When choosing a web hosting provider it is useful to do a side by side comparison. This is a review of FatCow and AN Hosting.
Background
AN Hosting began in 2001, and in 2005 it was acquired by MidPhase. Together the two web hosting companies have hosted 150,000 sites and won several industry awards.
FatCow has been in business since 1998, and hosts over 30,000 sites. It has consistently received high ratings has won several industry awards. They are an eco-friendly company, and are proud that their offices and datacenters are 100% powered by wind energy.
Plan Features and Pricing
Hosting Plan
AN Hosting offers a plan with limited, specific amounts of disk space, bandwidth, and domains.
FatCow offers a main plan with unlimited disk space, domains, email, and bandwidth. They also have a MiniMoo plan for domain parking.
General Features
AN Hosting’s plan offers 625 GB hosting space, 6250 GB bandwidth, and twenty domains. It has unlimited emails and MySQL databases.
FatCow includes many tools for their customer to help build the website, in addition to the unlimited disk space and bandwidth. They have wizards to add open source applications and also easy to install forums and blogs. There are great features for e-commerce sites including Shopping Carts, E-Store Builder and free Google and Yahoo! Credits. They also have unlimited MySQL databases.
Cost
AN Hosting is offering their plan at $5.21 per month/$62.52 per year. There is a $21.95 fee for domain registration. There is no set up fee.
FatCow offers their plan for $66 per year for the main plan and $5 per year for domain parking. Although slightly higher, there are no limits on disk space, bandwidth, or domains. There is no charge for domain registration and no set up fee.
Reliability
Datacenter Facilities
AN Hosting uses the same datacenters as its parent company, MidPhase, SoftLayer and The Planet.
FatCow combines many state of the art features to make their datacenters the best. Dual routers support the FatCow hosting platform for greater redundancy. It has a top line Cisco PIX firewall for excellent security. They have NetApp storage clusters for improved reliability. FatCow also has a new gigabit network connection to enhance performance. Together these features make FatCow an extremely secure and reliable web hosting provider.
Uptime Guarantees
AN Hosting has a uptime guarantee of 99.9%
FatCow has a great uptime guarantee of 99.9%.
Support
AN Hosting has 24/7 customer support including toll-free, email, and help desk.
FatCow has several ways for customers to contact them, including 24/7 toll free numbers, email and live chat. They also have tutorials, knowledge base, and a FAQ library.
General Aspects
Although FatCow costs a few dollars more per year it is easily the better choice. Its plan has unlimited bandwidth, domains, and space while AN Hosting only offers specific and limited amounts of these components. Several customer online reviews mentioned that AN Hosting offers additional space, domains, and bandwidth for additional money. While the additional cost was generally low for each add-on, around $3.00 per month, bringing the level of service up to match FatCow would soon cost much more than the FatCow basic plan. FatCow also has more extensive customer support including tutorials and FAQ library.
Fatcow Website: http://www.fatcow.com
