PO Box #591
Scranton, PA 18501-0591
1.877.BURSTNET
Burst.net was founded in 1991 and began offering internet services in 1996. Headquartered in Scranton, PA, Burst.net offers Windows and Linux dedicated servers, virtual private servers, cloud hosting, colocation services, domain registration and host of other internet services.
Review
|
Sales
|
|
|
Sales questions are answered by live chat, telephone and email. I spoke at length with reps via phone and email. I found the sales team to be personal, helpful and willing to spend as much time with me as needed. On the other side of the coin, I was unable to reach live chat support at all over several days as the link from their website appeared to go nowhere.
|
Setup
|
|
|
Account sign up is done from the Burst.net website. The sign-up form is extensive, guards heavily against fraud and takes approximately ten minutes to complete. I received an invoice from Burst.net shortly after paying, and my account details and welcome email followed shortly thereafter.
|
Billing
|
|
|
Burst.net accepts all major credit cards, bank wire transfers, PayPal, AlertPay, Authorize.net, LibertyReserve and payments by mail.
I mistakenly ordered the wrong VPS package from the get-go, so I ended up ordering two VPS hosting plans from Burst.net on the same day. I contacted the billing department straight away, asking for a refund for the package I’d ordered in error. Burst.net does not give refunds of any kind, though they kindly applied a credit to my account and cancelled the first plan immediately.
|
Pricing
|
|
|
Burst.net is a budget host known for offering low prices. Burst.net VPS packages start at $5.95/month, dedicated servers begin at $49.95/month and colocation is $69.95/month and up. Burst.net has tons of closeout and sale deals happening on a regular basis and their prices are generally not only reasonable, but cheap. On the flipside, some of Burst’s add-ons and hardware upgrades, such as additional memory, seem a tad overpriced.
|
Reliability
|
|
|
I had no hardware issues to report during an 18 month stay with Burst.net.
|
Help & Support
|
|
|
Burst.net support is available by phone, web-based trouble ticket system, live chat and AOL Instant Messenger. I first contacted the support team two days after obtaining a Burst.net account when my virtual private server began to suffer 40-70% packet loss and triggered my uptime monitor to report my website as offline. Live chat was unavailable, so I jumped on the phone. Phone reps told me that there was not a network issue and the problem was likely with my internet connection, despite the fact that my uptime monitor also reported trouble. I was then asked to file a trouble ticket, which I did. I did not get a response to my ticket for eight long hours, which is far too long when your website is offline. Eventually, some 18 hours later, Burst.net agreed to reboot the main node on my VPS, and that solved the problem.
Later experiences with support were much the same. Burst.net support is good, when available, but far too slow to tackle any real emergencies.
|
Uptime
|
|
|
My uptime monitor indicated that my Burst.net VPS maintained a 99.4% uptime rating.
|
Guarantee
|
-
99.5-99.9% % uptime guarantee (depending on services ordered).
|
Terms of Service
|
|
Terms of Service for Burst.net can be seen on their website. Highlights include:
-
Legal adult content is permitted.
-
Pyramid/ponzi schemes not allowed.
-
Anti-spam policy strictly enforced.
-
IRC and associated applications disallowed.
-
No refunds of any kind are given.
-
Accounts must be cancelled manually.
|
Bottom Line
|
Advantages
|
-
Huge assortment of servers and hosting options to choose from.
-
Excellent sales and specials.
-
Low prices.
-
Many operating systems and controls panels available.
-
Two months of free hosting for paying yearly.
-
Good budget server provider.
|
Disadvantages
|
-
Support is terribly slow.
-
Live chat not always available.
-
Add-ons and hardware upgrades are on the pricey side.
-
No refunds.
-
No money back guarantee.
|