SA Webhosts was founded by Johann Joubert in 2009. While you might expect the “SA” in this host’s name to refer to its South African origin, you’ll be interested to hear that the company was formally incorporated as “Simply Awesome Webhosting (Pty) Ltd” in 2011.
This host’s English-language website sells shared hosting, virtual servers, domain registration services, and other web-related solutions such as website design, branding, and e-commerce services. Prices are displayed in South African rand, but servers are located in the U.K.
Features and Ease of Use
SA Webhosts offers four shared hosting plans — Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Multi Domain Hosting — which include these features:
- 99.9% server uptime
- Free SSL protection
- Free website builder
- MySQL and CGI scripts
- cPanel control panel
Aimed at casual bloggers and webmasters with small websites, the Silver plan provides 1 GB disk space, five email accounts, one MySQL database, and one parked domain. Small business owners would be better off buying the Gold plan that comes with 5 GB disk space, 10 email accounts, five MySQL databases, and five parked domains.
At the high end, the Platinum and Multi Domain Hosting plans could be good choices for bigger business with heavier traffic; they include unlimited bandwidth/mailboxes/MySQL databases/parked domains and they include a free .co.za domain name. The Platinum plan is better value since it provides unlimited disk space rather than the 20 GB included with the Multi Domain Hosting.
The cPanel control panel lets you manage all aspects of your hosting via a user-friendly interface, and you can easily install content management and other applications such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
One of the best things about SA Webhosts is the free ItSoEzi website builder that comes with all hosting plans. You can use the 300+ templates to create a professional web presence without having to be a professional website designer or developer.
Pricing and Support
While not super-cheap, SA Webhosts’ shared hosting prices are competitive compared with South African peers, especially when you consider that you get a free SSL certificate and a free website builder (plus a free domain on higher plans).
We offer three payment options for your convenience: you can pay by electronic funds transfer, use your credit card, or deposit cash at an ATM. You can select from the following billing cycles: monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual.
You should be able to contact the cutomer support team by email, ticket, or telephone during office hours. I say “should” because my test ticket received no reponse. This wouldn’t be so bad if there were sufficient self-support resources. However, the frequently asked questions are few and the knowledge base is almost bare:
