Yahoo! may be a trusted brand in search and other online services, but did you know they also offer small business Web hosting? While they currently only offer one hosting package, it’s tailored to the needs of independent site owners and entrepreneurs looking to bring their small business to the Web. Three pricing options are available, letting you set up your own website for as little as $7.46 per month to start.

Features

Here are some of the most common Web hosting features you might be interested in when comparing Web hosts, and where Yahoo! Web hosting stands.

Control Panel: You can use the Yahoo! Web Hosting Control Panel to control all aspects of your Web hosting account.

Uptime: Yahoo! advertises 99.9% website uptime for your website, not counting routine scheduled maintenance.

Support: Yahoo! Web Hosting offers 24-hour customer support through their toll-free phone number and via email. There is also a help center, a collection of guides, and collection of video tutorials to help you get started.

Yahoo! Web Hosting Pros

If you’re brand new to hosting your own websites and you only need to host one website, Yahoo! Web Hosting might be the simple solution you need. Better yet, they offer tools to their hosting customers that can help you build your own simple website quickly and easily without professional design experience.

Access to unlimited email addresses on your domain is another plus of the Yahoo! Web Hosting service. While not often, some other hosts targeting beginning webmasters charge extra for this. While the control panel isn’t a commonly-used one that would make later transfers easier (like cPanel), it might be an easier option for beginners to learn when you don’t want to worry about too much on the technical side.

Many Web hosting companies advertise 24/7 support for their customers. But that often just means you can send them an email or a support ticket online at any time of the day, and they’ll get back to you several hours later. That’s not much comfort if your site goes down now. That makes access to Yahoo’s 24-hour phone support a major upside of this hosting package.

Yahoo! Web Hosting Cons

One of the biggest downsides to Yahoo! Web Hosting is the fact that only one hosting package seems to be available. And while they claim certain “unlimited” resources that’s technically impossible. Some other resource will still have limits. If you exceed them, you might outgrow your Yahoo! hosting package more quickly than you realize.

Another negative aspect of Yahoo’s hosting services is the fact that their support is often very negatively reviewed. Many customers complain about long delays before reaching a support representative. Then again, this is hardly uncommon with large companies. It’s just important to know about the potential issue before signing up and committing to several months or a year of service.

In Conclusion

If you need to host multiple websites or expect to host a high traffic site, Yahoo! Web Hosting probably isn’t the right option for you. Their hosting targets beginners. If that sounds like you, and you’re looking for simple tools to help you get started, you might want to look further into their package.

*Information in this review was valid at the time of writing – June 23, 2011.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. The author is not directly compensated by the inclusion of these links, and earns the same regardless of writing a positive or negative review. Web Hosting Directory prides itself on providing objective information and hosting reviews to help readers choose the best hosting provider for their needs.