Founded in 2004, Antagonist primarily delivers web hosting services to customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. They’re headquartered in the Netherlands and most communication with them happens in Dutch, but upon request their customer service can also answer all your questions in English. Although they only serve two countries, Antagonist has a sizable customer base spanning over 100,000 customers.
Features and Ease of Use
Antagonist has focused their services to shared and reseller hosting. Their shared hosting come in three pre-made plans: Smart, Plus, and Pro. The entry-level Smart plan affords its users the following:
- 100GB of SSD storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- SSL certification
- Unlimited email accounts
- SSH access
- One domain name registration
- Backups
I thought the generous SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and free SSL certificate was a nice touch for an affordable entry-level package. Plus, they offer free website migration if you already have a domain hosted with a different provider — a service that would sometimes cost you an extra fee with hosting providers. Their one-click app installer allows you to easily set up over 75 of the most popular platforms, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, MediaWiki, and OpenCart.
One of the lesser-known perks about Antagonist is that their servers are located in the Netherlands, which means the country’s data protection and privacy laws apply. This will be particularly appealing to individuals living in countries where freedom of speech is an issue, or to businesses who are concerned about governmental authorities performing unwarranted seizures of their data.
With 99.9% uptime and 24/7 monitoring of their platform, Antagonist’s server performance is on point.
Pricing and Support
When you take into account the multitude of bonus features included in their hosting packages, Antagonist’s prices are undeniably appealing. Transitioning between plans is also incredibly straightforward with Antagonist; it only takes a few minutes to complete the process once you get in touch with their support team. Upgrades are implemented instantly, whereas downgrades become active at the start of the subsequent billing period. However, it’s important to note that this internal migration service is not provided for free. In fact, it comes at a considerable cost. Nevertheless, if you have numerous databases, existing email accounts, and personalized settings, this option may prove to be a convenient choice.
I can easily say that Antagonist has one of the most genuine customer support teams. When I contacted them, they took the time to specifically answer all of my questions — it was clear that they had not just stuck to pre-written scripted replies. They guarantee a response time of under four hours to any submitted tickets, and if you flag it as urgent, they’ll respond to it immediately. You can reach them via email, live chat, Facebook, Twitter, and their forum.
