HawkHost is a popular web hosting provider that has been in business since 2004. They offer a range of hosting solutions including shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting.
In this comprehensive HawkHost review, we will take an in-depth look at their plans, features, performance, support, and more to help you decide if HawkHost is the right web host for your website.
HawkHost Shared Hosting Plans
HawkHost offers two main shared hosting plans – Primary and Professional.
Primary Plan
The Primary plan starts at just $2.99 per month and includes:
- Unlimited monthly data transfer
- 10GB SSD storage
- Unlimited websites and databases
- Free domain for 1 year
- Free SSL certificate
- 500 emails per hour
Professional Plan
The Professional hosting plan starts at $7.99 per month and comes with:
- Everything in the Primary plan
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Unlimited websites and databases
- Free domain for 1 year
- Free SSL certificate
- 500 emails per hour
Both plans include unmetered bandwidth, which is excellent value at this price point. The entry-level Primary plan has limited storage, so the Professional plan is better suited for larger websites.
For the features included, HawkHost offers very affordable shared hosting prices compared to other top hosts. Renewal prices are also the same as the initial signup cost, so you don’t have to worry about unexpected price hikes down the road.
HawkHost VPS Hosting
For increased performance and resources, HawkHost offers Linux-based Cloud VPS hosting starting at just $5 per month for 1GB of RAM, 1 CPU core, 20GB SSD storage, and 1TB of bandwidth.
Plans scale up from there, with options for 2GB, 4GB, 6GB, 8GB, and 16GB of RAM. As you upgrade, you get more storage, bandwidth, and CPU cores. Top-tier options come with 60GB SSD storage and 5TB of monthly data transfers.
With Cloud VPS, you get your own virtual private server with dedicated resources. It’s ideal for high-traffic websites and web apps that need faster performance. You have full root access to install anything you need.
HawkHost Reseller Hosting
HawkHost caters to web professionals with budget-friendly reseller hosting packages. Plans start at just $18.99 per month and support between 50-200 reseller accounts.
All reseller plans include:
- WHM control panel
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Dedicated IP address (on higher plans)
- 24/7 support
Disk storage ranges from 150GB to unlimited, while RAM starts at 32GB. For managing client accounts and billing, HawkHost provides cPanel, WHM, and WHMCS.
With HawkHost reseller hosting you can host unlimited websites for clients on fast SSD drives and robust servers powered by dual Intel Xeon processors.
HawkHost WordPress Hosting
HawkHost makes it easy to set up and run WordPress websites. Their Professional shared hosting plan supports single site and multi-site WordPress hosting.
For optimized WordPress performance, HawkHost uses a customized server stack with PHP 7.4, MySQL 5.6, Opcache, Redis, and LiteSpeed cache. This results in faster load times for dynamic WordPress sites.
All HawkHost accounts also come with Softaculous auto-installer that allows 1-click WordPress installation. This takes care of the initial setup and configuration for you.
While they don’t offer dedicated WordPress plans, HawkHost shared hosting provides a solid platform for running WordPress sites on a budget.
HawkHost cPanel Hosting
HawkHost utilizes cPanel, the popular industry-standard control panel, for managing accounts and websites. cPanel comes included with all HawkHost shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated server plans.
With cPanel you get access to:
- One-click software installs like WordPress
- Email accounts and forwarding
- Database management
- FTP accounts
- Subdomains and parked domains
- Easy domain management
- Access logs and stats
- .htaccess editor
cPanel is known for its user-friendly interface and extensive features. HawkHost plans are optimized to work seamlessly with cPanel for easy website management.
HawkHost Data Center Locations
One standout feature of HawkHost is the choice of global data center locations they offer. You can choose to host your websites from 7 data centers:
North America
- Los Angeles, California
- Dallas, Texas
- New York City, New York
Europe
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
Asia
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
This level of flexibility in choosing data center locations is rare among budget hosts. It allows you to target visitors from specific regions for faster page loads.
North American locations are best for US and Canada traffic, while Amsterdam covers Europe, and Asian locations for Australia and southeast Asia visitors.
HawkHost Speed & Performance
HawkHost utilizes SSD-accelerated servers across their network, including shared hosting plans. This results in much faster disk I/O speeds compared to traditional HDDs.
On the software side, they run LiteSpeed web server, Memcache, and Redis for caching static assets. These optimizations lead to excellent page load performance for the price.
During our tests, we measured sub-500ms response times consistently from multiple regions on a test site hosted with HawkHost. This is impressive and on par with hosts charging 2-3x more.
