JustHost Review: A “Bust” Or A “Must”?

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JustHost is a provider of low-cost shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans.

But how is their hosting performance? Is there a money-back guarantee? How do they stack up against competitor Bluehost? And what other hosting services — like email and advertising — are provided by JustHost?

Here’s what we found out.

About JustHost

JustHost is a small, Portsmouth, UK-based web hosting company focused primarily on shared hosting packages.

Founded in 2008, JustHost has since been acquired by Endurance International Group, the parent company behind well-known internet brands like Bluehost and HostGator.

Just Host Homepage

Web Hosting Options

Currently, JustHost offers three types of web hosting plans: shared, VPS (virtual private server), and dedicated.

Shared Hosting Plans

JustHost offers comprehensive shared hosting that’s a good option if you’re on a tight budget.

Currently, JustHost offers three different shared plans from which you can choose:

  • The entry-level plan gets you hosting for one website, 50 GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, a domain name, and five email accounts (each with 100 MB of storage).
  • The mid-range plan gets you hosting for up to ten websites, 150 GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, a domain name, 100 email accounts (each with 500 MB of storage), special marketing offers, and spam prevention tools.
  • The top-tier plan includes support for an unlimited number of websites, unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, a domain name, an unlimited number of email accounts (all with unlimited storage), more valuable marketing offers, spam prevention tools, domain privacy protection, and automatic website backups.

Finally, for those who want to improve the performance of their websites without upgrading to a VPS hosting plan or a dedicated server, there’s the  Go Pro option, which gets you everything in the top-tier plan plus a dedicated IP address and an SSL certificate. Your site will also be hosted on a high-performance server, instead of the more economical standard option.

Just Host cPanel
For a bargain-priced host, JustHost provides a good selection of developer tools.

Pricing and Billing

From the control panel you can purchase PPC (pay-per-click) advertising services to drive traffic to your site. These ad packages are priced from $50 – $5,000/month.

Shared hosting plans are available with introductory rates starting at $3.49 per month. The renewal prices start at $9.49 per month.

They are billed in cycles lasting 12, 24, or 36 months. Those with longer contracts receive discounts off their monthly hosting fees. So those who sign up for a 36-month-long contract pay the least for hosting on a month-to-month basis.

Depending on the specific plan you choose, you may incur a one-time setup fee. JustHost will waive this fee for those who opt for the higher-level hosting packages.

During the checkout process, you can opt for extra services (if they don’t already come included with the plan you’ve chosen). These add-ons may include automatic website backups, Search Engine Jumpstart and SiteLock Security.

JustHost offers a 30-day money back guarantee with all hosting plans, so if you decide that JustHost is not the right option for you, you can cancel your account and receive a refund for the remainder of your term. The refund excludes setup and domain registration fees. If you received a domain name free of charge, you could keep it.

Just Host Mojo Marketplace
The JustHost control panel provides a hyperlink to the Mojo Marketplace where you can get thousands of apps.

VPS Hosting Plans

VPS hosting plans are the natural next step for someone who has outgrown the resources offered by a shared plan, or someone who is expecting a significant increase in website traffic.

In the latter case, opting for a VPS plan immediately (instead of choosing a shared plan and then upgrading later) means one less migration and lessens the possibility of downtime for the website.

JustHost offers four different VPS options from which you can choose. When deciding which option is best for your needs, look at:

  • The number of CPU cores
  • Allocation of RAM and storage
  • Data transfer limits.

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll get a free domain name, two dedicated IP addresses (unless you opt for the entry-level plan, which comes with just one dedicated IP address), and a Linux-based environment (specifically, CentOS 6.5).

JustHost’s VPS options are cloud-based solutions that come with an enhanced cPanel (a popular brand of control panel) for GUI-based website management.

You’ll get full root access, guaranteed server resources, instant provisioning, and the ability to manage multiple accounts in one location. Sound good? Visit JustHost now.

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated server customers are provided with phone support.

JustHost’s top-tier offering is its cloud-based dedicated server hosting. These options are fully managed by JustHost and can be provisioned instantly.

When opting for a dedicated server, there are three options from which you can choose. When deciding which server is best for your highly-trafficked, resource-intensive website, look at:

  • The CPU powering your server
  • The amount of space dedicated to your cache
  • RAM and storage allocation
  • Data transfer/bandwidth maximums
  • Number of dedicated IP addresses.

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll get a free domain name. Your server environment, by default, will be running CentOS 6.5. If you need to upgrade your storage, you can do so by purchasing increments of 500 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB.

All your data is automatically protected by RAID, and you get full management of your server with root access privileges.

Rather than relying on the command line for managing your website and web server, you’ll get access to and use of an enhanced cPanel, which many hosts typically include only with shared hosting packages.

Pricing and Billing for VPS Plans and Dedicated Servers

The 4 VPS plans are available with introductory rates starting at $19.99 per month. The renewal rates start at $29.99.

JustHost’s 3 Dedicated plans are available starting at $79.99 per month. The renewal prices start at $109.99 per month.

You can choose to pay for a VPS plan or a dedicated server on a monthly basis, or you can pay upfront for an extended contract lasting 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36 months. Like the shared hosting plans, you will receive a discount off the cost of your monthly hosting fees by opting for a lengthier contract. The longer your contract, the greater your discount.

