SistemHost is a Turkish-based hosting provider founded in 1998. It owns its own data center and is now one of the leading Turkish hosting providers. Its website is available in Turkish only.
Features and Ease of Use
SistemHost offers a good selection of hosting services including Linux hosting, Windows hosting, virtual private servers, domain registration, and more. To give you an idea, the shared Linux plans come with the following features:
- One free domain registration
- Weekly backups retained for two weeks
- SSL certificates
- From 500MB to 10,000MB disk space
- From 5GB to 75GB monthly traffic
In 2004, SistemHost launched its own data center in Turkey, which has 2 Gbit of fiber optic backbone connection with redundancy to Türk Telekom, one of the Turkish networks, with over 90% more redundancy and accessibility than other infrastructure providers.
I always like it when a host owns its own data center; it means that it can be faster to resolve problems and it’s much less likely it is reselling bandwidth, which means faster website load speeds for you! It would be nice if the uptime was indicated, however.
In terms of packages of shared hosting, you can choose between Windows and Linux operating systems, as well as varying levels of resources. Both the Linux and Windows plans come in three tiers: Economic / Affordable, Standard, and Professional, which are further split into four levels: Budget, Start, Extra, and Plus. The resource caps for both Linux and Windows are as follows:
- Economic / Affordable packages include between 500MB and 1000 MB of disk space and between 5GB and 15GB of bandwidth
- The Standard plans include from 1500MB to 3000MB disk space and between 20GB and 35GB bandwidth
- Professional plans include from 5000MB to 10,000MB of disk space and from 40GB to 75GB of bandwidth
All plans come with one free domain registration, unlimited website applications, and FTP access. Most of the other resources, e.g., subdomains, email accounts, user accounts, and MySQL databases increase according to the size of the plan.
All plans come with support for PHP version 5.3, and common programming languages asp, asp.net, or php, however, there is no support for Perl, CGI, Ruby, Python, etc. Perl and CGI are supported by the virtual private servers. All plans come with an English Plesk control panel.
Beginners might feel let down by the absence of a one-click installer or website building tool in any of the packages.
Pricing and Support
In terms of pricing, there is a vast range, so there’s a plan to suit most budgets. The Economy plans are unsurprisingly, cheap, and if 500MB disk space and 5GB data are enough resources, you might just grab a bargain. Just be sure to consider that domain registration and SSL certificates are available at an additional cost.
Plans are available on annual terms and payment is a little unusual. Once you’ve chosen a plan, you need to create an account online and then send a bank transfer. Perhaps a little old school, but the system seems to work for SistemHost. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, although you have to dig into the terms and conditions to find it.
Customer support is via email, telephone, and live chat, and there is a U.S. based office, as well as Turkish staff. It does state that they can be contacted “at any time of the day” however I have been on the live chat that indicated it was online, and received no immediate anwer. There is also a client-only area which requires login, and a limited FAQ section.
