WebHostingPad vs WestHost: Is WebHostingPad better than WestHost or vice versa?

If you're looking for web hosting and your search for the right web host has led you to a point where you have to decide between WebHostingPad and WestHost, reading this article can be very helpful. The article will compare WebHostingPad against WestHost on a number of criteria. This will let you know the relative pros and cons of each web hosting company against the other, which will ultimately help you in making a conscious decision. WebHostingPad sells its cheapest plan with the name "Power Plan", while WestHost markets its plan as "Personal".

(1) Hosting Platform

WebHostingPad has recently introduced the cloud Linux platform, while WestHost continues to offer the traditional shared web hosting platform. The advantage of the cloud Linux platform is that whenever the demand for resources increases, more clouds attach to the shared web hosting server. This results in a consistent replenishment of resources which ensures that the websites of the customers residing on a shared server continue to operate at top notch speeds. So WebHostingPad takes the lead when it comes to the hosting platform.

(2) Core Features

WebHostingPad is very generous when it comes to the main resources promised to you. It offers unlimited hosting space and bandwidth as compared to the 50 GB disk space and 1000 GB bandwidth offered by WestHost. It also offers unlimited e-mail accounts as well as unlimited forwarders and auto responders. By contrast, WestHost offers only 100 e-mail accounts and e-mail forwarders, along with a total of only 10 auto responders. The number of parked domains and subdomains offered by WebHostingPad is also unlimited. WestHost, on the other hand, does not make any mention of parked domains and offers only 10 subdomains. On top of all this, WebHostingPad also gives you the ability to host as many websites as you want on a single hosting account. This is not the case with WestHost where you can host only a single website on one account.

CGI-bin and Server-side includes are common to both these web hosts. WebHostingPad clearly mentions that it offers FrontPage extensions, while WestHost does not mention this, so this is something which is doubtful in the case of WestHost. Both the companies promise online statistics as well as customizable error pages. Spam protection is also common to both of them. WebHostingPad does not mention whether it offers a dedicated IP or not, while WestHost allows you to have a dedicated IP for an additional $1 per month. The web design features offered by both these companies are also more or less the same. Furthermore, password protected directories are also offered by both these hosting companies.

So clearly, WebHostingPad takes the lead when it comes to the core resources.

(3) Advanced Features

WebHostingPad offers unlimited MySQL databases, while there is only 1 MySQL database included in the "Personal" web hosting plan of WestHost. As far as support for content management systems is concerned, both hosting companies parallel each other. The Softaculous script installer is provided by both of them which you can use for installing content management systems such as Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Mambo etc and a host of other applications with only a single click. SSH Access is also offered by both WebHostingPad as well as WestHost.

The major scripting technologies such as PHP, Perl, Python are also included in the beginner level plans of both these hosting companies. In terms of the number of FTP accounts, WebHostingPad takes the lead again by offering unlimited accounts as compared with the 100 FTP accounts offered by WestHost. Spam filtering for e-mail accounts is provided by both these web hosting providers. Mailing lists, however, are promised only by WebHostingPad. WestHost claims to offer Enterprise-Class Webmail along with GnuPG PGP Secure Email Encryption, while there is no such mention by WebHostingPad.

Overall, in terms of the offered advanced features, WebHostingPad takes the lead again except for the enterprise-class webmail in which WestHost appears to be superior.

(4) E-Commerce Features

In terms of the diversity of included e-commerce features, WestHost appears to be superior. As opposed to WebHostingPad that offers only an OS Commerce shopping cart, WestHost not only includes an OS Commerce shopping cart but also a Zen Cart, Meganto, Agora Cart, as well as Cube Cart. On top of this, it also includes free Merchant Account Support as well as PayPal support. This is an overwhelming amount of functionality as compared with WebHostingPad, so clearly WestHost takes the lead here.

(5) Freebies

CPanel, a state-of-the-art control panel, is included for free by both WebHostingPad and WestHost in their hosting plans. On top of this, WebHostingPad also includes a free domain name. WestHost, on the contrary, does not include a free domain name but instead charges a $12 fee for domain registration per year. There is no setup fee charged by either of these hosting companies. Website backups are also included free of charge by both of them. WebHostingPad clearly mentions on its homepage that it offers $200 worth free marketing credits, however it does not give the breakup of these credits. WestHost, on the contrary, clearly mentions that it includes $75 worth Google search credit and $25 worth Yahoo search credit. So the total free search credit offered by WestHost is $100 which is again less than that offered by WebHostingPad.

So, in the freebies area, WebHostingPad once again outperforms WestHost.

(6) Data Center Specifications

WestHost definitely has an edge when it comes to the location of the data center. They have built their data center at a place which is situated only 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City, Utah. This has been certified to be a disaster safe location by FEMA's National Emergency Management Information System. The data center has all the critically needed attributes such as Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, RAID 10 Redundancy, Tier 3 classification, as well as Redundant Power Sources. With the exception of a disaster safe location, WebHostingPad also has a state-of-the-art data center located in Chicago and they also claim that the network availability of their IBX centers is greater than 99.999%. The data center also boasts complete redundancy in power, HVAC, fire suppression, network connectivity, and security.

To conclude with, if a disaster safe location is not on the priority list, then the data center specifications of WebHostingPad more or less compete with those of WestHost. Otherwise, WestHost appears to be superior from the point of view of data center specifications.