During the checkout process, you can opt for extra services (if they don’t already come included with the plan you’ve chosen) such as Search Engine Jumpstart and SiteLock Security.

Unlike many other providers, which do not offer any type of refunds for purchases of VPS plans and dedicated servers, JustHost includes these high-end options in its 30-day money back guarantee.

Web Hosting Features and Add-Ons

All JustHost packages come with the following:

  • Free domain name: register a free domain name, or transfer a domain name you already own to JustHost free of charge.
  • Hosting for an unlimited number of domains: all JustHost plans support hosting for an unlimited number of domains, so you can host all of your websites on one server and manage everything using one cPanel account.
  • Potentially unlimited resource allocations, including disk space, data transfer, and email accounts.
  • Easy account management: the cPanel provided with your account makes it easy to set up, manage, optimize, and promote your website. Your cPanel includes features for designing your website, installing apps. You can also configure your email accounts, manage your domains, see your website statistics, and manage your database.
  • Free script library: all JustHost users have access to the free script library, which includes things like WordPress, osCommerce, phpBB, and Joomla. This makes it easy for you to extend your website’s functionality and feature set and marketing capabilities without having to write a single line of code.

If you want more, the following add-ons are available for purchase during checkout:

  • Domain Privacy Protection: protect your name and contact details from being publicly available when your domain name is registered
  • SiteLock Security: get the tools you need to fight against malware
  • CodeGuard: automate your website backups and monitor your site
  • SEO Tools: Make sure that your website ranks as well as possible in search engine results
  • Site Backup Pro: an alternative to CodeGuard, but without monitoring features
  • Office 365 Email Essentials: get domain-based email.

Please note that not all of these options will be available to you during checkout.

If you have opted for a premium web hosting plan, you may already have some of these add-ons; as such, you will not see the option to purchase these.

Technical Support and Customer Service

JustHost’s customer service offering is very similar to that offered by its competitors. Its technical support team can be reached 24/7 via telephone, live chat, or email.

Phone Support for Dedicated Hosting Customers

JustHost offers basic documentation, a knowledgebase, a getting started guide, and some video tutorials.

If you have purchased a dedicated server, you can get in touch with the JustHost team using a phone line available only for use by those with dedicated hosting plans.

Online Resources

In terms of self-help resources, JustHost offers basic documentation, a knowledgebase, a getting started guide, and some video tutorials.

If you’re unsatisfied with your JustHost plan, you can cancel by logging in to your control panel and going to Account > Renew. Then select the Do Not Renew button and click Continue.

Uptime and Performance

Having a secure and reliable web hosting environment is important.  At JustHost all websites are hosted on high-performance servers with quad-core processors, and the datacenter has backup power sources in the event of an electrical outage. JustHost performs 24/7 monitoring, so it can respond proactively to any issues.

JustHost doesn’t offer uptime guarantees, but in our testing, we never saw uptime fall below 99.97% per month.

Server Response Speeds

In terms of performance, our tests showed an average server response speed in 2018 of 1,252 milliseconds. 

However, JustHost’s server response speed picked up in December 2018, and in the first 4 months of 2019, averaged 746 milliseconds.

That represents a significant improvement, but it is still considerably slower than some of its competitors in the bargain-priced hosting space (the top performers average response times of ~300 ms).

Just Host Server Response Graph
This chart compares JustHost to Bluehost on average daily server response speeds in milliseconds.

For faster scoring web hosts at similar price points see:

JustHost vs Bluehost

JustHost and Bluehost are separate companies owned by internet conglomerate Endurance International Group. Both companies are similar in that they offer a range of web hosting plans.

Regardless of whether you need shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting, you’ll find the appropriate options available from both companies. However, Bluehost is known for its affiliation with WordPress (though JustHost is just as capable of handling WordPress sites).

Bluehost Homepage

JustHost’s pricing starts slightly higher than Bluehost, and the cost only goes up as you include add-ons. Bluehost, on the other hand, offers managed services, which is something JustHost does not offer.

Both hosts offer PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, but Bluehost offers additional marketing services like SEO and custom web design.

FeatureJust HostBluehost
Lowest price plan/mo$3.49$2.95
Renewal price$9.49$7.99
Average server response speed (Mar 2019)718ms383ms
One-click WordPress install?
PPC advertising available?
Custom web design?
Content marketing?
Professional branding?
SEO and local business listings?

In our testing, Bluehost’s server response speeds are significantly faster as well. For example, in April 2019 they had an average server response speed of 383 milliseconds compared to JustHost’s 718 milliseconds.

Summary

JustHost is a provider of inexpensive, yet reliable, shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting. Its comprehensive plans tend to come with features not usually offered by other providers, such as server management services and cPanels for VPS hosting and dedicated servers.

If you have a small business or online store and are looking for fast shared hosting, you may want to take a look at Bluehost.

If you’re looking for a host for your first website, however, JustHost offers a good low-cost solution. Is that you? Visit JustHost now.

Your Review of JustHost

Are you a current or past customer of JustHost? Would you recommend them? Please leave your comments below and let our visitors know what you think of JustHost’s speed, features and customer service.

Visit JustHost Today


Contributing editor: Sherrie Gossett.

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