CoolHandle: A Relevant Host in 2023?
This hosting company was founded in 2001 by a group of IT professionals who wanted to get into the website hosting game. The site ran independently for several years until it was purchased by ProNetHosting in 2010, and has been a part of ProNet’s team ever since. The site is managed by a support group from the original company as well as the new one. CoolHandle is based in Los Angeles, CA.
How Good is CoolHandle Hosting?
When compared to the many other hosting websites out there, CoolHandle does not do anything revolutionary. Although the original team had high aspirations for changing the web hosting game (at least according to their bio), they have yet to deliver on that promise. Nonetheless, you do get what you pay for with this company, so don’t get involved thinking that it will do anything more significant than some of the other hosting sites out there.
Our Official CoolHandleHosting Review
For those of you who are still interested in CoolHandle, read on to see the ins and outs of this hosting company.
Here you will find out about their plans and pricing structure, as well as see what works and doesn’t so that you know what to expect.
Right out of the gate, you’ll that CoolHandle does not deliver on its promise to introduce new gold standards for speed and reliability, so that can be something of a red flag if you’re worried about the company standing behind its word.
Overall, this site seems to try to cater to small businesses, but it doesn’t do a fantastic job of helping anyone who doesn’t already know what they’re doing. Customer support is the biggest complaint of this site, so don’t expect to get your problems solved as quickly or efficiently as with other sites.
Best Features of CoolHandle Hosting
Although this hosting service does not have anything truly remarkable, there are plenty of benefits of joining. Thus, if you do wind up signing up with CoolHandle, you can expect to get everything you pay for and then some. With that in mind, here are the top features of this site.
Fast and Reliable Speeds
When compared to some of the hosting sites out there, CoolHandle is faster than most. You may even be impressed with the speed that you get, which is one of the best features that you get when you sign up.
The reason for the high levels of speed is that CoolHandle has a lot of redundancy built-in and they utilize some of the best networks to avoid lag time. The company is headquartered in LA alongside twelve of the nation’s largest Internet providers, so you get a system that is more reliable than you probably would expect.
Also, CoolHandle utilizes multiple Tier-1 upstream providers, meaning that it can avoid outages and spikes in online traffic to ensure that you get the same level of speed and quality no matter what the situation is like.
Excellent Scaling Ability
When it comes to operating a website, you generally start small and get bigger as you generate more traffic. CoolHandle does a great job of allowing you to upgrade your web page incrementally so that you can keep up with demand. To start, the hosting packages are wonderfully tiered, and once you are ready to move on to VPS and dedicated hosting, you can do so remarkably easily. Even though each section has only three tiers to choose from, you get as much as you need with each service.
Bulk Domain Transfer
If you are in the business of buying and trading domain names CoolHandle makes it super easy to do that through them. The prices are decent, and the company knows how to handle domains so you could benefit greatly if that is something that you’re interested in at all. Right now, you can register up to 18 domains with the site.
Bonus Programs
If you run your company on Linux, then you will be more than satisfied with the programming features that are offered by CoolHandle. All new users get the Fantastico script for free, which enables you to load WordPress, Image Gallery, and OSCommerce, and other programs. The site is also compatible with such programs like Zen Shopping Cart, Ruby on Rails, Python, and PHP5. You can even get a free search engine optimization package for free if you were so inclined.
The other thing that you will like about CoolHandle is that it uses the popular cPanel to allow you to manage your website, which is much better than trying to go through a proprietary system.
Downsides of CoolHandle Hosting
No matter how good a website or service is, there will always be negatives attached to it. In this case, CoolHandle doesn’t have a lot of problems. However, the issues that are prevalent can be enough to turn most people off, so keep that in mind before you join.
Limited Customer Service
One of the biggest complaints about this company is that the customer service is not available often and can be ineffectual at times. On the website, it states that it has 24/7 service providers, but a test of that claim proves it to be mostly false.
On the one hand, if you call the support team you will usually get someone within a short period. However, where things really go downhill is in the site’s ticket and chat system. Support members seem to log on and off at random times, which suggests that the site does not have a large dedicated team for handling any problems.
