Malaysia Web Hosting

Vodien Web Hosting Review

Having good web hosting is something that is important to my web sites. I’m based in Malaysia, but my websites serve people from all around the world. There are many web hosts around, but it’s actually hard to find a good web host, much less the best web host, because everyone has different opinions and faces different issues when dealing with their web host.

Since 2003, I’ve tried more than 10 web hosting services, and finally found what I think is the best web hosting service, which is Vodien, one of the leading Singapore web hosting companies.

I’m sharing the following details about my experience with this web hosting company, and hopefully you can find a similar web hosting company that’s right for your needs.

Control Panel that allows easy WordPress installations and management

I run 14 different websites, and some of them are running on WordPress and other platforms, so I need a user-friendly control panel that allows me to easily install and manage WordPress and my MySQL databases. Besides that, I also use .htaccess alot, so that’s another prerequisite beside the standard PHP and MySQL.

Vodien offers cPanel, which is a powerful but simple-to-use control panel. It also has Fantastico pre-installed, which is a software that allows you to install numerous scripts very easily. It has a total of more than 52 scripts that it offers instant installation for, and it keeps up-to-date with the latest versions of the scripts, so that you can use the latest versions of the script. These scripts cover almost all the usages that you can think of, including forums, blogs, classifieds, CMS, customer support, mailing lists, and so on.

Generous Diskspace

I use a total of 150mb, mostly of which are the images that I uploaded. In the near future, I foresee this increasing, and so I need a host that offers huge diskspace. I don’t need gigabytes’ worth, but there should at least be a gigabyte worth of storage.

When considering your web host, plan not just for your current needs, but your future needs as well. You may not need the diskspace now, but it might be something that you’ll require a few months down the road.

Generous Data Transfer

The problem with bandwidth and data transfer is that it costs money. You simply can’t expect a web host to offer unlimited data transfer for a basic web hosting plan that costs a few dollars. Bandwidth costs a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, and if a web host is marketing itself as offering unlimited bandwidth, then you should be wary.

Vodien has an “unmetered” policy when it comes to data transfer for its basic web hosting plans. Under their Terms of Service, it states that resource usage is based on a Fair Use policy, so that noone is allowed to abuse their accounts.

So far, I’ve had very good communications with their support team, and there was once when I had an important launch that saw over 3000 visitors accessing my website simultaneously. The support staff helped me with some optimizations on my website, and during the launch, I had zero problems with it.

24/7 Super Support Service

I consider this one of the most important areas for me when I’m considering a web host. I don’t even consider a web hosting company that does not offer 24/7 customer support. Vodien offers this, and a 6-hour guaranteed resolution of the problem (not just response!), and actually lives up to their promise.

Because of the difference in timezones, customer support offered around the clock is something that I absolutely need. I don’t want to have a problem at 11pm, and not be able to contact my web host. This is one point about Vodien that I love. Here are some of the correspondence that I had with their support team:

Email Support

Time sent: 1:00am (GMT +6)
Reply time: 1:14am (GMT +6)

My question:

Hi,

One of my staff have complained that they didn’t receive the emails that a customer sent out today at around 2pm. Her email address was diane.****@*******.com. Could you help me check please? Thanks.

Vodien’s reply:

Hi,

2010-09-23 14:36:55 [10213] 1OyfQN-0002e2-DM => diane.**** F=<********@*******.com> P=<********@*******.com> R=virtual_user T=virtual_userdelivery S=3042 QT=0s DT=0s

I checked from the email logs, and found that the email was delivered to her POP3 account. Did she check in her outlook junk folder?

At 2.37pm, Diane has also used her outlook to download the email to her desktop.

Sep 23 14:37:52 bear dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=, method=PLAIN
Sep 23 14:37:54 bear dovecot: POP3(diane.****@*******.com): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=2/37751, del=2/2, size=37716, bytes=56/37965

Phone Support

Time called: 2:00am (GMT +6)

Me: Hi, I’m calling to ask if your shared hosting plans allow for multiple domains to be hosted?
Vodien: Sure, that’s one of the features of our plans.
Me: How many domains can be hosted like that?
Vodien: You can host an unlimited number of domains on one account, however, all of them will share a common cPanel login.
Me: Okay, great! Thanks for the info, I’ll consider and get back to you.
Vodien: No problems, have a nice day.

Support is one key area that I suggest you seriously consider in finding a web host. In fact, you should try contacting your web host via email or phone, and not just see if they reply quickly, but how well their response answers your questions/issues. I like Vodien’s support because they always manages to solve any problems that I have very quickly.

Go to Vodien‘s website

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