Magic Nines offers Linux-only hosting services, ranging from shared hosting to reseller packages and even dedicated server packages. They also do domain registration and are primarily focused on delivering affordable and yet reliable hosting solutions for small business to enterprise users. They are based in South Africa.
The Hosting Package
Small Linux web hosting package starts at $12.50 per year and includes 100 MB of disk space, 1000 MB bandwidth, 1 MySQL database and 1 FTP account. Their next package costs $25 per year and covers 500 MB web hosting space, 5000 MB bandwidth, 1 FTP account and 5 MySQL databases. The next package is pegged at $37.50 per year and covers 1000 MB of disk space, 10000 MB bandwidth, 10 FTP accounts and 10 MySQL databases. Their most expensive package is at $75 per year and covers 2500 MB of disk space, 25000 MB bandwidth, 15 FTP accounts and 25 MySQL databases.
What’s Great About Magic Nines?
- Fantastico script included
Fantastico script is already included in their package and is very useful to have since it is a single click script that will make installation and setup a breeze.
- cPanel control panel available as add on
cPanel is one of the, if not the most, popular option for control panel user interfaces. It is nice to know that Magic Nines offers this as an add on, on top of their existing packages.
- Automatic back up
Automatic backup is always nice to have since it will definitely give you peace of mind whenever you do data transfers or suddenly experience service interruption. At least you will not panic that all of your precious data will be instantly lost.
- Cheap packages
Do a quick comparison to their competitors and you can easily see that Magic Nines is one of the cheapest hosting providers out there. Although they price their packages on a yearly basis, if you compute on a monthly cashout, then it comes out a lot cheaper than the others.
What’s Disappointing About Magic Nines?
✖ No support for Windows
The single biggest negative point against Magic Nines is their lack of support for the Windows operating system. While most web developers really prefer Linux over Windows, it still is a downer that they do not have support for Windows. After all, Windows followers are still a significant amount out there.
✖ Customer service can be improved
This may be a consequence of the frequent downtimes thatMagic Nines subscribers experience – it takes some time before the customer support is able to attend to your trouble tickets filed. This also goes the same for the phone calls that are being routed to their customer support staff.
The Bottom line
Do not be fooled by the cheap price – if you are seriously considering a long term partnership with a web hosting provider, go look for other more reputable hosting solutions provider that can give you full, consistent performance and excellent customer service experiences. But if you want to try out a cheap hosting provider without catastrophic results, then you can go ahead and try Magic Nines.
By: Joseph
Date: May 18, 2011
Once, my computer just crashed…
Once, my computer just crashed instantly and I was really worried with my data. It was a good thing that Magic Nines have an automatic backup. I seriously thought that every data I’ve made that time will be lost since I’d be gone crazy if it did. That’s one of the main reasons why I’m a serious fan of Magic Nines. It has always been very reliable and very affordable as well. I’ve been telling my clients and friends about how great Magic Nines is. However, I don’t expect too much from their customer support. Once, I asked about the CPanel control panel since I was having a hard time with some keys. Not that they aren’t friendly at all, it’s just that they’re not that helpful. In the end, they weren’t able to provide the answers. I think they have to choose their employees wisely or train them rigorously.
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