2600 North Central Avenue
Suite 310
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
1-480-388-3777
Brinkster came online in the year 2000 as a shared hosting company. Today, Brinkster offers wind-powered Windows and Linux shared web hosting, dedicated servers and domain names, and plays host to more than 60,000 domain names from a data center in Phoenix, AZ.
Review
|
Pricing
|
|
|
Brinkster has a good assortment of plans that will work for any budget. I chose to invest in a shared Linux hosting plan that afforded me 200 gigabytes of space and 2,000 gigabytes of bandwidth. If paying two years in advance, the price of this plan is $4 a month, but if you’re like me and prefer to pay month-to month, the plan will cost you $7 a month, plus a $25 setup fee. Brinkster’s plans are a steal if you can afford to pre-pay a year or more, but about average otherwise.
|
Uptime
|
|
|
I use a premium uptime monitor to keep track of hosting accounts. Brinkster proved reliable in the uptime department, only going down for short bursts twice in a year for a network issue, and during scheduled maintenance.
|
Sales
|
|
|
You can get sales support from Brinkster by telephone, live chat and email. I attempted live chat. Even though Brinkster’s live chat software said I was first in line to get assistance, I waited more than 30 minutes for someone to help me before giving up and calling them by phone. Live chat is not so live! The sales team by phone, on the other hand, was helpful and quick to address my questions.
|
Help & Support
|
|
|
You can find Brinkster support by telephone, a trouble ticket system, live chat and Skype. I loved that Skype support was an option and found this to be the easiest way to get instant help. Live chat is tremendously slow, often taking 20 or more minutes to respond. Overall, support was good and the representatives helpful.
|
Setup
|
|
|
Signing up for an account with Brinkster is relatively straight-forward and simple. After filling out the appropriate forms and paying for my account, I received a welcome letter by email, plus an invoice for my payment. Couldn’t be simpler!
|
Reliability
|
|
|
I held an account with Brinkster for a period of one year. My server hardware was 100% reliable during my stay, but the network fluctuates some, as did the speed at which my website loaded. Some days my site would load in under a second and at other times it would spin and spin, never completely loading all of the images on the
|
Billing
|
|
|
I almost immediately had a question about my bill, giving me good reason to contact the billing department. I found billing to be courteous and helpful, though their limited hours of operation (7am-Noon on weekdays) can be bothersome and inconvenient.
|
Guarantee
|
-
100% uptime guarantee
-
90 day money back guarantee
|
Terms of Service
|
|
You can find the Terms of Service for Brinkster on their website. Highlights include:
-
Setup fees are non-refundable.
-
Website content in violation of state and federal laws prohibited.
-
No .cmd or .bat files may be uploaded.
|
Bottom Line
|
Advantages
|
-
24/7 support, including Skype.
-
Environmentally friendly hosting.
-
90 day money back guarantee.
|
Disadvantages
|
-
$25 setup fee for month-to-month plans is excessive.
-
Control panel and webmail software can be cumbersome, especially on slow connections.
-
Live chat slow to respond.
-
No toll-free telephone number.
|