FatCow targets new website owners and makes a compelling case for their product. They take away a lot of the stress of selecting the features that are right for you by offering a single all-inclusive plan. FatCow appears to be one of the best prices for beginner web hosting on the market, with a very low introductory rate.
Read our in-depth review to see if FatCow is the right host for you.
This in-depth review of FatCow will put their claims to the test. We will look into the following:
Reliability: Will your website be available 24/7 or there is chance of downtime in the middle of the night or on the weekend?
Performance: When hosted by FatCow, how quickly will your website load?
Pricing: Do they offer competitive prices? If there are any discounts available for FatCow?
Customer Support: Is FatCow reliable when you need immediate assistance with your website?
Features: Do they provide everything you need to create a website?
This is a comprehensive analysis of FatCow, which looks at the hosting service in a great deal of detail. If you don’t have the time to read our full review of FatCow’s hosting services, here is a scorecard that summarises our findings and concludes with our recommendation.
FatCow Review Summary
Performance grade B
Average load time 2seconds
Free Domain Yes
Support Phone/Live chat/Knowledge base
About FatCow
The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company FatCow is a web hosting service that was established in the year 1998. One and only one shared hosting plan is provided by the company, and it is targeted towards novice webmasters like those who run small businesses. Endurance International Group completed the acquisition of FatCow in the year 2007.
Pros and Cons of FatCow
Every web host has both advantages and disadvantages. In some cases, the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks, but in others, certain drawbacks may be a deal breaker.
Before making a final decision, you should weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using FatCow.
Let us begin with the advantages.
Pros of FatCow:
- Easy to use: FatCow web hosting provides hands-on experience. It provides numerous features in a single hosting plan. You do not need to install any additional security tools for your website. FatCow manages your website’s security and updates it on a regular basis. The interface is simple to use, and the tools are simple to understand. If you get stuck while developing a website, you can contact the support team for assistance. The dashboard interface is also simple to use. It also allows you to modify the SMTP support settings.
- Great pricing: In terms of pricing, there is a web hosting plan to suit every budget. You can select a basic plan if you need a website for a startup. You can also have your plan customised for advanced features and business expansion. The FatCow hosting reviews below provide a comprehensive overview of all the hosting plans, allowing you to select the best one.
- Powered by wind energy: The fact that FatCow is owned by EIG may be a deal breaker for you if you are at all concerned about how corporations treat their employees and customers. This is something that can be understood, but FatCow does have some qualities that are very unlike those of a corporation. To be more specific, they have a green seal that validates the fact that they are entirely powered by wind energy. They are able to accomplish this by investing a total of 200% of their capital in renewable energy certificates. This offsets the power consumption that occurs in all of their data centres, servers, and offices.
- Free advertising platforms: Getting started with FatCow, just like with the vast majority of other web hosts owned by EIG, results in the accumulation of a large number of digital advertising credits. This comes with a free listing on YellowPage.com as well as $100 in advertising credits that can be used on either Bing or AdWords. YellowPage.com has seen better days, and the usefulness of online directories has been called into question, but there’s no denying that free is free.
- Amazing technology: This web hosting company is distinguished from others in a number of ways, one of which is the cutting-edge technology it employs for website hosting. Wind energy, which utilises additional green credentials, is used to power the device. It provides connections of multiple GB per second and has a very high uptime. It provides daily backups of the server to ensure that there are no problems with your website. FatCow gives you access to the most advanced technology, which not only improves performance but also lowers energy consumption. It provides hosting that is both stable and secure, and the speed is satisfactory. You can have confidence in the technology that FatCow provides.
Cons of FatCow Hosting:
- Slow page loading: FatCow hosting, as the name implies, is not fast. In fact, for the last few years, page load times have consistently been far below the industry average. Whereas the industry average page load time is around 700ms, FatCow averages more than 1300ms. That is extremely slow and may be detrimental to your website. It can not only harm your search engine rankings, but it can also significantly increase your visitor bounce rate. With such slow servers, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to take advantage of the unlimited bandwidth they promise you when you sign up.
- No cPanel: FatCow uses a custom control panel instead of cPanel. While this isn’t necessarily a disadvantage, it is a departure from industry practise. This is something to think about if you are used to cPanel or if you intend to take advantage of the abundance of cPanel help resources available on the internet. This is also something to think about if you intend to leave FatCow in the future; some webhosts will only transfer your website from another webhosting company that also uses cPanel.
- High renewable rates: The introductory pricing at FatCow is fantastic, and you can lock it in for up to three years if you pay in advance. However, once that period is over, be prepared for some serious sticker shock. FatCow’s annual pricing jumps from $49 to $155 in a single calendar turn, taking it from a low-cost hosting company to one of the more expensive options on the market. We are now willing to pay premium prices for premium services. However, as the rest of our review will show, FatCow falls far short of being considered premium.
- No dedicated servers or VPS: FatCow provides only one type of hosting, shared hosting. Sure, this removes a lot of the analysis paralysis from the initial decision-making process, but it can also be detrimental to existing customers who are experiencing rapid growth. They are alienating entire audiences that require or may require dedicated servers or VPS lines by not offering these services.
- Less than average uptime: Overall, EIG-owned webhosts don’t have the best track record when it comes to uptime averages. While FatCow does not have the worst uptime average we’ve ever seen, it is below average, which should be of concern to any potential customer. FatCow barely scrapes by with 99.9% uptime, falling short half of the time. To put things into perspective, most webhosting companies offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which means they will issue partial refunds for any downtime that exceeds the allotted 15 hours of downtime per year. FatCow makes no such guarantee, and their track record isn’t particularly encouraging.
