By Mark Shroyer
With Ace Net Web Hosting the
average person will find most everything they need all combined
in one package. There are a few optional add-ons but most
of it you probably don't need or already have. (Or can get
online free. Hint, hint.)
Of course, Ace Net offers all the normal stuff you see everywhere
and includes it in their package all for one price. Like
linux, 99.9% uptime, unlimited bandwidth, Fantastico, WordPress,
etc., etc. (See their web site and/or contact
them for full features.)
But what is most impressive is how rapidly they respond.
Hearing from sales and tech. support in less than an hour
via email is impressive. However, a seven minute or less
response time from tech. support is amazing. They told us
they only offer help desk and that they know it may seem
inconvenient to someone who hasn't used their support before.
But they added that this is the secret which allows them
to be more efficient and accurate so they can reply within
10 minutes due to not being tied up on the phone or sifting
through disorganized emails.
In fact, we didn't believe it ourselves at first. So we
put their tech. support system to the test. We contacted
them 10 different times all via the help desk. Every instance
but one they responded between 3-6 minutes. It was amazing!
That one and only time they missed the 10 minute deadline,
it was about 20 minutes. They also have been very friendly
and thorough with their answers so you are not left scratching
your head feeling clueless.
Another thing I like about Ace Net is that, unlike other
Web hosting companies who offer "unlimited" hosting
and then later force you to delete thousands of files because
you are over their "inode" limit (What?!!) AceNet
simply includes 32 GB diskspace. (32 GB is more than enough
for most web sites. Frankly, most web sites will never need
that much disk space.)
Now if you share a server with others, Ace Net does have
a CPU, Ram and MySQL limit that you can not continuously
exceed. But this is common and only fare to both you and
the others sharing your server so it will stay up and continue
running quick and smoothly. Like all computers, servers
have limits too. If everyone kept going over the computer's
limit everyone's web site would continuously slow down and/or
crash. Obviously, that is what both you and Ace Net hope
to avoid.
Another great benefit is that everyone also gets unlimited
domains and a unique IP address. That way if someone else
on your shared server gets accused of spamming and placed
on a black list, you are not penalized for their misfortune
and you escape getting blacklisted also.
Something else I like is that AceNet offer backups. The
only problem is that it may take up to 48-72 hours to retrieve.
But better that than not having any at all. (Obviously,
you should be making your own back up copies too.)
Of course, all seasoned web site owners realize that all
successful web sites have "growing pains." The
best way to look at hosting is to be sure you have a plan
in place for upgrading. The easiest plan to follow is to
be sure your provider offers an upgrade path for you. (i.e.,
Reseller, VPS and Dedicated Server.)
When that day comes where you've outgrown the benefits
of shared hosting, with Ace Net, it's easy to upgrade to
a reseller account, VPS, or a dedicated server. But AceNet
offers so much the average webmaster may never need to upgrade.
OK. Nothing is perfect. There are two main things about
Ace Net I noticed.
The first thing I don't like is that AceNet does limit you
to sending out only 600 emails per hour (14,400/day). If
you do very little to no email marketing then it is not
an issue. However, if you do then it could be? Of course,
the reason there is a limit here is to minimize your chances
for being accused of spamming and blacklisted. That makes
sense. Plus there are plenty of 3rd party companies (i.e.,
TrafficWave,
AWeber
and/or GetResponse)
you can use for email marketing. So really this 600/hr.
limit is not that big of deal and it is only there to protect
you and keep your best interest at heart.
The other thing I found during my research I don't like
is this. I noticed there was another web hosting company
called AceHost. AceHost and AceNet inc may have similar
business names but they are owned by two different companies.
The problem? Ace Net is rated A+ with the BBB. AceHost is
rated F. (Don't confuse these two companies like so many
have!)
Now, I do understand Ace Net had some "growing pains"
their first two years in business. But as you soon will
see now they have their act together. Today they offer generous
(and many unlimited) features, they provide quick and outstanding
technical support, and they are rarely down. In my opinion,
you just can't get much better than Ace Net. Whether you
are looking for a new host or need to switch to a better
host, you just can't go wrong with AceNet.
In fact, AceNet is one of the main Web hosts we switched
to. We have been with them years and are quite satisfied.
Unless you KNOW you will be going over their CPU/Ram/MySQL
limits you will want to start with their Shared
Web Hosting Package.