S-HOST is a Ukrainian hosting company whose native name “CXOCT” could be translated from Russian into English as “SHOST”, “SCHOST”, or even (from Ukrainian) as “SPEED”. For this review, I’ll be consistent with the company’s s-host.com.ua URL by calling it “S-HOST”.
This host has been offering hosting services for about thirteen years, and its Russian-language website currently offers shared hosting, virtual servers (VPS), dedicated servers, domain registration, and SSL certificates. Servers sit in Ukraine and the Netherlands.
Features and Ease of Use
You can choose from five shared hosting plans (including three Pro plans), four OpenVZ VPS in Ukraine, four OpenVZ VPS in the Netherlands, five KVM VPS (four in the Netherlands and one in Ukraine), four VPS with dedicated drives, and 13 dedicated servers.
With the two shared hosting plans named “Small” and “Big”, you get:
- 5 to 30 hosted websites
- 99.95% uptime
- 5 GB to 15 GB SSD disk space
- Unlimited traffic
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- Unlimited mailboxes
- PHP version selector (v5.x to 7.x)
- Weekly backups
You have the option to choose from three control panels: the widely-used cPanel, the well-known ISPmanager 5, or the exclusive BrainyCP panel accessible only on Ukrainian servers. Utilizing the Softaculous auto-installer enables you to effortlessly set up various content management systems and other software, such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. Additionally, SSH provides you with a secure and remote method to access your hosting server.
CloudLinux OS with CageFS keeps you isolated from any adverse effects of other hosted users, and DDoS protection guards against distributed denial of service attacks.
Pricing and Support
The Small and Big shared hosting plans are cheap, and you can get an additional 10% discount with your first payment. Pay for plans in U.S. dollars or Ukrainian hryvnia via various methods — including Visa/Mastercard, WebMoney, Yandex.Money, Privat24, Sberbank Online, QIWI, or Euroset — on monthly to triennial terms. You get bigger discounts for longer commitments, plus a free domain with multi-year subscriptions.
S-HOST offers a 30-day money-back guarantee upon request (excluding dedicated servers and domains), and there is a free seven-day trial period for the shared and pro hosting plans.
Contact this company via live chat (from 10 am to 9 pm, Kyiv time), email (for 24/7 technical support), Skype (apparently), or support tickets. I got quick answers to my pre-sales questions via the live chat channel:
Self-support resources include a blog and a set of frequently asked questions.
