The MochaHost story began in 2002 when the future founders saw a great need for quality web hosting companies in the market and decided to start one of their own. Founded in San Jose, MochaHost aimed to strike a balance between great service and pocket-friendly price while covering everything from personal blogs to large corporations.
Today their main office is in New York and they seem to be focused on the domestic market as all of their data centers are located there, especially in Chicago. MochaHost has mentioned some features of its data center: UPS backup, diesel generators, tape libraries, day and night monitoring, security alarms and hand scanners.
A visit to the main MochaHost website feels like going back in time (well into the early 2000s) in both good and bad ways. At first glance, it looks a bit overwhelming with all of the information it provides and that is written in such small letters it hurts the eyes. However, it offers a lot and we found our way around pretty quickly. In addition to English, there are different versions of the website in different languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese as well as a conversion tool that supports 42 different currencies.
The MochaHost website has a blog created in the same (outdated or retro) way that has informative articles, the latest updates and how-tos. These guides are written in an informal style and feel casual, familiar, and friendly while being helpful at the same time. In terms of social networks, you can follow MochaHost on Facebook and Twitter, although they don’t seem to have been particularly active over the past year.
Fortunately, they are especially active when it comes to promoting environmental safety, providing and promoting green hosting, and a green approach in general.
To save the best for the last, we’d like to mention MochaHost’s mascot, which apparently takes its inspiration from the same source that inspired the idea for the company’s name. Why would a coffee lover name a company after their favorite brand is no great mystery, but the name of their mascot (or as we like to call it: a cup of brown delight) certainly is. Perhaps it is a heroic “Mochaman” or an everyday hero without a cape named “Coffeehead” who radiates the power of coffee everywhere and fills everyone with caffeine-induced enthusiasm. Whatever it is, since it resembles the “infamous” office assistant named Clippit (which everyone who was there in early 2000 must remember), we’ll call it “Mochitt”.
Plans and prices
At first glance, we can be sure that MochaHost is not lacking in the hosting options it offers. For each type of hosting they offer, there are at least three plans: shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting solutions. Shared, VPS, and dedicated servers are available for both Linux and Windows, and the packages for the latter (as expected) are a bit more expensive. Their most budget-friendly shared hosting plan is called “Soho” and currently starts at $ 1.58 per month. This plan should give you “lightning fast performance”, unlimited storage, traffic, email and webmail boxes, and an SSL certificate “for life”. However, free domain registration is only granted with two upper-tier plans plus a one-click installer.
MochaHost offers a 180-day money-back guarantee that seems too good to be true. To some extent, it does because only unused hosting fees are reimbursed based on the standard monthly rates for the package in question. This predictably excludes domain registration and other add-ons.
Plus, there’s a no-risk 30-day guarantee that gives you a full refund of your hosting fees if you cancel within 30 days of your purchase.
MochaHost not only accepts a few payment methods, including all major credit cards, PayPal, bank transfer and Skrill.
user friendliness
One of the features of MochaHost that we would like to highlight is a so-called “lifetime discount guarantee”. In essence, it means that the price you paid for your hosting package will never change. In other words, if you got a discount price in the beginning, you can keep that until the end. This is great news for all of the deal hunters out there. However, it’s refreshing not to have to keep price increases in mind.
Unfortunately, while there is a free website migration policy, it is limited to those whose hosts have provided it with an industry-standard cPanel. If you’re not one of the lucky ones, you are alone.
When you create an account with MochaHost, the first thing you need to do is choose a hosting type, operating system, and plan. There are a lot of them. The next step is to choose a billing cycle. Get details on the price and key features of the plan. There, you can choose to be billed every month, three months, six months, one year, two years, or three years, which is refreshingly flexible.
An add-on is suggested and it’s the “Email Spam Filter” that you can add to your purchase for € 2.45 per month. If you opt for a period below the six-month billing cycle, you’ll notice an additional set-up fee of € 4.10 ($ 5.03) here, which is not much, but is worth mentioning nonetheless. After that, you can add some more recommended add-ons and proceed with checking out.
