Hello -

When making my last hosting purchase decision I was also looking at Bluehost as one of my choices. Before making my decision, my last three choices were Bluehost, Aplus and MICFO. I settled on MICFO and am VERY glad I did.

MICFO is great from what I can see so far. I began hosting with them just over a month ago. From this perspective, here's the good, the bad and the ugly:

1. Setup is Fast and Easy. I originally signed up under their 30 Day Trial program. This is the first thing that I love about MICFO - unlike other hosts who tout a "30 Day Money Back Guarantee", these guys give you the first 30 days free to try! If, after that 30 days you are content, do nothing and you are invoiced for the NEXT month. The first month was still free. If not, let them know - you are not charged and you are free to go.

2. Features - as you've seen, this host is feature rich. Unlimited subdomains for one, Fantastico / pre-installed scripts, etc. The fact that you can host multiple domains is a plus and with the generous space and bandwidth they offer it's something I've decided to do.

3. Website Builder / Site Studio - for serious webmasters this will not be a big deal but I think it's a great little bonus and I've seen other hosts charge extra for incorporation and use of Site Studio. Heck, if nothing else you can add a second domain to your program and use site studio to make a little personal site for your wife, girlfriend or personal hobby interest.

3. WHM and Cpanel - everybody has a different opinion on this but I found both of these to be VERY nice, very easy to understand, use and operate.

The Bad - so far, I haven't seen anything from this host that I don't like.

The only slight (and I mean very slight) oddity or problem I've had is with the fact that not everything in the package is automatically defaulted to use when you first begin. There are two features you must request to be added:

The Multiple Domain characteristic, for example. When you receive your Welcome Letter with all the directions, settings, etc. - you do not receive any info on WHM, the Control Panel necessary to add domains & them administer them. To do this, you must first REQUEST it.

Once requested, the action is FAST. WHM capabilities added and you are set to go. I just thought it a little odd that I had to ask. Knowing this, you will have no surprises.

The same thing goes for Site Builder. It is not configured to your new account by default. Again, you ask them and they add it FAST.

So you know - that everything but WHM (multiple domain capability) and Site Builder are automatically set up. These two characteristics must be requested by you and then added by them.

The Ugly - None, whatsoever. These people are good and professional.

Summary: In the short time I've known MICFO every aspect of this host has been great. Really great. Support is OUTSTANDING! I can not speak for speed of loading, uptime and other characteristics that take several months to evaulate fairly.

But for all else and particularly for value, price, service, stability and professionalism, I recommend these guys STRONGLY. I enrolled in the MG Super plan for three months, making it $8.93 per month. When I renew, I'll probably go for the six month signup and reduce my cost to $7.95. If I'm still as happy after all that, I'll stick with them as long as they remain in business.

Respectfully,

Ben