Are you searching for a Knownhost review? If so, you are on the right page.
KnownHost offers a variety of web hosting options for everyone from small-time bloggers to big businesses.
Companies often spread themselves too thin in certain areas.
KnownHost seems to focus on bigger hosting needs, such as VPS and dedicated servers, while their WordPress plan is somewhat lacking.
The homepage of KnownHost provides you with a wealth of information from the moment you arrive.
Digging deeper, you will find that the hosting provider is geared toward people with technical knowledge.
For those new to hosting, getting started might present you with some difficulties.
Who Is KnownHost?
Since its launch in 2005, the company now operates four data centers in the US and Europe.
Their colocation data centers make up a diverse network of providers that you can choose from. The specifics of each center are provided in high detail on their website.
These shared locations are all equipped with high security and disaster-proofing.
Those with tech knowledge will appreciate that their servers are Dual Hex-Core Xeons using RAID 10 storage arrays.
KnownHost Review: Best WordPress Hosting for Bloggers
KnownHost has two specific WordPress hosting plans, both at decent price points.
Although not as cheap as some competitors, KnownHost’s blogging plans have very few limits and some basic security and developer-access perks.
If you already have a website and are looking to transfer it, KnownHost offers free migration between control panels cPanel, Direct Admin, and Plesk.
But transferring from a provider who uses other control panels will require a fee. (KnownHost offers you a choice of cPanel or DirectAdmin.)
You also get access to their custom-built WordPress control panel that lets you control administrative tasks easily.
KnownHost’s WordPress plan doesn’t involve one-click installations of WordPress.
This makes it more difficult for someone unfamiliar with the technical jargon to get things started.
KnownHost does have a written guide on their wiki page with steps to install WordPress.
However, this guide will be confusing to understand if you don’t have any technical knowledge.
If you don’t have a developer to help you out and are uncomfortable facing it yourself, then you might want to look elsewhere.
Plenty of other web hosting companies offer easy one-click installs of applications like WordPress.
KnownHost’s WordPress servers use specific technologies such as WP-CLI, BitNinja, and Lightspeed’s LSCache, which allow WordPress sites to load quickly and operate well.
Aside from WordPress installation, nothing else you will need to do requires technical knowledge.
KnownHost takes care of all updates to your site, servers, and PHP versions. They will also automatically update your WordPress application, themes, and plug-ins.
KnownHost gives you two plan options. The first and cheapest gives you more than enough storage and allotted visitors per month for any small blog.
They include unlimited email accounts which are rare for a small, budget plan like this.
Email accounts let you create emails with your domain names, such as admin@domainname.com, which you can use to email people on your email list about updates and new blog posts.
KnownHost’s plans also give you unlimited bandwidth so you can handle the performance demands of visitor spikes if one of your posts goes viral.
KnowHost Features
Storage | Bandwidth | RAM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | From 5GB cloud storage to unlimited. | Unlimited premium bandwidth on all plans. | N/A |
| Reseller Hosting | From 25GB cloud storage and up to 200GB. | From 800GB to 4TB premium bandwidth. | Guaranteed 1.5GB minimum, up to 4GB. |
| Unmanaged VPS Hosting Plans | From 20GB to 300GB RAID-10 SSD storage. | From 1TB to 6TB premium bandwidth. | From 1GB to 12 GB guaranteed RAM. |
| Managed VPS | From 75GB to 300GB RAID-10 SSD storage. | From 2TB to 6TB premium bandwidth. | From 4GB to 12GB guaranteed RAM. |
| NVMe VPS | From 40GB to 360GB NVMe storage. | From 2TB to 6TB premium bandwidth. | From 2GB to 32 GB guaranteed RAM. |
| Cloud Hosting | From 60GB to 260GB cloud storage. | From 2TB to 5TB premium bandwidth. | From 4GB to 12GB guaranteed RAM. |
| Dedicated Server Hosting | From 16GB to 2TB SSD or HDD depending on the option you choose. | From 10TB to 20TB premium bandwidth. | From 16GB to 64GB |
VPS Hosting Packages
You can also easily upgrade to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or larger hosting package if you experience higher volumes of site visitors.
In fact, KnownHost seems to focus its resources on providing great VPS plans.
Their VPS, both standard and SSD-powered, offer a solid 99.996% uptime.
These VPS options would be a good choice for bigger blogs and websites that need more power and performance.
Features for Advanced Users
For more advanced users, KnownHost gives you access to WP-CLI, Git, and SSH/SFTP.
