Netcraft recognizes WestHost as one of most reliable webhosting companies. Their support is 24/7 and is based in the United States. They offer dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, and e-commerce hosting. They can be contacted through a contact form, e-mail, live chat or phone. The e-mail addresses are for sales, ordering, billing, human resources, business, and other inquiries. They provide a technical support html page. WestHost began in 1998 and they now host more than 70,000 sites. These are their services: shared web and reseller hosting, registration of domain, tools for e-commerce, and merchant accounts, and dedicated servers. WestHost provides its headquarters address.
A video tour is available. They have been recognized and awarded by WebHost Directory, WebHost Magazine, FindMyHost.com, HostReview, c/net, iHostCafe.com and they are members of the Better Business Bureau. WestHost has a company blog that updates its clients and resellers on topics like: setting up a WordPress blog, the progress of the company, holiday specials, the winners of the referral contests, about htacess, and how-to optimize your blog for SEO.
The personal webhosting plans start at $3.95 a month and the business plans start at $7.95 a month. The have a plan selector function that helps the prospective client to find out which webhosting plan is best for him. The provide information about getting a successful site online in six steps. WestHost offers a 30-day money back guarantee. The offer volume discount plans for anyone that needs multiple accounts. These discount plans start at 3-9 accounts, but coupons can’t be utilized when getting volume discounts. For $10.00 a month the client can setup their own DNS name servers.
WestHost has three dedicated server plans. The first plan costs $159.95 a month, the second plan costs $209.95 a month, and the third plan costs $389.95 a month. The payments can be setup for annually, quarterly or monthly. All three accounts are modifiable with dedicated server add-ons. There are four reseller at WestHost. The reseller plans start at $25.95 and move up to $149.95 a month. The referral program pays one month of free hosting for the clients that signup under you. The affiliate program pays as much as $95.00 for each signup. It begins at $65.00 for each referral. The webhosting affiliates don’t have to get their webhosting at WestHost.
The e-commerce hosting offers osCommerce and Zen cart for business plans and Miva Merchant for the business pro plans. The client get a merchant account so he can take credit cards; they can also use payQuake, e-online data or PayPal for getting payments. The client can use free-shared SSL certificates or get a paid private certificate. The paid certificates are rapid SSL, quick SSL premium, and rapid SSL wildcard. The client gets free SSL with rapid SSL. They have a semi-dedicated plan option.
This is how Web Host Magazine rates WestHost on their 100-point scale and the review was conducted before WestHost started advertising with Web Host Magazine. Support and reliability both get scores of 18, value and industry both score a 14, and network scores 15 for a total rating score of 94 points.