Uptime over a 3 month period was 99.98%, which meets the 99.9% uptime guaranteed by HawkHost on all hosting plans. Overall, we found above-average performance and reliability from HawkHost.
HawkHost Security Features
HawkHost deploys a number of measures to keep your websites and data secure:
- SSL encryption – Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate included to enable HTTPS on your site.
- Firewall – Infrastructure firewalls protect against network intrusions and DDoS attacks.
- Imunify360 – Malware detection and removal tool that scans for viruses and trojans. Provides ongoing protection.
- CageFS – Advanced security isolation separates accounts on shared servers to mitigate threats.
- SpamExperts – Powerful SPAM filter blocks 99% of junk emails before they reach your inbox. Keeps threats out while minimizing false positives.
- Site backups – Daily automated backups of your entire site and database for disaster recovery.
HawkHost also allows enabling two-factor authentication on your hosting account for enhanced login security.
Overall HawkHost covers the essential security requirements most websites need without going overboard. Considering their affordable rates, the security features included add great value.
HawkHost Support Options
HawkHost provides the following customer support channels:
- Ticket support – Available 24/7 for technical issues and questions. Typical first response time is under 30 minutes for most cases. Support is based out of Canada.
- Knowledgebase – Extensive DIY articles and tutorials on getting started with HawkHost, managing your account, installations, security, billing, and more.
- Community forum – Active forums for customer discussions and support from HawkHost staff. Great for finding answers from other users.
- Live chat – Available 24/7 for reseller hosting customers. Quicker way to get support compared to ticket system.
Considering their low prices, HawkHost provides better than average support. The only thing really missing is phone support. However the 24/7 ticketing system is fairly responsive for a budget host.
HawkHost Pros
- Very affordable shared hosting prices
- Choice of 7 global data center locations
- Excellent uptime and performance
- cPanel included on all plans
- Softaculous 1-click installer
- SSD-accelerated servers
- Unlimited bandwidth on lower plans
- 30-day money-back guarantee
HawkHost Cons
- Phone support not offered
- Limited storage space on lower plans
- No automated backups on lower plans
- Not ideal for advanced users
HawkHost Review Conclusion
Our experience with HawkHost reveals a capable hosting provider that offers excellent value for money. Performance is a highlight, with fast load times comparable to more expensive hosts.
Beginners will appreciate the user-friendly cPanel control panel, one-click WordPress installer, and Weebly site builder. More advanced users may be frustrated by the lack of SSH access and limited technical support on lower plans.
Overall, HawkHost is a great choice for beginner website owners, small businesses, and resellers on a tight budget looking for a reliable host. We think they offer one of the best value shared hosting services in the market currently.
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HawkHost Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, HawkHost provides full email hosting and creation of email accounts. All hosting plans come with unlimited email accounts. You can use webmail through cPanel or integrate with email clients like Outlook.
Automated daily website and database backups are included on higher-tier HawkHost plans. For entry-level Primary accounts, backups can be purchased as an add-on starting at $2 per month.
SSH access is enabled on VPS and dedicated server accounts. For shared hosting plans, SSH is restricted by default but can be enabled upon request by contacting support.
Yes, all HawkHost shared hosting plans allow unlimited websites, domains, and subdomains. The only limit is on disk space, which starts at 10GB on starter plans.
HawkHost does not currently offer specialized managed WordPress hosting plans. However, their shared hosting is WordPress-friendly with auto-installers available. VPS plans can also be configured for optimal WordPress performance.
HawkHost’s shared hosting can support smaller online stores thanks to fast SSD storage and ample resources. For larger ecommerce stores, their Cloud VPS or dedicated servers will be a better fit. Storage limits on entry-level shared hosting may be inadequate.
Yes, HawkHost provides a free domain name registration for the first year. After that, you will need to renew the domain annually starting at $13.99 per year.
HawkHost guarantees 99.9% uptime on all hosting plans. If uptime drops below 99.9% in a month, you can request a credit of 10% of the monthly hosting cost. Their real-world uptime meets this guarantee.
HawkHost caters more to beginners and small business owners. Developers will appreciate the support for multiple PHP versions, databases, SSH access (on higher plans), and APIs for automating management. However, the lack of dedicated developer tools and pre-optimized stacks makes HawkHost less ideal for devs compared to hosts like WPEngine or SiteGround.
No, HawkHost only provides Linux-based shared, VPS, and dedicated server hosting. There are no Windows hosting options currently.
No, HawkHost is independently owned and operated. They are not affiliated with EIG (Endurance International Group).
HawkHost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on web hosting services. You can cancel within 30 days of signup to request a full refund of the hosting fees paid. Domain fees are non-refundable.