iPowerweb is a web hosting company which offers three kinds of UNIX/Linux hosting and also Windows hosting . It also provides dedicated servers for organizations with greater needs. The three UNIX/Linux plans are called Ready Site, Pro Site and Site & Store.

The Ready Site Plan comes for $3.95 if you buy for 24 months at a time, and setup is free. For 12 months it comes to $4.95 per month. For 6 months it is $5.95 per month, and on a 3 monthly basis it is $6.95 per month. In the last three cases you have to pay an additional $10.00 setup fee. With the Ready Site Plan you also have to pay $6.95 annually for domain name registration, which is slightly less than that charged by most other providers. For this you get 5 GB disk space, 250 GB monthly bandwidth, 1 MySql Database, and the inability to upload your web site from your local computer to the server. You are restricted to the Website Creator provided by them, and have to create and maintain the site online. You are also restricted to a maximum of 9 pages on your site.

You do have CGI-BIN and PHP support, but that’s about all. No ecommerce facilities are available with this plan. Guest books message forums, blogs and chat facilities are also unavailable. For marketing and promotion you do get $50 Yahoo Search Marketing Credit. You get 1 POP3 email account, although Forwarding, Auto responder and Spam Filtering are available.

The Pro Plan is available for $6.95 per month for 24 months, $7.95 per month for 12 months, $8.95 per month for 6 months and $9.95 per month for 3 months. For the last two schemes, there is also a $30.00 Setup fee. What you get is 1,500 GB storage space, 15,000 GB monthly bandwidth, 1 free domain Name, and unlimited domain hosting. You can have up to 25 MySql databases, and FTP support, which means that you do not have to depend exclusively on the Web Site Creator provided by them. You are also allowed FrontPage extensions and are provided with a file manager and a FTP Manager. You have limited ecommerce facilities, with 15 product and 5 shopping pages limits. However you do have PayPal Shopping cart Integration.

CGI-BIN and PHP support is there and you also have support for Perl and Server Side Includes (SSI). With the Pro Plan you can have a Guest Book, Message Forums, Blogs and Online Chat. For Site marketing and promotion, you get $50 Yahoo Search Marketing Credit, $30 Google Adwords Credit and RatePoint Customer Feedback Platform. You also get 2500 POP3 email accounts.

The Site & Store plan is meant for hosting a fully fledged ecommerce site. Costing $13.95 per month for 24 months, $14.95 per month for 12 months, $15.95 for 6 months and $16.95 per month for 3 months, the first two schemes come with free setup and free domain name. You get 2,000 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free Domain Name and unlimited domain hosting and MySql databases. All the other features are much the same as the Pro package, except that ecommerce support is more enhanced. There is also the facility for backing up your website.

Compared to other web hosting providers their offerings are pretty average, while the Ready Site Plan is pretty measly for its price.

Price: 9

Reliability: 10

Tech Support: 9

User Experience: 9

Overall: 9