FastComet Web Hosting Review

Matthew Rogers

Author: Matthew Rogers

[tooltips keyword=’Affiliate Disclaimer’ content = ‘We may receive a commission for purchases made through the links on our site. This helps us keep the site going. Learn More‘]

Last Updated: April 2021

Why our reviews are worth reading

As a web agency, we use/test a LOT of hosting providers to scale both our clients and our many many side-projects (we like to experiment).

Having done this for quite a few years now, we’ve used, analysed, and reviewed a lot of web hosts… these are our findings.

A few of the better-known brands we’ve been featured on

Featured on sites

Overall Rating

Cheapest Plan
$2.95/mo


FastComet: A quick summary for people with no time (pretty much all of us)

In a nutshell, we definitely recommend FastComet! They offer very reliable hosting, have a lightning fast UK data centre, offer lots of free features like free SSL certificates (make your site secure with https), free migrations if you’re coming from another provider, free daily backups, and lots more.

Here’s a quick overview of their best features:

Free domain for life: That’s right! While a lot of web hosts offer a free domain for a single year, FastComet offers you a free domain name for life, very cool!

Security: Free SSL certificates, Web Application Firewall, and malware removal. Everything needed to keep your site as secure as possible.

Global reach: They have 8 data centres all over the world, 3 in the US, 3 in Europe (incl. London), and 1 in Tokyo and Singapore.

45-day money-back guarantee: Pretty self-explanatory, just in case you’re not happy.

Fixed prices: No increased renewal fees, this is actually quite rare. Most web hosts are super cheap for the first invoice, but after that, their prices go 3x… not with FastComet, prices are fixed.

Honestly, we really like them, they’re a no-brainer in our book. Their main plans start at only $2.95/mo.

Black friday deals


FastComet Review

FastComet has been in the UK hosting industry for over nine years. Their headquarters is located in San Francisco, California. The company has an astounding worldwide customer base of over 45,000 across 83 countries. FastComet’s servers are spread out in multiple locations. These include Chicago, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, among others.

In 2013, the company launched its public cloud hosting service. To provide exceptional performance, FastComet utilises servers that run on high-end Intel solid-state drives (SSDs). These servers also run on the latest E5 processors with at least 32GB of RAM (random access memory) per node.

The company offers various products and services. These include Web Hosting, Cloud VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Domain Registration, and Open Source Hosting for WordPress, Joomla!, OpenCart, and Social Engine, among others.

FastComet has won multiple awards. In April 2018, the company won 3rd place in the Best Web Hosting Company Award given by HostReview. They are also considered as one of the Best Rated Web Hosts in 2017 by Host Jury. All of this earns them a spot on the best web hosting providers in the UK.

Pricing

FastComet provides three packages for its web hosting services. These plans are named StartSmart, ScaleRight, and SpeedUp. The said plans can be seen below:

The cheapest plan is called StartSmart and as shown in the image above costs USD 2.95 per month. Upon checking out, you will see that it costs USD 2.95 per month if you pay for 36 months upfront (a total of USD 106.20). If you want to pay on a monthly term, you have to shell out USD 5.95 per month.

With the StartSmart package, you have a free domain for life. This means you can register for one domain and FastComet will pay for it along with its renewal. This can save you about USD 13.95 per year. You can also have unlimited parked domains and subdomains.

You are also given 15GB worth of solid-state drive (SSD) storage. This type of drive is faster compared to traditional hard drives. Thus, your website speed will be faster compared to the average website that uses traditional hard drives.

Traffic is unlimited. This means you are not restricted on your bandwidth or the amount of data you transfer from the server to the device requesting for it. It’s definitely a good thing if you have a GINORMOUS amount of visitors per month. You won’t be charged extra for an above average number of visitors.

The StartSmart package gives you the ability to transfer one website for free. This will be done at no extra cost. You can also choose from multiple server locations. So you can select a data centre that’s closer to your target market so they can enjoy fast website speeds.

Speed optimisation is necessary to keep your website loading faster. When it loads faster, viewers get a better user experience and won’t be frustrated by slow loading speeds. The StartSmart package has various features for speed optimisation. The list below includes some, but not all, features for optimising web page loading speed.

