HostMetro was recently founded in 2012 to specialize in providing only shared hosting.
They’re also one of the only web hosts with a ‘guaranteed price lock’, so your pricing doesn’t jump 200% when it’s time to renew.
In addition, they boast 99.9% uptime to round out a decent array of offers for budget-conscious customers.
But are all of these claims too good to be true?
We set up a basic WordPress website on the HostMetro Mega Max Plan and we’ve monitored and analyzed their performance over an extended period of time, compiling the most important results including uptime and speed to be able to provide you with this unbiased review.
Let’s get started.
Features and Ease of Use
HostMetro doesn’t have many hosting plans for users to choose from. This isn’t always a bad thing; in fact, because HostMetro specializes in shared hosting, it makes it relatively easy for potential customers to choose an appropriate hosting plan.
Also Read: CrocWeb Review
The standard features included in HostMetro’s plans include:
- Unlimited add-on and parked domains
- Unlimited subdomains
- Unlimited email accounts and forwarders
- Advanced firewall
- Password-protected directories
- Website analytics
- Free website builder
- Free script installer
- Free domain registration
As you can see, you won’t have an issue hosting multiple domains and opening lots of email accounts with HostMetro. They also give you what they call “maximum disk space and bandwidth,” with the ability to request more at any time if you reach your limits (according to them, 95% of their customers won’t ever hit the maximum). However, the caveat is that your use of this storage and bandwidth must be reasonable and within their Terms of Use. For instance, you can’t use the storage or bandwidth for file sharing purposes, nor are these intended to be backup storage for you.
The main variation between their two plans are the provision of a GeoTrust SSL certificate and the SiteLock Security Seal. This essentially means that if you’re running a business or an e-commerce website, go for their Super Max Plan; otherwise, the Mega Max Plan will do just fine.
One aspect I didn’t quite like about HostMetro, however: their uptime can be rather spotty. They’ve only got a 99% uptime guarantee, which is lower than the industry-standard 99.9%. They’re also not great about providing details on the type of hardware and software they use, so you don’t know what kind of infrastructure your website is being housed in. Plus, backup-wise, you’re largely on your own: while HostMetro does take weekly backups of your data, this generally isn’t adequate for most users (particularly if you’re using a WordPress installation).
HostMetro offers a convenient and free website migration service for users moving over from another hosting provider.
Pricing and Support
The prices listed on HostMetro’s website shows the company’s commitment to providing affordable hosting plans. The biennial and annual payments will cost you less than paying on a monthly basis. Plus, unlike many other vendors, HostMetro does not double their hosting prices after the introductory period: their price lock guarantee assures you that the low initial rates you’re paying are the same prices you will pay even after the promotional period is over.
HostMetro has a 30-day money back guarantee, though this isn’t automatic: you’ll have to write in to request it. Further, if your account is suspended at any point during the 30-day period after account creation, the policy is voided, even if you’re unsuspended afterwards.
HostMetro claims to offer 24/7 U.S.-based support. You can contact their customer support by opening a ticket, through the vendor’s live chat, or by phone. The company also has a comprehensive knowledge base that includes over 100 video tutorials. That said, while the company claims to have a support team with a combined experience of over 50 years, the ever-growing list of customers dissatisfied with their support implies that HostMetro might be somewhat problematic in that area. However, my experience with them wasn’t bad at all. The tech support team responded fairly quickly when I submitted a ticket, and the information they sent me adequately addressed the queries I had.
How much does HostMetro cost?
HostMetro offers plans from $2 to $7. The price depends on which type of hosting plan you choose. You can see the updated pricing table (updated weekly) below.
Which HostMetro plan should I get?
My recommendation is to start with a cheaper plan. You can always upgrade later on. HostMetro can help you with the migration to a more expensive plan. The increase in visitors many times takes longer than expected and you shouldn’t pay a lot of money until the need arises. Of course, your needs may vary, and you can consult with a hosting expert from HostMetro here.
How good is HostMetro’s customer support?
HostMetro is not ranked as one of our top web hosts. But that can also be a result of HostMetro being a small, under the radar, hosting provider. There are advantages to a small hosting company – as a customer, you are more important to them. You can also check out our comparison of the most popular web hosting services here.
Pros of Using HostMetro Hosting
HostMetro has quite many perks going on for them. We especially like their price lock guarantee and improved uptime.
But what else do they offer?
Let’s have a more detailed look.
1. Decent Customer Support
HostMetro offers 24/7 live chat, email support, a knowledge base, and also phone support (available weekdays from 8 am to 8 pm (CST)).
We tested their live chat and our experience with HostMetro’s customer support started pretty well. Their agent connected quickly and answered all of our questions in a timely manner.
However, one thing to note is that before you start your chat, you will have to give out some personal information to them (name, email address, primary domain name), so make sure you’re okay with that.
2. Price Lock Guarantee
Most hosts suck you in with a ridiculously low rate the first time you sign up with them. When your plan is up and it’s time to renew, that low rate disappears and your price can double or even triple seemingly overnight.
HostMetro bucks that trend though, guaranteeing your initial registration rate – even for future renewals.
That’s a tremendous deal, offering a huge price advantage if you plan on sticking with them long-term.
For best month-to-month hosting, use Dreamhost.
3. Free Website Transfer (With Limitations)
HostMetro will happily migrate your existing website over to their servers for free.
However, there’s a catch.
