Given two leading web hosting companies in Kenya, Safaricom and Kenya Website Experts, which one will you choose? You will definitely go for the best. Comparing the two companies based on the quality of services, one will emerge victorious. This article is will shed light on the various aspects of hosting provided by each of the hosting companies and provide a verdict on which one is the best.
- Variety of hosting types
An ideal web hosting company should have a variety of hosting types. They should be as follows:
- Shared Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Reseller Hosting
- Dedicated Server Hosting
- Managed WordPress Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
The reason there should be more types of hosting is because each client has different hosting demands. There are blogs which are extremely demanding, they need to be hosted by powerful servers which only Dedicated Server can provide.
Safaricom only offers Shared Hosting plans, meaning that if your site outgrows this type of hosting, you will be forced to migrate it to another hosting company. Kenya Website Experts on the other hand offers all the aforementioned types of hosting. When you compare the two, Kenya Website Experts emerges the winners. To see all the website hosting products provided by Kenya Website Experts,click on this link
- Amount of resources provided by each hosting company
We shall compare shared hosting for the two companies. The cheapest hosting plan for Kenya Website Experts goes for Ksh2,100 per year. Safaricom has an equivalent hosting plan that costs Ksh2,500 per year.Here are the features of the two plans:
| KENYA WEBSITE EXPERTS(Starter Plan) | SAFARICOM(Silver Package) |
| Ksh2,100 per year | Ksh 2,500 per year |
| 30 GB | 2 GB Space |
| 300 GB Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth |
| 500 MB Memory | |
| Unlimited Email Accounts | 50 Email Accounts |
| Free SSL Certificate (https) | |
| cPanel | cPanel |
| 50 Sub Domains |
What matters most is the disk space, SSL certificate and the number of email accounts. Despite Kenya Website being cheaper than Safaricom,it offers more features.Again,Kenya Website Experts is better than Safaricom.Click here to check all the features of Kenya Website Expert’s Starter plan under Shared Hosting environment.
- Free Hosting Services
Kenya Website Experts does not offer free hosting but Safaricom offers the same. Safaricom’s free hosting plan contains the following features:
- 50 MB Space
- Free Email Security
- 5 Email Accounts
- 3 Sub Domains
- 2 FTP Accounts
- Free Website Builder
- Unlimited Bandwidth
Safricom’s free hosting is offered on condition that you purchase a domain from them. If you don’t purchase a new domain, then you have to join the premium plans, the cheapest being Lite package which costs Ksh1,300 per year.
Safaricom may provide cheap hosting services but in the long run it’s more expensive than Kenya Website Experts.
- Customer Support
I have been a customer of Kenya Website Experts since 2014 and from my own experience, I can give them 99.99%. Whenever I call them, they attend to me within the shortest time possible. Kenya Website Expert’s main business is web hosting, which is why they are always available to help clients.
Safaricom’s customer care can be rated as good but not as good as Kenya Website Experts. When you call, they can take up to 30 minutes to attend to you.
Kenya Website Experts is a small company; they know almost all their customers. Working with such a company is better than working with Safaricom which has over 20 million customers.
- SSL Certificate and security
Safaricom has not provided details on whether they provide free SSL certificate. Kenya Website Experts on the other hand provides free SSL certificate. This certificate is important because it protects your website from being hacked or infected by malware. On the issue of SSL certificate, Kenya Website Experts emerges the winner.
- Payment methods
Safaricom offers MPESA Payment method only. You have to login to Client Area for you to make the payment,you can see how to make the payment here https://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Resources_Downloads/How_To_RENEW_Safaricom_Domain_via_Web_Self-Care.pdf
Payment to Kenya Website Experts is through MPESA, Bank transfer and PayPal. Paying via MPESA is simple, you just choose the hosting plan you wish to buy, then generate an invoice and make payment—the process will take less than 2 minutes.
- Web design services
Safaricom does not offer web design services for clients. This is not a good thing for new clients because there are some who need the services after purchasing a domain. Kenya Website Experts on the other hand has employed experts who will design a professional website for you within a week. They charge Ksh10,000 to Ksh50,000 per website. If you need web design services from the company,click on this link to visit their website
- Money Back Guarantee
I know this statement may be new to some of you. Money back guarantee is a feature that’s provided by nearly all web hosting companies to clients to encourage them join without fear. Majority of those companies offer 30-day money back guarantee. Money back guarantee means that the company will refund you the money if you aren’t satisfied with their services within a certain period of time. Kenya Website Experts offers 30-day money back guarantee while Safaricom is silent on that. This means that Kenya Website Experts is better than Safaricom.
- Uptime Guarantee
Both Safaricom and Kenya Website Experts have 99.99% uptime guarantee.
- Which is the best hosting company for viral websites
Since Safaricom has limited resources, it’s not ideal for viral websites. The company’s servers will only host websites that receive up to 300,000 visitors per month. For bloggers who are aiming to receive more than 1 million page views per month, Kenya Website Experts is the best.
At first, you will register for the Starter Plan,then upgrade as your blog grows. When it finally becomes viral like Tuko News, upgrade to Dedicated Server Hosting. Dedicated Server Hosting has scalable resources and it can sustain up to 10 million page views per month.
In case you are hosting with Safaricom and your site gets more than 1 million views per month,they will advise you to migrate to another hosting company.This is the reason I recommend Kenya Website Experts.Visit Kenya Website Experts via this link and learn about their Dedicated Server Hosting plans.
Overall, Kenya Website Experts is better than Safaricom when it comes to web hosting services.
