Diving into the world of web hosting can feel like navigating a complex network, a bit like the physical landscapes of wilderness paths and waterfalls I often hike. I’m searching for that stable, secure hosting company that not only keeps my online presence running smoothly and sets up a reliable foundation for sharing my experiences with you.
Speaking from my perspective, both stability and security are paramount. I don’t want to hear about compromised hosting, defaced web sites, exploited accounts, and downtime. In this case, when it comes to hosting with HostMantis, the deafening silence has been golden. No alarms, no breaches, no unexpected outages, just consistent uptime and reliable service. For someone involved in computer network operations and vigilantly aware of potential vulnerabilities, this “no news” scenario is the ultimate reassurance. It means HostMantis is doing its job, allowing me to focus on other priorities. In the case of a business owner, it is to get sales from my site; in the case of a newspaper, it is to share newsworthy articles with readers. In my case those priorities are wanting my website to work flawlessly so I can tend to the issues of sharing life and my experiences with valuable readers like you.
For the past four years, I’ve relied on HostMantis to provide hosting services. Their service has consistently exceeded, my expectations. In this review, I’ll share my experience, outlining why HostMantis has been a solid hosting provider and why it might be the stable, dependable, and effective solution you’ve been searching for. From my viewpoint.
1. Infrastructure (e.g., URL & DNS vs Hosting)
A few notes on my baseline site hosting and configuration, including a background on URL and Domains vs Hosting.
My domains are registered somewhere else, I keep the domain registration separate from hosting. Here are a few reasons:
- Pro: Avoid vendor lock-in, increased portability: Domain registration is a somewhat static task that is very well defined, and costs are generally constant. Hosting on the other hand is a bit more messy. There are plenty of bad hosting providers. Keeping my domains separate, with a separate billing account, reduces the opportunity for cross issues.
- Pro: Security: Separating services can reduce the risk of losing both the domain and hosting if one provider has issues.
- Pro: Email control: I maintain a separate Domain Name System (DNS) in order to route mail most definitively. If integrated correctly, mail can be routed directly to a public high availability mail service like Microsoft, Google, or even Yahoo instead of through a web host who then forwards the mail. This avoids any issues with hosting downtime.
- Con: Additional costs. Separate renewal fees, and often the host provider will “give” a domain registration with the cost of hosting
- Con: Complex management: Yes, it is true, this increases complexity (an enemy of security), but in my experience this is worth the lift.
2. HostMantis Account Configuration
HostMantis provides two factor authentication with any 2FA app. I’ve tried it with Microsoft Authenticator, Twilio Authy, and Google Authenticator. All three worked flawlessly.
Account security appears to be an area that HostMantis takes seriously.
I have not validated their “break glass” system; that is, if I’ve lost access to my account due to hijacking or lost authenticator token (for example, if your phone blows up), I’m unclear what the break glass back door is. I expect calling them would allow them to unlock my account. But, again it has not been tested.
For the package I own, login starts as a Reseller account into a general HostMantis page.
From there, enter the WHM (WebHost Manager) console. WHM is an industry standard from the makers of cPanel and is adopted by every hosting company I’ve used that use cPanel. WHM is where creation and management of individual web pages happens. Creating sites is straightforward.
Migrating Sites Into HostMantis
Migrating active sites into HostMantis proved flawless. I used Duplicator in my old hosting company, downloaded my zip files, and uploaded and ran the php installer. Everything was more than perfect.
SSL Certificates
HostMantis makes HTTPS is available on all sites through the free service Let’s Encrypt, a platform I’ve been using since its official launch in 2016. As a background, in the early days of Let’s Encrypt, securing sites with ssl/tls required cron jobs and other manually configured automation. HostMantis’ solution is integrated in a button.
I would strongly recommend avoiding any hosting providers that do not provide free SSL.
3. Performance and Reliability
PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed has remained exceptional throughout my tenure with HostMantis. Seeing a 97 on a site makes there not much else to report!
Tested with: https://pagespeed.web.deb
Uptime reports
Uptime has been excellent. I test uptime with a test of whether the opening page opens, tested every five minutes. Over the course of two years, according to Uptime Robot, my primary site has experienced four incidents of downtime totaling 8 hours.
Downtime incidents
However, I was not able to corroborate this data point. At each of the downtime reports, by the time I tried to manually test the sites, they were all active again. It may have been an issue with Uptime Robot, not saying it was, but I am not able to assign “real” downtime to HostMantis.
Response times
The UpTime Robot response times are not nearly as stellar as the PageSpeed Insights. I’ll have to defer here to others who may be able to “make this make sense”. If you happen to understand where the discrepancy between the two exists please get in touch with me.
4. Customer Support: Always There When You Need Them
Every one of the minimal tickets that I’ve created has been answered in timely fashion, definitely nothing but admiration for the team.
Pricing and Value
HostMantis does not come cheap, but the uptime and reliability value is baked into the cost.
5. Overall Experience: A Highly Recommended Hosting Company
Considering the excellent performance I’ve experienced from this company, based on my experience over the last few years, I would fully recommend HostMantis as a web hosting company.
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