Hostwinds

Hostwinds offers affordable and competitive pricing across its web hosting plans, including shared, business, and VPS hosting. The entry-level shared hosting plan is attractively priced, making it a great option for budget-conscious users and small businesses starting out.

However, like many providers, renewal prices are higher than the initial promotional rates. Customers should be aware of this pricing structure and review renewal costs beforehand to avoid surprises. Hostwinds is relatively transparent about fees, but it's always wise to check the terms and conditions for any additional charges.

The company provides a 3-day money-back guarantee, allowing new customers a short but useful trial period. After this window, refunds are not available, so users should take advantage of the trial to ensure the service meets their needs.

Hostwinds provides 24/7 live chat, email support, and an extensive knowledge base to assist customers. Their support team is known for being responsive, knowledgeable, and offering personalized solutions to various issues, with most inquiries answered swiftly. While occasional canned responses have been reported, they are generally the exception. Hostwinds also offers a robust set of guides and tutorials, allowing users to resolve issues independently when needed.

Hostwinds provides customer support in English.

Uptime

We perform thousands of uptime checks each day to ensure our reviews are accurate and reliable. The statistics below are based on the uptime checks we have performed in the last 30 days.

Hostwinds guarantees an impressive 99.9999% uptime, one of the highest in the industry. This commitment suggests strong confidence in their infrastructure and reliability. In practice, uptime performance aligns closely with this promise, with minimal downtime reported by users. Compared to competitors, Hostwinds' uptime exceeds industry standards—most providers offer guarantees between 99.9% and 99.99%.

While no hosting service is entirely immune to outages, instances of downtime with Hostwinds are rare and typically short-lived. This reliability makes it a strong choice for businesses and individuals who depend on uninterrupted website access.

Data Center Locations

• Netherlands
• United States

Hostwinds operates three strategically located data centers in Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. These locations ensure low latency and high-speed connectivity, serving customers across North America and Europe.

Customers can choose their preferred data center during setup, allowing them to optimize performance based on their target audience. Additionally, website migration between data centers is possible, with Hostwinds offering a streamlined process to minimize downtime and disruption. This flexibility makes Hostwinds a versatile choice for businesses looking to scale their hosting based on evolving needs.

Storage

Hostwinds provides unlimited SSD storage across all shared hosting plans, ensuring fast performance and reliability. The main difference between plans is the number of websites you can host—1, 4, or unlimited, depending on the plan you choose.

While storage is advertised as unlimited, inode limits still apply. Inodes represent the total number of files and directories you can store, so even with unlimited space, exceeding the inodes limit could impact your ability to add more files. Users with a large number of small files should keep this in mind to avoid potential restrictions.

Bandwidth

All shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth, allowing websites to handle varying traffic levels without worrying about data caps or overage fees. This makes it a great option for sites expecting growth or fluctuating visitor numbers.

However, like most hosting providers, Hostwinds enforces a fair usage policy to ensure server resources are shared efficiently. While there are no strict limits, websites consuming excessive bandwidth or impacting server performance may be asked to upgrade to a higher-tier plan. For most users, this won't be a concern, but high-traffic sites should keep this in mind.

Migrating to Hostwinds

Hostwinds offers a free website migration service, making it easy to transfer your site to their platform without additional costs. The support team handles the entire process, including moving files, databases, and other components, ensuring minimal downtime.

While most sites qualify for free migration, larger or more complex sites (with custom configurations or uncommon platforms) may require an additional consultation beforehand. It's recommended to contact Hostwinds support for specific needs.

Backups

Hostwinds allows users to schedule automatic nightly backups for added data security, but backups are not included for free and must be purchased separately.

Hostwinds offers Cloud Backups as an add-on for its shared hosting services, priced at a fixed fee of $4 per month plus $0.03 per GB per month for the data backed up. While this pricing structure provides flexibility, it might be difficult to calculate for some customers, especially those with larger sites.

Restoring backups is easy with Hostwinds' self-service restoration feature, allowing users to recover their data directly through the control panel without needing to contact support. While the backup service is an additional cost, it offers convenience and control for users who prioritize data security.

Email

Hostwinds provides unlimited email accounts with its shared hosting plans, making it a solid choice for individuals and businesses needing multiple email addresses. Their email service includes essential features like webmail access, email forwarding, auto-responders, and spam filtering to help users manage their communications efficiently.

While there's no strict mailbox size limit, users should be mindful of their overall account storage limits based on their hosting plan. Hostwinds doesn't provide detailed limits for sending and receiving emails, but like many hosts, there are likely default restrictions in place to prevent spam and maintain server performance.

SSL Certificates

Hostwinds includes free SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt with all hosting plans, providing basic encryption for your website. For more advanced security, they also offer paid SSL options like EV and OV certificates, suitable for businesses and e-commerce sites. There are no limits on the number of SSL certificates you can install, offering flexibility for securing multiple domains or subdomains.

Hostwinds offers a user-friendly experience with a well-organized website that provides easy access to hosting plans, pricing, and features. Signing up is straightforward, and the process is intuitive, with clear step-by-step instructions.

cPanel, the industry-standard control panel, makes managing hosting services easy, especially with tools like Softaculous for one-click installations of popular applications. While the platform is simple to navigate for both beginners and experienced users, those looking for detailed documentation or advanced customizations may find some limitations. Overall, Hostwinds offers a streamlined and accessible system for hosting management.