Good news! FatCow is running on discount. Save 65% for all term hosting plans and enjoy a flat rate of .15/mo when you order FatCow before September 30th, 2011. In case you were undecided with FatCow previously, now is the good time to revisit
To learn more about the host, check out my posting on
(Note: FatCow
FatCow fans now have more reasons to love their hosting company. Just one week ago FatCow announced that they are going green and they are offsetting 100% of their electricity consumption by purchasing wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) from Community Energy Inc (CEI).
According to the press released, the company is buying 4,412,000 kilowatt hours (kWhs) per year of wind-generated power – which can be translated to planting about 2,390 acres of trees each year or saving 6.1 million miles of vehicle driving.
Here’s what FatCow manager Paul Bukhovko said in recent interview.
“We’re offsetting all of our electricity use by purchasing wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates, providing our customers with an environmentally preferable Web hosting solution. Quite frankly, our employees and our customers were the driving factors behind our decision to go green. Our staff members encourage responsible environmental behavior inside the office and practice it outside the office. And, we know that many of our customers feel just as strongly. We wanted to give them an opportunity to reduce their own carbon footprint by hosting their sites on servers 100 percent powered by wind energy.”
Not long ago I read Amenworld’s study of over 3,500 web servers that came out with some shocking results: On average, a single web server needlessly consumes 1,000 kWh on average, producing more than 630kg of CO2 annually. What’s more scary is that the number (CO2 emissions) is still growing exponentially and web hosting is estimated to be as polluting as the airline industry by year 2020.
To be honest, I am worry about the numbers. And I’m very glad to see more and more hosting companies take up their responsibility to our environment.
More over, I believe ‘Going Green’ is in fact a smart business strategy that creates win-win-win situation. First, you help preserve our mother earth by reducing the level of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere; second, you create a buzz around your business and improve your company brand image; and lastly, the customers get to reduce their carbon footprint without spending extra money.
Both BlueHost and FatCow are not stranger to most web hosting shoppers. Both companies started business in the late 90s, both focus in shared hosting services, and both are highly rated among webmasters. It’s easy to see why people tend to compare BlueHost and FatCow. In this article, we are going to dig deep and find out who has the best between FatCow and BlueHost hosting.
(Alternatively, you might want to see them reviewed separately in my hosting reviews:
To get things started, let’s have a quick check on FatCow and BlueHost hosting features.
As you can see the major differences between the two are the quantity of mySQL databases and the control panel software. From what I know, BlueHost runs a tight restriction on the amount of MySQL databases you can add into your account. While they are offering unlimited disk storage and hosting bandwidth, they limit your database capacity at 100.
While most webmasters prefer cPanel (because of familiarity I guess), I don’t see any big dissimilarity between cPanel and vDeck. Hence, I wouldn’t suggest you to use this as a deciding factor for your purchase.
BlueHost cost .4 to .4 annually (depends on your subscription period); while FatCow, after special discount offer at W.H.S.R., cost .96 per year (35% discount from the original .5/mo).
Web Search Interest
From
Regional Interest
BlueHost searches come from all around the world; while FatCow hosting is interested mainly by the west.
Both BlueHost and FatCow customers are supported 24/7 via phone, live chat, and email ticketing system.
BlueHost live chat system is powered by AliveChat; while FatCow system is supported by LivePerson. I have personally tested both live chat systems several times and I found both are doing okay. Not that they are doing extraordinary well; but it’s totally acceptable for web hosts in this price range.
Additionally, BlueHost host a user-support forum. BlueHost users can share and solve their problems via message board discussions.
Electricity consumption (servers and offices) at FatCow is fully offset by wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) from Community Energy Inc (CEI) – this makes
On the other hand, there is no news of BlueHost going green so far.
What I think about Bluehost and FatCow hosting?
I spent years with BlueHost as customer and have been using FatCow for more than a year now. In overall, I am happy with both at the moment.
