A lot of people are asking me what hosting do I use or what hosting can I recommend so I decided to write this article.
Last year, I've decided to create my own website to showcase my portfolio. To make that happen, I need a domain and hosting. I've been impulsive during that time and I didn't search that much on where should I get my hosting. I end up buying my domain and a Deluxe Linux hosting plan from GoDaddy. The Deluxe Linux plan costs PhP 224.50 per month (around 4.6 USD) and I bought 3 years worth of it! On GoDaddy's website, it says that the Deluxe Linux plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage. Despite that, my website is always experiencing server error and inaccessible during high traffic.
Then I get this email from GoDaddy:
Your hosting account is approaching or exceeding its resource limits, which may cause it to be sluggish or even inaccessible to visitors during periods of high traffic. We recommend you review your resource usage and purchase additional resources if necessary to keep your site up and running at top speed.
I was like, seriously?! I thought my plan includes UNLIMITED bandwidth and storage?? False advertising, eh? I didn't get what I really paid for. It happened so many times until I get really annoyed with it. I no longer want to wait for 3 years to be over. And so, I decided to switch to CoffeeMags Hosting.
An Honest Review of the CoffeeMags Hosting
It was January 2, 2017 when I published a post about upgrading skills. To my surprise, the post got so many visitors more than I imagine. Then my inbox suddenly filled with messages about not being able to access my site. It's frustrating because for bloggers, site traffic is very important. At that very moment, I sent a message to CoffeeMags' Facebook page. It was actually night time but they answered my questions promptly; hence, faster transaction.
What I loved about CoffeeMags Hosting
It hasn't been long since I purchased CoffeeMags Hosting but I can't deny the fact that I'm loving it - so far. Here are some of the reasons:
Price
Believe it or not, you can get a good hosting plan for only $1 per month. That's just around PhP 47 - 50 (depending on the exchange rate). Even so, that's already a steal price! I've paid PhP 576 for 1 year. Imagine, that price is just less than 3 months worth to the hosting plan I've got from GoDaddy!
Inclusions
The 1 USD hosting from CoffeeMags already includes 1 GB disk storage and 20 GB monthly bandwidth limit. I loved how they state specific numbers of what's included. They are not vague like GoDaddy saying "unlimited" which is really not. Anyway, the 20 GB monthly bandwidth limit is good enough for starters. For that $1 hosting, you can also have 10 add-on domains, 10 subdomains, and 5 databases. Awesome, right?
Customer Service
This is another thing that made me love CoffeeMags even more - their awesome and reliable customer service! Whenever I have questions, they always answer in a timely manner either through email or Facebook. They are easy to deal with not only because they are Filipinos, but they're really handling their customers really well.
Free Website Migration
Because I have an existing site from another hosting provider, CoffeeMags offered FREE website migration. Who am I to say NO? Hahah! Being a web developer, I know that migrating website is not an easy task because I have done similar thing for my clients. I'm really glad that CoffeeMags has free website migration because it saves me time and effort. They have done all the work and they've just informed me when the process has been completed.
$1 per month! Cheap but reliable hosting from CoffeeMags!
Room for Improvement
When I said I will be doing an honest review, it is really honest. So here, I'm also writing some things that I believe CoffeeMags can improve in the near future.
Hosting Plan
Unlike other hosting providers out there, CoffeeMags has only one hosting plan available - their $1 hosting. As a web developer, I handled many clients' websites and I plan to migrate them as well to CoffeeMags later on. However, the hosting plan only includes 1 GB disk storage and 20 GB monthly bandwidth limit. I don't think that's enough for all my clients. If the limit has been reached, the only option is to double or triple (and so on) the hosting plan.
Domain Extensions
If you don't have a domain yet and you want to purchase one from CoffeeMags, please be reminded that they only cater .com, .net and .org domain extensions. I was about to get a domain with .info extension before but I was informed that they only have .com, .net and .org domains. Anyway, most people get domains with these three most popular extensions so no worries if that's what you're about to get.
Payment Portal
As of this writing, CoffeeMags only accepts payment through Paypal and BPI. If you're a Filipino, you can easily go to any BPI branches to send payment or use the BPI mobile app to send money. But if you're not from the Philippines and you still want to get the services offered by CoffeeMags, the only option you have is paying through Paypal. Not all people have Paypal accounts and some prefer to use credit or debit cards directly when purchasing online so maybe next time, they can have these options as well.
Conclusion
Of all the good things I loved about CoffeeMags, I am certainly happy with my purchase despite the limitations on their hosting plan. I haven't reached my limit yet so that's still good for me. And not once did I experience my website being down or inaccessible ever since I've migrated my website to their hosting. When I was looking for 'cheap but reliable' hosting, I thought I couldn't find one. But hey, CoffeeMags is here! I highly recommend this for starters and mid-level sites.
