Features and Ease of Use
CityHost offers a range of hosting plans including shared hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS plans. The plans include the following core features:
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Daily automatic backups
- Domain registration available
- Up to 12 add-on domains
- Free SSL certificate included
- Up to 12.1GB SSD disk space
CityHost uses SSD storage which should mean much faster disk read/write times than regular HDD, and even better, they are in RAID 10 configuration to mitigate the risk of data loss in the event of a disk failure.
This way you can ensure your data is loaded quickly, and depending on your (or your customers’) location, you can select servers located in either German or Ukrainian data centers. Plus, the uptime guarantee is 99.9%, although I can’t find a corresponding SLA on the website.
All of the plans come with support for PHP, Python, and Perl, and it’s nice to see that all versions from twice as slow 5 through to 7.2 are included. The usual features like MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin, are included, as well as SSH access and Cron jobs to ensure your website runs smoothly.
CityHost uses a proprietary control panel, which may not be ideal if you prefer well-known providers like cPanel or Plesk. However, they utilize branded equipment from Dell, HP, Cisco, Intel, Supermicro, and others.
For beginners, there’s a one-click installer (although it requires some technical knowledge to install it) and also a “simple” website building tool.
Pricing and Support
The prices are low compared to lots of other similar companies. You even get a significant discount if you purchase a longer-term upfront – the terms range from one month to two years.
There’s a free SSL certificate included in all plans, but you do need to purchase a domain name. Or alternatively, if you purchase a domain name, you get three months hosting free. It’s also great to see a free 10-day trial and generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Customer service is 24/7 by email, phone, and live chat. There are also quite a lot of FAQs and how-to guides on the website, which is useful if you don’t want to speak with support.
I did hop on live chat with the team a few times and found them to be helpful, polite, and happy to deal with me in English. It was clear the operator was well-informed and understood the product well.