You can transfer your site only if it doesn’t exceed 3 GB.
And the site migration needs to be requested within 30 days of creating an account.
What if your site doesn’t fit the guidelines?
Well, then you’ll have the option to go with HostMetro’s premium site transfer. But it will cost you a one-time fee of $29.99 (also non-refundable).
4. 99% Uptime Guarantee
The Terms of Service page for most hosts is where optimism goes to die.
What seemed like such a good deal at first quickly starts turning into a nightmare as you read one questionable policy after another.
However, every now and then you come across something positive that restores your faith in some companies.
Buried inside HostMetro’s Terms is their Uptime Guarantee policy.
If their annual uptime average falls below 99%, you’ll get a free month of hosting credited back to your account. Even though this mark is lower than the average uptime we’ve seen across other hosts, it’s still a good policy that shows they stand behind their service.
A few standard exceptions apply, too, even if they’re fairly common. If one-off events like a natural disaster or big hack take place, this downtime won’t be factored into the uptime average calculation.
5. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
If you’re unhappy at any time during your first 30-days as a new HostMetro customer, you can ask for a full refund. Overall, that’s a great thing.
Just keep in mind that there are a few issues that can affect your refund amount.
First, refunds only apply to hosting plans. So that means other add-ons, like backup services, or domain names aren’t refundable.
The good news about domain names is that if you paid for one, you can take it with you to another host.
However, if you were given a free one through HostMetro, then the normal cost can be reduced from your refund balance. They can also subtract the cost of free SSL certificates, too. Make sure to double-check your plan when getting these ‘free’ extras, because they could come back to literally cost you when it’s time to ask for a refund.
6. Unlimited Features Included With Their Cheapest Plan
HostMetro offers a lot of unlimited features even with its cheapest plan.
For example, you’ll get an unlimited amount of websites, email, and FTP accounts. Their bandwidth and storage have a quota for maximum hosting space, however, according to HostMetro 95% of their customers will never reach this limit. In case you’ll reach the quota, you’d have to contact their customer support and they will increase it for you free of charge (if you’re within their terms).
Considering how many other hosts on the market like to limit their cheapest plans, we’re glad to see that HostMetro doesn’t do that.
7. Easy-to-Use Control Panel and Dashboard
HostMetro’s backend shouldn’t be a problem to navigate around. It’s quite common also among other hosts on the market. From there you can access your domains, billing, services, and more. On the main page, you can also see usage statistics. On the left side of the client area, under “Actions” is the control panel login.
HostMetro uses traditional cPanel as a control panel. It’s easy to use and you can find all the necessary for website hosting from there with no difficulty. There’s also a search bar included to smooth things out even more.
Cons of Using HostMetro Hosting
HostMetro has quite a few things to like, but unfortunately, there are also some downsides that come with their services.
Let’s start with a slow response time.
1. Too Average Speed
Over the last 6 months, HostMetro managed to put up page loading times of 823 ms.
That makes HostMetro three times slower than A2 Hosting.
Considering that a single-second delay can result in 7% fewer conversions, HostMetro might cost you more in lost sales than actually paying for their service.
The good news is that there has been a slight improvement in their speed data, however, they’re still a bit too average and unstable to earn a place in our pros section.
2. Poor Uptime
HostMetro delivered an average uptime of 98.23% over the past 6 months, which is also one of the worst uptimes we’ve seen among other hosts. In total, they had three days of downtime and 34 outages.
Last 6-month average uptime:
- August 2022: 99.47%
- July 2022: 97.94%
- June 2022: 96.92%
- May 2022: 99.94%
- April 2022: 99.97%
- March 2022: 99.89%
3. Backups Are Not Free
Backups are an essential feature because issues will undoubtedly pop up from time to time. Most hosts offer them in some capacity, whether free or paid.
HostMetro’s Terms say that they offer “free backup services as a courtesy.”
Sounds awesome, right? Having regular backups on hand can save you a lot of hassles if your site gets hacked.
But there are three big problems with this claim:
- This backup service only runs once a month (ideally, you should have daily or weekly at a minimum).
- They will only backup 1 GB of size. That’s not very large, to be honest, so you’ll probably pass this at some point.
- And worst of all, to restore the backup, it’s going to cost you $39.95.
If you want to get your sites backed up weekly, then you would have to pay $19.95 annually. However, if you sign up with their Super Max Plan, anytime (weekly basis) free backups will be already included in the package.
4. Only Shared Hosting
HostMetro only offers two shared hosting plans. No VPS, no cloud, or dedicated hosting options are available.
That will make it tough to scale your existing infrastructure if you outgrow things quickly, forcing you to move to another web hosting company in the near future if you get to that point.
5. Restrictive Free Domain Offer
They offer a free domain name when signing up, but only if you use their “freedomain” coupon code.
Domain name renewals (or purchasing additional ones) will set you back an additional $14.49, which is more expensive than many other major domain name registrars.
6. Short-Term Plans More Expensive
HostMetro advertises a $2.95/monthly price. However, to get that price, you’re going to need to sign up for a full three years.
There is no plan that’s shorter than a year in length. And even that one-year option will cost $4.95/month. You also have an option to choose a biennial plan with a $3.95/monthly price.
HOSTMETRO REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE
HostMetro offers just two shared hosting plans, but each of them is packed with a long list of features that makes it easy to manage a website. However, customers should beware of their tech support, which can be inconsistent.
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