Dotster.com Review

A Dotster.com review will usually compare dotster and go daddy, because webmasters have a lot to say about both web hosters.  Godaddy.com may be the larger of the two, but the people who go with dotster seem to get more individual attention.  Doster.com is a smaller and more personal than Godaddy, with about 3 million domains as opposed to Godaddy’s 15 million.

Doster.com launched themselves in the year 2000 with the plan to provide widespread web registrations at a lower cost.  Home-based in the state of Washington, Doster.com also provides hard-to-get domain names, although they have had a few run-ins with ICANN over this issue in the past.  Generally speaking though, they are well-liked for their attention to people who are new to hosting.  They have 24/7 live chat support accessible from the control panel, plus technical support and a billing department if you would rather talk to a live person on the phone.    

Another great thing about Dotster.com, according to their customers, is that they have above-average server uptime. The Dotster data center provides redundant optical fiber connections through Cox, Qwest, and ELI, in addition to multiple internet back-bone providers, including UUNET, Broadwing, and Global Crossing, making scaling bandwidth faster and less expensive.  Although Dotster looks to be a newer company, the people who created Dotster have actually been involved in the hosting industry for many years.   This is why they can offer so many different options that range from their basic plan starting at less than $10 dollars a month to VPS services and dedicated hosting at reasonable rates.  So, as your business grows, your website options will too.

The beginning webmaster who signs up for shared hosting will enjoy using the control panel because it simplifies installing CGI, PHP, and Java scripts.  The control panel also offers quite a bit of self help and tutorials which cut down on the number of times you may have to get e-mail or telephone support, but if you need it, there is a ticket system in place for support.  Basic shared plans include MySQL for databases, additional FTP logins, 5 gigs to 50 gigs of disk space, a bandwidth that goes from 250 gigs to 2000 gigs depending on what your usage is, and unlimited e-mail accounts if you want to pay a little extra.  Of course there is also DNS management, spam filters, IMAP/SMTP email and you can also use Linux or Windows to run your site.   

For webmasters who are more serious, Dotster.com helps with more advanced e-commerce as well.  If you are looking for isolated resources, increased security and guaranteed bandwidth, you’ll enjoy the powerful and organized management that comes from using the Virtuozzo cPanel offered to VPS users.  This product is known for the uncomplicated and instinctive cPanel 11/WHM that performs and executes just like a dedicated server.  There are search engine optimization tools, and the Linux: CentOS operating system works with programming languages like Perl, PHP, and Python.  Ram goes up to 512 megs and Fantastico DeLuxe is included in every package. 

Building a website isn’t that difficult at Dotster.com.  Like everyone else, the process starts with registering or transferring a domain name, picking a package and adding extra features like WHOIS Privacy for security.  The big difference, however, is Dotster’s website building software.  If you are new to web hosting and just want to have a site for e-commerce, you really don’t have to learn that much about HTML and web related tools to come up with a finished site that you can start running fairly quickly.

One of the complaints about Dotster is the mail servers, but they have apparently upgraded and taken care of the problem.  Every company has these growing pains, but a Dotmonster.com review will usually say that they are still one of the top ICANN approved hosters.