CoolHandle provides hassle-free shared hosting, hosting for WordPress websites, and reseller hosting, all of which are supported by a support team that is highly experienced and available around the clock.
This in-depth review of CoolHandle will put their claims to the test. We will investigate 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 CoolHandle, how quickly will your website load?
Pricing: Do they offer competitive prices? If there are any discounts available for CoolHandle?
Customer Support: Is CoolHandle 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 CoolHandle, 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 CoolHandle’s hosting services, here is a scorecard that summarises our findings and concludes with our recommendation.
CoolHandle Review Summary
Performance grade A
Average load time 500ms
Free SSL No
Free domain name Yes
Moneyback guarantee 30 days
Support Phone/Chat/Knowledge base
About CoolHandle
This hosting company was founded in 2001 by a group of IT professionals interested in getting into the website hosting business. The site operated independently for several years before being purchased by ProNetHosting in 2010, and has since been a part of ProNet’s team. The site is managed by a support team from both the original and new companies. CoolHandle is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
Pros and Cons of CoolHandle
Every web host has both benefits and drawbacks. In some cases, the advantages may outweigh the disadvantages, but in others, certain disadvantages may be a deal breaker.
Before making a final decision, consider the advantages and disadvantages of using CoolHandle.
Let’s start with the advantages.
- Great speed: When compared to other hosting sites, CoolHandle is faster than most. You might even be surprised by the speed, which is one of the best features you get when you sign up. The high levels of speed are due to CoolHandle’s extensive redundancy and use of some of the best networks to avoid lag time. Because the company is headquartered in Los Angeles alongside twelve of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, you get a system that is more reliable than you might expect. Furthermore, CoolHandle uses multiple Tier-1 upstream providers, which means that it can avoid outages and spikes in online traffic to ensure that you get the same level of speed and quality regardless of the situation.
- Multiple domain transfer: If you are in the business of buying and selling domain names, CoolHandle makes it extremely simple. The prices are reasonable, and the company understands domains, so you could benefit greatly if that is something you are interested in. You can currently register up to 18 domains with the site.
- Excellent scaling ability: When it comes to operating a website, you generally start small and get bigger as you generate more traffic. CoolHandle does a great job of allowing you to upgrade your web page incrementally so that you can keep up with demand. To start, the hosting packages are wonderfully tiered, and once you are ready to move on to VPS and dedicated hosting, you can do so remarkably easily. Even though each section has only three tiers to choose from, you get as much as you need with each service.
- Bonus function: If you run your business on Linux, you will be delighted with the programming features provided by CoolHandle. All new users receive a free copy of the Fantastico script, which allows you to load WordPress, Image Gallery, OSCommerce, and other programmes. The website is also compatible with Zen Shopping Cart, Ruby on Rails, Python, and PHP5. If you’re interested, you can even get a free search engine optimization package. Another advantage of CoolHandle is that it uses the popular cPanel to manage your website, which is far superior to attempting to manage it through a proprietary system.
Cons of CoolHandle:
- Pricing: CoolHandle, like all hosting sites, rewards you for signing up for a long-term stay. That means that if you pay month to month, you will pay more, but if you choose a six or twelve-month package, you may pay a lot less overall. The plan pricing ranges from $29.95 for the basic package to $49.95 for the Pro setup when purchased one month at a time. When it comes to VPS plans, you can expect to pay anywhere from $49.95 to $149.95. If you opt for a long-term plan, you could end up paying as little as $4.95 per month. This is a fantastic price, but it does mean that you are locked into the service for a longer period of time, which means that if you have any issues or want to switch hosts, you are out of luck. Overall, the pricing structure is not terrible, but it is more expensive than similar sites with better support systems.
- Difficulty in moneyback: CoolHandle also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, but some users have reported difficulties obtaining a refund while still within that time frame. This is due in part to the inconsistency of the customer service team, but it is concerning that a website would have this issue in the first place.
- Poor customer support: Overall, customer service is mediocre at best and appalling at worst. The most frustrating aspect is that there doesn’t appear to be much consistency, which is why some of the reviews are so diametrically opposed. If you contact support, they can be friendly and helpful, and they can solve your problem quickly. However, there will be times when you do not receive a response for an extended period of time, which can be frustrating.
CoolHandle Performance
When choosing a web host, cost is frequently the most important factor to consider, but performance should never be overlooked.
As a result, we decided to conduct our own tests in order to conduct a thorough analysis of CoolHandle’s performance.
CoolHandle Speed Test Results:
One of the most important performance metrics to consider when looking for important performance metrics is speed. A faster website not only improves the user experience, but it also improves your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
For example, a one-second delay can result in a 15% drop in customer satisfaction, a 6% drop in conversions, and a 10% drop in page views. All of these changes can happen in a split second.
To assess the performance of our tests, we used Pingdom’s website speed testing tool. We obtained the following results as a result of the circumstances:
As you can see, it loaded in less than a second (500 milliseconds, to be exact).
It’s a fantastic speed.
CoolHandle Plans and Features
CoolHandle’s prices are definitely in line with the market – in fact, they’re on the lower end of the spectrum when you consider the features and resources included with each package. All of their plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. New customers are entitled to introductory rates, which will be increased when their hosting accounts are renewed.
CoolHandle has a diverse team of hosting experts, support technicians, system administrators, and WordPress experts on staff who can handle and resolve problems quickly. Their team is highly trained and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to assist you with website transfers, database migration, account optimization, and OS deployment. You can contact them through their website’s contact form or the client area. Unfortunately, they do not offer live chat or telephone support.
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, check out their extensive Help Center, which includes how-to guides and video tutorials on topics such as website management, database setup, and webmail management, among others.
CoolHandle Customer Support and Service
One of the most common complaints about this company is that customer service is not always available and can be ineffective at times. The website claims to have 24/7 service providers, but a test of that claim reveals that it is mostly false.
On the one hand, calling the support team usually results in a quick response. However, the site’s ticket and chat systems are where things really go wrong. Support members appear to log on and off at random times, implying that the site lacks a large dedicated team to handle any problems.
Overall, customer service is mediocre at best and appalling at worst. The most frustrating aspect is that there doesn’t appear to be much consistency, which is why some of the reviews are so diametrically opposed. If you contact support, they can be friendly and helpful, and they can solve your problem quickly. However, there will be times when you do not receive a response for an extended period of time, which can be frustrating.
Finally, while the site does provide some video tutorials to assist customers in resolving common issues, the library of information is limited and does not assist with complex issues, which means that even if you know what you’re doing, you may have difficulty fixing significant bugs.
Bottom Line
CoolHandle is a good web hosting service, but there are better options.
If you had to choose a hosting service for your website, you would be wise to look into other options and compare prices and features. While this isn’t to say that signing up with CoolHandle is a bad idea, it does mean that there are so many other hosting sites with better services and more value that it somewhat defeats the purpose of this one. If you’ve already signed up with this site, don’t feel obligated to switch, especially if you’re happy with the service.