PacificHost Review and Test Results

Review

HOSTING PLANS

Not the most widely known website hosting company, PacificHost offers fully-featured low-cost hosting plans. In our opinion, they do not merit consideration from internet marketers and professional webmasters.

PacificHost offers a range of affordable shared web hosting plans: Basic, Advanced and Ultra. All include a 45-day money-back guarantee and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

The cheapest of the 3 plans is the Basic. It allows for up to 5 domains on a single account. Like all PacificHost shared plans the Basic includes unlimited Raid-10 disk space, unlimited premium bandwidth, unlimited subdomains, and unlimited parked domains. The plan also includes up to 25 email accounts, 25 MySQL databases, and 25 FTP accounts. While the $4.99 per month renewal rate for annual plans is certainly cheap, our speed and uptime testing confirm that the quality of the plan is only average. Low-cost add-ons include a dedicated IP address for only $2.00 per month (most hosts charge more); while an SSL certificate will only set you back $24.99 per year.

Softaculous WordPress installation form. Click to enlarge.

The Advanced plan includes all of the Basic plan’s features and options while allowing for an unlimited number of domains on 1 account, up to 250 email accounts, up to 250 FTP accounts, and up to 250 MySQL databases. The Advanced also provides the ability to share an SSL certificate as well as monthly and quarterly payment options.

The Ultra plan is designed for ecommerce sites. While it is the most costly of the 3 shared plans, it adds a number of important features valued by ecommerce webmasters. These include a dedicated IP address, SSL certificate and site seal as well as the ability to host Magento‘s popular ecommerce solutions. The Ultra includes all of the Advanced plan’s features while adding the ability to create an unlimited number of email accounts, FTP accounts, and MySQL databases.

In addition to shared Linux hosting, PacificHost offers business-class plans, VPS (virtual private server) plans, dedicated server plans, and reseller hosting plans.

PURCHASE PROCESS

To enhance ease of use, PacificHost includes the popular cPanel control panel and the Softaculous 1-click script installer (screenshot above right) with all three shared hosting plans. However, we did encounter issues responsible for their decidedly average 2.5-star ease-of-use rating. The billing department had trouble crediting our PayPal payment. Attempts to reach them during non-business hours proved futile. Even though payment had been made, they took down our test site. We, not realizing that PayPal had actually confirmed our payment, paid them again. Realizing their error, they provided a refund. However, two days later they took down our site again for non-payment. Again realizing their error, they apologized, reinstated the site again, and gave us a 1-week hosting credit to be applied at the end of the current plan term. Not a great experience.

PacificHost Uptime Test Results Chart. Note that testing was delayed until billing issues could be settled. Click to enlarge.

SETUP

From our experience with PacificHost, it appears that new accounts are manually approved. So if you place your order during non-business hours, you may experience a temporary delay in receiving all of the new account information. We placed our order on a weekend, and while we did receive the client portal login information immediately, the direct cPanel access, FTP login, and nameserver (DNS) information did not arrive in our inbox until Monday. If you need to get your site online in a hurry, we would suggest that you place your order during business hours.

It should be noted that while PacificHost provides 24/7 email support, phone and chat support are limited to Monday thru Friday, 7AM-3:30PM PST.

PacificHost Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

TESTING

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to our 10-day test for uptime and speed. Tested for uptime every 15 minutes over 10 days, PacificHost produced a 99.6191% reliability score (screenshot above right). On 3/12/14, the server began having problems as attempts to access our test site failed repeatedly. The downtime lasted approximately 50 minutes. In all, we recorded 32 DNS 12007 errors (the host name could not be resolved). While no further server issues were detected for the duration of testing, the damage had been done.

The downtime negatively impacted the page-load speed averages. PacificHost recorded an average speed of 2.6956 seconds to load our test site from 13 locations worldwide (screenshot above right), and 2.8825 seconds from 7 U.S. locations (click for sample test site). It is worth noting that had we begun our testing on 3/13 — after the uptime issues had subsided — PacificHost would have recorded an average speed of 1.3727 seconds to load our test page from 13 worldwide locations, and 1.3211 seconds from 7 U.S. locations.

Pros

• Low-cost
• cPanel control panel
• Softaculous 1-click script installer
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Cheapest plan includes dedicated IP address and SSL certificate options
• 45-day money-back guarantee
• A BBB Rating
• Exclusive NCMONLINE20OFF no-expiration, 20% discount coupon code
• A+ BBB rating

Cons

• Limited phone and chat support hours
• Limited billing support hours
• Less than 100% uptime
• Slow page-load speed
• New account “welcome” email does not include DNS or FTP info
• Problems processing PayPal payments

Conclusion

PacificHost provides average-at-best web hosting technology combined with substandard support and billing services at an affordable cost. There are better hosts in the same price range.

PacificHost has earned 3.5 stars and is not recommended by NCM Online.

Pricing and Features

Cheap website hosting company price comparisons based on 1-year term list price before coupon/promo codes or limited time/introductory offer discounts. These are the renewal rates for the second year of hosting. To ensure that you receive the most affordable PacificHost pricing possible, please visit our Web Hosting Coupon Codes page for current discounts and special offers before making any purchases.

