FastDomain Review

FastDomain offers shared hosting plans for people on a budget. It provides simple services more suitable for beginner users with smaller web pages who only need minimal support.

FastDomain has been providing hosting services for over ten years - this company is in the market since 2005. Currently, it belongs to the EIG (Endurance International Group) along with other hosting providers such as HostGator, BigRock and iPage.

But let's see if the long experience has made this provider a great choice for new customers. In this FastDomain review, I'll be testing out its services and see how it really performs. Perhaps this can be your next hosting provider?

What is FastDomain?

FastDomain is a hosting company providing only a few services: shared hosting, domain names, and SSL certificates. 

If you are looking for dedicated or VPS hosting plans you won’t be able to get it here. This is a provider for small websites to get a simple and quick start. It could mean a strong focus on one type of service and therefore, an exceptional performance.

However, right after taking a look at FastDomain's homepage, I'm getting doubts about the quality of these services...

Honestly, you might start wondering if this provider is still doing business.

And the outdated design is one thing. The other one is how confusing the navigation is. For example, to find the prices and details of the plans you have to dig around until you find them under the "Help Center". Not very intuitive, is it?

But let's not judge a book by its cover. This FastDomain review is here to find out how good are the web hosting services. So, let's take a closer look at the pricing, features, and overall performance.

FastDomain Pricing

FastDomain has two plans for shared hosting: Basic (starting from $5.95) and (Pro starting from $15.99/mo). These are the promoted prices valid for the first term. And monthly cost differs based on the term length  - you'd get the cheapest deal when subscribing for the longest term of 3 years.

To get this FastDomain review going, let's take a quick look at these plans:

• Basic – This plan starts at $5.95/mo (when subscribing for at least a 2-year billing cycle). Offers 50 GB disk space and unmetered bandwidth. The regular pricing for this plan will be $8.99/mo.
• Pro – The plan starts at $15.99/mo for a 36-month billing cycle. This one has unlimited disk space and bandwidth and you can get as many domains as you want. The regular rate for this plan is $25.49/mo for auto renewal.

Even looking at the promoted prices, this doesn't seem like a very affordable service. Not to mention, that to get the deal, you have to sign up for the 3-year term and pay all the price upfront. For comparison, the nr.1 web hosting provider in our list - Hostinger - has prices twice as low for the advanced plans!

As for the renewals, the prices get even higher. And they follow the same rule where the longer term means a lower monthly cost.

But to get a thorough FastDomain review, let's take a closer look at those plans. Below you can find a table with all the main features to compare both plans:

The websites are administered with cPanel, which is the most intuitive and comfortable option in the market. Another great thing, FastDomain also includes Weebly website builder with both plans. This one is a drag-and-drop builder, favored by many users for its beautiful designs and flexibility.

But there is no assisted website transfer. So if you plan to migrate an already existing website, prepare to spend some time doing it on your own.

As for website security, all the plans have free SSL certificate included. However, you don't get the anti-malware and anti-DDoS protection. Those come as separate products that are automatically added to your cart:

Same thing happens with the automated backups - you need to purchase those separately.

Sure, all of these features are really necessary. But that's a sneaky provider's move to claim 'no hidden fees' and then set premarked boxes in the shopping cart.

Especially, when you know that the best hosting providers simply include those features with the plan.

So overall, FastDomain has some good features. But don't be surprised that the promoted price gets higher as the missing ones are added.

FastDomain Performance

To assess the performance I tested out response time. And it turns out that FastDomain is actually not so fast.

It scored only below average response time. The speeds in the US and UK region are great - getting as fast as 12 ms. But in Japan, the response time gets pretty bad with an 1877 ms of page load time.

But of course, that shouldn't be too strange as this provider has only one server location in the US. And it uses HHD in the servers, so that also doesn't help to improve the speed.

Other than fast response time, you want a good uptime for your website. FastDomain gives a 99.99% uptime guarantee. But what it provides, is 99.92% uptime. And this translates to almost 3 hours of lost time each month!

I must say, the performance evaluation is another not so optimistic part of this FastDomain review.

FastDomain Pros

• Only Two Plans: Well, it could be an advantage or a disadvantage, but with FastDomain you won't be overwhelmed with the options. Here you get simple and easy plans to choose from.
• Good For Entry Level Users: If you are just a beginner, then a simple solution would be a great way to start. FastDomain is geared towards simplicity. And so, it is perfect for beginners.
• 24/7 Support: FastDomain provides technical support available 24/7 via phone or a live chat. So you can reach out whenever you need.

FastDomain Cons

• No Upgrading Option: FastDomain can be useful for startups, but if you want to grow your website it is not the best choice. You won't be able to add any extra feature, and every plan has a fixed amount of resources.
• Below Standard Customer Services: Well, I had one of the worst experiences with live chats here. I asked the agent a bunch of technical questions about the plans. However, the representative didn't even know what he was talking about, and most of his technical information didn't make any sense.
• Absurd Pricing: Compared to all the features it offers, FastDomain has some ridiculously high pricing plans. Moreover, you will find more features with better performance in far cheaper pricing. This is utterly disappointing.
• Confusing Homepage: The website is just too confusing. Finding the relevant information on it is a hectic job. The homepage should represent the company and such website looks simply lazy.

FastDomain Review – The Verdict

Adding all the details of this FastDomain review, it turns out that this is a low-quality provider.

The pricing is rather expensive and considering the lacking features, you'll spend even more to get a functional website. Moreover, the minimal performance makes this hosting very disappointing. It might be a bearable option for beginners but definitely not for the long run.

I would not recommend FastDomain, there are plenty of much better options in the market. Just take a look at our best hosting providers - you'll definitely find something way better!