Since its founding in 1995 – which is a long time for a company in the hosting industry – ScanNet has registered more than 60,000 domains. This Danish company owns its own data centers in Denmark and provides its website in Danish (although you can also access support in English).
Features and Ease of Use
ScanNet offers a comprehensive selection of hosting services, and as standard, its shared hosting plans come with the following core features:
- Uptime of 99% and above
- Daily backups to an external location
- Free .dk domain for one year
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
- 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, or 10GB disk space
- Unlimited email accounts
What’s nice (and actually quite rare) is that ScanNet owns its own data centers in Jutland, Denmark. While one data center is used for hosting data, the other is used as a redundant center for backups.
ScanNet only uses robust Dell and Cisco hardware, which means its infrastructure is built with reputable branded equipment. The infrastructure is redundant, with three fiber connections and a 10Gbps capacity for intensive data tasks. Uniquely, this company has an on-site shop for spare parts. Since it has such good infrastructure, it surprises me that ScanNet only offers an uptime commitment of 99% that is not backed by a service level agreement for shared hosting. After confirming with customer service, I was advised that the company only offers an uptime SLA on server products.
This provider offers four shared hosting plans that come with unlimited bandwidth and FTP access. The lowest Mini plan comes with few (if any) value-added features, so you need to upgrade to the Standard, Pro, or Complete plans to get ASP.NET or PHP, a CMS on-click installer, and MySQL or Microsoft SQL databases. In all cases, the website building tool costs extra.
In addition to the good selection of shared hosting plans, ScanNet also provides cloud and virtual servers for those who want to scale their online presence.
Pricing and Support
ScanNet’s prices are expensive compared to international providers, but this is not unusual for Danish companies. The premium prices buy you into a company that owns its data center (albeit with a lower-than-expected uptime).
You can easily get started with their 30-day free trial. Simply create an online account, and you’ll be sent an email straight away with instructions on how to get started. No credit card is needed to access the free trial. Once you’re ready to take the plunge properly, plans can be purchased on annual terms, but you’ll also have to buy a domain for two years unless you are buying a .dk domain. ScanNet does not offer a money-back guarantee, but you do have 14 days to cancel your plan.
You can access ScanNet’s customer support by telephone or live chat during extended business hours on weekdays. The website optimistically offers a “12 second” response time to inquiries, which they did not live up to when I contacted them by live chat. The operator picked up within ten minutes and answered my query after a few minutes of me waiting on the line. As well as various ways to get in touch, you can also review the articles and guides on their website or create a request for remote support with TeamViewer.
