JustHost is a Linux-based, competitively priced web host with a full list of features that provide a balance of functionality and budget. Founded in 2008, JustHost has a history of having one of the best records for reliability in the business. Read our JustHost review below.
OverviewJustHost is aimed at the small business owner and the individual looking for a lot of features on a budget. In the past, JustHost has concentrated on shared hosting but has recently added VPS and dedicated server options.
However, the new offerings are not as competitively priced as the shared hosting plans. So, while there is scalability, it is more expensive than some comparable host providers. This somewhat limits the room to grow your website if budget is a concern.
That said, you’ll find JustHost has everything you need to get you started on your site. With the Pro plan, you get one free domain registration, unlimited email accounts, and the ability to host an unlimited number of add-on domains and subdomains.
All plans advertise unlimited bandwidth, but that isn’t strictly the case. It is intended to be unlimited for regular use, and JustHost will notify you if it feels your usage is excessive. You can get your pages up quickly with templates, utilizing Just Host site builder.
With the user-friendly CPanel, you have a way to manage your website efficiently. MOJO Marketplace means access to a one-click installation of hundreds of add-ons and scripts. For webmasters needing e-commerce, you can add your shopping cart or install one of the carts from MOJO Marketplace.
Customer service is a high priority and support is provided 24/7. JustHost partners with ResellerClub to help those interested in reseller services.
JustHost was one of the first companies to offer an anytime money-back guarantee. Within the first 30 days, it is a full refund – minus any costs associated with add-on products or domain registrations. The free domain registration is only for hosting on Just Host. You will not be reimbursed that fee, but you will be able to keep the domain name.
You can transfer the domain to another registrar, or keep it registered with Just Host. After 30 days, the same restrictions for add-on and domain costs remain, and the refund is prorated for the time left on your term.
There are no fees for ending your term early. This guarantee gives you the ability to try out Just Host, and if it doesn’t fit your needs, cancel and get your refund.
If you have a WordPress site, JustHost makes it easy to install WordPress through the MOJO Marketplace. There is no managed WordPress Hosting. However, there is Optimized Hosting for WordPress, which is strictly for WordPress sites and is designed to optimize their performance.
Whether you use WordPress or not, JustHost does provide reliable uptime. While there is not a guarantee, they do claim a 99.9% uptime record.
JustHost has won numerous awards in the past for customer service, pricing, reliability, and as a top provider for blog hosting. Like most budget web host providers, Just Host has glowing reviews and extremely negative reviews.
Its reputation has improved since 2010, as it was sold to Endurance International Group (EIG), the same company that owns many other providers such as BlueHost and HostGator. Overall, JustHost has a good reputation – especially considering the features available for the price.
Often the cheapest host is not the best option. JustHost offers competitive prices but gives you features you’d expect from much more expensive hosts. It’s ease of use, excellent customer service, use of CPanel, and the free extras, make JustHost a hosting service to consider – especially if you are budget-conscious.
Key FeaturesAmong experts, JustHost ranks highest when it comes to pricing. Users can create a website for as low as $3.95 per month. However, considering the drawbacks associated with their services, that isn’t necessarily a value. Even then, affordable pricing isn’t enough to earn JustHost more than 3 stars from the experts.
The critics also ran a variety of tests to measure downtime problems. Based on their results, JustHost is well towards the bottom of a long list of web hosting services when it comes to outages and downtime.This is a major issue for businesses. When visitors and consumers can’t access your website, your profits are directly impacted.
While experts praise the website builder tools and app marketplace, these features aren’t enough to overcome poor performance. Overall experts gave JusHost a rating of fair or good. Ultimately, there are simply better options on the market that come more highly recommended.
Most of the positive reviews from consumers are from years ago. More recent reviews comment on the fact that JustHost used to be one of the most reliable and affordable options on the market.Unfortunately, that no longer seems to the case. Not only have they failed to keep up with industry trends and offer the same features as competitors, they are experiencing a lot of technical problems.Customers want to be able to rely on their hosting service to keep their site up and running and quickly address and solve problems. It appears that JustHost is no longer able to do that, which means that even the low price tag isn’t worth it. Overall, users awarded JustHost an average of 2 out of 5 stars.
Based on consumer reviews, it sounds like JustHost has experienced some major problems within the past year and have yet to bounce back. Users who had been happy with the service and loyal to the company are now telling others to stay away. Part of the problem has to do with a security breach that affected many customers and caused a lot of headaches. It also appears that their servers have been less than reliable and responsible for a lot of downtime and slow load times over the past 12 or so months.
Customers are frustrated with the continuous string of problems and lack of customer support. They have trouble contacting anyone and only receive canned responses and empty promises to fix issues.
