Features
Just like other affordable hosting providers, NetFirms provides unlimited disk space, monthly bandwidth, email accounts, domain pointers, and multi-website pointers. They also offer free domains, the number of which depends on the plan. For bloggers, they have access to the WordPress platform. They also have other CMS features, such as Drupal, e107, Joomla, and Moodle. Small businesses have the option to use ShopSite and osCommerce. NetFirms also offers forum, photo gallery, mailing list, project/utilities and Wiki features. The applications are installed through a single click. They also provide security features such as Shared SSL certificates, Secure FTP access, .htaccess, and password protection.
Reliability
NetFirms doesn’t have an uptime guarantee, unlike other cheap hosting providers. But even without a guarantee, the company offers reliable hosting services. They use advanced technology to ensure that their servers are always online. They monitor the data center 24/7 and utilize real-time load balancing across their servers. These actions allow them to maintain good uptime rate, which is near perfect. If one of the servers goes down, the others will pick up where the downed server left off. They utilize a centralized monitoring system to determine whether there are issues with the network and find a solution right away.
Price / Value
NetFirms is known to provide affordable hosting packages that give their customers good value for their money. They have three types of web hosting plans; The Plus Plan, The Advantage Plan and the Business Plan. Their Plus Plan is for people who are looking to start a personal WordPress blog without spending a lot. It costs $4.45 a month. The Advantage Plan costs $8.99 a month and ideal for small businesses who want to start an online business. The Business Plan costs $12.99 a month. It provides small businesses flexibility and room for expansion.
The hosting plans come with $100 worth of Google Adwords, $50 worth of Facebook Ads credit, $25 worth of Yahoo! and Bing Search credits and free listing in Yellowpages.com. The free listing is important with Google’s Pigeon algorithm. It also makes it easier for people to find your services and products online.
Performance
Websites hosted in one of the servers of NetFirms load fast because the hosting provider utilizes superfast connectivity of OC46 through MCI/Worldcom and Telus/Genuity. Their tier 1 high-quality bandwidth allows websites to load faster than average.
NetFirms provides daily server backups. This is perfect for bloggers and small businesses who update their websites every day. It prevents the accidental loss of data due to server malfunction or other reasons. It is good to know that the data is protected no matter what happens.
Customer Support
To get customer support from NetFirms, they offer live chat, phone and email support. The company opted to outsource their support staff, which is not properly trained to handle issues concerning their hosting services. Some customers complained that customer server representatives can’t tell the exact problem when their websites go down and can only assure that the issue is being worked on by the hosting provider. It might be better to check the company’s website for the knowledgebase and watch the video tutorials.