Netfirms Web Hosting

Netfirms is a good web host provider for small, personal sites. They offer several hosting solutions for all levels, but their most outstanding feature is the rock bottom price of their Plus plan-the least expensive monthly cost among the top ten hosts we reviewed. Netfirms hosting has no-frills in this plan-no database, no ecommerce features and few email perks-but their service includes all the necessities for building and posting a site, including both a good uptime and a fine customer service reputation.

Unique to the hosting world, Netfirms uses a cluster of servers to handle your website’s needs. This approach eliminates your site’s dependency on any one server. If any server goes down, the others pick up where it left off. This multi-server method improves response time and site availability for your site.

Feature Set:

Netfirms’ Plus web hosting plan offers these features: 100 GB of disk space, 750 GB of monthly data transfer, 10 email accounts, FrontPage extensions, PHP scripting, Perl (CGI-BIN), Server Side Includes (SSI), Real Audio and Video HTTP streaming, Windows Media HTTP streaming, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave capabilities. Netfirms also gives new customers a free startup CD that contains the tools you need to build and upload your site (NetObjects Fusion 7).

Customer Service:

Available 24/7 via website and email, Netfirms has a support center that includes online tutorials, guides and an extensive FAQ database that can respond to a typed question. Netfirms offers technical support by phone, but the number is not toll-free. You also have the option of using their priority email to communicate your troubles. Most priority email inquiries receive a response within four hours, even in the middle of the night or on weekends.

Control Panel:

With Netfirms, you have access to a very good control panel. The control panel is fairly easy to navigate and is divided into these basic categories: account management, billing management, domain forwarding (creating new domains that will point to your site) email management and site management (to view site statistics).

Summary:

Overall, Netfirms has a good track record in providing simple, quality web hosting plans at reasonable cost. Customer service is above average, but not as convenient as our higher ranked plans, such as Globat. Netfirms offers a 30-day money back guarantee.