India Broadband Forum

rohan_shenoy

[Note: This review is about hosting at Indian datacenters, and not about Indian resellers of U.S./other country datacenters.]

After having hosted several of my websites with U.S. based datacenters, I had to decide where to host my another website-one which primarily had Indian visitors. With the aim of finding an Indian based datacenter, I first turned to Google. Google was helpful in finding me links to various amateur reviews of Indian hosts and a handful of Indian hosts.

While I was going through the links and websites, I noticed few things prominently:

1. The cost of bandwidth is exorbitant. For a very basic plan, such as 25 MB disk space and 1 GB monthly data-transfer, you could spend between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 12,000 yearly. With U.S. based hosts, the same can be availed under Rs. 3,00/- per year.
2. The server software is a recipe for disaster. Server software such Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc. is not kept up-to-date. This alone opens up a source of bugs and security holes. Unless you love using ‘retarded’ versions of softwares, you will hate them.
3. Only FTP access in most cases. If you have used cPanel or equivalent control panel software, you know how easy it is to administer a website. In many cases, FTP access cannot help much.
4. Meager resources is another drawback. The standard packages provide no or just 1 MySQL database, 1 or a couple of email accounts, etc.
5. The customer service part is OK, but far off from what is available in the U.S.
6. The uptime part has not been measured as I dropped all my plans and discontinued my hosting following serious issues(read below).

Some of the major corporations that own datacenters or servers are:

1. VSNL
2. BSNL
3. Reliance Integrated Data Center
4. MTNL(not functional anymore)
5. Cyquator-An Essel Group Company(the popular Zee TV group)

None of them speak about cron jobs, apache handlers, MIME types, statistic logs, PHP extensions, etc.

Most of the other websites returned by Google were resellers of the above, esp. VSNL. If you look at the websites of most resellers, you can confidently figure out that most are either out-of-business, or they are managed by ‘business’ guy who knows just the ABC of the web.
A quick review of Cyquator:

Cyquator is a part of the Essel Group. I unsuccessfully attempted to host my website with them. The sales team is quite acceptable. They are ready to cut deals as per your requirements. I purchased 11 MB(only eleven MB) disk-space and 256 MB montly data-transfer for yearly price of Rs. 1700/-. After making the payments, my account was activated within 24 hrs, as promised by the sales team. I was given only FTP access. There is no cPanel, cron jobs, etc. The account provisioning email was incomplete and I had to bother them twice, once for the DNS server and then for PhpMyAdmin(PMA) details. I was happy when I realized that they do provide PMA. But hell broke loose when I logged into PMA. It was version 1.5-something, where as the latest version was 2.6-something. With only FTP access, I felt handicap. As a result, that account was never used optimally. Infact, I developed a fear due to thoroughly out-dated server softwares.–End of Cyquator review

From this experience, I have dropped all my plans to host any of my or clients’ website at any Indian datacenter. The reason I was looking for an Indian datacenter in the first place was because of very low ping times, near 10 ms(as compared to 300 ms in U.S.). But, looking at the trade-offs involved, I am willing sacrifice ping times for a better infrastructure.

If you have any experiences about hosting at Indian datacenters, please let me know. If you want to know some specific details which has not been included here, please ask through comments. I would be glad to help you out.

mickey

humble request to all websitians..pls dont host your websites on India based hosters cause theres none in India actually(if you mean in generic terms)

as you already listed vsnl bsnl reliance mtnl and that one of zee , these all are ready to take money from you..

i will never make such mistake of purchasing the webspace from Indian based co, cause they are actually resellers.

i think hostgator is the best one, when it comes about pricing and reliabilty.

i have one serious question for you. why did you go with an Indian enterprise my dear kind friend.. ??

rohan_shenoy

The website would have catered to visitors from Mumbai. Hence, I tried to get the least ping times. I stay in Thane, and their datacenter is located in Vashi. The ping times are as low as 10 ms. Hence, I chose to. But would never go again.

mickey

if ping is your issue than i will suggest you this...

seastarnet.com

but i think in overall, hostgator is the one..

ohh forgot to tell you one thing. this one from singapore.

rohan_shenoy

I have had considered Malaysian and Singapore datacenters, but their costs are almost 1.5 -2 times that of US hosts. Besides, the ping times are 80 ms. So I though that a ping time - cost tradeoff would do best and I finally settled for an US host.

mickey

yes i see,, atleast twice as that of the americans..

once i was thinking of using a Russian webhost,,but as you know, you dont know their language. ..but their ping was very low believe me...

i think us based are the best.. and they do take nice reception for you..

landed

Hostgator is also a reseller of theplanet

mickey

^^^yeah thanks for the info...but what i meant was not about reselling but the services, even if hgator is a reseller their services are far better than Indian hosters(not resellers)

speedhost.in

I would agree with the above, hardly any datacenters are in India of people who claim that they have dedicated hosting in India. It is just not cost effective for people to co-locate in india. do your research before you buy.

Saurabh.J

rohan_shenoy has made my task really simple. All the points rasied here and the lack of trust in Indian hosting providers are unfortunately shocking. Surprizingly, Host.co.in has good quality branded Dell servers of their own, plus they offer Managed web hosting services. All there softwares and application offered to their customers are always up-to-date.
As stated by Rohan "None of them speak about cron jobs, apache handlers, MIME types, statistic logs, PHP extensions, etc.", this isn't true in Host.co.in's case, this is a part of their daily routine.
As far as my knowledge, their technical staff comprizes of Engineers with good experience in Network and server administration and troubleshooting.

mickey

^^from host.co.in ??

Saurabh.J

Yes indeed Host.co.in. You can check that out for yourself. You can contact them via Live chat, just try it out, I am sure they would be able to clear out all your doubts.

mickey

i meant you are from host.co.in??

Saurabh.J

Do you mean working for them? If this is what you mean't, then no, I have multiple web hosting accounts with them.

mickey

ok

webhost18

Hi

even hostgator also dont have a datacenter, they leasing and reselling from The Planet, all of us reselling some one's product and services..

Admin

Its the attitude that makes the whole difference.. Like you dont have any respect for this forums signature rules and neither did you take the pain of finding out what is allowed and what is not... I can verywell imagine what sort of service your customers must be getting.

For gods sake please do not compare yourself with hostgator.

rohan_shenoy

I think you have not researched properly about the company in which you have "multiple webhosting accounts". Their website clearly states that their DC are ex-India:

Saurabh.J

Its not that I am not aware of the things you have stated here. There DC is definitely in UK with some of their staff located their as well for taking care of their servers. BUt, the actual operations are carried out from India. In my previous statement I haven't mentioned anything about their DC, its just that they have good quality branded Dell hardware. I can say this after an indepth research about the company.

rohan_shenoy

Then I think you are really from Host.co.in doing aimless & shameless advertising.

Its there in the first sentence of my review this is about those with datacenters in India but I guess you cared less for you *had* to advertise host.co.in because you thought "Indian" was a good word to catch.

Anyways, I can understand your "indepth research" and thanks but no thanks.

Heed to my sincere request and stop advertising host.co.in because it does not fundamentally fit into this thread, regardless of whether you are from host.co.in or not.