AISO is a green web hosting company that prides themselves on being very eco-friendly. They’ve been around since 1997 and have since become one of the most trusted names in “green” web hosting. Their years of experience in their field combined with their solid customer support system have served their largely-American customer base well over nearly two decades.
Features and Ease of Use
Unlike most purportedly eco-friendly companies, AISO does not buy carbon credits from an off-site solar panel farm. Instead, they’ve invested heavily into their on-site solar array, which fully powers their Californian-based data center.
In fact, pretty much every bit of their data center is eco-friendly, from recyclable insulation materials to energy-efficient green processors. While most data centers in the U.S. have PUE’s of 2.0 to 3.0, AISO has a PUE of 1.13, which means they’re highly effective and efficient in their power usage.
Of course, if being eco-friendly were their only unique selling point, there wouldn’t be much to recommend. Not only is AISO eco-friendly, but they also have a range of high-performance hosting solutions for your business needs.
Let’s start with their Linux-based shared hosting plans. Every shared hosting package comes with a 99.99% uptime guarantee — almost unheard of in the industry.
Along with that, you get automatic backups every few hours and 24/7 monitoring, which will come in particularly handy if you’re planning on setting up an open-source CMS with potentially buggy third-party apps, such as WordPress. Of course, they also have an app installer, so setting up WordPress, Joomla!, and hundreds of other popular applications can be easily done with just a few clicks.
AISO also has a “no overselling” policy, which means they cap all of their shared hosting servers at 50% capacity. This ensures that you get optimal server performance despite having to share your server with other users. Overall, the security, reliability, and performance of AISO’s shared hosting servers are top-notch.
However, the resources offered with their shared hosting plans are not as extraordinary. Their entry-level LinuxTiny shared hosting plan starts you off with:
- 1GB SSD storage
- 1GB email storage
- 5GB bandwidth
- Only one hosted website per account
- One database
The limitations on storage and bandwidth felt rather restrictive. It’s enough if you’re hosting a basic and mostly static website, but you may encounter problems if you have lots of multimedia, or if you get a decent amount of traffic. Also, you only get one website per account, which may be a problem if you’re a business owner intending on launching different websites for multiple product lines.
That said, it was nice that they separated web storage from email storage, so stuff in your inbox doesn’t eat into your website’s data storage capacity. Also, this entry-level package does come with a free website migration service, which was a nice perk.
Linux 3, their highest-tier shared hosting plan, affords you much more flexibility and a few solid premium features, namely:
- 20GB SSD storage
- 20GB email storage
- 400GB bandwidth
- 75 hosted websites per account
- 20 databases
- Enhanced server acceleration via LiteSpeed Web Server
- WordPress caching integration module
For most small to mid-sized business needs, this plan is certainly more than sufficient. In addition to these features, you will also be upgraded to a premium shared hosting server. This simply means that there are fewer websites per server, resulting in even better server performance.
AISO also has reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server packages available.
Pricing and Support
AISO isn’t as cheap as other web hosting providers, but their prices are still affordable. This is the trade-off for opting for a “green” web hosting solution.
Do note that with all but one of their shared hosting packages, the prices listed on their website are only applicable if you opt for a three-year contract. This seems like a fairly heavy commitment for most startups and small businesses, but when it’s all totalled up, the cost actually isn’t that steep.
Further, they offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all shared hosting plans. If you’re ever unsatisfied with their services and wish to cancel within the 30 days, they’ll give you a pro-rated refund for the unused services.
With AISO’s cloud VPS hosting plans, you can scale your plan up or down at any time. They also have a pay-as-you-go billing system, so you don’t have to pay for any resources you don’t require.
AISO offers support via live chat, email, phone, and a support ticket system. Their support team is entirely U.S.-based, which has its pros and cons: it’s excellent if you’re based in the U.S. and want highly knowledgeable technical support without having to go through a language barrier, but not so great if you’re a foreigner employing their services. They also have FAQs and a fairly comprehensive knowledge base you can use to diagnose your own account issues.
