There are international web hosting companies and there are local hosting providers. Both have their pros and cons and it’s ultimately up to the consumer (that’s you) to decide which suits your website requirements better.
It’s common knowledge that local hosting packages are slightly more expensive than international hosting but why are there still so many who chose to sign up with the local web hosts?
To answer this, let’s take a look at the local hosting scene in Malaysia. What are the local hosting subscribers like? What are the benefits of selecting a local hosting provider in Malaysia?
When Is It Best To Host In Malaysia
Here are some of the reasons certain hosting subscribers used to justify why they insist on selecting a Malaysian web hosting company. These are something that international hosting providers can’t offer.
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Location of Audience
When majority of your target audience, customers and blog readers are in Malaysia, then a local web host would provide a faster loading speed than say, a US-based hosting provider. If you host with the US-based hosting provider, your data have to route from its US server to Asia before reaching to your Malaysian audience.
But if you host with a local host (with data center in Malaysia, such as in MyLOCA, AIMS Data Center, Jaring Data Center, Netmyne Data Center, VADS Data Center and etc), your data don’t need to go through such a long way, hence your audience will experience a much quicker loading time.
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Local Support
Local hosting provider provides an added advantage where the support team is usually able to converse in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese (some even in Cantonese or Hokkien dialects which are very popular in Malaysia). Like most phone services in Malaysia, you normally will get the option to choose the language you prefer to speak in when you call for support.
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Easier and Cheaper To Contact
Contacting your local hosting provider is so much easier and cheaper too than if you were to make international calls. While some international providers do have live chat services, most people prefer to speak to someone when faced with major hosting challenges eg when the hosting is down.
Alternatively, you could always visit your local hosting provider’s office just to convince yourself that they do really exist or are still in business before you renew your hosting plan! Or if you prefer, have them drop by your office for that extra service!
Also, not forgetting that you live in the same time zone as the web hosting provider, which makes solving challenges much faster!
Top 10 Malaysian Web Hosting
Should you be wondering whether the above mentioned benefits are worth the extra price, well, here is a review of the top 10 Malaysian web hosting providers for you to compare.
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ServerFreak
Established in 2003 and is one of the fastest growing hosting providers in Malaysia. They are very professional and aim to reply your support tickets within 30 minutes. Indeed, if you need fast and professional technical support, so far ServerFreak is the best choice!
Scroll below to see why we highly recommend ServerFreak.
I do have a few hosting accounts with them, and the best support channel I find is actually through MSN Live Messenger! If you are on Yahoo Messenger or MSN, then you can very easily find their technical support online, always ready to answer your inquiries.
They not only provide web hosting (both Linux and Windows) but also domain related services eg domain registration and renewal as well as VPS, VPN and even web design. Their shared hosting plans are divided into 6 different plans with varying features and prices, which start at RM60 per year for 500MB storage space and 10GB data transfer per month (for its Prime plan) to RM699 per year for 60GB storage space and 200GB monthly data transfer (for its Gold plan).
Features:
Daily backup, 30 days money back guarantee, 24/7 support, own hardware and equipment, 99.9% guarantee, CloudFlare, free lifetime domain (for selected shared hosting plans). -
ExaBytes
ExaBytes entered the web hosting industry in 2001 and is among the first few web hosting providers in Malaysia. Fast forward more than a decade later, not only are they still in the business but they had grown into one of the leading web hosting provider in Malaysia.
In November 2011, ExaBytes was awarded the prestigious ISO 9001:2008 Web Hosting Provisioning. Not surprising too, for have over 600 servers with 60,000 registered domains that range from individuals to small & medium size businesses to public listed companies in over 120 countries!
Features:
100 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support, 99.9% network uptime guarantee, 99.5% server uptime guarantee. -
Shinjiru
Other than a few bad reviews about them (which web hosting company doesn’t?), Shinjiru seemed to have mostly good things being written about them, about being reliable and having good support. They started way back in 1998 and are currently the largest dedicated server web hosting in Malaysia.
While they do have individual and blogs hosting, their primary market is the corporate sector. Their recognitions include ISO:9001 Certified Hosting Provider and MSC Status Certified R&D Company. Their customers include Ajinomoto, Astro, Digi, Maxis and Malaysia Airlines.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support, own data centers in Malaysia, Singapore and Europe, dedicated support engineer for VIP customers, Linux and Windows hosting. -
IPServerOne
IPServerOne is another Malaysian web hosting provider which offers both Linux and Windows shared hosting. Besides that, they also offer semi-dedicated server, clustered hosting, various levels of dedicated servers, enterprise solutions, VPS, reseller as well as domain related services.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support, 99.9% server & network uptime, daily backup. -
Internet-Webhosting
Comparatively, Internet-Webhosting is cheaper than the above web hosts. Their data centers are located in Malaysia and the USA. Other than shared hosting, Internet-Webhosting also offers VPS, Dedicated Server, Server Colocation and domain related services. Service wise, they are pretty decent and have a good range of features too.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7 sales and support team. -
Net Onboard
Net Onboard is Malaysia’s leading Cloud hosting provider. In fact, they are in the midst of migrating their Linux shared hosting servers into the Cloud Server platform. At time of writing, their Personal 5GB plan was “sold out”. Next available plan would be the Mini 100GB which costs RM180 per year (if paid annually).
They do have a live chat system available during office hours from 9:30am to 6:30pm Mondays to Fridays. On the other hand, ticketing system support is available 24/7. Meanwhile, backup, dedicated IP address and SSL certificate services are available and are separately charged.
