DoWebsites verdict: Novahost is a credible budget candidate for a small Kenyan site, but the decision should be based on the named plan, resource policy and renewal—not the broad promise of fast or unlimited hosting.
Price and terms checked 2026-08-11: Shared hosting was published from about KES 2,999/year; plan, tax and renewal must be confirmed in the live order.
Novahost Kenya: the decision in one table
| Entry position | About KES 2,999/year in the provider’s Kenya pricing material |
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| Published stack | NVMe storage, LiteSpeed and cPanel-style account management |
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| Backups | Daily incremental shared/reseller backups; customer remains responsible for independent copies |
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| Shared-data retention | Up to 21-day grace and up to 30 days after suspension are described in current terms |
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| Refund | 30 days for qualifying shared/reseller hosting; domains, VPS, setup and software are excluded |
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| Research limit | No purchased account, server benchmark or timed support case |
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The low annual entry needs a named plan
A starting annual figure is not enough to compare hosting. Before paying, capture the plan name, storage, site count, email allowance, databases, CPU, RAM, inode and concurrent-process limits. These decide whether a WordPress site remains usable when traffic or plugins grow.
Daily backups have a narrower operational meaning
Novahost’s current terms say shared and reseller services receive daily incremental backups for continuity, while also making customers responsible for their own backups. That is a reasonable hosting posture, but it means a business should not treat the provider copy as its disaster-recovery plan.
- Ask how many restore points are retained and whether restores are self-service.
- Export files and database to storage controlled by the business.
- Do not store bulk archives or video libraries on shared plans; the terms restrict non-website archival use.
Suspension clocks differ by product
The current terms describe a longer shared-hosting grace/retention path than VPS and dedicated services. Shared/reseller accounts may have up to 21 days’ grace and data retained up to 30 days after suspension, while VPS/dedicated services can have only a 7-day grace and retention window. Do not assume a late invoice is harmless.
The refund is conditional, not universal
The March 2026 refund policy limits the 30-day guarantee to qualifying shared and reseller hosting, one refund per customer, requested in writing. Domain fees, migrations, dedicated IPs, licenses, VPS and completed provisioning are excluded; a bundled free domain can be deducted.
Kenyan billing helps, server location still needs proof
M-Pesa/KES purchasing and local support reduce transaction friction. They do not prove where a particular account is hosted or how it performs for Kenyan visitors. Ask for the assigned region and run a trial or low-risk migration before changing production DNS.
Best fit and stop signs
Novahost fits a new brochure site, portfolio or modest WordPress install whose owner values local purchasing. Choose a more documented plan or VPS if the project needs guaranteed resources, large media storage, strict recovery objectives or a contractually fixed data location.
Questions buyers actually need answered
Does Novahost include daily backups?
Its current terms say shared and reseller hosting receive daily incremental backups, but customers must keep independent copies. Confirm retention and restoration for the exact plan.
Is the 30-day refund for every service?
No. It applies to qualifying shared and reseller hosting and excludes domains, VPS, dedicated services, setup, licenses and several extras.
Can shared hosting be used for file storage?
The current terms restrict archival, bulk media and non-website storage on Standard and eCommerce shared plans.
What happens after non-payment?
The published retention periods differ by service; shared/reseller has a longer described window than VPS/dedicated. Treat the due date as the safe deadline.
Evidence boundary
This is a buying analysis, not an invented hands-on test. We verified the published offer and policies, separated introductory equivalents from money charged, and discounted claims we could not independently benchmark. Recheck the final checkout and keep an independent backup or export before moving a production service.
Sources checked
