FastHosts
- From the company
Fasthosts is One-stop-shop for internet services. FastHosts has delivered market-leading online services to the home, home office and SME markets since 1999. We have a successful track record in providing high value, award winning products.
Proven track record
Innovation drives our business - we've been designing new ways to give our customers complete control of the internet, since our inception in 1999. Our highly successful track record and proven business model have made us the UK's Number 1 web hosting company.
Awards & accolades
We know you'll be glad you chose Fasthosts for your online services - but don't take our word for it. Fasthosts regularly receives prestigious industry plaudits - here are a just a few examples.
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Rated Number 1 for budget hosting by the leading industry news portal, Web Host Directory.
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Rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by the leading industry news portal, Web Host Directory.
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Nominated by our customers as the Best Web Host, in the 2006
PC Pro magazine awards.
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Fasthosts dedicated servers have been ranked in the PC Plus magazine Hotlist, for unbeatable value for money.
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Twice listed in the Sunday Times TechTrack 100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies.
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Rated 4.5 out of 5 for our business class email hosting services
by The Independent.
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Named as the No.1 choice for ecommerce hosting, three times,
by leading industry news site Web Host Directory.
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Rated No.1 more times by web hosting portal TopHosts in their monthly poll, than any other UK host.
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Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 listing ranked Fasthosts in the UK's top 100 fastest growing companies.
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Ranked as the Worlds Number 1 Windows 2003 web host by internet research specialists, Netcraft.
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Received the TopHosts "Award for Excellence" in recognition of our superior customer service and commitment to hosting excellence.
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Awarded "Best Buy" for our easy to use online control panel, by industry magazine, .net.
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Ranked in the top 50 best companies in the UK by award-winning magazine for growing companies, Business XL.
From the company
FastHosts
Expert Review- From the Editors
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154 Southgate Street, Gloucester
GL1 2EX, United Kingdom
+44(0)844-583-0777
Fasthosts was founded in 1999 and has been collecting awards for excellence in the hosting industry ever since. Fasthosts makes their home in Gloucester, in the heart of England, and offers shared Windows and Linux hosting, plus virtual and private server hosting services.
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Review
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Pricing
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Fasthosts offers shared Windows and Linux hosting and virtual and dedicated servers. I chose a Linux hosting package that afforded me 5 gigabytes of space and unlimited bandwidth for $7.19 a month. Fasthosts runs about average in their pricing structure.
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Uptime
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I have a premium uptime monitor attached to my domain names and that’s what I used to track the uptime record of Fasthosts. Though I did see small periods of downtime, as referenced above, Fasthosts was dependable overall.
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Sales
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Fasthosts takes sales questions by email, telephone and FAX. I took to email, asking the reps a few questions about their shared hosting plan. It took a little longer than expected to hear back from Fasthosts—about 24 hours—but the answers to my questions were all there, and I found the experience to be a pleasant one. Unique to Fasthosts is that they will give UK residents a free telephone call back. Users need only fill out an online form with their telephone number and then await the call.
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Support
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Support with Fasthosts was hit or miss. Offering support by phone, trouble ticket system and email, when Fasthosts does respond to questions or concerns, they’re fast and efficient—more than living up to their name. On many occasions, however, I got no response at all to my questions.
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Setup
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I purchased a shared hosting account from Fasthosts. The sign-up process was simple and straightforward, and my account was completely setup and ready to use within one hour of payment. Along with my invoice, I was sent a detailed letter from Fasthosts that laid out the specifics of my hosting plan and linked me to an area of their website that provided further setup instructions. Very smooth!
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Reliability
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I maintained an account with Fasthosts for a period of one year. Fasthosts’ server speed was excellent, and my website pages always rendered quickly. I did experience a few episodes of downtime and a period of four days where my email server was down, making access to my email impossible.
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Billing
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Fasthosts takes PayPal and all major credit cards. I paid for my hosting account with a credit card and was properly billed. I had no trouble with the billing department until it came to cancelling my account. I sent an email cancellation notice well in advance, but my credit card was charged the following month regardless. A call to the billing department seemed to clear up this issue..until the following month when I was once again charged for a service I was no longer using. Because you cannot deregister a credit card with Fasthosts, I was continually billed for three months until contacting my bank to put a block on Fasthosts, preventing them from being able to charge my account.
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Guarantee
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Terms of Service
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The Terms of Service for Fasthosts are online. Highlights include:
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Account cancellation must be requested 14 days prior to account renewal.
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Domain credits are non-refundable.
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Spam strictly prohibited.
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Advantages
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Average prices, plus discount offered during sign-up.
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Free sales and support telephone callback support in U.K..
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Reliable hardware.
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Disadvantages
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No uptime guarantee.
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No live chat support.
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Support is hit or miss.
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Billing department needs an overhaul.
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Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the
companies whose products we review only when you buy through us. We test each product
thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned
and the opinions expressed in Expert Reviews are our own.