HostAway Microsoft 365 Business Basic, AUD 10.00/mo.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic has been updated on November 7, 2025 (added December 28, 2020)

🔌 Hosted domains :	1
🆓 free domains :	0
📌 Dedicated IPs :	0
💳 Payment Methods :	Credit / Debit / Prepaid CardsWire Transfer
🔨 Control Panel :	[In-house]
✍️ Support Options :	EmailHelp DeskPhone / Toll-Free
🌏 Server Locations :	Australia
⚑ Targeting :	AU
💰 Money-back guarantee :	30 days

See also initial Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan location on their website!

*📜 Plan description

📄 Editorial Review

HostAway is a Perth-based provider that grew out of a long local history in computing and internet services. They concentrate on practical hosting—websites, email, virtual servers—and round it out with colocation, DNS, and a few well-chosen extras. The appeal is straightforward: locally run infrastructure, human support in Western Australia, and platforms tuned for speed and reliability rather than gimmicks.

Background & Heritage

The business traces its roots to WA Data (est. 1990), a hardware and service outfit that later launched Arachnet in 1995 to deliver dial-up and, later, broadband internet across Perth. In 2005 the access business was sold to Amnet, while the data-centre assets and hosting clients became the foundation for HostAway. That lineage shows up in today’s focus on network design, uptime monitoring, and practical, on-prem expertise.

Hosting & Cloud (Web Hosting)

For websites, HostAway runs locally hosted, speed-optimised servers connected by multiple fibre links for low latency and quick page delivery. Storage is NVMe-based and web servers are clustered and load balanced, so traffic spikes don’t translate into slow sites. The platform includes a Members Panel for day-to-day tasks, one-click WordPress installation, and options for both Linux and Windows hosting depending on the application stack (PHP/Perl vs. ASP/.NET). They also provide a no-cost, template-driven website builder on Linux plans to help smaller teams get online without hiring a developer.
Indicative pricing: entry web hosting starts around $11/month, with add-on web space available in 500 MB, 1 GB, and 2 GB tiers. Premium spam filtering can be added per domain (inbound or outbound), or bundled for both directions.

Email Hosting & Security

Mailbox creation and management live inside the Members Panel, with intuitive webmail, calendars, contacts, forwarding, and autoresponders. Spam and virus filtering guard the perimeter, and storage can be expanded in 1–10 GB steps. For customers who only need an address and forwarding, there are email-only and redirect options that can be upgraded to full hosting later.
Spam filtering: inbound or outbound filtering is available per domain, with a combined inbound+outbound option for heavier compliance needs.

Virtual Servers (Cloud VPS)

HostAway’s virtual servers sit on an enterprise cloud built from redundant Dell compute nodes, ZFS storage, and a 10 Gbps storage backplane for fast I/O between compute and disk. Customers can provision Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or deploy from templates such as cPanel. The management portal supports rapid provisioning, reboots, rebuilds, firewall rules, resource changes, and snapshot backups. On hourly billing, workloads can auto-scale RAM, CPU, or disk during surges.
Indicative pricing: a basic VM begins near $29.95/month, with granular add-ons (RAM per GB, storage per GB, bandwidth per GB, additional vCPUs, and IPv4 addresses). Licences (e.g., cPanel, Windows Server) are available as monthly add-ons.

Colocation (Perth Data Centre)

For teams that need their own hardware, HostAway offers colocation starting with 1RU from $130/month. The facility pairs redundant power and cooling with local peering and a 10 Gbps EdgeIX connection so traffic to WA networks takes the shortest path. Optional services include extra power, uplinks, IPv4 addresses, IP-KVM, and IP-power for remote reboots. After-hours access is available, with a published hourly charge.

DNS & Domain Utilities

DNS hosting is available as a lightweight option to point hostnames and manage records, with mirror hosting (domain aliasing) and 301 redirects for simple multi-domain setups. DNS hosting is priced annually.

Productivity & Email Marketing

HostAway resells and supports Microsoft 365 and Hosted Exchange for business-class email, calendars, and Office applications. Pricing follows Microsoft’s NCE model (annual terms with limited cancellation windows and a premium for month-to-month flexibility). For outreach, an email marketing platform provides a drag-and-drop builder, templates, list growth tools, and real-time analytics.

Performance, Security & Reliability

Engineering choices lean toward speed and hardening: NVMe storage, clustered web servers, low-latency fibre, and local peering for quick round trips. Security layers include frequent malware scans, intrusion detection, brute-force blocking, and proactive checks on weak permissions. Backups are handled with a 7-day rolling policy—kept onsite, offsite, and offline—and the environment is monitored 24/7/365 from multiple external locations for quick alerting.

Support & Operations

Support is local to WA and intentionally personal: calls connect to trained Perth-based staff without long queues. The company emphasises "old-fashioned" service—clear communication and quick resolution—backed by tooling that integrates tightly with their high-availability cluster. For customers who prefer familiar control panels, cPanel (and, on request, Plesk) licences are available—particularly useful on virtual servers.

Pricing Snapshot (AUD $)

The prices are very expensive for todays market, although most of the products and prices are the same from December 2020 !

• Web hosting: from $11/month; storage add-ons available (500 MB / 1 GB / 2 GB).
• Premium spam filtering: per domain inbound or outbound; bundle available for both.
• Email hosting (example plan): around $99/year on an "Advanced" tier; mailbox storage upgrades in 1–10 GB steps.
• Virtual servers: from $29.95/month + granular charges for RAM, storage, bandwidth, extra vCPU, IPv4.
• Licences: cPanel Solo / cPanel 5 accounts, Windows Server, and others priced monthly.
• Colocation: 1RU from $130/month + optional IP-KVM/IP-power/uplinks/extra power.
• DNS hosting: $27.50/year.

*Monthly accounts are billed by automatic payment (direct debit or credit card). Annual prepayments attract discounts on some services but generally not on third-party licence fees.
After the 30-day money-back period, all payments to HostAway are non-refundable. This applies to all subsequent charges, regardless of actual usage.