their data center presence in the USA, Canada, Bangladesh, and Singapore ensures a global reach. The only drawback is that their support agents, presumably all Bangladeshis, may occasionally encounter challenges or confusion when dealing with questions in English. Overall, it's a solid hosting choice.