Plan	Basic	Advanced	Ultra
Domains	5	Unlimited	Unlimited
Disk Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
SSL Certificate	Shared	Shared	Free
Email and Mysql Acct.	25	Unlimited	Unlimited
Dedicated IP	X	X	Free
99.9% Uptime Guarantee
45 Day Money Back Guarantee
Instant Activation
Key Account Features
cPanel Control Panel
Leading FFmpeg Provider
Free Attracta SEO Tools
Free Website Migration
CodeGuard Integration
SpamExperts Mail Filtering
Google Apps Integration
CloudFlare CDN Plugin
Softaculous Auto-Installer
Instant Install SSL Certificates
Daily Account Backups
No Contracts or Hidden Fees
Domain and FTP Features
FTP Accounts	25	250	Unlimited
MySQL Databases	25	250	Unlimited
Sub-Domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Parked Domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Shell Access Available	$5/mo	$5/mo	$5/mo
Email Hosting
Email Accounts (POP3/IMAP)	25	250	Unlimited
Mailing Lists
IMAP and SMTP Server
Email Alias
Auto Responders
Webmail Enabled
Catch-All Email
Spam Assassin
Mail Forwarding
Software and Scripts
Your own CGI-BIN Directory
Perl (w/Free Module Installation)
Ruby on Rails
Unlimited Script Installs
Auto-install CMS, Blogs and Website Forums
Python Installed
Web Based File Manage
PHP Supported (V5)
ionCube Loader and Zend Optimizer
Multi-Language cPanel
Server Side Includes (SSI)
IP Deny Manager
Password Protected Directories
Hotlink Protection
phpMyAdmin Supported
MySQL 5
Website Statistics
AWStats Real Time Updates
Webalizer Visitor Stats
Logaholic Web Analytics
Referrer / Error / Raw Logs
Ecommerce Features
Private SSL Allowed
Shared SSL Enabled	X
osCommerce Cart
Cube Cart
Magento Compatible	X	X
Optional Addons
Dedicated IP	$2.00/mo	$2.00/mo	Free
Domain Registration	$15.00/yr	$15.00/yr	$15.00/yr
SSL Certificate	$24.99/yr	$24.99/yr	$24.99/yr
GoMobi Website Builder	$5.00/mo	$5.00/mo	$5.00/mo
SiteLock Website Security	$59.99/yr	$59.99/yr	$59.99/yr
Price per Month*	$4.99	$8.99	$12.99

*Prices based on 1-year term before the application of coupon/promo codes and introductory/limited-time offer discounts. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the prices displayed on this page are the 1-year term renewal rates.

Company Information

PacificHost specializes in website development and e-commerce solutions for enterprises that are small to medium in size. In order to cater to clients’ needs, the company employs staff members that are more than qualified. They provide only the best, feature-rich web hosting services.

PacificHost has a pledge, which is to provide customers with only the best services at fair prices. They are constantly upgrading their software in order to provide even more services. They believe that everyone should have the chance to create a successful web presence at an affordable price. The company has ready solutions that will allow both small and medium-sized businesses to gain advantages with their websites. It is important for businesses to be able to take advantage of everything that the World Wide Web has to offer.

PacificHost mobilizes businesses, as well as individuals to get the most out of the internet by providing them with affordable solutions that are very effective. They always strive to provide their customers with the utmost satisfaction. The company also strives to offer services that are the best in the industry, as well as strive to provide quality and knowledgeable customer support. They have a missions and that mission is to provide simplified web hosting services, while meeting the needs of webmasters that have a lot of experience.

The firm is also confident in providing a wide range of value-added services, scripts, free tools, hosting solutions and helping businesses more forward in the ever changing global economy. The company has datacenters in quite a few different places, including Irvine and San Diego, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Denver, CO, and Hawthorne, CA. Peer’s SuperNetwork is the host to the company’s operations, and SuperNetwork is powered by Cisco and Juniper technologies.

The network is considered self-healing, which means that there are no black holes or failure points within it. Network redundancy is ensured due to multiple Tier III connections. Also, Juniper routers are what the network is setup on. The routers direct traffic with Cisco 6500 series switching platform, and that traffic goes over a private fiber optic network. It is also worth pointing out that network latency is reduced by a further 50%.

When you decide to host your server on the exclusive SuperNetwork by PacificHost, then you will realize that you will have access to high performance on a continued basis, and you will noticed reduced latency all at lowered costs. This all means that you will be able to enjoy the best website hosting experience.

If you are ready to find out more about PacificHost and what they can offer you and your business, then contact them today and explain to them what your business needs are. A customer service rep will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the company and the services that they offer. Contact them today and find out what makes them the best in the industry.

PacificHost 1360 N Hancock St Anaheim, CA 92807 800-491-6590 916-512-3061 Fax: 888-846-9011

How to Install WordPress

This video tutorial demonstrates the installation of WordPress on a PacificHost shared hosting account using cPanel and the Softaculous 1-click installer.