Reliability & UptimeJust Host claims 99.9% uptime reliability though they do not guarantee it. Just Host does do monthly maintenance on its servers, for which they say there could be up to 45 minutes of downtime per month.
Statistics going back to August 2011, indicate an uptime record in the upper 99% range – the lowest uptime for a month was 99.51%, with several months having 99.99% uptime.
Most customers give favorable reviews for uptime, but some users have complained of excessive downtime. Overall, the uptime is above average for Just Host.
Just Host does not offer redundant or mirrored backups. Customers are encouraged to make backups of their site using CPanel and to download and store the backups on their local system. Automatic backups through CPanel are limited to 30 gigabytes in size though larger backups may be made using SSH.
While there is no redundancy at the server level for shared hosting, there is a UPS system and Just Host has diesel generators for backup power for reliable uptime. Multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections provide fast, redundant access.
Servers are monitored 24/7 by on-site staff to stay on top of issues, and fix problems as quickly as possible.
Features & Tools Let’s look closer at the helpful features and tools JustHost provides.
| Feature | Overview |
|---|---|
| Control Panel | CPanel is the most widely used control panel for web hosting, and it is the one Just Host provides. JustHost does do some customization of CPanel, which could be a concern if the site is transferred at a later date. |
| Disk Space | It varies, depending on the plan and type of hosting.
|
| Bandwidth | For shared hosting, the bandwidth is unmetered, which means unlimited (within guidelines). For dedicated servers, the bandwidth is either 5 TB, 10 TB, or 15 TB per month depending on the plan. VPS hosting ranges from 1 TB to 4 TB per month, depending on the plan. |
| Database Support | Blogs, Forums, Content Management Systems (such as WordPress), and many shopping carts require MySQL databases. JustHost supports MySQL (as well as PostgreSQL) and provides phpMyAdmin for managing your database – all accessible from CPanel. For shared hosting, the number of databases for Basic and Starter is 20, and Plus and Pro are unlimited. |
| Free Domain | The Basic plan features one free domain registration for as long as you maintain the plan. The Plus and Pro plans offer one free domain registration for one year. The VPS and dedicated hosting plans offer one free domain. |
| Multiple Domains | Multiple domains are permitted. The number varies by a plan from 20 for the Basic to Unlimited for the Pro. All of your domains can be managed from one CPanel. |
| Data Backups | JustHost does run regular backups of its servers but recommends customers do regular backups of their own that they store locally. You can make backups manually with the free version of Site Backup in your CPanel, or you can pay a monthly fee for the Pro version which schedules and automates backups down to the file or folder level. |
| One-Click App Installer | Add tools and add-ons quickly using MOJO Market’s one-click installer. One-click installs are available for WordPress, shopping carts, mailing lists, and much more. Scripts can be added to your site through SimpleScript’s one-click installer. |
| Email Accounts | With shared hosting, Basic allows five email accounts, Starter and Plus allow 100 accounts, and Pro allows an unlimited number of accounts. |
| Hosting Security | Just Host provides SSH and a shared SSL free. If you have a dedicated IP, SSL Certificates are available from Just Host, or you can install one from SSL providers such as GeoTrust or Comodo. POP3 Secure and Secure IMAP is supported for secure email. |
| Website Builder | JustHost’s Site Builder has over 400 templates to aid in building your website. The Basic version of Weebly, a drag-and-drop builder, is free, and the Pro and e-Commerce versions, which have more features, are available for a monthly fee. |
| Malware and Spam Protection | The Plus and Pro plans include SpamExperts, which provides mail filtering. You can add it to the Basic and Starter plans for a monthly fee. SiteLock Security is also available for $2.50 to $41.67 per month per domain. |
| Shopping Carts | Just Host supports some popular shopping carts including Agora, Cube Cart, Zen Cart, and more. You can import and install shopping carts from vendors that may not be available through MOJO Market. You can also have a programmer write and install a custom cart. |
| Programming Languages Support | JustHost supports the conventional programming languages that run on Linux, including PHP, Perl, Python, Javascript, and Ruby. |
| Site Statistics | AWStats and Webalizer are two common tracking tools, and they are provided via CPanel. Other tracking apps such as Google Analytics can be installed on JustHost sites. |
| Additional Features and Tools | A dedicated IP is available for $47.88 per year. For more advanced users JustHost supports SSH, server side includes, and the ability to edit .htaccess files. For the Plus and Pro shared hosting plans, there are additional marketing offers for Google AdWords and Yahoo advertising provided free ($150 for Plus, $300 for Pro). |
Plans & Pricing JustHost regularly runs promotions, so pricing for the plans is flexible. There is also a price break for longer terms, with the best value being the 36-month term.