It’s worth noting that I had some really
FatCow hosting, on the other hand, is doing superbly well in my record. Fast and reliable server, responsive customer supports, and peace-of-mind daily backup service – all in just .83/mo. This is why I rated them as my top hosting service along with Hostgator.
So who should you go with – FatCow or BlueHost?
At this point of writing, I’m strongly convinced that FatCow is the better choice. Not to say that BlueHost is bad; but the pricing is a huge aspect that separate the two and FatCow is a lot cheaper. Unless you are biased towards BlueHost’s cPanel; else I don’t see why you should choose them over FatCow.
Visit FatCow and BlueHost online
FatCow Official Site:
FatCow. Twitter. What comes into your mind when I relate these two names?
Another hard-selling marketing campaign?
At least this was in my thought at first.
Apparently I was dead wrong. The Moo Crews are a lot smarter than this and instead of tweeting pushy advertising lines, they are now establishing two-way communications with customers on Twitter. I see Moo Crews answering pre-sell questions, supporting existing customers, interacting with bunch of other Twitters, and releasing meaningful company updates.
It’s good to see FatCow adapting itself well into the latest web trend. This (indirectly) shows the web host is ‘alive’ and dedicated to improve its user experience.
Tweets away at
Good news for lazy web developers looking for some free stuffs. FatCow is releasing a set of freshly designed web icons. The set of 1,000 icons comes in both 16 and 32 pixel versions in PNG format with transparent background (Gosh, I don’t need to search for free icons for a very long time after this).
And the best of all? It’s totally free!
I’ve been testing FatCow services for a while and you can read my
In case you are not aware, FatCow is running an awesome (they called it ‘moovelous’) sweepstake and the hosting company is giving some great, great prizes away! A few lucky winners will drive away a Smart ForTwo Coupe, a Vespa scooter, and one of four Shwinn bikes to its customers.
No joke! Buy a .67/mo hosting and you stand a chance to win a brand new Smart ForTwo.
Look at the picture below (ladies please, the car not the cute guy!). Deep breath. Close your eyes for 10 seconds. Imagine yourself sitting in the car and driving it around your neighborhood. Don’t you just feel G-R-E-A-T?
Okay I know you want this so here’s how you can get yourself in.
You will automatically receive one entry into the Sweepstakes for doing any one of these: signup for a new hosting account at FatCow now, refer a friend via its affiliate program, add a client to your FatCow reseller account, or be an active FatCow customer with a hosting account with no outstanding account (yes, this means if you are an existing customer you are in automatically).
UNFORTUNATELY, the sweepstake is only open to legal residents of the 50 United States (and D.C.) 18 years or older (rules, here). This means if you are living out of United States (like me :() then you are not included in this promotion. The sweepstake started on May 17, 2010 and ends at 11:59 pm ET on September 30, 2010.
About the car
The Smart ForTwo is a funky urban ultra-compact car. The car is based on a platform developed jointly my Smart and Mitsubishi for space efficient cars. The small size and low weight make this trendy car also one of the most fuel efficient cars barring the hybrid duo from Honda and Toyota. It is also the least expensive one in this list. The prices of ForTwo start at ,635 and it return 36 miles to a gallon of fuel…
Further action
In case you want to know more about FatCow and its giveaway.
I was doing my usual readings online and I found some (old) news: FatCow hosting now comes along with SimpleScripts.
SimpleScripts is an auto script-installer, it helps users to install and maintain web application and software in just a few clicks. Right now SimpleScripts support installation for more than 50+ open source web apps including bloging platform, content management system (CMS), forum apps, project management software, shopping cart, RSS, form survey, and so on.
From what I see, the function of SimpleScripts and InstallCentral are exactly the same. BUT, the upgrade does make sense and benefits the users, SimpleScipts provides much wider choice (more apps can be installed) and fastest updates (from my experience). In case you are into images, here are some print screen from the inside.
Here’s where you can get into SimpleScripts from FatCow Control Panel frontpage
Lots of scripts supported
I got this informative FatCow review recently via email and I think you guys should have a look at it.
