MochaHost: Pros
Pro #1: Uptime is great, and it’s guaranteed
Of course, uptime is one of the most important things about hosting. MochaHost has great uptime and is usually pretty fast, which is awesome.
But what’s really great is that MochaHost has strong guarantees of uptime.
A lot of hosts will guarantee 99.9% uptime—which is good, but 99.9% uptime isn’t that great. A better host will guarantee 99.95% hosting.
You can check out our uptime calculator to see how much of a difference in downtime that actually is.
Uptime Stats:
Service Level Agreements (SLA):
But MochaHost guarantees 100% uptime, which is awesome.
And if you ever experience downtime, you’ll be credited:
Keep in mind you have to make a credit request, it’s not automatic.
Anyway, it’s a great policy and would only be in place if MochaHost was super confident in its uptime.
Speeds are good too, but for a variety of reasons. Keep an eye out for when I talk about the features, because some boost speed!
Until then:
Pro #2: Great prices, especially on shared hosting
There are two elements to this “great prices” thing I’m talking about.
The first is the most obvious: the price tag you see when you look at the MochaHost’s website and hosting options.
These are pretty good—especially impressive is that the third tier is less than $6 a month. Most third tiers are anywhere from $10-$30 a month.
But the second element in price is really important:
The renewal price.
Most web hosts have low prices on shared hosting to get you interested, but they only last the first year—then after that, there will be a massive price jump in subsequent years.
Renewals can range anywhere from a doubling in price to a 5-fold increase in price.
But MochaHost has a “Lifetime Discount Guarantee.” In other words, if you renew your account, it will be the same price as when you bought it.
Best of all, this applies to not just shared hosting, but a range of other hosting services offered and even the website builder:
This can be an immense money-saver, and makes MochaHost a rarity in the world of hosting.
Pro #3: Generous features (again, especially for shared hosting)
This list is a bit overwhelming, but just skim it:
Yep, it’s a lot of stuff. And it’s not even everything!
But let’s cover the highlights:
Unlimited storage, traffic/bandwidth, high-grade SSL encryption, and unlimited email boxes are all included with every tier.
By the way, it’s important to remember that “unlimited” space and bandwidth is a bit misleading.
“Unlimited” at the entry level usually means there aren’t formal limits in place to stop you. But if your site starts hogging too many resources, you may be asked to upgrade to a higher performing plan.
Nonetheless, it reduces the hassle significantly and is great to see for shared hosting options.
And having unlimited email from the first tier onwards is pretty unusual, a major point in MochaHosts’s favor.
The use of the cloud, reboot and load protection, and uptime guarantees are all solid performance features (though I will talk more about that in a sec).
The second tier brings way more features to the table. Some of the most notable are more (unlimited) websites, free SEO tools, hundreds of additional website apps, guarantees of higher speeds, and an easy website builder with hundreds of templates.
There are also stronger support services, like migration assistance, site health monitoring tools, malware monitoring, and automatic backups.
All of this is incredible for just a 2nd shared hosting tier, but to make it even better, there’s even WordPress optimization:
Although you can run WordPress ordinarily on the first tier, the second and third tiers have the option of optimizing for WordPress, which lets you update and backup automatically.
The third tier has EVEN MORE features, most of which are better for more technical users, but some notable ones (not seen in the screenshot) include:
Free CDN (use of CloudFlare’s delivery network improves performance), 4GB of dedicated memory, and caching tools that can boost performance (especially speed and security).
Suffice it to say that MochaHost has no shortage of features on its shared plans, and it has a similar abundance of tools/perks for other types of hosting as well.
Speaking of those other types of hosting…
Pro #4: MochaHost has a wide array of hosting options
A good way to start is with the shared hosting…because there’s more than one type of it!
For the shared hosting options, you can choose between cPanel hosting and ASP.net hosting.
ASP.net is basically a flexible web development language, and is more important for those who know what they’re doing with their hosted projects.
You can check out some other good options for ASP.net hosting here.
It’s great that MochaHost can offer not just “regular” shared hosting options with cPanel, but more advanced options at still-low prices.
But even if we go beyond shared web hosting, MochaHost has plenty of options.
There’re managed WordPress at prices comparable to the regular shared hosting, for example:
If you want to write your site or project in Java, then MochaHost definitely has some options for you.
The Java Tomcat plans are great for developers and even those come with options—regular web hosted options, a VPS option, and a dedicated cloud options:
There are also some reseller hosting plans, and powerful hosting options for applications beyond just WordPress: Joomla, Drupal, and Magento hosting are all available.
Pro #5: Good money-back guarantees
Technically, there’s only one FULL money-back guarantee. It’s the standard 30-day refund guarantee that many hosts offer.
But there’s another option:
The 180-day guarantee lets you get a refund for your unused fees if you cancel within 180 days of service.
A lot of hosting companies don’t offer this additional option: you either cancel within 30 days or you’re stuck paying forever.
180 days gives you a lot more time to discover flaws and issues that could be deal-breakers.
Better yet, this applies regardless of your commitment: whether it’s 1, 2, or 3 years that you bought.
