DirectNIC is a hosting company based in Louisiana, USA. The actual name of the company is DNC Holding, INC, but they do business as DirectNIC since it is easier and sounds more like a hosting/tech company to potential customers. They appear to have started off primarily as a domain name registration company, but now they offer a variety of services including hosting, email hosting, SiteLock services, DNS options, and more.
When looking through their website you’ll get the feeling that they have managed a nice balance between being a professional company dedicated to customers with having a ‘laid back’ atmosphere that is not afraid to think outside the box. They describe their employees as ‘tech geeks, historians, literature buffs, sports fanatics, triathletes, scuba divers, car enthusiasts, live music fans, weekend bbq warriors, Marti Gras revelers, world travellers, and domain name zealots.’
Most customers are very happy with the stability of the hosting provided by this company. Shared hosting is usually very stable due to the way this technology works. One potentially concerning thing about the hosting here, however, is that they only offer a 99% uptime guarantee. This means that the hosting could be down more than one minute every two hours before the guarantee even kicks in. The industry standard is 99.9% uptime guarantee.
The hosting from this company is pretty basic and really only for individuals and small businesses, or those who won’t be getting much traffic to their site. They have three different hosting packages, all of them using shared hosting configuration. The entry level option has 5 gigs of disk space, 100 gigs of bandwidth, and the option for up to 10 MySQL databases. The highest end option allows 200 gigs of disk space and 2000 GB of bandwidth, and the limit for databases goes up to 100.
To go along with the hosting services, they also offer domain name registration, which can make it easier to have everything together with one company. The SiteLock service can help avoid hacking and other types of issues. For those who need some extra security, the SSL certificates offered by this company will add an extra layer of protection. While this is clearly an entry level hosting provider, they do have a lot to offer those who aren’t going to have a lot of traffic on their site.
Most people don’t run into any issues with this hosting provider, but should you need help with anything, they are staffed 24/7 to assist. You can reach out to them using a phone, email, web system, or live chat to get the assistance required. In addition to this live help, they also have a good amount of documentation available on their website so you can learn about their systems. This is great for those who prefer to learn how to fix or avoid problems on their own.
The hosting prices on their hosting packages are all right in line with what you will see with most other companies. The entry level package starts at just $2.48 per month, and then the deluxe plan is $7.98 per month. For what you are getting, these prices are very reasonable. If you shop around, you can likely find lower prices, but not likely with all the features that are offered here.
Hosting with this company is very easy to use. They clearly know that their target audience is those who don’t want anything overly complex for their hosting, and they provide exactly that. Their website clearly displays all the information you need to choose which package you want, and once you’ve got your account setup, the interface is also very simple so you can get everything working without any trouble or extensive learning curve.
If you just want simple web hosting that will have your site up and running for users all the time, this is a good option to consider. As long as you are aware that they don’t have any advanced hosting options that may be necessary for larger websites, you will almost certainly be very happy with the level of service provided by DirectNIC.
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