nopCommerce Hosting @ SmarterASP - First Glance. [Yes! no more admin logout problem]

Ok... just created a trial account w SmarterASP.NET ... wow... it was FAST and painless.  No credit card info required and all setup and done in less than 5 mins.  :P

They have ONE-CLICK install for nopCommerce 2.80 (compared to Arvixe's 2.70).   The installation was VERY fast without any errors on the very 1st time.  Admin PANEL was created without any glitch.  (I had to reinstall nopCommerce quite a few times w Arvixe before the Admin panel worked properly).

Speed is definately much faster than Arvixe.  (Comparing DEFAULT setup)  
However, Arvixe provide some customization during setup which was absent on SmarterASP.
Arvixe allows me to key in Admin credentials along with option to NOT install sample data.  
SmarterASP's ONE-CLICK is literally ONE-CLICK.  

Do note this is just FIRST GLANCE.  I've yet to install plugins and test out other tools. Will continue my test later and update if theres anything interesting.

I do think it's a GOOD option for new nopCommerce users like me to take nopCommerce for a test drive.  :)
If you're interested to check it out... here's the link.
(Choose the FREE TRIAL package)

[ADDITION - for easier reference]
Well... one things for sure... they don't have the app pool restarted every frigging minute problem.  :P
The ONE MAJOR problem w Arvixe is the UNUSABLE admin panel (keeps logging you out... can't even add a product without logging in a few times).

So for anyone who are frustrated with the logging out problem... Arvixe is the problem... not nopCommerce.


PS: Dang! and I just renewed my 2-year contract w Arvixe 2 MONTHs AGO!!!  Haiz... if only I found out about nopCommerce earlier...   *cries*

I was just looking at their windows hosting on this page: http://www.smarterasp.net/hosting_plans

The Net Advance looks very very impressive.   I will be interested in hearing how they pan out and also what the unlimited really implies.  I know that for Host gator they said that meant up to 25% of their server.

Please be sure to tell everyone how you like them after you have tested multiple sites with them.  It looks like they really offer a lot for the money.  If this is combined with good technical support and reliable hosting...  then they will be a truly amazing find!

I was just reading about SmarterASP on their "Why Choose SmarterASP.NET" page: http://www.smarterasp.net/datacenter


It looks very impressive.  Here are some amazing quotes from this page:

"We are currently serving over 170,000 websites worldwide and more members are joining each day."

"90% of our 1st level support team members are B.S. graduated with a Computer Science or Networking degree."

"Unlike many other companies, we purchase all our equipment up-front so we are debt free."

They definitely look pretty good!

I just got off of a live chat with SmarterASP.

They said that for the Advance plan the unlimited means you can use up to 3 GB of disk space.  After this you get disk space at the following rate:  Extra 1GB Web Data Disk Space - $20 for 1 year.  

For the bandwidth they said that that it is truly unlimited.  To get 3 GB of storage for $4.95 a month is pretty good.

Limsy, be sure to remember to tell us the results after you try multiple websites.  Thanks!

Well... one things for sure... they don't have the app pool restarted every frigging minute problem.  :P
The ONE MAJOR problem w Arvixe is the UNUSABLE admin panel (keeps logging you out... can't even add a product without logging in a few times).

So for anyone who are frustrated with the logging out problem... Arvixe is the problem... not nopCommerce.

I'm most probably going for the premium plan since I'm looking for something to replace my Arvixe plan... which is almost identical.... features and price.

What does the hosting control panel look like?  Is it similar the websitepanel?  The guy I talked to said that it was a custom control panel.

Yes, the pricing and the features really do look good.  I'm definitely going to try a trial and test it out.
But first, I did a little research, a here are a few things to note when comparing to Arvixe:

Arvixe offers monthly payment option.  The minimum for SmarterASP is every 3 months = Quarterly.  Here's a comparison of shared hosting price:

Arvixe Personal ASP
$5.00 / month if paid every 2 years
$6.00 / month if paid every year
$7.00 / month if paid every 6 months
$8.00 / month if paid every month

SmarterASP Advance.NET
$4.21 / month if paid every 3 years
$4.46 / month if paid every 2 years
$4.95 / month if paid every year
$5.95 / month if paid every 6 months
$6.50 / month if paid every 3 months

Both offer a 60 day money back guarantee from time of initial account payment.  SmarterASP tops that with by also providing initial 60 free trial.

Arvixe includes free domain name.  SmarterASP charges $10/yr

Both claim a "99.9% uptime guarantee" (BTW, that's 43.2 minutes per month).  Arvixe will refund your month if uptime is not met (Although you have to ask, and have proof like having opened tickets with them).  SmarterASP claims to have "uptime guarantee", but I can't find anything on their website that explains the compensation.  I did a live chat with an operator, and she said  "We have professional technician to monitoring and maintenance our servers, so you can rest assured to use our service."  I asked several times about written policy and got similar runaround answer.  Then another operator joined and said "For the compensation, I can not say that it is the full amount you paid".   So, it's still not clear to me, and I asked them to email me a written policy.

Arvixe offers "Business Class" whereas SmarterASP calls it "Semi Dedicated" and says that "server has only 5 to 10 customers".  Arvixe does not say how many customers are on a business server (I suspect it's more than 5-10).

Both include static IP free with business class, and both charge $2/mo for static IP with shared hosting plan.  (A Static IP is required for SSL)
On Arvixe business class, SSL is free; on SmarterASP it's $29.99/yr (RapidSSL).  (Although, you can purchase that elsewhere - I've seen GoDaddy SSL's for as low a $4.99/yr - they both will install it for free)

SmarterASP claims that "90% of our 1st level support team members are B.S. graduated with a Computer Science or Networking degree".   I'll have to test out calling their support even if I don't run into any problems :)

Arvixe hosts the SQL server on the same server as the web site; with SmarterASP, it's hosted on a different server than the web server (which is the right way to to it, IMHO)

The bottom line is that the pricing and features look very similar, so it's going to come down to a comparison of performance, uptime, and support...

I'll blog with a more thorough review next week :)

To be honest, there's no comparison between Arvixe and SmarterASP on the PERSONAL/SHARED plan level.

nopCommerce is totally UNUSABLE on Arvixe (PERSONAL/SHARED plans) due to the constant TIMEOUT problems with the admin panels.  If I weren't playing around with nopCommerce... I would have stuck to Arvixe.  It was only when I was using nopCommerce that I was force to look for another host.

And Arvixe's personal plan uptime is DEFINATELY not 99%.... I've only used UPTIME ROBOT to monitor my test site in Arxive for ONE DAY and it's already showing 92%.   http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/uptime.jpg results here
NewStore and Prototype are sites hosted in Arvixe whereas SmarterASP Prototype is my test site in SmarterASP.

The hosting panel is very responsive and screen caps are below.

http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/1.pngcap1  http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/2.png cap2 http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/3.png cap3 http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/4.png cap4 http://limsyn-001-site1.smarterasp.net/files/5.png cap5

Hope that helps.

limsy wrote:

Thanks Limsy!  I really appreciate you posting those pictures of the control panel.  It looks pretty nice and easy to use.

New York wrote:
Do such plans as the SmarterASP Advance.NET or Arvixe Personal ASP work well for a store like the Nop demo (2.8)  with lets say around 1000 products and 20,0000 visits per month?  In other forums it has been emphasized that for v2.X a VPS is required. In Arvixe we are hosting an average of 5 to 10 v2.x stores per VPS with 3G RAM