If you’re considering HostMonster for your Drupal hosting needs, you’ll have three main plans to choose from: Basic, Plus, and Prime. Each plan comes with different storage caps – a tad disappointing compared to the unlimited storage offered by many competing Drupal hosting providers. You do get unlimited bandwidth, though, which is still a big plus.

Main Drupal Hosting Features

Regardless of which plan you choose, HostMonster gives you instant setup for your account.  You’ll also get one year of free registration for one domain name. HostMonster supports international domain names, so you won’t be restricted to US-exclusive ones, either. For easy management of your account and various domains, you’ll have free use of HostMonster’s customized cPanel software, which centralizes all settings and tools for your account via one dashboard.

HostMonster includes a drag-and-drop website builder for free, too – a great addition, especially for beginners or less technically-inclined site owners. HostMonster also supports CGI-BIN, CGI Library, and both PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, so you can configure your website to handle more complex data easily. If you’re handy with code, you’ll be happy to know that HostMonster supports custom scripts written in a variety of programming languages, including Python, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, PHP, and Perl. HostMonster’s support of Flash and Shockwave lets you incorporate interactive objects into your website if needed.

Server and Network Maintenance

You can be sure of snappy website performance, because HostMonster anchors its sites on servers that pack dual quad-core processors and uses customized Apache web servers. However, HostMonster’s servers use the Linux OS exclusively, so if you need Windows-based hosting, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

When it comes to maintenance and security, HostMonster implements 24/7 server monitoring to guarantee timely solutions for any server or network issues that might crop up. The company performs regular site backups free of charge, so you can be assured that there’s always a copy available if you need to roll back to a previous state. Spam Assassin, plus SpamExperts on higher-priced plans, stops spam from clogging your site traffic.

Free Scripts and Software

When it comes to installing Drupal itself, the SimpleScripts 1-Click Installer that comes with every HostMonster plan makes it a completely smooth process. The same goes for any core Drupal updates you’ll have to install in the future. If you’d like to implement other scripts, ranging from wikis, surveys and polls, moodle or other project management systems, mailing lists, and more, then you can check SimpleScripts’ library of free scripts. There are hundreds of options to choose from, all of them ready for quick deployment to your website.

That includes e-commerce applications like Magento, Cube Cart, OS Commerce, and Agora, among other shopping cart and merchant gateway scripts. As with the other SimpleScript applications, you can get your online shop and cart set up with just one click. JustHost gives you crucial e-commerce features like SSL secure servers and certificates to bolster your shop’s online trust rating, OpenPGP/GPG encryption to secure all of your transactions, and password-protected directories to safeguard your inventories and customer information.

Additional Features

Aside from the many features that come free with all of HostMonster’s plans, you can add any of the following premium features for their corresponding extra charges:

  • Domain Privacy Protection – $0.99 monthly – HostMonster obscures the whois information from your domain registration details
  • Site Lock Security – Find – $1.99 monthly – HostMonster will give you SSL certificates, vulnerability scanning, basic spam and malware protection, and other security measures
  • Site Backup Pro – $2.99 monthly – HostMonster automatically backs up and provides restores for all your website data, complete with backup version controls
  • Search Engine Jumpstart – $2.99 monthly – HostMonster boosts your search engine visibility by using SEO and comparative analysis reports, search engine indexing, and more

Uptime Guarantee

HostMonster doesn’t provide a clear-cut uptime guarantee. The company does reveal the extensive measures it takes to secure its data centers – including the use of diesel generators and UPS backup power – so you know that HostMonster takes all possible precautions against network and hardware outages.

Pricing

Here’s a quick look at pricing for each of HostMonster’s plans, along with a summary of the main differences between plans:

FeaturesBasicPlusPrimePro
Intro Price$4.95$6.95$6.95$14.95
Standard Rate$10.99$14.99$16.99$27.99
Websites110UnlimitedUnlimited
Space50 GB150 GBUnlimitedUnlimited
BandwidthUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Parked Domains520UnlimitedUnlimited
Sub Domains2550UnlimitedUnlimited
Email Accounts5100UnlimitedUnlimited
Email Storage100 MB500 MBUnlimitedUnlimited
Marketing CreditsNone$150$200$200
SiteBackup ProBasicBasicFullFull
SpamExpertsNo1 Domain1 Domain2 Domains

Marketing credits include up to $100 each for Google Adwords and Bing advertising, depending on the plan.

Contract Terms

HostMonster offers you considerable discounts for longer contract terms. Take note, though, that HostMonster’s available billing cycles are already long to begin with: you can choose from 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years. If you’d like shorter contract terms, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

HostMonster has a good 30-day money-back guarantee. You can cancel your account anytime within a month of registration and claim a full refund. Following that period, any account cancellation will still receive a prorated refund.

Customer Support

HostMonster delivers 24/7 technical support through live chat, phone, and support ticket. For less urgent questions, you can consult HostMonster’s knowledge base, library of video tutorials, or the company’s user forums.

What's the Verdict on HostMonster?

Worth It, Some Issues

HostMonster Drupal Hosting Review – Conclusion

Looking for an affordable hosting plan that will work with various versions of Drupal? HostMonster supports Drupal 6, 7, or 8, and each of its plans gives you good features at a reasonable price. Not only will you have free use of industry-standard software like cPanel, you’ll also save on time and effort thanks to convenient platforms like the SimpleScripts 1-click Installer. Free marketing credits give your site’s profile a big boost, though resource caps for certain plans might hamper your site’s growth in the long run. The long contract terms are a downside, too, as is the lack of an uptime guarantee. Still, if you’ve got modest resource demands and budgets, HostMonster is a perfectly good choice.