I think you have FatCow rated too high
I tried FatCow for webhosting a local political campaign site based on good reviews like these. The price was decent – for a year.
The campaign was successful, and I took the site down afterward. Unfortunately, I did not cancel the account, and it autorenewed at _7_ for a year. When I went to cancel it, they told me there would be a cancellation fee. When I said I didn’t remember seeing that when I signed up, they said it’s in "Terms and Conditions" – buried with a ton of legalese. Their "cancellation fee" is almost as much as the first year of web hosting. For what it’s worth, I had _much_ better luck getting a refund for unused time from JustHost.
Anyway, fool me once and all that. I told them I thought their policy was misleading and abusive, and I won’t be back.
(PS- They also take _forever_ to answer their phone – it took three tries to get this cancelled since one time I had to leave after ~20 minutes on hold and the other time I was cut off after a similar wait time.)
Anyway, I think you have them rated too high, and I think you ought to let people know about their loss-leader, bait-and-switch pricing and high cancellation fee.
– Peter Benson / Minnesota @ September 4th, 2011
Now for more other FatCow user reviews – Quoted below are user reviews I read from elsewhere on the Internet. Sadly I note that many are unhappy with FatCow’s recent performance (email features and the phone support, especially). Perhaps FatCow has changed a lot since I signed up with them 3 years ago; perhaps some users are over-demanding; perhaps the company is now running under-staff …the reason behind these complaints are anybody’s guess.
As a smart Internet shoppers, you should always do your own homework, be skeptical to ALL (including mine) comments you read online, and NEVER hesitate to ask for a refund whenever you are unhappy with your host.
I would choose FatCow definitely! "When I first heard of FatCow, my response was, "What?!" It didn’t take me long to look through the features, and notice that the price was well within my range, so I decided why not. There were times when my website went down due to technical reasons I couldn’t understand, so I would contact their 24/7 help desk. Within minutes, my problem was either rectified or passed on to a tech support person who would figure out the root cause of the issue within a day or so. Not bad for the price in my opinion. I would recommend FatCow for anyone that wants a hosting company that offers ease of use and also friendly customer service reps. Check them out when you can!" – Jupiter / www.darryldsmith.com @ June 08, 2011.
Okay hosting, but email is quite bad. "I am pretty much ok with the web hosting service of fatcow, though file uploads and update times are inferior to other services. My main complaint is about their email service. It’s really bad in my opinion. Their web client is really bad. Folders are presented as names with "." separating the folder hierarchy. Apple mail and the mailboxes aren’t synchronized easily. Sent vs Sent Messages folders for example. The smtp server has constant problems and I’ve contacted customer support or hundred times. Certain letters aren’t allowed in the password either. I was told that the n-th letter in my password was not allowed. I was a bit shocked that they knew my password in plain text." Anonymus @ June 24, 2011.
FatCow rocks! "You can never be satisfied with the web host providers these days. I’ve been switching from one web host to another in the hope of finding the almost perfect one. I have always landed providers which if are not too expensive, they will fire back with downtime. This has made me hopeless that my shoe business will ever grow. Good thing, I learned about FatCow and I’m proud to say that I’m a satisfied subscriber. With FatCow, you don’t have to pay a pricey amount to experience quality service, uptime guarantee, and easy to use features and tools. Their staffs are always there to assist you, 24 hours a day." – Shelly M. @ July 11, 2011.
Okay hosting with very cheap price. "The truth is, you can’t expect too much when a host is only charging you the price less than a cup of coffee. Fatcow hosting is doing alright in my opinion and I love the fact that they are offering wide support of different hosting features. The new Simplescripts function is a stunner and I am betting that more users will be flocking in to the servers soon (geez, this means bad or good?). All in all, Fatcow is an average host with a very low price tags. As a budget finder, I am happy with it." – James @ July 19, 2011.
