Features and Pricing
Hostpoint aims to bring the world-famous security and efficiency of Switzerland’s banking systems to the realm of web hosting, with packages that boast high-speed performance and airtight protection measures at reasonable prices.
You’ll have three plans to choose from: Standard, Smart, and Business. These plans share most of Hostpoint’s main features, though you can expect more resources and priority support with the Business plan. Here’s a quick overview of the different prices and the main differences between plans:
| Feature | Standard | Smart | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | CHF 12.90 / $13.23 | CHF 14.90 / $15.29 | CHF 24.90 / $25.55 |
| Storage | 50 GB | 250 GB | 500 GB |
| Websites | 10 | 50 | 100 |
| Databases | 10 | 50 | 100 |
| Git & Subversion | No | Yes | Yes |
| Priority Support | No | No | Yes |
1st Place9.5 out of 10
Standard is aimed at users who want to set up a website for personal use and don’t expect a lot of site traffic. Smart, meanwhile, is aimed at hobby programmers and budding entrepreneurs who need slightly more resources. Professional developers and large enterprises are advised to go for the Business plan, though if you need more resources, Hostpoint also offers a fully managed dedicated server for CHF 590/month ($605.46).
The resource caps are a disadvantage, especially in comparison to the unlimited resources that you often get from domestic companies. However, Hostpoint makes up for it with unlimited bandwidth, the option to register your domain name directly through them, and free setup of your account, whatever your chosen plan.
Contract Terms
Hostpoint offers you billing cycles for 6, 12, or 24 months. There’s no option for month-to-month billing, so you forego a bit of flexibility there. However, Hostpoint does give you some leeway to try out their services, thanks to their 30-day money-back guarantee. You can sign up for a trial account and claim a full refund if you don’t wish to continue their services at any point before the month-long trial period ends.
World-Class Performance
If you’re catering mostly to a North America-based audience, or if most of your site activity will be coming from users in that area, you can run into some performance issues by basing your web hosting in a different continent.
Do you need to worry about that with Hostpoint?
The short answer: No. Hostpoint delivers efficient, enterprise-grade Swiss service with its state-of-the-art servers. All of the company’s servers run on SSD storage and use flash acceleration technology, so you’re guaranteed lightning-fast I/O access speeds and low latency. Servers are configured in a contained, load-balanced system, so you’re assured of top performance even during times of intense load or site traffic.
On top of that, Hostpoint’s multi-level caching shaves precious seconds off your webpage retrieval times, and the company’s use of the latest HTTP/2 protocol delivers increased performance without sacrificing security. This all comes to you and your visitors via Hostpoint’s own state-of-the-art network, which uses redundant Internet connectivity to ensure round-the-clock availability and speed for all of your websites.
You don’t get a solid uptime guarantee, so you’re not assured of any compensation for unexpected downtime. That can be costly and problematic, especially if you need the utmost reliability with your website. However, with Hostpoint’s optimized systems and networks, the risk of downtime is drastically reduced.
Top-Notch Security
Also minimized? The risk of site breaches or data loss, thanks to Hostpoint’s extensive security measures. All hosting plans get redundant storage clusters so you know there’s always two other copies of your site data that you can restore if needed. Servers and network performance are monitored and troubleshooted 24/7. Plus, Hostpoint’s data centers are ISO-27001 and FINMA-RS-08/7 certified, putting them on par with the security of Switzerland’s global financial systems.
As for your websites, Hostpoint gives you DDoS protection free of charge. You also get SSH/SFTP access for your account, so you can conduct all your website management through secure connections.
Management, Scripts, and Development Tools
Hostpoint gives you their in-house Control Panel, from which you can tweak the standard array of settings: cron jobs, error logs, file managers and FTP accounts, and so on. Standard hosting features like unlimited email accounts and mailing tools, a basic website builder, and one-click website application installers also come free with every plan.
Available web applications include popular content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal; forums and wikis; photo galleries, and more. As with most hosting providers, Hostpoint supports custom scripts made for CGI, MIME types, several versions of PHP, Perl, and Python. Standard and Business plan subscribers also get Hostpoint’s in-house Sites and Webshop drag-and-drop builders, as well as integration of the Subversion and Git repository systems.
Some Great Extras
As if that weren’t enough, Hostpoint does most hosting providers one better by giving you a suite of useful extras. The company’s own Cloud Office team collaboration tool lets you work on documents and projects with colleagues from anywhere in the world. You save tons of money and gain site credibility with the Symantec FreeSSL certificate that comes with every plan. And for your peace of mind, Hostpoint hourly snapshots and weekly backups of all your account, database, and website data, free of charge.
Customer Support
Hostpoint delivers 24/7 customer support through e-mail. Their support staff are also available through phone and Skype, though only from 9 AM – 6 PM on weekdays. The Skype option is particularly useful, though, since it gives you the immediacy of phone support without the overseas call charges.
Aside from that, Hostpoint’s Support Center gives you guides and answers for common issues and frequently asked questions.
What's the Verdict on Hostpoint?
Hostpoint Offshore Hosting Review 2020 – Conclusion
For a secure, effective, and reliable offshore hosting solution, you can’t go wrong with Hostpoint. The company pairs cutting-edge hardware and network infrastructure with world-class security systems to give you stellar web hosting plans at affordable prices. The resource caps of every plan are disappointing, but Hostpoint makes up for those with unlimited bandwidth, lightning-fast website speeds, and great-value freebies like a Symantec FreeSSL certificate. You’ll have to commit to a long contract term since there are no monthly billing cycles available, but Hostpoint does offer a 30-day trial period so you can see if it suits your needs. So what are you waiting for? Try this fantastic offshore hosting solution today.
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