If you’re just a WordPress beginner then you don’t need to concern yourself with this.
These are important because they allow your developers to manage a remote machine and execute commands.
In addition, SFTP allows for secure file transfer between remote systems.
Back-ups & Security
Free Backups Included? | Backup Frequency | Type of Backups | Fee to Access? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared, Reseller & Semi-Dedicated | Yes | Taken daily with two daily copies being retained along with a weekly copy. | Full, partial, and redundant backups. | Yes. All restoration requests are free and implemented via Jetbackup. |
| VPS (NVMe & SSD) | Yes | Each VPS is backed up every other day and held for 7-14 days. | Full or partial VPS restoration. | Full restoration is free, and partial restoration of specific folders is $10. |
| Cloud (KVM) | Yes | All cloud (KVM) servers are backed up every other day with files stored for 7-14 days. | Full or partial VPS restoration. | Full restoration is free, and partial restoration of specific folders is $20. |
| Unmanaged VPS & Cloud | No | It is advised you take your own backups. However, if you need a full server restoration, backups as old as 7-14 days may be available. | Full restoration is available. Partial restorations are not available. | $35 per full restoration request. |
| Dedicated Servers | Yes for managed dedicated servers. A 1TB secondary drive is pre-configured for backups on your server. | Depends on your configuration. | Full restoration and redundant backups may be available depending on who is managing the server. | There shouldn’t be any fees to access your backups though it depends on your setup and maintenance of your backup infrastructure. |
For more details about KnownHost’s backup policies, visit their knowledge base[1].
While those new to blogging needn’t concern themselves with technical details, you should find out about how your hosting plan handles backups and security.
Redundant backups are important to ensure that you don’t lose precious data if server hardware fails.
KnownHost backs up your site every day for free and stores these backups in a separate location from the server.
These backups are held for three days so you can quickly roll back in the event of a crash.
KnownHost employs the BitNinja system which analyzes your site for vulnerabilities, fixes these, and blocks attacks. This security comes free with your WordPress plan.
KnownHost’s security includes DDoS protection which protects you from bandwidth-intensive attacks that attempt to shut down targeted sites by overwhelming them with fake traffic.
If you want to implement firewalls, you’ll need a developer’s assistance.
KnownHost doesn’t offer SSL certificates, but these are easily and cheaply obtained elsewhere.
KnownHost plans come with free dedicated IP addresses which support a private SSL certificate. If you’re planning to implement e-commerce into your website, this is a must-have.
KnownHost Hosting Plans
Instead of increasing your charges upon the renewal of your term like a lot of companies do, KnownHost gives you cheaper rates if you pre-pay for longer periods of time.
You can sign up for a month or a year, but these options will make your plan more expensive.
Like almost every single other hosting company, KnownHost gives you a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You will receive your money back for the term you paid upon written request.
If you wish to cancel your plan after this period, you will not be refunded for the current term you have paid for.
1. Shared Hosting
KnownHost is a web host that offers reasonable shared plans starting as low as $3.47/month.
| KnownHost Shared Plan Prices | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest Tier (Basic Plan) | $3.47/month | $8.95/month |
| Middle Tier (Advanced Plan) | $6.47/month | $12.95/month |
| Highest Tier (Ultimate Plan) | $9.97/month | $19.95/month |
What we love the most about KnownHost’s hosting is how feature-rich the plans are.
All plans include:
- Unlimited everything for less than $10/month
- Unlimited Domain
- Unlimited Cloud Storage
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- Unlimited Premium Bandwidth
- 99.99% average uptime
- Free website migration
- Free, automated daily backups
- Top-notch security features
- Free Domain
- Plus more!
2. WordPress Hosting
KnownHost is a web host that offers two managed WordPress hosting plans:
| KnownHost Managed WordPress Hosting Plans | Promotional Pricing | Renewal Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Entry Level WordPress | $5.98/month | $11.95/month |
| Managed Business Level WordPress | $9.98/month | $19.95/month |
Additional benefits KnownHost offers on its managed WP plans include:
- One-click staging & backup restores
- Tailored WordPress servers
- Fully managed WP hosting
- WP-specific client utilities (WP-CLI, LiteSpeed LS Cache, and Imunify360)
- 500Gbps+ DDoS protection included
- Free data backups included
- Free & easy migrations included
3. VPS Hosting
KnownHost’s shared hosting services are good, but VPS KnownHost hosting services are where they really shine.