FatCow support is no help. "The first issue I had with Fat Cow was when I noticed that I had an alternate domain designation of .ca It was first noticed when I was not getting any emails I called support and I was able to get into my control panel there it was discovered that my emails had a .ca at the end not a .com as I had requested when setting up the account. This was fixed on the emails but little to my knowledge it was still present in my domain central section, I only found out about this when I received a bill for domain listing from the company in Austria that controls the .ca domain designation. Fat cow support was of no help in discovering how this alternate domain was associated with my account. I would assume that some sort of log is kept to track this. I never registered it in the first place, it obviously was the account rep that set the account up. And now it is time for my renew and the cost is 3X what i paid for when 1st set up so I will be leaving for another." – Anonymous @ July 24, 2011.
So again, before we end this post, I have to stress that my
We have roughly another two months to go for
“Great Service!!” I’m using fatcow for more than 6 months, and did not had any problems so far. They servers are reliable and didn’t noticed any downtime for my websites. Some times the live chat support is slow, but the email and phone support is professional. Fatcow is my first hosting provider, and they has helped me a lot to put my business online. Great service! I would recommend to any business owner! – Reviewed by Jorg @ July 8, 2010.
“Jaw-droppingly easy to use!” Fat Cow’s automated installations are jaw- droppingly easy to use. I create and sell CMS/Joomla! websites using Fat Cow’s unlimited hosting plan and it has been a very profitable experience with Fat Cow. I do have to note that the overall speed of Fat Cow’s hosting plan leaves something to be desired when it comes to load time for scripts – mainly in Joomla! / MySQL installations. Otherwise – Fat Cow is the only hosting choice that makes sense to my business. – Reviewed by Matherarts.com @ July 01, 2010
“Average” I’ve hosted many different websites using a variety of web hosts over the years. The only time I’ve ever been “hacked” into was with FatCow – not once, but twice in less than a six-month period. My account was suspended with virtually no notice, and it’s a hassle to get it reinstated. While they gave me general guidance on removing bad files and preventing it from happening again, it was beyond difficult to get anything that specifically addressed my situation such as the type of files that are vulnerable, etc. When I asked customer support for details, I was told that someone will send an e-mail to me “very soon” but the email is never in my mailbox until today (it’s been months!). I’ve been a FatCow customer for less than a year, so I’m not sure how much of a “fluke” this is. Having said that, online support has been fairly prompt and responsive when I’ve had other sorts of issues and questions. Aside from the “phishing” concerns, I’ve been content. – Reviewed by Anonymous @ June 8, 2010.
“FatCow – Not Impressed! “ I have been trying to get a FatCow reseller account now for about 3 weeks.. my paypal payment had an error, so i tried it again.. then realized in my paypal account the first one had gone through.. although was sat “unclaimed” so now I had two “unclaimed” payments in my paypal account. I have been talking to support staff throughout the last two weeks trying to resolve the issue and NOTHING has been done.. they have “escalated” the issue to a senior specialist or something of the sort. I mean a two year old could accept a paypal payment in a few minutes!!!! After reading some of these reviews I am having second thoughts about using them.. they obviously have the look and the pricing but apart from that they seem to be pretty rubbish. – Reviewed by Luke @ June 26, 2010.
“Nothing but pleasures!” Hi Jerry I just wanna drop by and say thanks for sharing your comments about fatcow. I signed up with them in late march and I am 100% satisfy with the kind of service I am getting. fatcow servers are fast (as you said) and I never experience any site down time so far…. The overall setup process was amazingly fast and easy so I’d recommend FatCow to any newbies out there who wish to get things started immediately. In short, fatcow is nothing but pleasures!! – Reviewed by Teressa @ May 17, 2010.
“Debra Lamb Psychic Loves FatCow!” I found FatCow on the Consumer Report site as one of the top recommended web hosting sites for price and customer service. Their web building tools made building my website fairly easy, considering I had absolutely no experience, and every time I called tech support (which was a lot) I was helped by a friendly and knowledgeable associate. I also received encouragement along the way! – Reviewed by DebraLambPsychic @ April 5, 2010.
