Fatcow Reviews

Advantages

Founded back in 1998, fatcow has been in the business of web hosting for nearly 15 years . This hosting service appears to be focused entirely on shared hosting, even though it offers a myriad of other services that each offer excellent service and support. The company has a basic selling point: easy-to-use hosting services and simple facilities without any hassle with technicalities. Fatcow’s two major plans are the Minimoo and the Original FatCow Plan. There are many other professional services extended by the company, which can be added to these plans at an extra cost.

Did you know? Fatcow hosting services are 100% wind powered! That’s right, the company is one of the few (but growing) numbers of those focused on green hosting.

Besides their great hosting plans, Fatcow also offers a Registrar Transfer Tool where users can transfer their existing domain name automatically. If necessary, the tech team can also complete the transfer manually. Among the many great aspects of this company, their excellent support services that include tutorials and user guides as well as 24/7 customer support are its greatest strengths.
Fatcow Hosting Plans
The Original Fatcow shared hosting plan provides unlimited disc space and bandwidth, along with 1GB of free JustCloud Storage. Fatcow’s smaller MiniMoo plan provides the same features but is intended for those in need of a plan for hosting domains while a page is under construction; the MiniMoo plan will also provide access to its own site building tools to help customers get their sites up and running quickly.

Fatcow also offers 3 VPS/VDS hosting options: the Basic, Business and Optimum plans.

• The Basic plan will afford customers 40GB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth.
• The Business plan provides 90GB of storage and 3TB of bandwidth.
• The Optimum option comes with 120GB of storage and 4TB of bandwidth.

All VPS plans include use of a cPanel control panel and free domain name registration. Fatcow’s 3 dedicated hosting plans, the Startup, Professional, and Enterprise plans, can easily accommodate high traffic websites and extensive data transactions as a result of storage limits that range from 500 to 1000GB and bandwidth that ranges from 5 to 15TB. All resources available on these dedicated plans are exclusive to individual customers, and feature fully-managed support.

Bloggers or small business owners specifically seeking a WordPress platform may be interested in Fatcow’s two hosting plans customized for WordPress hosting: the Starter and Essential plans. Both provide the convenience of using a core hosting plan, a control panel customized to the WordPress system, and a range of pre-installed plugins and WordPress themes. Both plans include unlimited disc space and bandwidth.
Fatcow Features
Fatcow hosting runs on a Linux operation system and includes a unique range of server-side scripting, such as Image Magick and Ruby on Rails. Fatcow hosting can accommodate streaming audio and visuals for websites on request, and uses a cPanel control panel . This company also provides unlimited FTPs users and sub-users, along with File Manager, free domain names, unlimited MySQL databases and website builders.

Fatcow VPS plans include fully-managed support, the option to acquire full-root access, and unlimited domains, subdomains, MySQL databases and FTP accounts.

Fatcow dedicated plans rely on use of a cPanel control panel, have the ability to attain full-root access, and also have all of the unlimited resources that a VPS plan does (listed above). Dedicated plans run on a CentOS 6.4 operating system, offer a maximum of 5 dedicated IP addresses, and make use of Intel Xeon E-3 core processing units.
Fatcow Server Location and Acceleration
Fatcow’s data centers are located near Boston, MA and house thousands of servers that run on N+1 power and utilize matching network equipment and structure. Servers at both databases are pooled, ensuring that the first available server will be able to process any file request. Fatcow also relies on redundant routers to connect to customers from around the world, and its data centers are uniquely run on 100% wind power, making it one of the few eco-friendly companies in the industry.

Though Fatcow doesn’t emphasize speed the way many other hosting companies do, it does include some accelerator features. The Essential WordPress hosting plan operates on an SSD infrastructure that houses only a limited number of other users to enhance speed, while also making use of a content delivery network and layer of caching. VPS servers benefit from use of high-speed SAN storage to improve website performance, but other Fatcow hosting levels don’t make note of relying on CDNs or caching to decrease latency.
Fatcow Protection and Installation
To protect customer websites, Fatcow plans can be backed up automatically upon request, and VPS plans are protected by a Spam Assassin program. Fatcow WordPress hosting plans are protected with a SiteLock security program that eliminates malware threats and deploys a secure firewall within a WordPress website. Customers can also purchase SSL certificates, a security measure of particular importance to the e-Commerce website owner.

All Fatcow customers can download and install hundreds of free web icons, along with the EmailBrain 1000 email marketing package for businesses. Additional applications available for download include WordPress, Gallery 2, phpBB, GBook, Joomla, Poll, Survey, and Counter Tools. All VPS plans come with the following scripts pre-installed:

• CGI
• SSI
• GD2
• PHP
• JSP
• Image Magick
• Perl
• Cron
• Ruby on Rails
• FrontPage
• Python
• Curl

Fatcow Email
Users of Fatcow hosting can take advantage of Fatcow webmail, which provides personal and business email packages with the ability to upgrade within a package. Email plans include spam and virus protection, task management, 24/7 support and access to webmail accounts from any location, at any time. The company’s standard OX email is included free of charge for all hosting plans. Options for upgrading the size of an email’s mailbox storage and enhancing email protection can be purchased for additional monthly costs.

All email plans also come with a:

• Calendar
• Contact List
• Task Management System

The popular business email plan also includes collaboration tools, the ability to share documents online, and is compatible with Microsoft Office and Mac Mail. This plan’s Mobile ActiveSync technology is also ideal for the business person on the go that makes frequent use of his or her smartphone or tablet for work-related projects/communication.
Is Fatcow a Good Hosting Company?
Fatcow is specifically known for both its near perfect uptimes and its impressive pricing, which many find to be among the lowest in the industry. The simplicity of its pricing is of additional benefit to many customers, and its 30-day money back guarantee is also an appealing safeguard for the inexperienced user. The web design and site-builder tools included in its basic shared packages will also appeal to customers with little web managing experience, while the Fatcow website’s host of tutorials, user guide and FAQ section, in addition to its round-the-clock customer service, make for an even friendlier user experience.

However, while Fatcow does excel at speed and is great for getting websites up and running, many reviews have noted that for businesses looking for advanced or sophisticated service, Fatcow’s simplified approach to hosting may not be ideal. Fatcow is probably best-suited for the individual blogger, portfolio website owner, or small to mid-size business.