When choosing a web hosting provider it is useful to do a side by side hosting comparison. This is FatCow Review and HostMonster Review.
Background
Host Monster started in 1996, and they have hosted over 450,000 sites. They provide hosting service for businesses and personal use. HostMonster is the sister company of BlueHost and they have the same support team and share some server facilities.
FatCow has been in business since 1998, and hosts over 30,000 sites. It has consistently received high ratings and has won several industry awards. They are an eco-friendly company, and are proud that their offices and datacenters are 100% powered by wind energy.
Plan Features and Pricing
Hosting Plan
Host Monster’s basic plan includes unlimited space, bandwidth, emails and domains.
FatCow offers one main plan with unlimited disk space, bandwidth, domains, and email. They also have a MiniMoo plan which is mainly used for domain parking.
General Features
Host Monster has unlimited space, bandwidth, emails and domains. It also has a free site builder with templates and is compatible with FrontPage extensions. It has over fifty scripts, and offers free domain or domain transfer.
FatCow included many tools to help build the website, in addition to the unlimited disk space and bandwidth. They have wizards to add open source applications and easy to install forums and blogs. There are great features for e-commerce sites including Shopping Cart, E-Store Builder and free Google and Yahoo! Credits.
Cost
Host Monster’s basic plan is $83.40 per year. They claim that customers can cancel contracts at anytime. There are no set up fees.
FatCow is a better value at $66 per year for the main plan and $5 per year for domain parking. They also have no set up fees and offer a 30 day money back guarantee
Reliability
Datacenter Facilities
Host Monster datacenter is located in Utah. It uses rack-mounted Intel Xeon quad processing server technologies. It has UPS back up power supply and 24/7 system monitoring. HostMonster is connected to BlueHost and their servers may share facilities.
FatCow combines many state of the art features to make their datacenters the best. Dual routers support the FatCow hosting platform for greater redundancy. It has a top line Cisco PIX firewall for excellent security. They have NetApp storage clusters for improved reliability. FatCow also has a new gigabit network connection to enhance performance. Together these features make FatCow an extremely secure and reliable web hosting provider.
Servers
HostMonster uses quad processor Xeon servers. They are fast and considered to be at the
latest technology. They are based on the Apache OS. Some plans charge extra for the Apache OS.
FatCow uses LINUX servers. It has daily backup on all its servers for extra security.
Uptime Guarantees
Host Monster has an uptime guarantee of 99.9%.
FatCow also has a great uptime guarantee of 99.9%.
Support
Host Monster has 24/7 toll free numbers, email and live chat. They also have FAQs and tutorials.
FatCow has 24/7 toll free numbers, email and live chat. They also have knowledge base, an FAQ library, and tutorials.
General Aspects
Host Monster has received some criticism for its billing practices, which some former customers have called bait and switch. Some complained of big increases after introductory offer ends. This is a problem that also plaques its sister company BlueHost. FatCow offers a really good plan at a low price, and gets good reviews from industry professionals and customers.
Fatcow - The Best Shared Web Hosting
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