I have been with Hostmonster since mid-2007 so I think that I’ve got enough experience to write a Hostmonster review.  All in all, I would say that my experience with them as a web hosting company has been pretty good, but I have had a few incidents and issues.

File Limits

The first year or so with Hostmonster was a good one.  I did not have many websites and didn’t take up very much space, which I assume makes them happy.  As time went on, I acquired more websites and took up more space with WordPress installations and other CMS platforms.  Nothing was really out of control and I tried not to leave old files just sitting on my hosting account.

That is why I was really surprised about a year or so ago when Hostmonster started sending out these emails about file limits.  They say that you can take up an unlimited amount of space, but you can’t have an unlimited amount of files.

Mis-Communication

The next issue I had with Hostmonster was when I was trying to setup a website with an SSL certificate.  Initially it seemed like an easy thing to do based on their sales page and also after talking with a guy through their chat.  Little did I know that I would be up until after mid-night the next day.  Someone forgot to tell me that I needed a new account.  Someone also forgot to tell me that I needed to verify myself with the company I had been with for 2 years at that point.  They could tell that I wasn’t happy at that point, but understandably it was very late and I was tired of dealing with the issue.

They got things straightened out the next day, which was sooner than they had told me they would.

Customer Service

Hostmonster customer service quality is probably a 4 to a 9 depending on who you get.  I can’t really give it an average because some people give you great service.  On the other hand, some of their reps treat you like an idiot by repeating themselves over and over again – not cool.

Limited Databases

Hostmonster limits the amount of databases that you can have to 100.  This seemed like more than enough when I first got the account, but now I’m getting close to reaching my limit.  I’ve contacted them and they said there is nothing I can do and that it is my problem because I shouldn’t be using so many databases.  Get a clue, if the customer wants to pay you for something, then let them pay you.

Conclusion

All in all, I would say that Hostmonster is a good hosting company.  They have good service most of the time.  Very very rarely do my websites ever go down.  They are my first hosting company so I guess I can’t really compare with another company.

However, they could improve greatly in some areas.  This stupid thing about file count really annoys me.  Give people the option to pay extra for extra databases.  I know there are some hosting companies that do not limit this sort of thing so I’m not sure whats up.