Easy CGI Reviewed: The Best Cheap Windows 2008 Hosting You Can Find

So when is the last time you’ve heard the words Cheap and Windows Hosting in the same sentence?

Well chances are you don’t hear this often.

Today I’ve just signed up for an account with Easy CGI, a very popular Windows Web Host. I took the EasyCGI Advanced X 2008 Hosting Plan at $7.96 per month.

This Windows 2008 Hosting Plan gives you:

• 350 GB of disk space
• 3,500 GB of bandwidth
• IIS 6/7
• ASP.NET 1.1/2.0/3.0
• Active Server Pages
• AJAX 1.0
• PHP4 & 5, Perl5 and CGI-BIN
• MySQL and MS Access database support

I used Paypal to pay for the hosting and while they say this might delay the transaction, it took about a minute for the account to be activated!

Upon activation, I finally got to see Easy CGI’s control panel and I gotta say that I’m quite surprised. Usually I rather stay away from custom-built control panels and stay with the industry’s standards (Plesk) but I found it to be very well designed. Easy CGI’s control panel is very intuitive and easy to to use (click to enlarge screenshot):

Within a few clicks, Easy CGI’s control panel allows you to manage every possible aspects of your website: email accounts, MySQL databases, website builder, IIS, password-protected directories, etc.

Easy CGI Support

I then decided to test their live chat support. Within a  few seconds, I was chatting with Simon Adams from Easy CGI’s support staff. I asked him which version of IIS was enabled on my hosting account. He put me on hold for about two minutes and finally came back to tell me that it was IIS 7.

Automated Script Installation

Easy CGI provides InstallCentral to automate script installation. At the time of this writing, the available scripts are DotNetNuke v4.8.4, WordPress v2.6, Gallery2, phpBB v3.0.1, Gbook v1.6 and osCommerce v2.2rc2a.

I went ahead and installed WordPress in my website’s root directory. As you can see from the screenshot below, installing your blog is very easy (click to enlarge screenshot):

But there’s one thing they forgot to mention (or fix) when installing a PHP application: you need to change the default document setting. By default, “index.php” isn’t enabled as a default document and therefore WordPress won’t work until you fix this (contact Easy CGI’s support if you don’t know how to do this).

The Best Choice for Windows 2008 Hosting

If you’re looking for a great Windows 2008 web host, then Easy CGI is your website’s next home. They have great prices and features and managing your website is so easy with their control panel. Needless to say, Easy CGI’s complete range of hosting services allows for great scalability as you can later upgrade for a Windows VPS or even a Dedicated Windows 2008 Server.

They’ve got great 24×7 customer support who can be reached through their online ticket system, live chat or by using their toll-free phone number.

Easy CGI Rating

Links

• Easy CGI Reviews
• Easy CGI Website
• Shared Windows Hosting Providers