Features:
15 day money back guarantee, 99.9% network uptime guarantee. -
Aspiration Hosting
Aspiration Hosting officially launched its shared and reseller hosting services in 2008. Their main server is located in Los Angeles, USA and they have, at the time of writing, 16 Content Delivery Network Edge servers all around the world to maximize access speed.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7/365 technical support. -
DataKL Solutions
DataKL offers you one of the cheaper plans in the country. Their plans are simple and straight forward. Their datacenters are located in Malaysia as well as in the USA. They are also deploying ASUS Green production server since 2010 as a part of their effort to save the environment.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee. -
Webserver
Established in 1998, Webserver is part of Acme Commerce Sdn Bhd. They offer shared web hosting, VPS and dedicated server hosting plans. Webserver is one of the more affordable choice for personal and small & medium size businesses owners.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support. -
MesraHosting
For a company that’s started in Kuala Kangsar, Perak in 1996 providing free web-based email services, they have definitely come a long way. Their plans are very affordable. And their services range from Linux and Windows shared hosting to reseller and dedicated and collocation server hosting.
Features:
30 day money back guarantee, 24/7 support.
Since Linux shared web hosting is the most popular web hosting plan, suitable for a full range of websites, here’s a quick comparison between the above 10 Malaysian web hosts’ Linux shared hosting plans.
Why Is ServerFreak Number One?
You may be curious why I ranked ServerFreak as the best Malaysian web hosting company. Well, there are a number of reasons for this. Please note that I have a couple of web hosting accounts with ServerFreak, as well as most of the other web hosts in Malaysia. Thus, I am talking from my experiences.
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A range of hosting plans to choose from
They have 6 plans with various features available for their subscribers. They understand that not all businesses are built the same and thus, do not require the same features eg storage space, bandwidth and number of domains. So they do not “force” you to subscribe to an all-in-one plan and as a result, you pay only for features that you need, and thus, their hosting plans are cheaper comparatively.
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Reliable and high security
The one thing that I like about them is that they own and manage their servers. They do not rent these servers from other companies and neither do they loan out their infrastructure. This way, you can be assured of their hosting reliability and your data’s security!
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Fast server, network and CloudFlare integration
Their partner includes CloudFlare, one of the web’s most popular performance and security service system. This means that websites hosted with ServerFreak would “load twice as fast, uses 60% less bandwidth, has 65% fewer requests and is way more secure“. In other words, your website would not only perform better but also is protected against online threats.
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ServerFreak coupon code
Last and definitely not the least, here’s a goodie that is only available on this website, a ServerFreak coupon code which you can now utilize to get an instant 30% discount!
Best ServerFreak coupon code: 100web20
Note that this is the best ServerFreak coupon code which can only be found on this website, and since this is a lifetime coupon code, this means not only will this bring the price down by 20% today, but it will also work automatically every year! In other words, this recurring coupon code will bring your renewal price down by 20% also!
This best promotional code only works on the annual or biannual payment terms for the following plans: Deluxe, Elite, Platinum, and Gold.
Conclusion
There you are, a brief review of the top 10 web hosting companies in Malaysia. My review are based on my own experiences, my clients’ feedback as well as extensive analysis and research on these web hosts.
ServerFreak still remains as my top choice when we come to hosting websites or blogs in Malaysia. So, if you are looking for a Malaysian hosting provider, do check out ServerFreak for the reliable service and professional support. Plus, don’t forget about the amazing coupon code that you can make use of!
Visit ServerFreak Official Website
I think Serverfreak and Exabytes are the best in Malaysia just like what you are recommending. Shinjiru is more into co-location and dedicated boxes.
Anyway, a few friends of mine are recommending KLhost.com, not sure if you are going to run a review on them? They say KLhost has good technical support… and the fact that they are not too big is actually an advantage because they will give you good attention and support.
Mizi,
Yes, Serverfreak and Exabytes are the most popular in Malaysia web hosting industry.
I have not personally used KLhost.com, but a friend of mine is a fan of KLhost. He said their manager, Jasper, is very friendly and helpful. I will get more info from him, and possibly run a review on them in the future. We will see how it goes.
Thanks for recommending KLhost.
I like Exabytes somehow… maybe they advertise more in Malaysia. Always saw their ads in Malaysia newspaper, The Star.
Also, do you know that they have an e-commerce portal in Malaysia called Mall.easy.my and even a shopping cart software Easy.my? This software looks pretty good!
Hello Adrian,
Yes, Exabytes is very aggressive in promoting their brand and services. They are based in Penang, Malaysia and it’s no surprising that they advertise a lot in The Star, Malaysia’s most read daily.
I know about their e-commerce portal, Mall.easy.my. I believe they are trying to capture the growing e-commerce market in Malaysia. Currently, the biggest e-commerce portal in Malaysia is Lelong.com.my. Some other players worth checking out are Mudah.my, and eBay.com.my.
Yes, Lelong.com.my is perhaps the most established e-commerce website in Malaysia. You can open a store online and sell anything from fashion to watches to cars and houses on their website.
Anyway, the Serverfreak coupon you provided looks really tempting. 30% discount is a lot. Furthermore it’s a recurring discount! I may use it to buy a web hosting from Serverfreak after all!
Hi, I am of the belief that web hosting services isn’t able to sustain for long unless such providers bundle the services with some simple Apps ability. It would be better if they can simulteneously offer some simple Apps development tools for Android or other smart phones. Just my few cents worth.
Hello Malaysia,
I have four websites and one web shop at Shinjiru for many years. Their price is nice and their support fast and super and even nice. I never had that when I used providers in Europe and USA. It’s tempting to compare but I stick to Shinjiru as it works and works well 24hs/day. Cheers, Erik Red.
In my personal experience, Exabytes is a really good web hosting company.
Their support is really helpful and the cloud hosting I get from them is pretty stable and fast.
They even give discounts and free gifts through their Facebook & Twitter from time to time to reward their customers.