If these are not enough, check out my
As a smart shopper, you should understand that a user/customer review is always written based on one’s preference. How well a web host scores in one’s record is always biased towards his/her expectation.
I once received an email complaining about Hostgator. The reason why this guy is unhappy with Hostgator is because (ready for this?) the company does not provide real time web stats reporting tool for his shared hosting account. That’s right, he is looking for a real time web analytic tool – can you believe that? Seriously, if you are expecting such a tool from a /mo hosting service, there is no way in this world you can be pleased.
Another example: Look at this recently published
So hey, just because you found a negative review on a web host means that it’s a bad choice; vise versa, a web host with some positive reviews might not work rightly for you. Web hosting user reviews (this one included) are solely for your references. Sure some basic research and reviews will help filter out some bad apples but to be safe you should always
Mooooooo~ FatCow is currently on sale! Over 50% discount, .15/month hosting for 12-, 24-, and 36-month subscription terms. The discount doesn’t last forever, so in case you are looking for a budget host, be hurry!
Established in 1998, FatCow provides shared hosting solutions for small individual blogs to medium-sized business websites. The company turned green in recent years and it’s now a 100% eco-friendly hosting service. Personally, I think FatCow is a very special web hosting company – the way they brought up their hosting plans, design their website, and provide their service guarantees (HeiferCratic Oath) – things just seem different at FatCow. The company survived two global financial crisis (dot com boom and subprime crisis) and still running strong after one-and-a-half decade. To learn more,
Visit FatCow online:
Established in 1998, FatCow made a name for itself by providing web hosting services for small to medium-sized businesses. FatCow is owned and managed by Endurance International Group (EIG), which is a large hosting business group. EIG also owns iPage, BlueHost, Hostgator, Arvixe, A Small Orange, and dozens of other hosting companies (
I tested FatCow in 2009, and at that time, I had a positive impression about its service. I was impressed by how different the company was, and I was pleased with its old-fashioned service. A lot can change in a few years, though, and that has been the case with FatCow.
Check out what FatCow has to offer and how my opinion of the web host has changed over the last several years.
You have four options if you want to get a hosting plan with FatCow. You can get (the names of the hosting plans): Original FatCow, WordPress Blog, VPS Service, and Dedicated Servers.
The Original FatCow is just another name for a shared hosting plan. This plan has an introductory price of .15 a month, but it renews for .95 a month.
That’s a steep increase after the first month. The plans include unlimited email addresses, disk space, and bandwidth. You’ll also get in social networking credits when you sign up for a shared plan. Plus, you’ll get 1GB of JustCloud storage and access to a free website builder and domain name. These tools will help you set your site up.
If you just want to set up a WordPress blog, you can sign up for the company’s WordPress Blog hosting. The WP Starter plan starts at .75 a month, and the WP Essential plan starts at .95 a month. Both plans include the core hosting plan, a customized control panel, and pre-installed themes and plugins. The Essential plan has enhanced speed, security, and support, making it a good option if you are hosting a business blog. Otherwise, the Starter plan should provide you with everything you need for a WordPress blog.
VPS Hosting is another choice. FatCow offers three VPS Hosting plans. The Basic plan includes 1 core, 1 GB of RAM, 40 GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth. The Business plan has 2 cores, 4 GB of RAM, 90 GB of storage, and 3 TB of bandwidth. The Optimum plan has 4 cores, 8 GB of ram, 120 GB of storage, and 4 TB of bandwidth. These plans range in price from .99 a month all the way up to .99 a month.
Finally, you can go with a Dedicated Servers plan. You will also have three options to choose from if you select Dedicated Servers hosting. The Startup plan has 2 cores, 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB of storage, and 5 TB of bandwidth, while the Professional plan has twice as much of everything. The Enterprise plan has 4 cores, 16 GB of RAM, 1,000 GB of storage, and 15 TB of bandwidth. These packages range from 9.99 a month to 1.99 a month, and they provide independent control and dedicated resources.
