SmarterASP.NET Editorial Review & Aggregated Reddit Reviews

SmarterASP.NET is a hosting vendor with an exceptional offer of a free 60-day trial, instant activation, and free temporary URL (so you don’t even have to wait for DNS propagation).

The ability to get started without spending a penny on hosting sounds like a dream come true.

Is it worth it tho?

Let’s find out all that in this SmarterASP.NET review.

What is SmarterASP.NET?

SmarterASP.NET is a hosting company that, as its name suggests, offers 4-level hosting of Superior Shared ASP.NET. 

ASP.NET is a framework developed by Microsoft. But hosting for Windows is not the only service that this provider offers.

There is a whole range of services offered by SmarterASP.NET:

• Windows Server 2012/2008 R2 (4 levels).
•  Semi-dedicated ASP.NET hosting – servers shared between a maximum of 5-10 clients (4 levels).
•  Linux Plan (4 levels)
•  Windows SSD + VPS (4 levels)
•  Reseller Plans (Level 4)
•  Domain registration – global and country TLDs

Although you might think that a company offering such a generous free trial package should be a new player trying to get an appeal, SmarterASP.NET is an experienced company that was established back in 1999.

Its goal is to offer maximum efficiency with complete privacy and security for the user. To achieve this goal, the company operates 24/7 and maintains one of the most powerful physical data center security systems in the business.

And while the SmarterASP.NET offer looks pretty standard, the distinguishing feature is ASP.NET packages.

I think that plans for Linux offer more features, are more versatile, and much more popular (they are also more affordable), but given that Microsoft designs SmarterASP.NET, we can’t miss out on plans for Windows.

So in this review of SmarterASP.NET, I will look at hosting plans for both Windows and Linux.

SmarterASP.NET Windows Prices

We can’t miss Windows plans because they are SmarterASP.NET flagships. Here we have three unlimited plans, starting with $2.95/mo and ending with $7.95/mo. 

The best part? You can try these services free.

SmarterASP.NET has a 60-day trial version. And while it is quite limited, it allows you actually to start using the services without investing any money. No need for a credit card to sign up. How good is it?

Let’s see how the plans are lined up:

• 60 DAYS Trial – $0, 1 site, 1 GB of storage, one domain, one database, 10 GB of bandwidth.
• .NET Basic – $2.95 per month, all of which are unlimited.
• .NET Advance – $4.95/month, all of the above are unlimited.
• .NET Premium – $7.95 per month, all of the above are unlimited.

SmartASP.NET has no limits on disk space and bandwidth. Moreover, you can add as many domains as you want. But let’s see all the essential features:

Three paid plans have the same unlimited basis, which means we need to dive a little deeper.

The difference between the number of databases and disk space varies greatly.

And in general, you are provided with SSD-servers located in the USA or the Netherlands. And you also get DDoS and malware protection included in all plans.

Naturally, cPanel with Windows hosting does not exist, SmartASP.NET provides you with an internal control panel.

Again, the company does not offer website creation or free website transfer (costs $49.95). But you get one-click installation for WordPress, Drupal, Umbraco, NopCommerce, and others.

The free plan does not offer any email features, but I think this is understandable for the free plan. On the other hand, the Basic plan is shortened to some pretty essential email features (such as Mailing List, Automatic Subscription and Cancellation).

But I would not have been able to write an overview of SmarterASP.NET if I had not pointed out the usual price catch. There is the same catch as many other hosting providers, where the advertised price is only available for an extended billing cycle.

Let’s see how the SmarterASP.NET Windows offer presents for each term:

As mentioned earlier, the differences between the Pro and Turbo plans are not so great – unless you need SSH access or all the professional email features. Interestingly, for a trial plan, it doesn’t even allow you to set up an email!

But all plans have SSD servers located in the USA or the Netherlands. And you get protection against DDoS and malware. As for hosting administration, that is cPanel.

However, SmarterASP.NET does not offer a website builder. And it will cost you $49.95 to get an assisted website translation.

But in general, at paid rates, you get a poor service together with full protection of the site at a very reasonable price.

SmarterASP.NET Pros

Interestingly, all of the features that I chose for my SmarterASP.NET review are related to features that are quite unusual for other budget web hosts.

Affordable ASP.NET hosting

That is a huge advantage for those looking for an affordable ASP.NET shared hosting package. They support the latest ASP.NET versions 4.6 and 4.5 as well as MVC 5 and 4.0 hosting. All this at a very affordable price – $2.95 per month ($35.4 upfront for 12 months) for the basic tariff plan. Highly competitive offer.

Excellent trial and refund

To attract new customers, some hosting companies offer free trial versions (usually 7, 14 or 30 days). Other companies do not offer them at all but instead offer a 30-day or 60-day money-back guarantee. The latter makes it difficult for the user to change his mind, as he has to pay in advance.

Compared to all this, the 60-day free trial offer is theft. And yet the company gives customers a 60-day money-back guarantee, which starts only after they finish the trial!

Built-in Cloudflare integration

If your site is located in one place, but people from all over the world have access to it, those who live further away from your data center will suffer. 

Fortunately for all those who work internationally, SmarterASP.NET offers Cloudflare CDN integration (content delivery network). That allows your site to load up to 4 times faster! And you don’t even have to be a professional to set it up.

SmarterASP.NET Cons

Naturally, there are negative points – but the review of SmarterASP.NET is not unique in it, as each hosting company has its weaknesses.

Low performance – slightly behind the industry leaders

Unfortunately, performance is not enough compared to some more popular web hosting options such as Hostinger. SmarterASP.NET was rated C.

But it should not surprise – after all, it is one of the most accessible web hosts. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee – according to our Uptime Calculator, but this may not be enough to keep your site online for as long as you want. Other ISPs can guarantee 99.99% or even 100% uptime, which is quite a significant difference considering a long time.

There are only two server locations

In an era of budget 1-2 web hosts that offer data centers in several areas around the world, present only in Europe and the United States (Amsterdam and downtown Los Angeles) is far enough away. 

Especially given the rapid growth of Internet business in Asian markets.

Let’s hope that their CDN will be able to speed up your site enough to compensate for this.

Difficult choices – especially for beginners

Although their advertising is quite clear from the moment you log in, once you try to register, it is not easy to choose the right server – Linux or ASP.NET. After all, most novices will be looking for the most affordable WordPress site or two. Scanning them can lead to loss of clients.

On the other hand, I can’t forget that the target audience of this web host is different from that of a typical budget web host. That’s why I don’t think that’s a big disadvantage in this case.

To sum up SmarterASP.Net Review

To sum it up, I think that the SmarterASP.NET offer is great for anyone who wants to get started. Without spending a penny on hosting, you can have a fully functional website.

All this with cPanel and a one-click WordPress installation. Naturally, as your business grows, you can take care of something that will better suit your needs. But for a beginner? The perfect playground, which I can sincerely recommend.

Pros

• 60-day trial
• 60-day money-back guarantee
• Built-in CDN
• Affordable ASP.NET hosting

Cons

• Performance of subcontractors
• There are only two servers
• Huge hosting offer for a beginner