(7) Guarantees

A mere glimpse at the homepage of WebHostingPad will reveal and that it has plenty of guarantees to offer to its potential customer. The uptime guarantee figure promised by both the web hosting companies is the same, i.e. 99.9%. WebHostingPad promises a 30 day moneyback guarantee, while WestHost promises a lengthy 60 day moneyback guarantee. So in terms of the moneyback guarantee, you've got more time to try WestHost than WebHostingPad. It is more likely for any fluctuations in the service to occur in a 60 day period as compared with the surges and outages that can be seen in 30 days. This gives you a clear-cut indication that WestHost is more confident about its level of services as compared with WebHostingPad, and this is the reason that they are able to offer a 60 day moneyback guarantee.

There is however something at WebHostingPad that is unmatched and is also not available with WestHost. WebHostingPad also offers a price lock guarantee which can prove to be a source of much satisfaction for you in the years to come. What this means is that when you renew your hosting subscription with WebHostingPad, the price that you will be charged at that time will be the same as the one charged to you when you signed up with them initially. This is something absolutely amazing and I have personally seen that it is very rare for any other web hosting company to offer such a guarantee. No matter whether you are 10 years down the line, you will pay the same price that you payed 10 years ago.

So, in terms of the guarantees offered, WebHostingPad appears to take the lead once again. This is because although the moneyback guarantee is the standard 30 days just like many other companies, the price lock guarantee can actually prove to be extremely useful as compared with WestHost as well as many others.

(8) Pricing Structure

At WebHostingPad, you can benefit from plenty of savings if you sign up for a longer term. Upon paying upfront fees for one year, you get the "Power Plan" for $3.99 per month. The "Personal" plan from WestHost is available for this price only if you sign up for three years in advance. So $4 per month is not the standard yearly hosting fee in the case of WestHost, instead it should more properly be called as "as low as $4 per month". When signed up for only one year, the "Personal" plan sells for $6 per month. WebHostingPad, on the contrary, gives you the lowest price of $1.99 per month if you sign up for three years in advance. Even if you pay upfront for two years, you get a saving of $1 per month which brings the total annual savings to $12. The three years advance payment gives you a total of $24 savings for a full year.

Therefore, it is logical to conclude, that WebHostingPad gives you a much more flexible pricing structure from which you can benefit immensely by signing up in advance for a longer term.

(9) Customer Support Channels

Both WebHostingPad and WestHost offer customer support via telephone, e-mail, as well as live chat. How good is the actual quality of customer support can only be ascertained from user reviews present on websites such as ours and a few other authentic sources of information on the World Wide Web. Both web hosting companies have their corporate offices located in the United States of America. WestHost clearly mentions on its website that they do not outsource customer support to cheap companies but instead deploy in-house US-based support. They also state that their average response time via live chat is 26 seconds, via phone it is 2 minutes and 21 seconds, and by e-mail ticket, it is 3 minutes and 23 seconds. WebHostingPad on the contrary does not offer any such information.

So, outwardly, WestHost appears to be superior in terms of customer support. However, only actual user reviews discussing their response time and their ability to handle technical issues can reveal which of these web hosting companies is truly better from the point of view of customer support.

(10) Age of the Company

The age of a web hosting company is a very good indicator of the reliability of the company as well as its seriousness to do business. Having a look at the footer of the websites of these two hosting providers will easily give you a clue as to which company is more dependable. The footer of WebHostingPad's website says "copyright 2005 - 2011" which means that this company is not more than 6 years old. Doing the same for WestHost reveals that the company has been around since 1998, so that means it has been in business for more than 12 years. If WestHost has been providing solutions and services to its clients for more than a decade, that is more than enough evidence to conclude that they are a reliable, stable, and profitable company.

So, in terms of how old a company has been operating online, WestHost clearly takes the lead by being in business for almost double the time as WebHostingPad.

Conclusion

After comparing WebHostingPad and WestHost against the nine criteria mentioned above, it becomes quite easy to conclude that WebHostingPad is the overall winner. The areas in which WebHostingPad outperformed WestHost include Hosting Platform, Core Features, Advanced Features, Freebies, Guarantees, and Pricing Structure. This is a simplemajority, i.e. on 6 out of the 10 criteria WebHostingPad emerged as the undisputed winner. The areas where WestHost appears to be taking the lead includes E-Commerce Features, Data Center Specifications, age, and customer support. These are also extremely important and cannot be overlooked by any means.

If you're looking to launch an e-commerce website, WestHost definitely has the ability to give you a competitive edge over WebHostingPad. WestHost not only offers 4 additional shopping carts for free but also includes a merchant account and PayPal support for no extra cost. So if you're not planning to launch a simple affiliate site but instead want to start your own independent online business, going with WestHost makes sense. The second area where WestHost appears to be quite superior is that its data center is housed in a disaster safe location. This gives a direct hint into the reliability of this hosting company and you can be sure that your data will stay safe and secure with them. Furthermore, a third good indicator relating to the profitability and growth of WestHost is its age of 12 years.

Finally, in the area of customer support, although you can't explicitly have an idea as to which company is truly the best, WestHost appears to be taking the lead by clearly mentioning their average response times and by declaring outright that they do not outsource under any circumstances. Overall however, WebHostingPad seems to be a good choice if you want to have a hosting service that is not only abundant in resources but which is also not too heavy on your pocket. Nonetheless, there is a close tie between these two hosting companies as is evident from the fact that WebHostingPad was able to outsmart WestHost by only a simple majority.

About the Article

This is a genuine article custom written for WHL (WebHostLead.com). WHL is a best cheapest hosting reviews directory that offers quality articles on a wide variety of subjects related to web hosting.

Note: WHL holds all copyrights to this article. If you would like to publish the article on your website, you must include the "About the Article" section as well.

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