- Unnecessary upsells: While we applaud FatCow for making their services very clear at first glance, it’s a different story when it comes time to check out. Prepare to be bombarded with small extras written in terribly confusing language. Be careful not to pay for their “WordPress hosting”, which is a terribly cryptic way of saying that you can pay them to pre-install some mediocre plugins that you could otherwise find for free. Also, be cautious before purchasing Google Apps or Automatic Daily Backups. This is a huge turn off for those in the know. Offering these add-ons as “services” amounts to nothing more than preying on inexperienced users.
- Poor customer service: FatCow also provides phone, email ticket, and live chat support for problems that cannot be solved using the DIY resources (of which there are many). While this variety of options is commendable, the turnaround time for all three channels is not. Expect to wait about 15 minutes on hold or in the queue for chat support, and up to a day for an e-mail response. To make matters worse, it appears that customer service representatives are primarily trained as salespeople rather than support staff. Here are some of the upsells you can expect to decline if you decide to join FatCow.
FatCow Performance
When selecting a web host, cost is frequently a primary consideration, but you should never put performance considerations on the back burner.
Because of this, we made the decision to conduct our own tests in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of FatCow’s performance.
FatCow Speed Test Results
When looking for important performance metrics, speed should be prioritised as one of the most important metrics to consider. A faster website not only improves the user experience, but it also improves your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
In fact, a one-second delay can result in a 15% decrease in customer satisfaction, a 6% decrease in conversions, and a 10% decrease in page views. A single second can bring about all of these changes.
The performance of our tests was evaluated using Pingdom’s website speed testing tool. As a result of the situation, we obtained the following results:
As you can see, our test site took 2seconds in load.
FatCow Hosting Plans and Features
The original FatCow plan: This is the most basic web hosting plan available on FatCow, similar to Shared hosting. With an introductory rate of $4.08/month, this plan is an excellent choice for those looking to start a blog. This hosting plan includes everything you need, including site-building tools, 1-click installation, email, and excellent customer service. You also get a free domain name for the first year. It also provides unrestricted disc space and bandwidth. You also get spam filtering, daily server backups, a customizable cPanel, Google and Bing advertising credits, and much more. FatCow’s hosting service is dependable and offers optimised services for your website.
WordPress Hosting: WordPress hosting is ideal for a business or personal website. WP Starter ($3.75/month) and WP Essential ($6.95/month) are the two WordPress plans offered by FatCow. Both plans include a slew of extras. You’ll benefit from a personalised control panel with pre-installed themes and plugins. WP Essential plan provides super-fast performance as well as enhanced security features. It also provides complete backup support. Both plans also allow you to manage email settings from the screen, which is a bonus.
Domain Parking: Domain Parking, also known as the MiniMoo plan, is a popular option for independent website owners. It provides full access to email, website creation, and other management tools. The plan includes webmail as well as affiliated partnerships. The domain parking plan includes a customizable control panel and live chat support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The best part about the MiniMoo plan is the price, which is $5 for the first year. The plan starts with a nominal amount if you compare it with other hosting plans. The sign-up process is simple, and you can have a website up and running in a matter of minutes. If you need a placeholder for multiple domains, this plan is ideal.
VPS Hosting: VPS Hosting is a high-performance hosting plan that is ideal for business growth. This plan includes customizable configurations as well as no overage billing. All VPS plans provide enhanced control and cloud-based flexibility. It also has excellent support features and great resources. With this web hosting, you also get fantastic backup. Personalized email services, free marketing services, and free domain name registration are also available. The Basic Tier Plan includes instant deployment, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth. This VPS hosting plan is ideal if you require additional benefits for your website, and it starts at $19.99 per month.
The Business Tier Plan comes with 90 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM, and 3TB of bandwidth. This plan is $47.99 per month. The Optimum Tier Plan comes with 8 GB of RAM and 120 GB of storage. It also has a flexible bandwidth for expansion and costs $79.99 per month.
Dedicated Hosting: Dedicated server hosting is ideal for large businesses that require more space and flexibility for their website. The dedicated plan is divided into three tiers. The Startup Plan costs $119.99 per month and includes 4 GB of RAM and 500 GB of storage. It also supports 5 TB of bandwidth. You can choose a Professional Plan with 8 GB RAM and 1000 GB storage for your professional website. It costs $151.99 per month and provides 10 GB of bandwidth. The Enterprise Plan comes with 16 GB of RAM and 1000 GB of storage. The plan starts at $191.99 per month and includes 15 TB of bandwidth.
FatCow’s Customer Support and Service
Customer service can be difficult to evaluate, but there are some key indicators of how seriously a company takes its customer service department. For one thing, if a company has invested in developing a robust library of self-help resources and troubleshooting guides, it is usually a good sign. FatCow’s user guides are primarily concerned with getting your website up and running, rather than more advanced topics or troubleshooting issues.
FatCow also provides 24/7 phone, email ticket, and live chat support for problems that cannot be solved using the DIY resources (of which there are many). While this variety of options is commendable, the turnaround time for all three channels is not. Expect to wait about 15 minutes on hold or in the queue for chat support, and up to a day for an e-mail response. To make matters worse, it appears that customer service representatives are primarily trained as salespeople rather than support staff.
Bottom Line
FatCow could be a great short-term option for someone looking to test out a variety of things across multiple domains, but their services aren’t particularly dependable. Slow page load times and mediocre uptime may be tolerable for the low introductory price, but these flaws become severely damaging when the renewal rates are considered. We recommend them for very specific short-term needs with a limited budget.