After the successive hits of their previous hosting plans in the previous months, the Rudolf and Speedy Hosting Plan (Linux), Top Hosting Center now comes back center-stage with a refreshed Speedy Hosting Plan running on Windows Server platform. This was released due to insistent public demand and the corporate’s decision to join the bandwagon of the trend of ever-increasing market share of Windows platform across data centers.
Some people say they like the previous version of WordPress blog platform. Well, there are few reasons for me to believe that. I found personally the new WordPress version has few issues with my web hosting environment. Although in my previous blog post I said that the new features of WordPress are neat, the image upload issue I just discovered made me somehow upset. Fortunately, the customer support representatives of my web host, Top Hosting Center, quickly resolved the issues. And guess what? They told me how they did it! Very excellent customer service and transparent indeed. Continue Reading »
Last March 11, I first tasted the Speedy hosting plan from Top Hosting Center. Now, after quite some time of thorough observation, I am ready to give you the verdict of their flagship hosting plan for this season. This post was made particularly for people who want to know the true value of Speedy. THC’s Speedy hosting plan replaced the infamous Rudolf in their web hosting spotlight. Does Speedy deserve the limelight? Let’s find out. Continue Reading »
Few days after I published my previous post disclosing the features of their Speedy hosting plan, Top Hosting Center (THC), sent me a token of appreciation through email. They put a file attachment along with their message which I initially suspected a virus – hehehe – no, it was not. The file was zipped and when I took a peek through WinRAR, I figured out that its contents constitute a theme for WordPress, a popular blog platform written in PHP language. Why the hell would they give me that? Oh, intriguing. What do you think?
So what I did is that I unzipped the files to my local disk and uploaded them to this WordPress-based blog. I logged in to my blog’s control panel and see how the theme looks. The theme is called “THC Alpha,” a two-column WordPress theme that looks good. I was impressed of the decency of the design which carries an air of formality.
Here are the screen captures of THC Alpha Wordpress theme:
My review for THC’s Speedy hosting plan is still being written and no matter how many WordPress themes they will send me, it will never influence my judgement to their Speedy plan. Anyway, THC made it clear that what they gave was just a token of appreciation – so there is no bad motive behind unless you think otherwise.
I just added another item in the menu called “Resources.” That page will be populated with useful media (themes, e-books, among others) that you would like to check and download. It is pretty barren as of the moment though, but you will love that page eventually.
It has been weeks since I had a comprehensive interview about Top Hosting Center’s (THC) Rudolf hosting plan. Well, just recently, I visited THC and I noticed some changes on their website: the Top Hosting Special and the Rudolf hosting plans are gone (I assume that the 1000th plan has been sold). The thing that drew my attention most was their new shared hosting plan dubbed as “Speedy.” Their banner for Speedy is kind of fancy, but I was silenced when I saw its features.
THC’s Speedy hosting plan presents a fresh and bountiful pool of resources for Web enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. At THC’s web hosting blog, a Speedy-related post mentioned that it was “the company’s greatest standard hosting plan offer they’ve done to date.” For me, it sounds exciting, but a little intriguing as well knowing that their previous Rudolf hosting plan was good enough.
Among its standard hosting features, here are outstanding figures that comprise THC’s Speedy hosting plan:
FREE Dedicated IP Address – usually this is an add-on to other hosting companies, normally costs at least $2.50 per month. THC had it free for Speedy, which is really good.
33 000 GB Monthly Bandwidth – I remember THC offering only 3000 GB bandwidth with their previous hosting plans (including Rudolf).
1000 GB Disk Space – Self-explanatory, but great hands down. Previous hosting plans only featured 250 GB, which definitely was a history.
Free Domain Name – it’s awful to know some hosts (not THC) don’t include a domain name in their hosting plans. They do it usually to look their plans cheaper against their competitors.
