Hosting-Review Top Pick:
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SingleHop?has been?Hosting Review's awarded the 2008 Best Dedicated Server Hosting Award. |
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Disclosure: As is the case with many other industry/topic specific magazines, websites and trade publications, we do receive compensation from some of the companies whose products we review within and outside of the web hosting industry, including, but not limited to, paid advertising placements, referral fees, contextual advertising links and sponsorship packages. |
SingleHop dedicated hosting offers fast, flexible solutions for demanding businesses and professionals. New customers are guaranteed a fast turnaround – it’ll take less than one hour from sign to deploy your dedicated server. A cloud server takes about half that long. In other words, SingleHop is a solid company to turn to if you’re looking for fast action and competent service.
On a broader scale, SingleHop has a reputation for operating some of the industry's most flexible and highly automated hosting platforms. SingleHop dedicated hosting options include a wide range of Intel-powered servers on its Cisco network.
A thorough customer service evaluation is always an important part of our research. To that end, our SingleHop dedicated hosting review would not be complete if we didn’t commend SingleHop for its customer care. Quite simply, SingleHop customers enjoy the hosting industry's most comprehensive service level agreement (SLA), which guarantees everything from how much time it takes to respond to support inquiries (maximum one hour for the first response to a support ticket) to how long it takes a customer service representative to pick up the phone. This outstanding SLA also oversees server deployment time and, most importantly, the 100% network and power uptime guarantee.
Unique Benefits
- Industry-leading Service Level Agreement (customer bill of rights)
- 24x7x365 dedicated support team, never outsourced, no call centers
- 100% uptime guarantee (three-year track record: 100% uptime in 2010, 2011, 2012)
- Servers deployed in under 1 hour
- Advanced LEAP client portal for automated infrastructure deployment (design, deploy, and manage)
- Full featured API, mobile apps and unlimited inbound bandwidth
Key Features
- Fully featured dedicated servers, including single processor, dual processor, Linux servers, and Windows 2003
- Wide range of control panels: cPanel & Plesk hosting control panels
- 100% network and power uptime guarantee
- 3 US-based data centers (2 in Chicago, 1 in Phoenix)
- Easy-to-use shopping cart-style order processing and add-on services packages
Editors' Comments
Founded in 2006, SingleHop has been on our radar for some time. The company shows steady growth, product evolution, and consistently high (and by “high” we mean “perfect”) performance uptime. A SingleHop dedicated hosting review must also note the A+ BBB rating the company has received – it’s always good when a trusted third party backs a business up.
Overall, SingleHop provides a powerful platform at an affordable price. When you need flexibility and you need to know exactly what to expect – and what business owner doesn’t? – SingleHop dedicated hosting offers a robust blend of products and services. SingleHop is especially great for mission critical applications requiring high-level service. All their servers are deployed automatically, managed remotely, and available anywhere you are. Enjoy the privacy, security, and power of best-in-breed dedicated servers while letting the SingleHop experts manage the hardware and data center requirements.
Uptime Guarantee
SingleHop offers a 100% server and network guarantee. That doesn’t allow any room for error, but for the last three years, Singlehop has proven their ability with flawless uptime records – all visible on their website. This is a definite highlight of this SingleHop dedicated hosting review.
SingleHop offers a 100% network and power uptime guarantee as part of its comprehensive Customer Bill of Rights Service Level Agreement. The guarantee provides pro-rated credits up to 100% of service cost for outages at the network or electrical level.
Unlike most other providers, this SLA covers additional services, including the length of time it takes to deploy a server, respond to a ticket, escalate to a senior staff member, and update a ticket. Phone hold times and other features are also covered. The SingleHop SLA is self-monitoring: if the company misses a target, a credit is just a click away.
Basics - What you need to know
Data center
SingleHop operates three data centers in the United States: Chicago-1 in downtown Chicago, IL, Chicago-2 in Elk Grove Village, IL, and Phoenix-1 in Phoenix, Az. Plans to open a fourth in Europe are in place.
All facilities boast a wide range of technical certifications and have passed SAS 70/ SAEE 16 audits. All facilities operate on the same centralized SingleHop management platform, connected with an out-of-band private network, to ensure smooth communication and connections.
Power Management
SingleHop's data centers have uninterruptible power supply systems and emergency backup diesel generators in case of a blackout. The entire electrical system is N+1 redundant, which guarantees continuous operation during power issues.
Physical Security
Security guards escort and screen all visitors. Retina scanning, biometrics, key card access, closed-circuit televisions, and video surveillance protect SingleHop data centers from unauthorized access.
Server Access
Root access: SingleHop customers have root access to servers
Physical access: Only available to high-clearance staff
Cloud Services
As part of its wide range of advanced services, SingleHop also offers a VMware enterprise-class cloud platform with both public and private cloud components.
Security / Updates
Everything is done client-side, except when physical server upgrades are implemented. Because customers have full root access to servers, virus scans and software updates can easily be done when needed with or without guided customer support assistance.
Backup Services
All hardware is Raid5 redundant. Automated and self-serve backup options are available, for a fee.
Service Offerings
There are a range of SingleHop dedicated hosting options and configurations. Whether you’re running a small business website (and perhaps considering a single processor server) or a large ecommerce website (requiring a quad processor), SingleHop has a competitively priced choice for you.
Not sure what you’re looking for? The Hosting-Review.com team was pleased to note SingleHop’s on-staff engineers and senior information architects were available to help customers design custom solutions. Always at the cutting edge of the latest technology, SingleHop's platform is entirely hybrid and supports both dedicated and cloud servers in the same environment.
SingleHop offers a range of additional services, including hosted applications, security services and professional services.
Customer Profiles
- Developers
- Small, medium, and large businesses
- Ecommerce websites
- Multi-domain web hosting
- Gaming websites
- Resellers
Customer Testimonials
“I am really happy with SingleHop. You are reliable and obviously best customer support!”
– Dewan Razib, http://wapnext.com/
“SingleHop is a great web hosting company. Our servers (3) have never crashed or had long periods of downtime. SingleHop does have all of the features that other web hosting companies have but better. They always have the latest cPanel and WHM installed … We would highly recommend. SingleHop is a friend.”
– Gerardo Pablo Gallo, http://www.fulltv.com.ar/