Good value, excellent email support

Unable to run JSTL on their servers

Support can be hard to get but technologies are fine

JavaServletHosting.com rocks

Support's been great!

We asked them about the JSTL issue noted from 2003, and it turns out it had nothing to do with them really; it a was a bug in Tomcat 4.0 (we confirmed it on many searches via Google). Their current platform has no such issue as they use Tomcat 4.1.x now (and we're using JSTL without a hitch).

We're giving them a '4' on the features (only cause we are a bit irrational and always want more from any provider), but for everything else, they've been a solid '5'.

Outstanding for the Price

There is one large drawback for developers. It does not support .war file deployment. This is because it is a shared Tomcat instance. I use the site for testing apps, and it is inconvenient to have to expand the war file then copy it each time.

But other than that, I give it high marks as a low cost site for deploying and testing JSP or servlets

Careful with these guys, they may destroy your credit

Very restrictive

I had my account terminated after a week as I deployed an application using Spring and Hibernate.

I am probably glad they did this so I could move to a decent service provider.

Comments to Last Reviews

We hope the operators of this facility have the decency to allow this post for fair assessment from both sides so as to not allow slanderous comments.

All Around Good Pick

Unreasonable Usage terms

Regarding Usage Policy

Response to my own message

However, it isn't an accident that someone uses Hibernate/Spring/etc. in their web application. They are not doing it underhandedly, but because they (or in this case I) did not read the usage agreement. It would seem in their best interest if they pointed this out a little better on their site instead of in legalese pages. It is obvious that someone would not sign up for their service knowing that spring/hibernate/etc. was not allowed, then try to use it. It just doesn't make sense from a customer relations standpoint. I'm not the first nor will I be the last I suspect.

I concur with the negative assessment on open source framework support

They were quick to refund my money, which made me happy.

Basic JSP/Servlets only, average support

They sent email announcements about offering VPS, but it took them 7 months to get it as an actual package you could pucrhase.

Our mistake that we waited on them, month after month, to finally release the VPS, only to find that their price point was out of line, so we moved on to another ISP.

After having been with them for over 2 years we thought they would try to get us to stay when we cancelled but all they did was send a terse email asking where were we going to host with next. Seems like keeping customers is not a priority for them which seems consistent with other reviews.

We have been with Kattare for 3 months now and these are the most awesome Java hosts you could dream of. We had to call a few times to get set up correctly and the phone was answered by a very expereienced tech every time. You cannot find that in billion dollar companies.

So all in all, glad to leave JavaServletHosting and move to Kattare. Same money each month with incredible service.

Beware

Can never get anyone to answer the phone.

Tech support is awful.

Price is average.

My full review is on javaservlethostingsucks.com

Rude Customer service, lack of support for Open Source (Spring, Hibernate)

I signed up not knowing 'Spring' framework would not be supported. I mean a provider that hosts commercial applications and claims to be an expert on Java hosting should support the most commonly used Java Frameworks right ? Wrong !This was my mistake. But they could have been upfront about this on their site. After many hours of fire fighting and trying , i opened a ticket with them. they said i had violated my contract by using Spring in my application.

When i asked to cancel my service plan and followed up about a refund, they said a refund will not be issued as i was in violation. When i reminded them of the statement on their website .. Is there a 100% money-back guarantee? Try our service absolutely risk-free! If you wish to cancel your account for any reason within the first 30 days, you will receive a full refund for all base hosting fees. This is a no-questions asked, full refund, 100% money back guarantee of all base hosting fees. You have nothing to lose! This offer applies to the initial contracted term and does not include domain name registration or SSL certificates (external fees). If you took advantage of a special offer that gave you domain registration free, your refund will be less the posted cost for the domain registration"

This is the email i got

No, the termination request facility prompts for a termination request date, and you filled in the end date of the current billing cycle. Additionally, you are not eligible for the money-back guarantee as your account was already flagged for a breached of contract for violating your Terms of Service by deploying an API/Framework that was explicitly disallowed per your Usage Policy (which was presented to you twice during sign-up and for which you acknowledged as both read and agreed to). Your Terms of Service clearly stated:

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Accounts utilizing more than 1GB of the allotted bandwidth or violating the Usage Policy within the first 30 days are not eligible for the money back guarantee.

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Your negligent deployment of said violation caused an outage to other customers to which we had to compensate for the outage.

Here is another email from them.

The Usage Policy can be found on our website directly under the Terms of Service link.

On the first page of the order form, you are told to review the Usage Policy for API/Framework exclusions, and before submitting payment you are required to acknlowedge that you have both read and agree with the Terms of Service, which includes the Usage Policy. It is no fault of ours if you blindly engaged in service without reading the Usage Policy after being presented with it *twice* before being permitted to make payment. Spring is very commonly excluded on shared hosting platforms as it is not designed for such a platform, and we are one of the *very few* providers that actually tell you it is excluded UP FRONT. A deployment of it will only be viewed as negligence as it can and does negatively impact the service to others, and we therefore will not provide a refund for said act of negligence.

You were not bombarded with emails; you were sent an email at each stage of the account creation/setup process (as it noted would occur on our site), and ALL plans support FTP. An upgrade was not necessary to gain FTP capabilities (which you were told via support). Your FTP username/password were in one of those emails that were sent when you originally sign up for service. Again, failure to read the information is no fault of ours.

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Final word : Stay away from them.

I soon found my new provider. They clearly state that Spring is supported on the first page http://www.dailyrazor.com/java/private_tomcat.php

Their service is awesome. You can email them and they get back to you in 10 minutes. I highly recommend DailyRazor.com for your Java Hosting needs.

Been with these guys for 9+ years

Back in 2004, I went with javaservlethosting because where were small and felt home-townish. Back then, Java and Php was the only game in town. These guys rocked with both and actually helped me quite a lot early in my business stages.

However, those glory days are over. In the past 3 years, its obvious they are merely squeezing everything they can out of their obviously thin-margin business model. They have scaled back everything down to the bone. They have treated me personally very poorly after almost 10 years of payments and a lightly used website.

I have been paying manually the entire time. When I forget to pay (I pay quarterly), I pay the late fee with no complaint nor intention of malice. My last billing cycle, I requested to change my billing terms, but because I was in my typical 1-3 days-late, they gave me the big 'no way - you are late!'. Then I asked if I could go to month-to-month because I needed to port to Android and wanted to have options. Nope. Then I asked to pay for a month to have access to copy my code/db. Answer was no-way. I said, fine, give me access for 1 more day to copy my database and code and I'll go someone else. Nope. They didn't care and made that clear.

Should I have expected preferential treatment? Perhaps, no. But almost 10 years is darned long. My conversations with them eroded into fist fights. They could care less.

This was one of many incidents in the past 3 years indicative of poor customer support and respect . If you want anything resembling a helpful hosting partner, go somewhere else. Or, go with the really big outfits and set your expectations that literally everything is non-human and automated.

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