| Unmanaged VPS Hosting Plans | Pricing | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Entry VPS Server | $5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 20GB SSD storage, 1TB Bandwidth. |
| Entry Plus VPS Server | $10/mo | 2 GB RAM, 40GB SSD storage, 1TB Bandwidth. |
| Basic VPS Server | $20/mo | 4 GB RAM, 75GB SSD storage, 2TB Bandwidth. |
| Standard VPS Server | $40/mo | 8 GB RAM, 150GB SSD storage, 3TB Bandwidth. |
| Professional VPS Server | $60/mo | 10 GB RAM, 250GB SSD storage, 5TB Bandwidth. |
| Premium VPS Server | $80/mo | 12 GB RAM, 300GB SSD storage, 6TB Bandwidth. |
| Managed VPS Hosting Plans | Pricing | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Basic VPS Server | $40/mo | 4 GB RAM, 75GB SSD storage, 2TB Bandwidth. |
| Standard VPS Server | $60/mo | 8 GB RAM, 150GB SSD storage, 4TB Bandwidth. |
| Professional VPS Server | $80/mo | 10 GB RAM, 250GB SSD storage, 5TB Bandwidth. |
| Premium VPS Server | $100/mo | 12 GB RAM, 300GB SSD storage, 6TB Bandwidth. |
KnownHost also offers VPS on the latest high-frequency NVMe VPS KnownHost hosting servers.
No matter which VPS plan you choose, some benefits you’ll receive include:
- 99.99% uptime on average (with an SLA guaranteed 99.9% minimum)
- 24/7 fully monitored servers
- Custom-built high-performing servers for ultimate performance
- 24/7/365 professional customer support team available
- Full root access for ultimate control of your server
- 30-day money-back guarantee
4. Dedicated Hosting
If you’re after the best-of-the-best hosting, KnownHost’s fully customizable servers are pretty close!
| Budget Dedicated Servers (Dual Intel Xeon Processors) | Pricing | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest Tier | $49/mo | 8 Cores, 32GB DDR3 memory, 240GB storage & 10TB bandwidth. |
| Middle Tier | $59/mo | 12 Cores, 32GB DDR3 memory, 240GB storage & 10TB bandwidth. |
| Highest Tier | $69/mo | 12 Cores, 32GB DDR3 memory, 240GB storage & 10TB bandwidth. |
Other Plans
In addition to the above, KnownHost offers a wealth of additional hosting plans, including:
- Reseller hosting solutions
- Managed & unmanaged cloud services
- Analytics hosting
- Application hosting
- Email Hosting
- CMS Hosting
- CRM hosting
- ERP hosting and so much more!
Customer Support
KnownHost’s 24/7 customer service is available via email and help desk.
They only take calls during the day. Their phone line is mainly reserved for sales and billing inquiries and is not meant for technical questions.
This may not work for you if you anticipate requiring substantial assistance and want it via phone.
If you prefer to find things out for yourself, then KnownHost’s wiki page will give you guides and answer questions about various technical topics.
KnownHost Pros & Cons
Pros
- Managed and unmanaged hosting services
- NVMe cloud storage
- Unlimited bandwidth and databases
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Automated backups
Cons
- Discounted prices are only available for long-term commitments.
- Server monitoring attracts an extra fee.
- The site builder is unavailable.
Is KnownHost Right for Your Blog?
KnownHost has some great things to offer WordPress users.
With lots of room for growth and a plan focused on WordPress sites, this might be an option to consider for your blog.
If this is your first blog or website, there are other web hosting options better suited for beginners.
Figuring out how to install WordPress on your own can be a daunting task.
And KnownHost’s lack of one-click app installs means you’ll have to do this.
If you’re looking for a pain-free start to blogging, then you’ll be happier looking elsewhere.
If you’re more handier with technical details, then KnownHost gives you some good features and developer tools at a decent price.
KnownHost Review Conclusion: Is it Worth It in 2023?
KnownHost primarily focuses on providing fully-managed hosting plans, making them an excellent choice for both novice users and experienced technical professionals.
Once you have determined the most suitable plan for your needs, KnownHost proves to be a reliable and trustworthy option.
If you’re not familiar with managing servers and dealing with all the technical aspects, you can rely on KnownHost’s expert team to handle it all for you.
If you’re a small business owner or just starting out, alternative hosting companies provide straightforward solutions that you can easily begin using without feeling overwhelmed or lost.
When it comes to reliable hosting providers that deliver exceptional performance, WPX Hosting is a wise investment. Their prowess in performance places them among the finest in the world!