Aggressive Pricing – At THC’s Speedy comparison page, the hosting plan costs as low as $6.75 / month. Commonly, the pricing is dependent to the billing cycle of the hosting plan. I found out that THC had Speedy aggressively-priced, beating all matching hosting packages from other hosting companies such as Host Monster, Dreamhost, Bluehost, Go Daddy and Host Gator. I checked their competitors’ sites and their price comparison was rather true. However, I will have to verify its features further. Sometimes, companies are biased to their own products. I will go find out the truthfulness of their page and whistle blow if I found something fishy.
According to their live chat representatives, their existing Rudolf customers can upgrade to Speedy hosting plan. Honestly, I don’t see so much point about that since Rudolf is already a lifetime plan with just one-time fee. However, I couldn’t blame seeing people moving towards Speedy from Rudolf since it comes with a free dedicated IP address, a terabyte disk space, a jaw-dropping 33,000 GB monthly bandwidth, and other features. Those figures are enough to convince them, as it did to me.
Yes, this blog now runs under Speedy hosting plan. I’m currently assessing the experience and I will write a comprehensive review soon whether it’s really hot or not. Initially I have a positive impression with it, especially knowing that this blog now runs over a dedicated IP address. If you are not aware, having a site running over a dedicated IP address will absolutely favor search engine optimization (SEO), plus it is very good in building legitimate business identity on the Internet, and certainly unleashes extra FTP functionality as well. I will explain in my future post why having a dedicated IP is important especially for online entrepreneurs.
It is very futuristic and has a very competitive lineup of hosting features that will break your worries on hosting.
I recommend that you check THC’s Speedy hosting plan. It is very futuristic and has a very competitive lineup of hosting features that will break your worries on hosting. By the way, if you sign-up for it, I recommend getting a 24-month plan for you to get huge discount – that’s what I got and it was very affordable for me. At least, the setup fee was waived, which would have cost me additional $25 if I got a one-month, 3-month, or 6-month plan.
So enough talk here, I will continue my observation in the back scene and assess this hosting plan for a week. I hope to bring good news from it.
By the way, if you have a product, service, or website related to this blog and you want it to be reviewed by me, check out this post. Let’s have some good time.
It’s already been two months since John Raul dot Com (this blog) breathe to life. To celebrate the second month of existence, I decided to share with you a comprehensive review of the best hosting plan that I’ve ever seen on the Web specifically tailored for bloggers and webmasters – the “Rudolf” hosting plan from Top Hosting Center (THC). Please note that some links directing to the Rudolf plan may contain affiliate links. It does not, in any way, manipulate the truth, facts, and fair judgement presented on this article.
Rudolf Hosting Plan Overview
Rudolf hosting plan was released by THC originally as a Christmas promotional package for people who are eager to start running their own blogs or websites. There were 1000 plans available and the promo would end when all plans are sold out. Each plan, which sits over Windows or Linux, boasts lifetime ownership (yes, for life) of a hosting account with 250 GB disk space, 3000 GB unmetered monthly bandwidth, unlimited database, a free lifetime domain name, among other professional hosting features – all priced at $95 one-time payment. THC stressed through Rudolf that “customers will never have to pay for hosting again” – a statement that shocked many informed bloggers causing them to move from their old hosts to THC.
Below is a detailed comparison of THC’s standard hosting plan, the Top Hosting Special, priced at $4.95 per month and the special Rudolf plan priced at $95 one-time for lifetime ownership.
The recent Yuletide season saw a lagging sales of Rudolf though, there were still over 600 plans left during the end of December. However, during the first few weeks of 2008, there was a surge of customers who bought Rudolf plans and eventually the remaining plans plummeted below 500. According to THC’s sales representative, they predicted that the Rudolf plans will diminish this February but may still have the chance to extend more due to changing market conditions. It was renamed to “Rudolf Valentine” carrying a theme “We Love Bloggers” to match the season.
Rudolf Under Scrutiny
Signing up for Rudolf plan comes in two different tastes: Linux and Windows. It can be found on the on the product’s landing page with all the information you need. THC even provided a FAQ page in an effort to clear the doubts of skeptic customers about their current flagship product. I see this effort “good.” THC uses only two payment gateways for their signups: PayPal and 2CheckOut. The latter one is good for credit cards that are recognized internationally.