  • First, it has Cloudflare CDN Caching where the CDN replicates website data on more than 70 server locations so that visitors will load the website from a server closer to them. This makes your website loading speed fast in multiple locations around the world.
  • Second, it has JavaScript Bundling features which creates a combination of multiple JavaScript files into one request avoiding multiple network requests. This is recommended by Google and helps speed up page speed.
  • The Browser Optimisation feature adjusts the way data is delivered depending on the device or browser trying to access the site. This maximises speed without affecting the site’s performance and look.
  • Aggressive GZIP features reduce the size of your resources and delivers them compressed through hardware optimised lossless compression.
  • The AutoMinify feature removes unnecessary characters from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This helps save 20% of a file’s size and doesn’t include caching which means fully dynamic pages are also supported.

Security is also given importance with a Network Firewall, Web Application Firewall, Brute-Force Protection, Exploits and Malware Protect, Malware Removal, Hotlink and Password Protection, Two-Factor Authentication, and 24/7/365 Server Monitoring. Daily Backups are kept offsite and contain data from the past 7/30 days. You are given unrestricted access to your backups through their web-based 1-Click Restore Manager.

Free SSL Installation is also included. This gives you the ability to secure your website and protect its sensitive information. You can now prevent data theft and tampering free of charge for life. You are given a Softaculous 1-Click Autoinstaller allowing you to install more than 300 open source website building tools including Joomla!, WordPress, and Magento. This makes starting a website pretty easy.

Email accounts are unlimited and have a variety of features. These include email forwarders, catch-all emails, webmail, email aliases, email autoresponders, and email filters. SpamExperts, Virus Scanner, and SpamAssassin are included features as well. Your email is compatible on various mobile devices and you can set them up on iPhone, Android, Linux, Windows, BlackBerry, etc.

Finally, you are given a 45-day money-back guarantee. You’ll get a refund in case you are not satisfied with their products and services.

Support Options

FastComet provides you with three options for communicating with them and asking for support:

  • Online Live Chat
  • Ticket Submissions
  • Telephone Support

These options are available 24/7/365. Based on 10,000 support requests, the company has resolved 93% of the issues in less than 10 minutes. Reviews of their customer support system were positive.

Most customers stated that they were able to quickly respond to questions and can troubleshoot problems with ease. They were extremely prompt and helpful and most reviews have shown that the company has really lived up to its promise of stellar customer support service. Their support rating is definitely superb!

Pros

FastComet has A LOT of advantages. Some are included below:

Speed Optimisation Features

They provide you with a website that has fast loading speeds due to its speed optimisation features. These features include Cloudflare CDN Caching, JavaScript bundling, Browser Optimisation, Cache Header Optimisation, Aggressive GZIP, Lossless Data Compression, AutoMinify, and Asynchronous Resource Loading, among others. You don’t have to worry about your customers getting frustrated with slow page loading speeds. It’s all taken care of for you.

Security Features

Security is important in any endeavour. With FastComet, your website is made secure with two-factor authentication and hotlink and password protection. Their malware removal feature protects your website from malicious attacks. Servers are monitored 24/7/365 by a real human being and a built-in prevention and reaction system solves issues on servers before it damages it completely.

Free Domain And SSL Certificate

With the StartSmart package, you are given a free domain that help you save up to USD 13.95 per year. A free SSL Certificate is also given allowing you to prevent information theft and secure the sensitive data in your website.

Free Website Transfer

The cheapest package allows you to transfer 1 website from another hosting provider to that of FastComet. Still, this freebie helps you save a few pounds.

Unlimited Bandwidth

You can cater to thousands or millions of viewers per month with their unlimited bandwidth. You won’t incur extra charges for a more-than-average amount of traffic, especially during peak seasons.

Excellent Customer Support System

They have a fantastic support system through phone, chat, and ticket submission. Reviews are excellent and ratings are nearly perfect. Most customers state that their support system is very prompt and helpful.

Cons

One Website Only

You can only have one website hosted in the starter plan. If you want unlimited websites/domains, you can opt for the next plan, ScaleRight. This plan costs USD 5.95 per month if you opt for a 3-year term. That being said, looking at the no increased renewals, this is an absolute steal compared to most of the competition.

Conclusion

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND FastComet and its web hosting services. The security and speed optimisation features are right on point. Plus, they provide a lot of freebies even with their cheapest plan. Their excellent customer support system is to die for and you wouldn’t want to work with another company because of it.

We would love for you to try out FastComet and let us know more about your experience with them. Happy Hosting!