Founded in 1995, Kamatera has accumulated valuable industry experience without interruption for 25 years (as of this year) and does so as part of an international network of IT service providers known as OMC Computers. In 2002 the first virtual machine hosted using VPS was implemented and since then they have been providing these solutions to all types of businesses (and organizations in general). From their headquarters in New York (USA), they operate 13 global data centers (including New York, Dallas, Santa Clara, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and Tel Aviv). Thousands of servers around the world provide enterprise-grade cloud-based VPS-like services to "tens of thousands of customers, including startups, application developers, international companies, and SaaS providers." Kamatera says they use “state-of-the-art” technology to provide reliability, security, and constant monitoring of their “outage-resistant” data centers. All the specifications and technical details of the servers can be found on their main website (which is available in five main languages, including French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Hebrew), as well as a considerable amount of information about the services they provide. . If you've been through everything and still want to learn more, your official blog should take that itch away. While it appears to be one of Kamatera's more recent projects (as all articles were published in 2020), it does have some pretty decent how-to articles. However, social media doesn't seem to be her cup of tea as all her accounts have been gathering dust for quite some time.
Depending on the specs of your cloud server, the price of Kamatera can be quite low (Image credit: Kamatera)
Packages and prices
It seems that Kamatera is aiming to make cloud hosting accessible to just about anyone, offering cloud-based VPS solutions priced from €4 to €1,000 per month (for dedicated servers). These plans are arranged one below the other and if you click on 'More info and calculator' you will notice that they all have an impressive level of customization in terms of data centers, hosting subtype, processors, GB of storage (SSD), MB of RAM, MG/GB of monthly traffic, number of public IP addresses, operating systems and control panels. Also, you can choose whether you want to be billed monthly or hourly, which (unfortunately) we rarely see. Another newbie-friendly feature and one of their main selling points is a 30-day "totally" free trial, which they provide in lieu of a more common money-back guarantee. However, for security reasons, Kamatera will ask you to provide your credit card details, which must be taken into account. When it comes to payment methods, Kamatera does not maintain its flexibility, allowing payments to be made only by credit card or by standing order.
Ease of use
If you're eager to try what Kamatera has to offer but don't know where to start, the safest bet is their 30-day free trial with no "commitments or hidden fees" and the option to cancel their services at any time. . hour. This promotional package includes a cloud server (with up to €100 for setup), 1000 GB of cloud storage, 1000 GB of outgoing internet traffic, full access to all features of the Kamatera management platform, the ability to upgrade or downgrade your server (up to a value of €100), designated account manager and full customer support including professional consultations. If that's okay with you, you can sign up by giving them your email address, creating a password, and (ideally) reading "Service Teams" from cover to cover. However, if he thought that was it (sort of like we expected), we'll have to disappoint him. You will first need to go through the validation process and create an account by adding your personal details (including your phone number) as well as your credit card details. So if you cancel your services within 30 days, they will still be free. Otherwise, you will be billed for each day that you exceed the trial period. If you feel that testing is not necessary and you want to buy some of their packages right away, you can go for one of the simpler (pre-built) ones or tailor them to suit your needs. In either case, you will need to create an account with Kamatera, in exactly the same way as described above.
You can manage your cloud servers and more from the Kamatera dashboard (Image credit: Kamatera) Kamatera's user interface is pleasantly simple and easy to use. However, no one will hold your hand while you try to find a way to install all the apps, get your hands on the control panel you want (they cost extra money), or make your domain easier to operate. We're sure you've figured it out by now, but we'll say it anyway: Kamatera is definitely not something I'd recommend to newcomers, unless they're ready and willing (for some unknown reason) to pay a pretty penny. let the professionals do it all for them.
We use GTmetrix to measure both the uptime and response time of our Kamatera site (Image credit: GTmetrix)
Speed and experience
In addition to having servers all over the place, Kamatera's impressive cloud infrastructure should ensure blazing-fast performance on all of your websites. With high hopes, we tested the speed performance of Kamatera's main website while impatiently waiting for GTmetrix to deliver results that would justify our high expectations. Unfortunately (like thunder) we are faced with below average performance and an E (53%) which is nothing to brag about. However, the time it took to fully load the page was 4.5 seconds, which is much better than the average result of 8.1. When it comes to uptime, Kamatera prides itself on its “extraordinarily high reliability and uptime” and therefore guarantees 99,95% at all times. Since our faith had been questioned before, we had a little trouble trusting his words. However, after monitoring the uptime of the main Kamatera website for over a month, we got a report showing 99,97% uptime, which is slightly better than promised. Although there were some instances of downtime (the longest being 19 minutes straight), Kamatera passed this test.
Support
While Kamatera's website provides a commendable amount of information about its infrastructure, service offering, and itself, when it comes to customer support, the sheer number of options leaves a lot to be desired. This is even more true when you consider self-help options, where you can find an FAQ section with answers to three basic questions, a few articles on your blog, and that's it. There is no trace of a knowledge base, much less video tutorials, guides, or anything like that.
Paying extra for a premium plan will get you better support from Kamatera (Image credit: Kamatera) However, you can get help from the Kamatera support team via phone, live chat, support ticket, and email, most of the time. which should be available 24 hours a day. Live for testing with a few simple questions, we got our answer in minutes and all courteously. From our own experience, the Kamatera support team seems to be quick to respond and happy to help, even if they can't always. It seems (especially after learning about their service support levels) that if you want fast and professional support, you'll need to get one of their premium managed service plans.
Competition
Like Kamatera, InMotion Hosting specializes in premium hosting solutions that can meet the needs of all types of businesses, from the simplest to the most complex. If you're looking to update your website, you're in good hands with any of them. However, if this was your first website (personal blog, online portfolio, or perhaps a small online store), InMotion Hosting is a more suitable option, as even its entry-level plan will provide you with everything you need to a promising start (free domain, SSL certificate, hacking, malware and DDoS protection, plenty of marketing tools and an easy-to-use cPanel). If you're looking for high-end, fully managed solutions that are more WordPress-centric, you can find them with Kamatera's US host by the name Kinsta. However, while Kinsta is very beginner-friendly and user-oriented, it doesn't provide some basic services (like domain registration) and the pricing of its plans leaves a lot to be desired. If you are new to all of this, another US host known as HostGator might be a perfect choice. You can provide complex hosting solutions for a growing business while meeting all the needs of someone with simpler requests without breaking the bank. Either way, since HostGator offers a money-back guarantee and Kamatera offers a free trial, you can try both without worry. Bluehost is another US-based web host that offers a huge variety of hosting types, options, and features, all at affordable prices. However, since all of its data centers are in the United States and Kamatera has some in seven countries, the latter might be a more convenient option for users outside of the United States. Despite this, if you are new here, check out Bluehost first.
Final verdict
There is a wide range of reasons why one would recommend Kamatera and some of them include: enterprise-grade infrastructure and global data center network, admirably affordable cloud/VPS solutions, high level of flexibility and customization, no need to worry about the hardware (since everything is now in the cloud) and a 30-day free trial to check everything out for yourself at no cost. However, there are some downsides (there are always downsides) for those who aren't too keen on going down...