FatCow is well known for its rock-solid Linux platform. Aplus.Net is making strides as a top Windows hosting provider that also specializes in Unix-based solutions. Both have demonstrated their reliability over the years with services geared toward personal and business users. Savings are sure to be uncovered when these two heavyweights clash and you as the customer are the primary beneficiary.

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Pricing

For years, FatCow has been attracting new customers with a one-size-suits-all hosting solution tailored made for success. Always affordable, the price currently weighs in at a low $4.83 per month. Aplus.Net is not to be left out of the conversation as it allows you to build a professional website for the bargain price of just $4.46 per month. Things seem to be pretty tightly contested here but the Original FatCow delivers far more power than Aplus.Net’s introductory hosting package. In fact, you would have to move up a couple of pricing tiers in order to match the price value provided by FatCow.

Products and Services

If you want to judge this battle from a portfolio aspect, you could say that Aplus.Net has a major advantage. For example, this company lets you pick from a diverse selection of services such as reseller accounts, dedicated servers and managed hosting. FatCow only specializes in the shared hosting sector but does offer additional services that include domain registration, e-commerce services and site add-ons.

Web Hosting Features

Both companies offer many of the same items, but you will have to move up in Aplus.Net hosting packages to match the robust feature set offered by FatCow. With that said, some of the features you can get with both web hosts include multiple email accounts, autoresponders and highly efficient spam filtering. You also get the benefit of dynamic programming languages such as PHP, Perl and Ruby on Rails. However, Aplus.Net has something different in terms of web technologies when factoring in its Windows hosting packages. Utilizing the Windows Server 2008 platform, it is able to offer highly sought after features that range from ASP programming to MS SQL databases.

Customer Service

Support is an area in which FatCow and Aplus.Net are pretty evenly matched. Both deliver customer service and technical support around the clock be it a late night during the week or crazy hours over the weekend. What is so great about both of their support systems is that they are designed to help you get support in a number of different ways. You can get in touch with either company’s support staff via phone or email as well as alternative means like support ticket, live chat, online documentation and video tutorials. Both of these hosts are committed to their customers so you can rest easy in this regard.

Recommendations

In our opinion, FatCow makes the best choice because of its low-priced, simplistic, multi-capable hosting solution. This one plan can help you accomplish a lot and provides the resources your sites needs to grow comfortably. However, if you need a dedicated server or plan to indulge in the web hosting business with a reseller account, Aplus.Net may be a more robust fit for your specific needs.

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