DownTownHost Review
Posted by Mike | Filed under Web Hosting ReviewsIt’s not too frequent that I post web hosting reviews here because I don’t switch hosts that much. After a rather bad (well, not really bad, just… not good) experience with my old web host, I decided to give DownTownHost a try. I must say that so far, I am impressed with the service that I am getting. This post will contain my experience with DTH and some amazing features that the host offers. If you’re currently looking for a new host, hopefully this post will help you with that. 
My Experience with DownTownHost
I have been with DownTownHost for almost two months now and I have yet to encounter a bad experience with them (Hopefully I won’t!). I can say that their servers are really good and fast, and that the support is amazingly fantastic! Why am I saying this? Well…
When I was moving my site from my old web host, I had to request the guys over at DTH to move it for me. Guess what? They were able to do it in less than one day. I was so happy when my sites were up and running right after I switched hosts. I actually expected a short downtime because of the transfer process, but to my surprise, everything went smoothly.
There was this one time that I thought my sites were suspended for no reason. [I actually have the story here] I was panicking because I thought my other site used up all the bandwidth or something. I tried to contact the DownTownHost staff via the live support but to no avail. This actually frustrated me a bit, so I just sent them an e-mail asking why my account was suspended, blah, blah… After around 10 minutes, I received a reply saying “Hello, your account has been suspended for non-payment.” I was a bit dumbfounded, but well, it was my mistake so I just paid up the bill and thanked the staff for helping me through the payment process. Some other hosts would send you an e-mail saying “You haven’t paid your bills!” or something worse. Comparing the two statements, I can say that DownTownHost’s support team is very friendly and polite. 
Hosting Plans
DownTownHost’s web hosting plans are affordable yet the service is top-notch. Their shared web hosting plan starts from $4.95 (Bronze Plan) per month, and you’ll get 5GB of disk space and 100GB of bandwidth. Not bad at all! You can have unlimited e-mails and domains in your hosting account, so no worries if you want to host 100 or more mini-sites, as long as the disk space is enough. They also have other shared hosting plans which offer more space and bandwidth for less than $13/month.
Aside from shared hosting, they also offer a hosting service especially made for blogs. You’ll get 1GB of disk space and 50GB of bandwidth for as low as $5.95 per month. I can say that it’s a bargain already because you’ll get the blog installed by them for free, and you can have numerous blogs in one hosting account.
Of course, there are also reseller, semi-dedicated, and dedicated hosting plans, but I won’t give emphasis anymore.
If you’re wondering what other features are included within hosting packages, well, PHP, Ruby on Rails, mySQL and a lot more are supported. The control panel that you’ll be using is cPanel, and Fantastico is installed for easy access to different scripts. For statistics, Webalizer and Awstats are available. Well, I can’t possibly list everything here, so just go to their site and see for yourself.
All hosting plans come with 24/7 live support, which is so great. By the way… in case you want to move from another host to DownTownHost, they also offer a free site move service so don’t you worry about that.
Payment Methods
You can either use PayPal or your credit card to pay for the hosting fees. There are some hosts which do not accept PayPal, and I was very glad to know that DTH accepts PayPal as a payment method. To those guys out who want to transfer to DTH but don’t feel that safe when paying with credit cards, well… good news, DTH accepts PayPal!
Conclusion
DownTownHost is a very good host for me. The uptime is excellent, the support is so awesome, and the servers are fast. What more could you want? By the way, if you really want to know how awesome the support is… well, tell you what, I even have one of the support people on my MSN. That’s how reachable the DTH staff are!
For the people who are using/have used DownTownHost as well, let me know your thoughts about this host. For the others who are looking for hosts, I’d like to know if you are considering DTH. For people who are now happy with their hosts, let me know your hosts and your experience with them.
I shall say this was a good elaborative review.
Hey. Gtull1 here from DP. I really like your blog, and that’s no smoke job. I am bookmarking you.
I am new to this. My host is startlogic. Man, I have had nothing but problems with them from day one. I seriously am looking at switching, even though I already paid for a year up front.
I’ll check DTH out. I think I need to make a switch quickly.
Life is Colourful: Thanks a lot. I hope that you stick around here!
Dui: Hey, thanks for that. I’ve read many reviews for StartLogic (mixed positive and negative), but I haven’t really checked them out. If you’re not yet a member of Web Hosting Talk, I suggest that you become a member of that forum. People there can really help you in choosing the right host and switching hosts.
I hope to see you around here.
I was looking for an host, and after reading this review, I just ordered it.
Lets hope it goes everything well.
Juggler this was a good review indeed. I might go to DownTownHost when I get my own domain. Thanks.