I like several things about FatCow. One of the best features is the uptime. While I don’t currently have a test site up, I track a site that is owned by a friend of mine, and I’m impressed by the site’s uptime record. The host is reliable, which is something that you always want when you have a website up, whether you are using it for business or personal use.
I also like the way that FatCow offers a daily backup service. Most budget web hosts don’t do this, so this is a huge benefit. You want your information to be protected, and you’ll get that with FatCow without spending a ton of money on third-party backups.
Also, FatCow offers room to grow. While it used to only offer shared hosting plans, it started offering VPS and dedicated hosting in May 2014. These additional options mean that you can grow with your host. If you plan to expand your site in the future, FatCow might be a good option for you. It’s nice to be able to stay with the same hosting company when you expand, so this is a great feature.
Of course, it’s can’t all be good. There are also a few things you should know.
FatCow runs weekend promotions and special discounts randomly. The price stated in this review might not be accurate. For best accuracy, please visit FatCow official site.
Find out more about FatCow latest discount:
Our record shows that FatCow has been averaging 99.85% – 99.9% (if not better) in term of uptime constantly for the past few years. The following images are recent uptime score (screen captured from Uptime Robot) of our test site.
FatCow engages in internal selling. Once you sign up for a hosting plan, FatCow will try to get you to sign up for free software and web application trials. You’ll find these right in your control panel, and they’ll look enticing. Once the trial ends, you’ll have to pay, and I assume that FatCow gets money when that happens. If you forget to cancel your trial, you’re going to end up with charges on your credit card.
I am not against hosting companies doing up-selling. But if you are careless, you can end up spending a ton of money on services that you don’t really want.
As with most unlimited hosting provider, FatCow advertises “unlimited hosting,” but it comes with a ton of limitations. Those limitations often lead to account suspensions. If you use up too much storage space, bandwidth, or CPU time, your account can be suspended (see quotes below). So much for “unlimited.” It’s only unlimited until FatCow decides that you’ve used too much.
- Post messages or software programs that consume excessive CPU time, or storage space, or network bandwidth; or
* Filed under FatCow’s
Then, there’s the fact that hosts that are also owned and managed by EIG have plans available for lower prices. For example, you can go with iPage or eHost and get the same services for less. It doesn’t make sense to go with FatCow if you can get the same for less.
I got in touch with Michael Bely of
Michael wrote a long piece of
J: Jerry Low / M: Michael Bely.
J: Hi Michael, thanks for helping with our FatCow review. For start, can you please tell us more about yourself and your experience in blogging?
M:
I’ve been blogging since July 2013. My interest is researching and showing the bloggers efficient ways to achieve their goals in a detailed, truthful and helpful way. My primary focus is tools and means for bloggers.
How long have you been with FatCow? And briefly, how would you sum up your experience in hosting?
1 month with FatCow, and more than one hundred hosts within 2 last years. I’ve been working as a technical manager for SEO clients, so I’ve been closely dealing with all these hosting companies.
J: The biggest issue with FatCow is …
M:
Performance (slowness).
Initial problems after I bought hosting (I had to wait for 24-48 hours before installing WordPress. And website builder did not work out of the box). I could contact support to resolved the issues, but these issues should not have taken place in the first place.
[More details in the following images.]
When asking for a refund, the support was resisting that more than appropriate.
J: Is there anything good you’d talk about this web host?
M: The support exists (chat, phone) which is good by itself. The support is polite in general.
J: Where do you host most of your sites nowadays? What makes you like/trust them?
M: I’d emphasize two companies above all – My main host is EuroVPS. It’s a professional-oriented hosting service. Also I like very much StableHost – reliable performance for very small price.
J: Thank you very much for your time.
FatCow is probably past its prime.
At one time, it was a promising service with a lot to offer its customers, but that time is gone. I used to enjoy this host, but it’s time to put this cow out to pasture. Go with one of the other hosts managed by the same company. You’ll get the same reliable service for less money.
For more details or to order FatCow, visit (opens in new window):