Overall, customer support is middling at best and terrible at worst. The most frustrating aspect is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency, which is why some of the reviews are such opposites. If you do get in touch with support, they can be friendly and helpful and get your problem solved quickly. However, there will be times where you cannot get a response for a long time which can be frustrating.
Finally, the site does offer some video tutorials to help customers solve common issues, but the library of information is limited and does not help with complex problems, meaning that if you know what you’re doing, then you could have a hard time fixing significant bugs.
Pricing
As with all hosting sites, CoolHandle rewards you for signing up for a long-term stay. That means that if you go month to month, you will be paying more but if you opt for a six or twelve-month package then you could be paying a lot less overall. When you do one month at a time, the plan pricing ranges from $29.95 for the basic package to $49.95 for the Pro setup. When it comes to VPS plans, you will be paying at least $49.95 all the way up to $149.95.
However, if you choose to purchase a long-term plan, you could wind up paying as little as $4.95 per month. This is a stellar price point, but that does mean that you are locked into the service for longer, meaning that if you have any problems or want to switch hosts, you are out of luck.
The site also offers a 30-day money back guarantee, but some users have reported issues with getting a refund while being within that period. This is partially due to the inconsistent customer service team, but it is troubling that a website would have this problem in the first place.
Overall, the pricing structure is not terrible, but it is more expensive than other sites that have similar features and better support systems.
Web Hosting Plan Pricing
| Plan | Starter | Business | Pro |
| Price | $3.95/mo | $4.95/mo | $8.95/mo |
| Storage Space | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Performance | Standard | Standard | Fast |
| Domains Allowed | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Parked Domains | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Sub Domains | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Marketing Credits | None | $250 | $250 |
| Priority Support | None | None | Included |
WordPress Hosting Plan Pricing
| Plan | Starter | Business | Pro |
| Price | $5.95/mo | $7.95/mo | $9.95/mo |
| WordPress Website(s) | Single | 10 | Unlimited |
| Monthly Visitors | 25,000 | 250,000 | 500,000 |
| Storage Space | 50 GB | 200 GB | Unlimited |
| Website Migration | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| WP Performance | Standard | Standard | Fast |
| Global CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing Credits | $100 | $250 | $250 |
Reseller Hosting Plan Pricing
| Plan | Reseller 1 Plan | Reseller 2 Plan | Reseller 3 Plan |
| Price | $39.95/mo | $99.95/mo | $125.95/mo |
| Storage Space | 60 GB | 90 GB | 90 GB |
| Bandwidth | 600 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Domains Allowed | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Resold Accounts | 30 | 60 | 90 |
| Dedicated IP Address | None | None | 1 |
Bottom Line:
If you had to pick a hosting service for your website, you would probably do better to search for other options and compare prices and features. While that’s not to say that signing up with CoolHandle is a bad idea, it just means that there are so many other hosting sites that have better services and more value that it kind of defeats the purpose of this one. If you have already signed with this site, don’t feel like you have to switch, especially if you are satisfied with its service.
In short, CoolHandle is a decent web hosting service, but you can do better.
CoolHandle Hosting FAQs
To help provide as much information as possible regarding CoolHandle, we have compiled a list of questions that can give you some extra insight into this service so that you can go in with both eyes open. If you don’t see a question on here that you need answering, you can contact CoolHandle on their website directly for more information.
What are the Hosting Plans Offered by CoolHandle?
The site has three different levels of hosting: Starter, Business, and Pro. They each offer the same features, but you get more of everything as you scale up. Here is what you can expect from each tier.
- Starter: five domains, five parked domains, five subdomains, five MySQL databases, five email boxes, and five FTP accounts. You also get unlimited disk space and bandwidth.
- Business: one hundred of each item including domains, subdomains, parked domains, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, and PostgreSQL databases. You also get one thousand email accounts and unlimited disk space and bandwidth. There is the option of getting a dedicated IP address and private SSL at this level.
- Pro: you get an unlimited amount of everything. You can also get a dedicated IP address and private SSL.
