Easy CGI Hosting Review
caymanhost
When embarking on this review, I did so knowing that Easy CGI have proved to be one of the most popular hosting companies listed on my sites in terms of click through numbers if not perhaps conversions. This says a lot for their presentation and the design of their promotional creatives; their banners in particular generate an unusually high rate of interest, but are they any good and how do they perform in the cutthroat world of web
Well, Easy CGI started out back in 1994 as an internet
On visiting the website you will be greeted with a good layout and easy to navigate pages. As is now common practice, their shared hosting plans are prominently displayed offering an at a glance feel for pricing and features. There are currently three levels of shared hosting, initially a little confusingly all labeled "Advanced" and ranging in price from $7.96 to $21.56 per month. Even the cheapest of the bunch offers a good level of features and pricing levels are pretty much average for a budget hosting option. For full details of each plan the company’s website is clear and concise with a nice comparison page making it easy to see how each stacks up against your requirements.
All in all the website is workmanlike and straightforward, pretty much like the company. Nothing is hidden and there aren’t any silly restrictions or small print horrors waiting to trip up the unwary. We should mention that Easy CGI is Windows
Aside from the shared hosting you will also find Virtual Private Server options starting at as little as $43.96 a month if paid yearly. They also offer co-location servers and again, prices are reasonably competitive. Domain services are available via the company too and they can also arrange email only hosting for a very low monthly fee.
Sticking with the shared hosting however, the company support a wide range of databases and even the cheapest plan gives you 50 MySQL’s which is pretty generous. You’ll get all the usual things like FTP and PHP, SSI, PERL, ASP and AJAX, plus of course the usual 24/7 support, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and add ons like a website builder (not sure how good it is) 500 pop email accounts and statistics. It’s really a question of storage and bandwidth differences among the plans, but all are reasonably endowed in those areas.
We mentioned support and by all accounts they perform well with both phone and email help systems that we haven’t managed tofind any real complaints about from users, some going as far as to claim them to be "the best I’ve ever encountered", which, although relative, is good to know. Billing is straightforward and easy to administer for users, all through their control panel. There’s a built in ticket system and some tutorials, FAQ’s etc. to help out the complete novice and all in all the experience is a pretty painless one for people of all levels. Overall it is fair to say that EasyCGI are a competent enough bunch with very good support channels for their customers. They provide everything you would expect without offering anything exeptionally unique but their prices and services are fair, straightforward and reliable and their reputation pretty solid. For those who are "Linux or nothing" zealots they will obviously not be of interest, but for everyone else, certainly deserving of consideration. EasyCGI.com - 3Levels of Web Hosting to Meet Your Needs
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I find it difficult to believe this review is objective. If you are with EasyCGI, you will readily agree that yes, the features they provide in their packages are very good. But that really is only half of what you want from a hosting company. The other half is support when things go wrong. Our EasyCGI-hosted website has been down fairly frequently and the support is, to be generous, abysmal. We submitted a support ticket at 2:04 pm. 21 hours later, there was not even acknowledgement that the support ticket had been received, so we called EasyCGI and were told "We have elevated your ticket to urgent". 2 days later, we hadn't received a single email from EasyCGI support connected with the issue. We called again, to be told "Your site problem is being dealt with now". Another 2 days, no response. By this time, we'd lost a lot of money on orders that nobody could make because the site was down. They eventually attended to the problem - which was such a simple fix for them to make. In reality, I could have flown from the UK to America and fixed it myself in about 3 days less time than it took EasyCGI. At the time of writing, the site is now down again, and 26 hours after submitting a support request, we have not had a single reply.
Hi Janine Thanks for your feedback on Easy CGI. As to the objectivity of the review, I can only go on the feedback of customers when it comes to a company's service and from what you say you have been dissatisfied with what I agree is the most important aspect of any hosting service. Having said that, this is the first negative feedback I have received here. I am sure, as with most hosting companies, there are both happy and unhappy users and your negative experience is not necessarily indicative of a regularly poor service, although I agree that response times should indeed be far faster than you have had to endure. Without direct experience of the company, I have offered as objective a review as possible in relation to the features/price ratio on offer. I have to rely on honest feedback from existing users and relay it to potential customers through their comments on this directory - I will always publish both positive and negative feedback within reasonable bounds in the interests of both fairness and balance and to improve the objectivity of my directory. As you are running a membership site requiring subscriptions it is obviously costly and frustrating when you experience downtime and whilst nobody can offer a 100% uptime guarantee, your frustrations over response times and service are understandable and exactly the issues that cause customers to shop around.