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GearHost Review 2024 – What Do Users Say?

Sandra Tanoto Written by: Sandra Tanoto

GearHost specializes in providing quality web hosting to .NET and PHP developers, making it fast and easy for them to deploy applications and websites at an affordable cost. Their cloud-based hosting service means that the usual performance bottlenecks and service outages are eliminated, and applications run four times faster than on a typical shared host.

We hosted the same WordPress website on the most popular web hosting platforms and measured their performance
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Overview

Ryan Kekos, founder of GearHost, first launched the web hosting service in 2000, running it out of his mother’s basement. Since then, the company’s expanded a fair bit and now serves a global customer base. The company is based in Denver, Colorado, and specializes in providing entry-level cloud hosting for both businesses and individuals. They have four datacenters in the United States, located in Denver, Irvine, Chicago, and Ashburn.

Features and Ease of Use

GearHost’smain focus is to make it quickand easy for developers to deploy cloud-based applications and websites at an affordable cost. Their cloud-based hosting model means that the usual performance bottlenecks and service outages are eliminated, and applications run four times faster than on a typical shared host.

As they’re a developer-focused hosting service, they offer full support for the latest versions of scripting languages and frameworks, along with servers specifically optimized for the additional load. Plus, if at any time you require more resources, you can acquire them with a single click through their minimalistic, easy-to-use admin interface.

Along with the typical web hosting features such as a one-click app installer, GearHost also has a few value-added features like two-factor authentication, live app monitoring, Git publishing, and a DNS manager.

GearHost also boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime Service-Level Agreement (SLA). If there’s any drop in service below this rate, it will be refunded to your account at the hourly rate incurred.

Pricing and Support

One of the perks of GearHost is that plans are billed by the hour, up to a 672-hour cap (28 days). You’re only billed for the number of hours you use your CloudSite, and even if you use it for more than 672 hours that month, you’ll only be charged for those 672 hours. Plus, your CloudSite is fully scalable: if you need more resources at any time, you can change your billing plan directly from the interface without any disruption to your service.

GearHost Instant Application Scaling1

GearHost offers a free plan for its users to experiment with .NET and PHP cloud applications. You can create up to five CloudSites and five databases without a credit card – with a credit card on file, this cap is increased to 10 CloudSites and 10 databases. This is sufficient if you’re simply testing out a few websites in development phase, but the restrictions on storage, CPU usage, and bandwidth seem rather heavy compared to other free hosting options in the market. There is also no money back guarantee.

Additionally, their dedication to customer support seems to have faltered over the years. GearHost was initially known for its first-rate24/7 customer support – you could reach them via social media, telephone, or email, and you’d be connected to a helpful and knowledgeable representative who would go above and beyond to resolve your queries.

Now, though, they offer support mainly through email, a support ticket system, or a toll-free number that is only available during regular U.S. business hours. This might be problematic for users in other countries. When I tested their support ticket system, I received a response the next working day. However, they do have a database of help documentation and FAQs on their website, so users can easily find solutions to their technical issues if needed.

Comparison

How does GearHost match up to the competition?

1HostingerCompareOur Score4.9Compare
1IONOSCompareOur Score4.8Compare
1GearHostCompareOur Score4.5Compare
1Go4HostingCompareOur Score2.4Compare

GearHost REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

As a developer-focused cloud hosting service, GearHost offers several advantages compared to traditional shared hosting services. However, they may be best suited to individual developers and small businesses rather than larger enterprises.

Before you make a decision, we highly recommend you check out some alternative hosting companies, which we highly recommend.

Pros

  • Cloud-based platform ensures optimal performance
  • Fully scalable CloudSites
  • 99.99% uptime SLA
  • Hourly billing – pay for only what you use

Cons

  • Limited support channels
  • Paid plans not the cheapest for startups

FAQ

Which is the best host for developers?

GearHost offers very flexible plans in a hosting environment that offers impressive loading speed and reliability. However, we don’t rate GearHost among the best. I’d recommend taking a look at our list of the best hosts for developers before making any final decisions.

Can you cancel GearHost and get a refund?

GearHost normally doesn’t offer refunds. If you’ve had a serious performance issue that you believe warrants a refund, you’ll need to contact support and explain your situation.

Most of the hosts on our list of the top web hosting services offer much more concrete refund policies.

Which of GearHost’s plans gives you the best value for money?

It depends on the scale of hosting you’re looking for. Just planning to experiment? I’d choose the highly affordable Hobby plan. Planning to host a serious site or app? In that case, I’d recommend starting with the Small plan.

To compare GearHost’s plans with the best deals available, check out the discounts on the top cloud hosts over on our coupon page.

What’s the difference between cloud hosting and VPS hosting?

A traditional VPS is a virtualized portion of a physical server, offering a dedicated but finite fraction of that server’s resources. On the other hand, cloud hosting allows you to draw resources from multiple interconnected servers, scaling up to meet surges in traffic. Cloud hosting is generally more reliable and scalable than a VPS.
Sandra Tanoto Sandra Tanoto
Sandra is a writer and editor based in Singapore. Sandra keenly understands the need for businesses to remain on the cutting edge with the latest technologies and enjoys researching and the newest developments in tech.
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The best and ease-to-use SaaS Plaform you can get

I just love it, they got the most easy-to-use control panel, good customer service, Detailed Documentations, etc., etc. It's the best free SaaS platform for .NET and PHP applications that you can find. Recommended!! I just want to give a shout-out to the GearHost team!

1 avatar
Alice K, USA
March 14, 2021
5
Terrible Customer support and BAD business practices

Due to something the engineers at Gearhost did, I lost all my information and months of work, these cost me a lot of money, due to contracts cancelled by my clients and lots of time of work. They never solved the issue and ever since (Mar-14-2018) I have not gotten access to the server I originally contracted, I never heard back from them ever since. Last month, I realized that I have been charged the monthly fee for a service I have not received, I sent several emails asking for a refund and they will state that their policy prevents them from issuing a refund. even though they know and admitted that no service has been provided. I just received an eMail from them (Sep 27) asking me to activate my account (which is admitting that my account has not been active since the problem arouse (back in March 2018).

1 avatar
Mario A. Russo, Mexico
October 02, 2018
1
Family sharingMulti User SharingExpert SupportBackupSmart syncPersonal SolutionBusiness SolutionTeams optionsOffline foldersFile history and recovery
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