Instructions about domain name registrations and domain name transfers associated to the Rudolf plan are provided in one of the steps of the account signup wizard. It asks new customers to send their domain registration or domain transfer request to THC’s email support. It would have been more convenient if THC was able put domain registration forms as part of their signup the process. Nevertheless, domain name registrations are usually completed from two to six hours upon registration (it could vary though) while domain name transfers usually take five days to a week to complete (without downtime). Since each Rudolf plan promises a lifetime domain name, THC will be the one to pay for the renewal fees as long as the customer stays on THC.
The EasyApp, a collection of ready-to-use PHP applications tied with the H-Sphere control panel, similar to CPanel’s Fantastico, boasts a rich number of useful applications (CMS, blog platforms, e-commerce, support systems, etc). However, the current version used by THC, does not allow installation on root directory through the control panel. This is troublesome to customers, for instance, who wants to get their WordPress blog installed on the root for search engine-optimized (SEO) permalink structure. However, the workaround is to install the application manually to the root. Manual installation is tricky and could be difficult to people who are not very technologically-inclined.
Rudolf also offers unlimited database, domains and subdomains which perfectly match the 250 GB disk storage and 3000 GB monthly bandwidth. Other hosts usually impose a maximum number of databases, and varying domain/subdomain limitations for their hosting plans. THC broke them with its 1000 Rudolf plans; the generous resource lineups allow customers to put more information to their websites due to its increased database storage and bandwidth.
Finally, with all the benefits Rudolf bring, THC placed a price tag of $95 to each plan. Of course, it is cheap and very affordable – a 12-month regular hosting would cost around $60 (excluding the domain name registration and renewal). I personally remark that it was “aggressively priced” which could be a risk to THC if their goals are not met and efforts backfire. However, I believe that the company is well-funded and that they have pre-calculated well the Rudolf plan. Hopefully with the Rudolf’s release, it would bring good returns to their investments in parallel with their generosity.
Rudolf Over Linux
I read from many blog testimonials that customers who acquired Rudolf hosting plans over Linux platform are overjoyed with the performance of their websites. Honestly, this did not shock me as Linux has always been the king in terms of web hosting regardless of hosting company.
PHP and MySQL combination in Linux platform is superb. Similar performance is also achieved by PostGreSQL database engine.
So while the rest of Linux features are excellent, there is only one apparent shortcoming I have to mention – domains on Linux can only run PHP version 4. This means applications meant for PHP version 5 may have problems running on Linux platform for the meantime. THC cannot be blamed for this, however, as the limitation was brought about by the current H-Sphere version. Future H-Sphere control panel upgrades foreseeable this year, are expected to wipe this out.
Rudolf Over Windows
Though in many ways Linux outperform Windows in the web hosting department, Rudolf over Windows platform is powered by multiple core Intel processors (same as Linux) to ensure a fast, stable and responsive website environment.
The H-Sphere control panel over Windows works a bit different than that of Linux. It offers support for ASP and ASP.net languages backed by MySQL, PostGreSQL and optional MSSQL databases. Currently, PHP is implemented as CGI on Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 available in two different and switchable versions for domains that run on Windows platform: version 4.4.7 and version 5.2.3. In all other aspects, Windows offer similar features with Linux.
However, personally I prefer getting a Linux plan (unless I need Windows-specific features). But generally in terms of web hosting, I trust Linux more than Windows.
Top Hosting Center: A Good Hosting Company?
Let’s make the article I wrote previously, “What Good Companies Are Made Of,” as a basis of judging the reputation of the company that hosts Rudolf: Top Hosting Center, a Montreal-based hosting company.