As far as VPS accounts go, CoolHandle has another three-tier system. Each level comes with one free domain name and a dedicated IP address. They are outlined as follows:
- VPS 01: 512 MB of RAM, 20 GB of storage, and 500 GB of bandwidth
- VPS 02: One GB of RAM, 30 GB of storage, and 1000 GB of bandwidth. You also get a managed server with this package
- VPS 03: Two GB of RAM, 60 GB of storage, and 2000 GB of bandwidth. In addition to the server, you can get another dedicated IP address
Does CoolHandle offer dedicated server hosting?
Yes, you can get that kind of service through CoolHandle. The site offers all dedicated server packages the following: 3GHz Intel processor, two GB of RAM, 160 GB of storage (x2), and two TB of bandwidth. With dedicated servers, you also get a dedicated IP address and a private SSL certificate.
Does CoolHandle work with Windows?
As it currently operates, the site only provides services for the Linux operating system. However, you can find a link to a Windows-compatible service called CoolWinHosting. However, that site seems to be different than CoolHandle and has different services and pricing.
Does the site offer an uptime guarantee?
Yes, CoolHandle promises that you will experience 99.9% uptime. Independent testing shows that this is accurate.
Can I find CoolHandle on social media?
Yes, the support team is active on Facebook and Twitter, and they will interact with customers who contact them through these channels.
Does CoolHandle offer a full refund if I cancel within the guarantee window?
Yes, but only if you buy a standard package. If you get any other upgrades or extras, you will not be reimbursed for those purchases. When compared to other sites this seems like a standard return policy.
Does the site offer reselling services?
Yes, you can do reselling through CoolHandle. The site has three tiers of service which go from 35 GB of disk space and 250 GB of bandwidth up to 200 GB of disk space and 1000 GB of bandwidth, depending on your level. You also get dedicated IP addresses and access to scripts like PHP and WordPress.
Are there any fees for setting up a website through this company?
No, there are no additional fees to get your site up and running. CoolHandle also provides free website builder software to help you get started.
When it says unlimited bandwidth and disk space, is it really unlimited?
As with all hosting sites, you can never get truly unlimited of everything. As such, you will be capped as the company sees fit, so don’t be surprised if you find out that the unlimited plan does have limitations.
Can I host a video streaming site through CoolHandle?
Technically, yes. However, you will have to make sure that you get enough resources to make sure that your site doesn’t lag. Thankfully each plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and disk space, but you do have to make sure that you utilize a video-playing extension to ensure that playback is reliable. CoolHandle does have an FFMPEG extension available, but it’s not clear which tier you would need to make it operate efficiently and without any lag.
Is there a referral program offered by this site?
Yes, CoolHandle does have a rewards program for customers that refer new business to the site. The exact pricing and rewards are not listed, but you can contact the company directly for that information.
Do I get free domains through CoolHandle?
Yes, you get one free domain with each package. However, if you want to have multiple domains you have to pay for each additional one beyond the first.
Can I transfer my current domain to this site?
Yes, CoolHandle enables you to transfer domains to them for a nominal fee. The price will depend on the extension, such as .com or .net. They have a pricing list available on the site.
Does CoolHandle support scripts like Joomla, Magento, and Drupal?
While the site does not have these scripts available as is, you could theoretically support them through the service without any problems. The framework does exist to make that happen.
Does the site offer backup services?
No, it doesn’t. However, customers do have access to tools which will allow you to create your own backups as you see fit.
Does CoolHandle have added security features?
Yes, the site does offer secured data center monitoring which includes antivirus and antispam software. It also includes 24//7 surveillance of data.
How can I pay for the services offered by CoolHandle?
The site takes all major forms of payment including credit cards like Visa and Mastercard as well as PayPal.
Do I have to sign a contract when I sign up with the site?
No, CoolHandle does not require any user to sign a contract. However, when you get a six or twelve-month pricing plan, you do have to cancel within the 30-day period to get a full refund as those plans are discounted.
- Fast speed
- VPS hosting available
- Excellent at scaling websites
- Customer support is lagging
- More expensive than other similar sites
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Last Updated on January 16, 2023