ZGH Hosting Review

This project of ours is dedicated to reviewing the best offshore hosting companies, and even though we seek anonymity it may not always be an option. This ZGH Hosting review is one such piece where professionalism takes the centre stage rather than the user’s privacy.

Although note anonymity has multiple levels of presence so we surely will explore if the company is aggressively privacy-invading, or is acceptable in that regard.

In other words, if you need an extremely professional, secure, trustworthy server which simply is offshore, this ZGH Hosting review should cater to your needs. It already has a customer-base which includes Scotia Bank, EA Dice, Valparaíso Sporting etc.

Here are the primary factors we’d be dissecting throughout this ZGH Hosting review:

ZGH Hosting Overview

To help you form an idea of the company and its primary features, here’s an outline of everything that’s offered:

  • Primary URL: https://www.zgh.cl
  • Servers in: Chile
  • Payment methods: Fiat only.
  • Cheapest Plan: USD $1.08/month.
  • Servers: Shared, VPS, Dedicated.
  • DMCA Ignored: No
  • Content not allowed: Anything illegal anywhere.

Is ZGH Hosting Anonymous?

In one word, no. It’s not anonymous at all, primarily pertaining to its non-acceptance of Cryptocurrencies. It is a fiat-only hosting company and Fiat payments aren’t anonymous even by a far stretch.

As far as registration data goes, it probably has to be true considering how the company’s overall stance is as legal as they come.

Does it divulge any personal information to third-parties? That may or may not be the case pertaining to the fact that the company lacks a Privacy Policy page detailing information about the same.

IS ZGH Hosting an Offshore Hosting Company?

Yes it is. ZGH is a company which offers servers from Chile, so as long as you’re from any other country it’s offshore for you.

No other country seems to be available. Despite the location being offshore, there aren’t many content liberties that come with ZGH’s offshore location. (Refer to the AUP section for details).

What Content is Not Allowed on ZGH Hosting? (AUP)

We just mentioned the company lacking offshore-benefits, what we meant is ZGH is one of those companies which requires a user’s content to be “Globally legal”.

If the content is illegal in any jurisdiction on the planet, it’s not allowed on ZGH Hosting.

Apart from the broader restriction of everything having to be legal, it specifically restricts:

  • Copyrighted content.
  • Mailbombing
  • Phishing
  • Spamming
  • Using Malicious scripts.
  • Spoofing etc.

Even using abusive language may result in instant account termination. So in a nutshell, the company is as conservative as is possible.

It also is pretty obvious by now that it would probably follow all DMCA notices and can’t be used as a DMCA-ignored hosting company.

What Payment Modes are Accepted on ZGH Hosting?

We did mention earlier in the anonymity section of this ZGH hosting review that the company is strictly fiat-only. So no you can’t make payments with Bitcoin or any other Cryptocurrencies.

A number of fiat payment modes are available, which are:

  • PayPal
  • Cards
  • WebPay
  • Santander
  • Chile Bank
  • Khipu

Although note payments via Chile Bank and santander aren’t completely automated, once the payment is made it needs to be manually confirmed.

How is ZGH Hosting Server’s Performance?

Considering the server’s client-base, the performance can only be expected to be a satisfactory if not impressive.

But let’s not jump to conclusions. Rather, let’s test https://www.zgh.cl to see what’s the average requirement for load-time, Server Response Time, as well as the SRT during traffic-spike.

Note that we did verify zgh.cl to be using the company’s own servers (verify), although the results below will only be true if there are no hidden firewalls or other channels which generally effect server tests.

 Page Load-Time Test

An everyday user/visitor to a website notices this load-time and takes that to be the website’s speed. In other words, the amount of time (in seconds or minutes) required to load any webpage is the load-time.

How important is it? Well this image should explain things a lot better:

(image source: https://medium.com/@vikigreen/impact-of-slow-page-load-time-on-website-performance-40d5c9ce568a).

To get a fair and broader insight into a server’s load-time, we test the webpage not from one but multiple locations.

The speed results we obtained were arguably the worst we’ve ever seen. Even the fastest result we obtained was from London, and it required 21.40 seconds to load. (Verify).

Germany demanded 23 seconds and Australia 30.88 seconds. All in all, the speed results were not even acceptable by our standards.

But then again, note that it’s very probable that the company routes its traffic via a number of other servers hence resulting in these “not very practical” results.

Server Response Time Test (SRT)

The results above may be effected by the webpage’s heavier file or poor coding/ optimization. So we rip off the content’s (HTML, Images etc.) contribution towards the results, and test the server’s response time in general in this SRT test.

Unfortunately, the results were in sync with the load-time test above. With an average SRT requirement of 200ms+ the numbers were a disappointment. (Verify results).

We’ve sure seen slow results, for instance in our Warez Host Review or BulletProof Hosting Review, but these numbers were even lower.

SRT with Traffic-Spike

Despite the tests above not yielding very favourable results, let’s see what effect a traffic-swarm causes on the servers?

As always, we’d be sending 25 Virtual Users to the site and then record the server’s performance gradually.

The SRT-requirement started with being 1.2 seconds for 1 Virtual User, and stayed consistent with the requirement being 1.2 seconds even for 25 Virtual Users.

So even though the SRT spikes overall, it sure can be said to be consistent. The same can be concluded from the below test (verify).

What Server Types and Pricing Plans does ZGH Hosting Offer?

The company offers Shared servers (both Linux and Windows), as well as VPS and Dedicated servers.

Note that initially the pricing page seems confusing and displays 5-figure amounts with a USD ($) sign next to them. However when actually making the payment the prices are displayed in a much more understandable format and amount.

Shared servers start at USD $1.18/month and the highest plan goes upto USD $16.60/month. VPS plans have a starting price of USD $9.88/month, and the server with the highest specs costs USD $235.97/month.

Dedicated servers obviously are the most expensive, but the pricing plans aren’t displayed. The company needs to be contacted manually for a quote.

How can ZGH Hosting be Contacted?

ZGH doesn’t have a live-chat available. So the only way to get in touch with them is via:

They do claim a 24X7 support staff and fast replies for the E-mails which however hasn’t been verified by us.

There also is a contact form which can be used to get in touch with the team on their contacts page.

Final Verdict:

Wrapping this ZGH Hosting review up, I’d say the company is purely and strictly an offshore hosting company, and nothing more than that. Infact, its AUP takes away some of the offshore benefits as well.

So it sure can be used for free speech and expression of opinion, but anything more and you’d probably be treading on thin ice.

The client-base however does establish a sense of trust and security, so if it’s professionalism you seek the company should deliver impressive results.

This should be it for now folks, it has been a long read. Do let us know if this ZGH Hosting review helped you, or if you’ve got your own set of problems you’d like to get answered in the comments.

Related Posts