JustHost Review - Recommended!
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$3.75 sale Extended!* Will end anytime. |
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The $3.75 Special Price Explained*
The $3.75 promotion began around Christmas and is expected to end anytime now. The usual offer is "only" $4.45 which can be further reduced to $3.96/month with the secret link trick mentioned later in the review. But you don't need that now because the current price is even cheaper.
Price Confusion/Currency Mismatch/Discounts
Their pricing is very confusing because they are having pricing plan from 1 month up to 5 years. They also charge in multiple currencies such as USD, GBP, AUD, CAD and EUR. Each currency doesn't make an equal conversion to another currency making someone paying in certain currency more expensive than the other.
A customer's country is detected automatically using their IP address and the currency will be selected automatically. If you are from the Euro zone, you will be shown the EUR pricing. The same applies to Canada, Australia, etc.
However, what most customers don't realize is that you can also change the currency from the "Country" dropdown box on the top right corner or their website which means customer can actually pay in any currency they wish.
Before you sign up you will need to check for 2 prices - the initial price you pay and the renewal price you need to pay later when your contract expire. Your renewal price in USD is currently fixed at $8.95/month for 12 months, $7.95/month for 24 months and $6.95 for 36/months. No matter how much discount you get early on, you will have to renew at this regular rate without any discount. You can double confirm your renewal price at this page here to obtain the latest price.
Further Discount
There are 2 ways to get further discount. The first is to use the secret link method which we have mentioned previously. You can also get it trough the "virtual agent" while it can be slightly tricky but worth playing just for fun.
First go to their website and then simply click on any links you like. And repeat it again in the new page by clicking on another page. You must wait for the page to load completely. Then all you need to do is close the window! If you have triggered the code correctly, a pretty agent will pop up and promise you 20% discount.
After you click cancel and the next thing you will get is this.
Emma is pretty but she is not real. She is just a "picture". At least she is honest, just type in "Are you a robot?" in the chat box and she will answer "Ok, you got me, I am a live virtual agent.. hehe".
And because I have nothing better to do, I try to see how many babes they have and the number is 7. Here are the remaining.
They are Isabella, Lauren, Lisa, Amber, Anni and Grace! Please don't waste your time calling JustHost toll-free number to talk to them because they are not real!
The 20% discount comes from deducting 20% more from the offer price of $4.95. If you calculate based on the regular price, the discount is actually up to 55% for 12 month term. I would like to remind you again that you will paying full regular price on renewal so you may want to lock in for longer period to enjoy the savings. Remember that you can back by JustHost any time money back guarantee.
Should you buy the Add ons?
When you are checking out, 2 add-ons are offered to you.
1. Daily Backup - $19.95/year
2. SiteLock - $12.95/year
First of all, they are selected by default which means they assume that you want them. If you do not want any of them, you have to manually tick them off. So you need to be extra careful.
Per their "terms and conditions", you cannot cancel your add-ons and get a refund. All add-ons are non refundable which means even you cancel your hosting a few months later and trying to claim your any-time money back guaratee for the remaining unused portion, you will not be able to get refunds on add-ons.
Being a webmaster for more than 10 years now, I will say that you definitely don't need the SiteLock service. You can save $12.95 from that. I have not use such "protection" service for any of my own websites and my client websites and we do not have any problem for the last 10 years.
For daily backup, it can be quite useful depending on what kind of webmaster you are. I personally will not buy it myself because I am savvy enough to maintain and do the backup myself. I believe I am also savvy enough to prevent any mistakes on losing my files. But for unsavvy webmaster, it might save your day if you accidentally delete some files or damage your whole website. You can simply contact support and request a full restoration or just dig up a file.
Remember that $19.95 is not cheap and is not refundable. You don't need to purchase your add-ons when signing up. You can always purchase it later.
3. Domain Privacy - $9.95/year
If you are registering a new domain name, the domain will be free if you sign up for minimum 12 month contract. You will be offer to purchase domain privacy for $9.95. Whenever you register a domain name, your full name, address, telephone number and email address are made public in the whois database. Domain privacy can shield that up for you by replacing those information with a third party (JustHost in this case). If someone want to contact you, they will have to go through JustHost and JustHost will pass the message/email to you. By not publishing you real email address, you can reduce the chances spammers obtaining your email.
What's Good About Them?
Other than the confusing pricing and the non refundable add-ons issue stated above, JustHost seems to be a very good host. Let's look at the Google Trends chart below.
| justhost |
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| hostgator |
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| ipage |
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| lunarpages |
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The trend chart is plotted from 2004 until now. HostGator is as usual the giant and leader in web hosting due to their strong brand and heavy advertising. They are also our #1 rated host.
On the other hand, LunarPages, an old time favorite has a falling trend. JustHost must have done something right in order to be able to rise up in such a short time. Their blue line started to appear only at the beginning 2009.
This is not surprising because JustHost is founded by a web hosting elite Chris Phillips who in his young age founded Dot5Hosting and later sold it for a fortune. He has not quit the hosting arena and decided to start a new brand, that's JustHost. With his previous experience, the up trend is no longer surprising.
Not only does Chris Phillips reinvest in his web hosting business, he is also running a new web development company known as Just Develop It that innovates new products for the web. IntelliChat (the virtual agent) is one of their innovation. They also developed a statistic software, a fraud prevention system, a live chat system, a search engine submission tool and many more.
Highlights
- Unlimited disk space, bandwidth, websites, databases and emails.
- State-of-the-art CPanel control panel which is also used by hosting giant HostGator.
- Fantastico script installer with 48 scripts ready to install.
- ANYTIME money back guarantee. You can get your unused portion back anytime you want.
- Highly rated by many review sites.
- $220 advertising credits.
- Email support, telephone support & live chat support.
- Free domain name for the first year. $11.95 thereafter.
- Instant account activation.
Final Words
You need to make sure you pay with the cheapest currency which is USD at the time of writing. You should also make sure you click on the "secret link" before you make the purchase so you can get the maximum discount.
You should also remember not to purchase any add-ons unless you really need them because they are not refundable. Add-ons can be purchased anytime later so you don't need to select any when signing up.
Suggestions
If you insist on a CPanel web host like JustHost and willing to pay slightly more, HostGator is highly recommended. I am using it to host this website. You may also consider LunarPages as well and they are not cheap either.
On the other hand if you are OK with other control panels, you can check out iPage now as they are having a big promotion. They uses vDeck control panel and you can sign up for 12 months hosting for only $4.50/month.
