No, the company does not offer any free trials of its hosting products, instead opting to give customers peace of mind with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Site owners who are not happy with FatCow’s services can receive a full refund, minus any domain fees or add-on services, simply by canceling their hosting account within the first month.
Once you sign up for FatCow hosting, however, you can enjoy a free trial of the email marketing tools powered by sister company Constant Contact. Both brands are owned by Endurance International Group, which allows FatCow customers to manage a mailing list of up to 500 contacts for free for three months. The service, which regularly costs $20 per month, gives customers a drag-and-drop interface for crafting responsive newsletters, promotions, and other communications.
FatCow offers a good bit of flexibility when choosing how to pay for your web hosting services. Customers can pay with a credit or debit card, PayPal, check, or money order. Of the accepted credit cards, American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa, only the latter two can process payments in non-US dollars. Those who think they might seek a refund under the 30-day money-back guarantee should pay with a credit or debit card, as the payments are not processed for the other methods.
Naturally, different hosting plans will appeal to different types of customers. FatCow’s original shared hosting plan, however, will likely be the best fit for most site owners and small businesses.
Priced at $49 per year to start (slightly more than $4 per month), the company provides “oodles” of storage space and bandwidth — as long as customers comply with FatCow’s Terms of Service and use the resources reasonably, they can effectively consider storage and bandwidth to be unrestricted. Domain names and email addresses are similarly unlimited, and the company’s shared hosting plan also includes ShopSite eCommerce integrations, analytics, a site builder, and search engine advertising credits.
FatCow also offers two remarkably affordable plans specifically tailored to WordPress hosting, featuring hand-picked themes and plugins, along with a customized control panel, SSD infrastructure, and enhanced security provided by SiteLock.
For larger businesses and more experienced developers, the company offers more computing power and control with several VPS or dedicated server hosting plans. Servers deploy quickly in customized configurations to guarantee maximum satisfaction and performance.
Even though FatCow is one of the few hosts that market their shared hosting plans in terms of annual instead of monthly costs, customers can renew their hosting services for terms as short as one month at a time. The best bargains, however, come when plans are renewed for up to three-year terms.
Domain name registrations and transfers are included free of charge in FatCow’s shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans. Those customers looking to purchase additional domains can expect to spend around $10 to $18 for most addresses ending in the popular .com, .net, .org, .biz, or .info extensions.
FatCow makes newer, more exotic extensions available to customers each week, with special programs designed to give priority access before domains are launched to the general public. Customers can pre-register domains in an effort to secure particular names before they become widely available.
Yes, all FatCow hosting plans include one free domain registration or transfer. You will, however, have to renew your registration each year for a separate fee of usually around $16.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, requires that domain owners supply their name, mailing address, email, and phone number to a public database. Although the practice allows for transparency, the WHOIS database exposes site owners’ personal information to potential spammers, marketers, and attackers.
Several hosting providers offer protections through domain privacy services, in which the company substitutes its own information or proxy contact information instead of their customers’. FatCow offers domain privacy as an add-on feature that costs $9.99 per year.
Uptime guarantees are promises that hosting companies make to their customers that their website and the company’s underlying infrastructure will be fully operational and connected to the internet for a certain amount of time per month. Uptime guarantees are especially important for business websites, as a non-functioning website directly impacts potential sales or brand reputation.
Surprisingly, FatCow does not seem to have an uptime guarantee, a notion we even confirmed with a support agent. Although the company tracks network availability and routinely delivers more than 99.9% uptime, which is largely the standard across the web hosting industry, the absence of a formalized policy should be a major red flag to prospective customers.
All FatCow dedicated and VPS hosting plans include fully managed support from the company’s Moo Crew team. Hosting experts will help customers with loading issues, network problems, hardware failures, and the configuration of various email, domain, database, and software programs.
Alternatively, the company provides a variety of other managed services to streamline site creation, marketing, and maintenance processes. FatCow’s marketing plan offers assistance with website design, optimization, and advertising campaigns, while other professional services entail everything from logo design to eCommerce store setup and building MySQL databases.
Luckily for you, there’s no special code to type to receive fantastic discounts from FatCow. We’ve gone ahead and negotiated the best hosting rates for our loyal readers, so clicking on one of the buttons above will connect you with the right plans and discounts. Shared hosting deals with FatCow typically range around 50% off, while VPS and dedicated hosting discounts fall closer to 20% off.
Yes, FatCow offers the somewhat typical 30-day money-back guarantee found with most of our favorite hosting providers. New customers can receive a full refund by canceling their hosting plan within the first month of services. Repayments are available only to customers who paid with a credit card or through PayPal, as FatCow will not process refunds through checks or money orders. Add-on services will not be reimbursed, and customers who made a free domain registration will pay a $15 fee to retain ownership of the domain name.
FatCow is among the budget-minded ranks of affordable hosting providers. Although the company’s low prices are meant to appeal to beginners and first-time site owners, FatCow certainly does not scrimp on the add-on features and freebies.