Products competency over pricing. The specifications of Rudolf hosting plan and Top Hosting Special, in particular, passes the 200 GB disk space and 2000 GB monthly bandwidth competency requirement which I deemed sufficient for most hosting needs nowadays (though bigger is always better). Both plans are fairly priced except some would interpret Rudolf hosting plan as a bit “overselling.” However, I don’t believe because it’s just a limited offer and it is good while supply lasts. THC uses H-Sphere for web management for their hosting customers. H-Sphere is a highly sophisticated control panel developed by Positive Software Corporation that works similar but not graphically alike with other control panels, CPanel and Plesk. H-Sphere features EasyApp, a collection of ready-to-use PHP scripts which include content management systems (CMS), forums, blogs (e.g. WordPress), image galleries, and a lot more.
Server performance, reliability and security consistency. THC’s CEO, Eric Vanier asserted in his blog that the servers behind their hosting plans, never experienced downtime for almost two years. However, seemed like a devil’s luck, it was followed by another post stating that they experienced an unexpected database issue when they applied a security patch requiring server reboot in the evening of January 11th. It broke their consistent uptime record but rather reasonable since unexpected downtimes usually happen when a new software is introduced during upgrades or if there are changes in its configuration (like the application of security patches). It was however resolved in timely manner and oddly brought server improvements that are assumingly expected to bring improved server performance and assured stability to all platforms. Other than that, THC also does nightly backups and imposes strict security rules to assure a secure environment to all its users (no SSH access on shared servers, etc).
Support and management reachability. THC currently offers only three different modes of support: live chat support (which can be initiated on THC’s official website), e-mail support and trouble ticket support (an in-built feature in the account’s control panel). These are available 24×7, which means help is ready anytime you need it. I particularly liked the chat support system. Their chat representatives are real people and very friendly and responsive – good for product inquiries, problem reports, and basic technical assistance. They should, however, think about offering phone support (as other hosts do) to be completely competent in this part. However, they said such service is still not a “need” as of the moment as their existing support methods still suffice.
Employee satisfaction. Just like what I mentioned in my previous post, employee satisfaction is tantamount to service and product excellence. Upon chatting with one of THC’s representatives, I learned that they are indeed very eager to deliver quality services toward customer satisfaction. This underlines the statement found of its CEO’s blog post “I Love Competition, So Do You.” I’ve also discovered that THC has partnered with Pamil-Visions, a Germany-based online marketing company that only promotes products they feel confident for.
I’ve done a Google search to find some customer reviews or any article related to the Rudolf plan. Here is the list of what I found (and there’s more out there):
Now that I have uncovered Rudolf in most dimensions, it is now clear why it is one of the most amazing hosting plans I’ve seen on the Web. Where can you ever find a reliable host that offer 250 GB disk space, 3000 GB monthly bandwidth, a lifetime domain name, along with other standard hosting features – all subject only for one-time payment of $95? THC only rolled 1000 Rudolf plans (of course, they will lose their business if they dare to offer more) and those are meant for lucky people who are seeking for the right host.
Perhaps I didn’t tell in the previous paragraphs, but Rudolf bears one catch that could derail you from your decision of getting one: if you are dreaming of setting up an adult site for Rudolf hosting plan, forget Rudolf. THC strongly follows code of ethics and does not allow any illegal files to reside on their wholesome servers.
So, if you want to run your own blog or move your existing site to a Rudolf plan, you should do it now. Though their sales representatives won’t disclose the exact figures of remaining plans, I was informed that the numbers of Rudolf plans are rapidly diminishing. This is a threat for you.
Whew! Go get your own Rudolf hosting plan now and if you want to thank me for the great information, you can express it by putting this site in your blogroll or by simply subscribing to this blog through email or RSS.
After the successive hits of their previous hosting plans in the previous months, the Rudolf and Speedy Hosting Plan (Linux), Top Hosting Center now comes back center-stage with a refreshed Speedy Hosting Plan running on Windows Server platform. This was released due to insistent public demand and the corporate’s decision to join the bandwagon of the trend of ever-increasing market share of Windows platform across data centers.
It has been weeks since I had a 
