Clook Review
Founded in 2001, Clook is the UK shared hosting provider equivalent of the girl next door: local and attractive. They have servers in two UK based datacenters helping to support a top quality service. The majority of their servers are located in their suite in Hemel Hempstead which is operated by Gyron Internet Ltd. Last year they added to their space with Telecity Joule House in Manchester. Their cloud platform is based out of and run through their own BGP network within that Manchester facility. Their service is not only affordable but also extremely secure. We would recommend them to all small private users and SMB’s.
Features
Clook offers four different shared packages on a sliding scale from small static HTML sites to SMB heavy traffic sites ranging in price from £25/year to £100/year. Their cheapest plan, called Shared-0, includes 200MB space, 5GB bandwidth, and 1 hosted site. The next package, Shared-1 includes 500MB space, 10GB bandwidth, and 5 hosted sites. Shared-2 includes 2000MB space, 40GB bandwidth, and 10 hosted sites. Their largest package, Shared-3 includes 4000MB space, 80GB bandwidth, and 20 hosted sites. Other features include:
- Unlimited email addresses
- Htaccess support
- Daily backups
- Script installer
- Spam and virus scanning
- SMTP servers
- phpMyAdmin and PHP5
- Softaculous
As for their security, they have a range of security measures covering all aspects of the business. On a general level they are working towards their ISO 27001 certification. This governs information security which extends to the network and server level security. An example of this is the many configuration changes and additions they make to a basic OS install as part of their new server provisioning work. Additionally, they monitor for intrusions with their detailed multiple service based monitoring system. They also have user level security features such as their in-house developed “FTP Enforcer” which clients can use to impose white-listing and timed access on FTP accounts. This has largely solved the growing problem they had previously with FTP accounts being compromised across their services due to poor passwords, malware on user systems, etc.
Customer Support
We asked Clook about their service and they explained how customer service is the area where they shine. The response was, “We have always focused on our support and after sales care with our services and see ourselves as not just a web hosting provider but a partner and source of advice for our clients with all things associated with their hosting environment and web presence. While we may not be the lowest cost in the industry we’re far from the most expensive and feel that the management and support provided with the services represent good value for money.” They achieve standards of supreme customer support through their live chat, phone and email support services. Additionally they have an extremely thorough knowledge bank.
Ease of Use
After signing up, there is a slight delay before you can begin as your account needs to get approved. Once approved however, you can start straight away. Clook provides cPanel throughout all of their services. They also have Softaculous Premium available to all accounts (including a free license on cloud and dedicated servers) with all 322 applications available to install easily.
Clook Client Portal
Website Building
Clook does not have website building services.
Reliability
As we have seen with many providers, server uptimes can be the deciding factor in choosing a hosting provider. Though many claim to have 100% uptime guarantees, this is hardly ever true, and the best most can hope for is 99%. Clook is sure to support a transparency policy that reports honestly the statuses of their datacenters and any problems that occur with their service. Most of their servers have an average of 99% uptime on a month to month basis but you should feel free to look up their uptime statistics that are publicly available so that you can make an informed decision.
Summary
Clook offers a great service with amazing support. They go to great lengths to ensure optimum security is provided and their features are more than sufficient for most if not all individual webmasters and SMB’s. Clook also offers an honest, no nonsense 30 day money back guarantee so you can join with confidence that if you are not completely happy you will get a full refund.