In order to complete your account (and order) creation, you will need to provide MochaHost with a range of standard personal information. Then set a password, choose a preferred payment method, and complete your purchase.
Although MochaHost has a decent number of control panel options (cPanel, Easy Web Panel, WHM, and Plesk), if you go for “Soho” (the cheapest plan) you will be denied the one-click WordPress installers, unhappy . The drag-and-drop website builder they provide is easy to use even for those far from webmasters, but those with “Soho” won’t get it.
Speed and experience
Since MochaHost uses enterprise-grade data centers (SAS 70 Type II certified to be precise) we expected nothing less than impeccable speed performance. Fortunately, after researching the speed of MochaHost’s main website with the valued help of GTmetrix, that’s pretty close to what we got. The site only took 1.5 seconds to load, which looks even better compared to the 8.1 seconds average result. And after considering all of the metrics, GTmetrix rated the speed performance with an A (92%) which is close to perfect.
MochaHost guarantees an incredible 100% uptime and promises to provide credit or a month of free service to anyone experiencing downtime. The type of compensation users are entitled to depends on the duration of this inconvenience. In any case, you shouldn’t worry about that, as an availability test (provided by UptimeRobot) that monitored MochaHost’s main website for a month showed 19 minutes of downtime, which is 99.95% uptime. Fortunately, we are entitled to a loan for this to help us cope with the downtime of our website.
support
Like most established web hosting companies in the industry, MochaHost takes customer care pretty seriously. In addition to the conventional knowledge database, MochaHost also offers a “support portal” that includes step-by-step instructions and a series of tutorial videos. The leading voice is terribly robotic and monotonous in a sleep-inducing way, but it is also helpful, short and goes straight to the heart of the matter.
Although MochaHost’s knowledge base is filled with a sufficient number of useful articles, broken down into all relevant categories, the letter font is microscopic. Going through the articles felt like trying to decipher a package insert for a prescribed drug.
You can also contact MochaHost’s support team via live chat, support ticket, and toll-free phone (which can be called back). Of all the support methods available, only chat is available 24/7.
The competition
Both MochaHost and MilesWeb try to meet all of their users’ needs and still give them big bucks. They are both major players, MochaHost specifically in the US and MilesWeb in the Indian subcontinent. While MochaHost leaves the impression of an honest provider with its lifetime discount guarantee with transparent pricing and price locks, MilesWeb and its dubious marketing practices may feel like they are on shaky ground.
HostGator is MochaHost’s US competitor, with data centers located within US borders. With a full range of hosting options and features, expert support, and pricing, both can cater for every need. However, since HostGator offers one-click installations (including WordPress) with all of its plans (even for beginners) and MochaHost doesn’t, newbies should try Hostgator first.
Although Leaseweb has been around longer, MochaHost can still offer more pocket-friendly packages. Leaseweb is more geared towards larger companies, while MochaHost offers hosting solutions that also attract users with simpler needs. On top of that, MochaHost offers an incredible 180 day money back guarantee, while Leaseweb doesn’t offer one.
Bluehost and MochaHost are suitable for both newbies and veterans, although neither host is bug free. You won’t get as many valuable features with MochaHost’s cheapest plan as you do with Bluehost. Unlike Bluehost, MochaHost won’t surprise you with price spikes after the first period thanks to its lifetime discount guarantee.
Final verdict
While not without its flaws, MochaHost is a personable host with a slew of hosting options, a decent number of features, and some pretty unique selling points. A lifetime discount guarantee, unlimited SSL certificate, 100% uptime guarantee, and environmentally friendly hosting are all good. Along with a remarkable 180-day money-back guarantee, you should put this to the test with no worries.
The only thing that you can (and should) skip without a hitch is a shared hosting plan called “Soho” as its existence seems almost pointless. If you go for the next plan and pay a little more, you can get a much better deal. If you really want to save up for the rainy days, you can go one more step ahead and check out other hosts’ entry plans like HostGator and Bluehost before making a final decision.
Source link : https://www.techradar.com/reviews/mochahost/
