Today, a little different for the My Helpful Hints website, a review for Asura Hosting. Today’s review is based on my experiences of switching a web hosting provider, the journey, the process and my opinions.
So, since 2017 I had been with my previous host, but recently I had a few issues with restrictions and their once excellent technical support team went from quickly responding to requests for help, to taking days to reply, then the replies were automated and not very informative. Despite providing evidence from my cPanel of the outages I was experiencing, they denied it was a server related issue. So, to cut a long story short, I thought it was time to move on and find a new host for my website.
The biggest hurdle I found when searching for a new host was the requirements I needed for my site, against price, with price being a huge factor.
Asura Hosting.
Some sites were quoting hundreds per year, and with servers imposed restrictions on top. Then, I found Asura Hosting, they were offering everything I needed, and for a much cheaper price than I was currently paying. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, I thought so, did some digging about and discovered Asura Hosting is legit, but not many UK based reviews.
I was still sceptical, presumed it was an intro price to get you, then bump up the price. But reading through the Asura Hosting website I was assured the price you see, remains the same next year, no renewal price hikes. They have a strict pricing model that’s been in place for almost a decade.
Asura Hosting have 20,000 customers, look after 100,000 websites, from 87 countries, and was formed in 2012 and slowly have built up a reputation for affordable hosting.
Asura Hosting state they have a dedicated support team available 24/7, with tickets being answered usually from 20 minutes (more on this later). So, being the sceptic I am , I decided to reach out to ask them a few questions, and by a few I mean a ton.
So, I fired all my questions and requirements to keep my site operational. Within half an hour, Mike answered, I would later be messaging Mike a lot, and he’s an absolute credit to their organisation, nothing is too much for Mike, absolutely brilliant. I’m technically minded, with moderate WordPress and cPanel experience, mostly from learning as I go over the years, so I was reassured that Asura Hosting would do the whole website migration for me.
CDN.
My site currently uses CloudFlare as a Content Delivery Network (CDN). For those that don’t know, Imagine your website content like freshly baked cookies.
A CDN is like having ovens scattered around the globe, ready to deliver warm cookies to your visitors instantly. No matter where they are, they get a satisfyingly fast experience, keeping them happy and coming back for more. Plus, these ovens are built tough, able to handle a crowd and even fend off pesky attackers.
But from my own experience messing about with CloudFlare settings can leave a site not operating correctly. But, without hesitation, Mike offered to set up my CloudFlare along with the whole migration from my host to Asura Hosting. So, I wouldn’t need to do anything. They’d do the lot for me, and not just because it’s me (although I did feel like a VIP), Asura Hosting offers a free migration service to all of their customers.
My site isn’t just your typical blog type site either, I have a separate section for small businesses, a directory that enables users to log into my site, upload data and connect with each other. So, the migration process was the biggest worry for me, especially as everything had been with a single supplier since 2017.
Pricing.
The most important factor around website hosting, the price. Asura Hosting offers many different services from Web, NodeJS, Python, NVMe, Softaculous, Drupal, Joomla, Linux, and WordPress hosting, which is the service I require. But. no matter which service you require, Asura Hosting has a plan for you.
With all services, there are a few options to choose from, ranging from the basic sort of plan, right up to the Elite plan. Each plan has certain threshold limits, or additional services on each upgraded plan. I went full in on the Elite plan, a completely unlimited service, free from any restrictions, all for just £81.99 on the yearly plan, this was for the cPanel control panel. You can pay monthly too, but that attracts a 17% price increase compared to the yearly plan over a 12-month timescale.
- Instant Account Setup
- Unlimited NVMe SSD Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited CPU Allocation
- Unlimited RAM
- Real-time Protection by Imunify360
- Unlimited Free SSL Certificates
- Unlimited Inodes
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- Unlimited Websites
- Unlimited Databases
- Softaculous (400+ Applications)
- JetBackup Daily Backups
- Multiple PHP Selector
- LiteSpeed Enterprise
- Premium Site Builder
- WHMCS Optional ($9.99/mo)
- No Renewal Price Hikes
- WordPress Support & Management
- Private Nameservers
- Free Gold Turnkey Reseller Plan
- Free Domain (Yearly)
- Free Dedicated IP
All of their servers run on LiteSpeed, an extremely fast drop-in replacement for Apache. This allows their servers to run almost 3 times faster than standard Apache, all with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime too.
I also transferred the myhelpfulhints.co.uk domain over to them too, and got another 12 months added, for free! My domain won’t cost me anything then moving forward, it’s included within my hosting plan.
Migration Day.
So, upon purchasing the Elite WordPress cPanel plan, a migration date was assigned, with everything explained. Asura Hosting needed certain elements from my host, such as login credentials. The process was quick, and worked almost seamlessly.
Mike even set up all my CloudFlare settings, something which I’m so grateful for.
Immediately upon migration the directory side of the site didn’t work, caused initially by the way it had been set up by my previous, and this is where Asura Hosting kept to their promises of support. I had the error “Unable to create directory uploads/directorist_temp_uploads. Is its parent directory writable by the server?” come up, within half an hour Asura Hosting was on the case. A few messages and tries later, Mike had cracked the issue.
All fixed within a couple of hours of initially contacting Asura Hosting. Excellent stuff, and true to their word, the directory side of the site was operating absolutely fine.
Further Issues.
So everything was up and running quite quickly from the migration. But, as expected, my site had a few more bugs that hadn’t been identified, but came to light over the coming days/weeks after migration. Each time, I created a support ticket with Asura Hosting, each one answered quickly.
So, I had an issue. Parts of the directory again weren’t working properly. Despite nothing to do with Asura Hosting, they investigated to help pinpoint exactly what the issue was. Mike confirmed the plugin running the software was the cause, and he was right, but what was it? That was an answer for the developer of the plugin to answer, it turns out that I managed to correct this myself, through fluke, but I’m claiming it!
Another issue later identified was the email system, something wasn’t quite right in CloudFlare, it prevented some users from not receiving an email. Within 45 minutes it was fixed, another excellent service provided by Mike.
I’ve been with Asura Hosting since 18th March 2023 now, so coming up for a month, and the initial issues have all been resolved, I’m happy with the setup.
Issues happen, technology has a habit of breaking, but it’s reassuring to have a decent support department from Asura Hosting quickly on the case.
Conclusion.
I’m so happy with Asura Hosting. The price and service are excellent, especially the technical support being available, adds extra value for any website owner. No question or concern is dismissed. You’re treated with the utmost respect and all without technical jargon too. They make the whole process from ordering, to migration, to ongoing support an easy, and highly professional experience.
I seriously can’t rate Asura Hosting enough. If you’re a website owner, looking for an affordable hosting provider, one with excellent support, then 100% go with Asura Hosting. My site is even running faster, checked via Google LightSpeed too.
cPanel WordPress plans start from just £1.06 per month if you’re just starting out, you’re free to upgrade as you grow too. To switch currency, change the county setting at the bottom of the page.
Asura Hosting has a plan to suit all website owners, whether you’re just starting out, or have been running a website for a number of years, I would fully recommend you sign up to Asura Hosting.
Huge thanks to all at Asura Hosting for getting me set up. A special shout out has to go to Mike, an absolute asset for Asura Hosting.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. If you’d like to add a comment or thought on this post, please use the comments section below. I can also be contacted via the online contact form. Keep up to date with the latest news on social media.