JustHost does provide a money-back guarantee, so you don’t need to worry about being locked in if the plan doesn’t suit your needs. The prices below reflect what Just Host offers at the time of this review, including promotions.
There are four shared hosting plans – Basic, Starter, Plus, and Pro.
The Basic and Starter plans are very similar, except the Starter plan has 150 GB in storage space versus Basic’s 50 GB, and the Starter plan allows 100 email accounts to Basic’s five accounts. The Starter plan does not come with a free domain registration while the Basic does. They both have unlimited bandwidth, 25 subdomains, 20 MySQL databases, the Basic version of Site Backup, and standard server performance.
The Plus and Pro plans offer more in their packages, including more storage (unlimited for Pro), unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited bandwidth, and one year of registration free for one domain. The Pro also provides one free dedicated IP address, a free SSL Certificate, and Site Backup Pro. The Pro plan also has 80% fewer accounts per server. It offers high-performance servers with more speed and power.
The regular pricing is based on a monthly basis, or by 12, 24, or 36-month terms. Payment for the entire term selected is paid at the service time starts. For Basic, the base fee is $9.99 for month-to-month and breaks down to $8.99 per month for a year term, $8.49 per month for two years, and $7.99 per month for three years.
The Starter plan is $7.99, $7.49, $6.99, and $5.99, respectively. Plus plans are $14.99, $11.99, $11.49, and $10.99. The Pro plan is $29.99, $25.99, $24.99, and $23.99.
Also, there is a $20 setup fee for one-month plans. The Starter plan would have the added cost of domain registration, either with Just Host, or another registrar. If you cancel the Basic, Plus, or Pro plans under the money-back guarantee, $15.99 is withheld from the refund to pay for the cost of the provided domain registration, and you keep the domain for the remainder of the year – or longer if you continue to register the domain.
If you have a website with another host and would like the transfer to be done for you, JustHost will set it up for a one-time charge of $149.99.
At the standard rate, the Basic plan would be the best for the beginner – a good balance of features and budget. However, at the time of this review, JustHost has the Basic for $2.95 per month, the Plus for $4.95 per month, and the Pro for $9.95 per month.
For most users, the Plus would provide the best value and most features with the promotional price. For larger sites, e-Commerce sites, and for those wanting the most features included in a plan, the promotional price for the Pro plan is competitive with other hosting companies.
The promotional prices revert to the standard pricing at the end of the first term, so the longer terms make sense to get the most for your money.
For those needing dedicated servers, there are three plans offered, ranging in price from $149.99 per month for the Standard to $249.99 month for the Premium plan. All three plans come with CPanel and WHM with root access for managing your server.
You are not under contract with the JustHost plans. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan or change term lengths at any time with a call to the Billing Department.
Customer Support Just Host consistently gets high marks for its customer service. They have a phone, email, and live chat available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most customer reviews say that the service received is friendly and knowledgeable and that support questions are quickly resolved.
Again, as with any service, things don’t always go smoothly, and not all reviews are rosy. But good customer service is given as a reason for choosing and staying with JustHost.
It is unclear where support is physically located though support personnel speak English. Just Host has offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the U.S. The data center is located in Chicago, Illinois.
You can contact Just Host by phone at 888-755-7585.
Email for support and billing, as well as live chat, is found on Just Host’s contact page.
You can also use support@justhost.com.
On JustHost’s website, you can find a knowledge base with over 812 entries to answer many of your questions, as well as almost 40 video tutorials.
There is also a blog, but there hasn’t been an entry since mid-2014.
Ease of Use JustHost set out to make the website experience as easy as possible for the customer. CPanel is one of the most widely used, user-friendly back-ends available for managing your website.
MOJO Marketplace and SimpleScript make adding tools and add-ons a one-click operation. Joomla, WordPress, OSCommerce, and more are simple one-click installs.
It is a little more complicated to move an existing WordPress site to JustHost, but JustHost provides a tutorial on their site to guide you.
Conclusion It’s difficult to rank or recommend a hosting company based on customer reviews. Many negative reviews are from people hired by competitors, and many favorable reviews are from affiliates trying to boost the site’s popularity.
Still, if you disregard the very negative and overly glowing positive reviews, customer satisfaction seems to be above average for Just Host.
Competition is fierce in the budget market for hosting services. What sets Just Host apart is its ease of use and a large number of provided services – more than many other higher priced alternatives.
It is an excellent choice for the small business owner or the budget-minded.
Because of the included services and features like one-click install, it’s a good choice for the beginner, especially since they can get started without a huge expense in hosting.
Alternatives
Expert Reviews
User Reviews
