Based in Japan, Value-server is a web hosting provider owned by GMO DigiRock. It specializes in shared hosting and domain registration delivered through its in-house data center in Tokyo, Japan.
The website is a little jumbled and entirely in Japanese, but it’s still quite informative. All prices are presented in Japanese yen.
Features and Ease of Use
Value-server offers four shared hosting plans — Marutto, Eco, Standard, and Business. They differ mainly in storage, monthly bandwidth, domains, subdomains, and email accounts.
Here’s a quick breakdown of value-server’s SSD storage capacity:
- Marutto: 25 GB
- Eco: 50 GB
- Standard: 100 GB
- Business: 400 GB
All plans come with these features as standard:
- Custom control panel
- SSH access
- Cron jobs
- Free SSL certificate
Value-server has its own web-based custom control panel that has a user-friendly interface and several built-in tools to help you manage your website without any advanced technical skills.
Cron jobs allow you to save time and set your website tasks to be automatically executed. All you need to do is input the tasks in the tool, set the time for each task to start, and leave the rest to cron jobs.
SSH access lets you reach your control panel remotely, from any device, anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately, Value-server doesn’t offer one-click installations. However, you can easily install WordPress with a few clicks from the main section of the control panel. There’s even a detailed guide on the website on how to install WordPress.
Pricing and Support
The features provided by Value-server’s plans come at quite affordable prices. The average monthly cost will differ based on your chosen contract period. You have the flexibility to opt for monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual billing, except for the Marutto plan, which mandates an annual subscription.
Although there isn’t a money-back guarantee, Value-server does offer a 10-day free-trial (except with Marutto), and you can pay via credit/debit card, Yahoo Wallet, WebMoney, bank transfer, and postal transfer.
The website is packed with information and has a hefty knowledge base that contains articles and guides, as well as a FAQ section covering most major topics. You can contact customer support through live chat and ticket support. Sadly, live chat is rarely available. It could be because of the time zone difference, but I couldn’t get through to them no matter what time I tried. I hope you have better luck with it.
I submitted a ticket to support with all my questions, and more than a week later, I still have no answer.