Originally known in 2007 as SynthaSite, Yola relaunched their services in 2009 under a new name. Offering free website design services and free and paid web hosting plans, Yola.com has offices in San Fransisco, CA and Cape Town, South Africa.
Review
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Sales
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I had a few questions about Yola’s Silver Plan and went looking for answers. Yola takes sales inquiries by email and by telephone. Upon calling the long distance number, I was directed to a second telephone number where I waited for only 1 munite for a sales representative to pick up, and then got all my questions answered, cool. On the other hand, Yola has an online forum where questions can be asked and also a thorough online database of commonly asked questions.
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Setup
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Yola offers immediate setup for both free hosting and paid accounts. Within seconds of purchasing a Yola Silver plan I had a welcome email in my inbox that thoroughly outlined my plan and gave me directions about how to set up my site and reach support. Additionally, once payment is completed, Yola takes you immediately into their site designer application so there’s no confusion about how to get started. Easy as can be!
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Billing
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Yola bills by the year and accepts major credit cards and PayPal. I had no trouble paying for my hosting account or cancelling it at year’s end.
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Pricing
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It’s difficult to compare Yola’s pricing structure to that of other hosts because of Yola’s impressive website builder and free templates are both included in the cost.
Yola’s Silver hosting package is $99.95 per year, which averages out to $8.33 a month. The Silver plan includes a free domain name and private registration, valued at over $40 a year, $75 worth of free advertising credits and a $50 credit for HP Logomaker. Not included in the cost is email, but that can be had for just $9.96/year. Considering the wide array of free templates, the phenomenal website builder and inclusion of a free domain name, Yola is a pretty good bargain overall.
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Reliability
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Yola’s site builder is not the only aspect of their business that is impressive. Yola’s network and hardware proved exceptional, too. I didn’t have any issues with my server or the network during my yearlong stay.
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Help & Support
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Yola provides email and telephone support for up to three months to paid customers. Yola guarantees a response within 24 hours and they delivered each time. Those needing quick assistance should turn to the telephone, where the average wait time is only fifteen minutes, compared to up to a day for email responses.
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Uptime
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I employed a premium uptime monitor to keep track of my Yola-based website and it registered 100% uptime during my one year stay. Perfect!
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Guarantee
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99.9% uptime guarantee
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30-day money back guarantee
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Terms of Service
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The Terms of Service for Yola are available online. Highlights include:
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Illegal content will be removed.
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No hate sites allowed.
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Free sites supported with Yola.com link.
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Bottom Line
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Advantages
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Reliable network.
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Exceptional website builder.
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30-day money back guarantee.
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Free and premium templates available for use.
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May create up to five free websites.
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Disadvantages
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Email accounts not included with hosting plans.
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Inability to upload self designed site. (Must use website builder.)
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