Pro #6: The on-site support information is good
Here’s what the support page looks like:
It’s a general support portal that combines options for contacting representatives with onsite information.
Contacting reps usually goes fine for me, but there’s more to that subject and I’ll talk about it more later.
The onsite information, however, is pretty decent.
The interface is kind of ugly, but it’s efficient and covers a wide range of topics:
I do think there could be a more beginner-friendly element to the support info:
For example, a clear ‘getting started’ category with easy articles.
But overall, it’s still pretty comprehensive, and the support material itself is usually pretty clear.
Pro #7: MochaHost is secure
Security is of course essential to any reputable hosting company.
While perfect security may not be possible, security can always be bad.
Thankfully, MochaHost’s security is solid.
Here are the main points, for example:
Underwater cables, redundant power on facilities all over the world…it’s good stuff and means that MochaHost more than meets industry standards.
So clearly, MochaHost has a lot going for it. Let’s get into some of the downsides.
MochaHost: Cons
Con #1: Not as friendly towards beginners
This is a generalization that isn’t going to be accurate 100% of the time. But overall, it’s true:
Outside of the shared hosting plans and perhaps the managed WordPress plans, the hosting products are a little more difficult to use.
At the very least, they’re geared towards people who know what they’re doing: web developers, teams with IT professionals, or those who are just experienced with hosting projects online.
Compared to some other popular hosts, even more advanced hosting plans (like VPS, for example) will still be optimized for those who haven’t used them before.
Even the support pages, as I mentioned, seem designed more for the technically oriented and those experienced with hosting.
Again, the onsite support is great and detailed, but may leave beginners feeling a bit confused about where to start, or how to solve more basic questions.
Con #2: Interface looks old and clunky
To be clear: it’s not like the interface doesn’t work.
It’s generally efficient: not really any worse than the standard hosting interface.
My complaint here is fairly surface level and will only really matter to a few:
The interface itself is ugly, and it looks outdated. Any look at the site will tell you to expect as much.
Here’s the support page again, for example:
It’s still efficient, right?
But I know the interface will turn off some—consider yourself warned!
Con #3: The site builder themes are not that great
The negative point I just talked about is also relevant for a more important matter, the themes. But let me qualify a couple things:
First, this isn’t a huge deal.
Second, there are still hundreds of themes, and it’s subjective.
That being said, I do think OVERALL the themes look outdated and are generally similar in their structure.
Here’s what I mean:
Again, there are literally hundreds of themes to choose from. And some of you may like these themes.
But a lot of people will want more modern, sleek options. And if you’re going to have 500+ templates, can’t some of them be more structurally unique?
It’s not the end of the world: beginners can instead use WordPress or make do with these options.
But WordPress can be tough for a beginner, and involves a lot more set-up and moving parts.
So while the inclusion of the website builder is great, and the template selection is great in principle, in practice these may be limiting to beginners.
Con #4: Support can sometimes be sub-par
I myself have not had this problem. Judging from what others say, MOST people have not had this problem.
Let me show you an example of the live chat, with my test question being whether one can do a 1-click install of WordPress in the entry level shared plan:
Granted, this was a test question (just about any hosting package with cPanel will have Softaculous.com or equivalents), but it still took only a couple minutes to get my question answered.
However, complaints about support come up consistently enough that it can’t be a fluke, so I believe it’s worth noting.
Con #5: The free domains are somewhat restricted
First major restriction: the entry level shared package, which usually comes with a free domain (at least for a year) with most other providers, does not include a free domain on MochaHost.
It’s not the end of the world, since the latter two shared hosting tiers come with domains for free. Those are even better deals in that context.
But if you want the most affordable option, the domain isn’t included for free—which can be a bit of a pain if you’re using the first tier to cut costs (which I imagine most would be).
If you’ve already registered a domain separately, or plan on doing so, then this shouldn’t be of any concern.
One other restriction on domains: they’re only included for free with 1-2 year commitments (as opposed to 3 year packages) and for popular top-level domains: .com; .org; .net; .info.
Lastly, the free domain must be claimed at the same time you purchase your account package.
Meaning, you can’t purchase your hosting and then later, when you’re settled on the name you want, get your free domain.
…And with that, we’ve wrapped up the key downsides!
Let’s get to the million dollar question:
Do we recommend MochaHost?
So, all in all, do we recommend MochaHost?
Basically, yes. It’s not for everyone, and I think beginners and those who want a very simple hosting experience should be wary.
But if you’re not new to web hosting, MochaHost is a genuine hidden gem. Most of its products are much cheaper than competitors, but performance doesn’t suffer for the price.
Plus, there are a lot of features and many different hosting packages to choose from. And a lot of the features, again, would appeal to more advanced users.
But even so, those with only some limited experience with hosting products could enjoy one of the shared hosting or managed WordPress packages without much issue.
At the end of the day, ease of use aside, MochaHost is one of the CHEAPEST hosts around, period. And despite that, it performs very well and has a lot to offer.
So having seen all that, I can’t not recommend it.
So yeah, MochaHost is worth using. If you’re really not sure, just try it! You can get your money back if you decide to cancel within 30 days.
