What is the HOST to BOAST about – Selecting a good hosting company.
It’s the never ending question of which hosting company is the best for your website. I can’t tall you how many discussions I have been involved in on this topic. I decided to let you in on the thoughts and comments of some very smart people when it comes to selecting a company to host your website. These comments come from a WordPress group on Facebook called WordPress For Business. Take a look below at the vast thread of comments and get an idea of who you might select as your hosting company.
Question:
(But first, if you order by midnight tonight….oh, wait, never mind) I have been with GoDaddy (hosting) forever but I’m about to change because many of you in this group Molly, Jarrett and Sean, to name a few) HATE GoDaddy. I was going to change to Host Gator but was then told about BlueHost. Any suggestions, opines or just general comments would be gratefully accepted.
Comments:
God bless the GoDaddy convert! Funnily enough, I think all three of us generally refer different alternatives. When it comes to shared hosting, Bluehost and HostGator are pretty much equal, though I tend to use Bluehost. That’s only because I’ve been using them for so long that it’s habit, and I’ve never had a problem. Others have had problems though…it’s an inevitable numbers game on shared hosting. Jarrett touts SiteGround as the best, and I’m actually planning on using them for my next project. I host all of the sites I own myself though, on ServerBeach.
Hostgater, never had better costumer service.
My site got hacked (through supposedly theme “support”)
Hostgater, detected and fix within 20minutes of me contacting them. Always friendly , helpful and knowledgeable.
And I agree with the godaddy opinion….
My site got hacked (through supposedly theme “support”)
Hostgater, detected and fix within 20minutes of me contacting them. Always friendly , helpful and knowledgeable.
And I agree with the godaddy opinion….
Great feedback so far, thank you. I understand that BlueHost is less expensive but I also understand that Host Gator has a very user friendly C-Panel. Truthfully (or I might use the word ‘funnily’ like Molly did; I like that word!), I never have had a problem with GoDaddy but I’ve heard just so many bad things plus their marketing is less than desirable. Just sayin’…
Bluehost is more user friendly than Host Gator. If you haven’t had problems with GoDaddy, it’s only because you’re lucky : ).
Why no way on Siteground, Yvonne? Jarrett speaks very highly of it.
Why no way on Siteground, Yvonne? Jarrett speaks very highly of it.
We used to be with them way back and I ran in with them again a few months back with two clients and I just had issues. Upgrading php, costumer support with less knowledge than I have…..and on n on. Maybe I had just “a few” bad ones
Godaddy is ok as loing as you don’t want to move or have technical issues….
Can’t say good or bad about bluehost.
Godaddy is ok as loing as you don’t want to move or have technical issues….
Can’t say good or bad about bluehost.
Yes, in response to Phil’s comment that he heard HostGator’s interface was user friendly. I think Bluehost is easier for people who are new to the interface than HostGator is.
I do hate GoDaddy entirely. But it’s because of their horrible treatment of elephants. Otherwise I’d register domains there.
I do hate GoDaddy entirely. But it’s because of their horrible treatment of elephants. Otherwise I’d register domains there.
Most combo is name.com and godaddy. Can’t tell you why but I don’t like buying names where I host.
And after hassles and hassles trying to move names from godaddy somewhere else, I won’t even get names there. I don’t like getting “boxed” in. I want to use who and when I want…not them.
And after hassles and hassles trying to move names from godaddy somewhere else, I won’t even get names there. I don’t like getting “boxed” in. I want to use who and when I want…not them.
I have no experiance with bluehost but I have been using Host Gator for many years. Their customer service is top notch and have saved my bacon more times then I can remember.
When my ftp went numbnuts and deleted half of my website the customer support techs at hostgator sorted it out within 24 hours saving me months of hard work.
They have also helped me sort out .htacces issues where they arent obligated to help out but did it anyways.
I am confidant, without any doubt, that hostgator customer service can bridge the gap between their cpanel and blue hosts cpanel in terms of ease to use by either explaining or helping sort stuff out.
When my ftp went numbnuts and deleted half of my website the customer support techs at hostgator sorted it out within 24 hours saving me months of hard work.
They have also helped me sort out .htacces issues where they arent obligated to help out but did it anyways.
I am confidant, without any doubt, that hostgator customer service can bridge the gap between their cpanel and blue hosts cpanel in terms of ease to use by either explaining or helping sort stuff out.
it goes slowdaddy, bluehost, hostgator and then if you are a big traffic site you will need a more robust host that can handle bust sites
Bluehost is not so great if you ever get compromised gl with getting help from them. Plus they have no real upgrade options. If you get a lot traffic don’t bother with them.
Hostgator has really great support and can upgrade all the way to a dedicated if need arises.
If you have lots of traffic I use liquid web or rackspace cloud these are a tad expensive but worth it if you are making good money on your sites.
Hostgator has really great support and can upgrade all the way to a dedicated if need arises.
If you have lots of traffic I use liquid web or rackspace cloud these are a tad expensive but worth it if you are making good money on your sites.
Stay away from ANY EIG company this includes HostGator, BlueHost, dreamhost, and a bunch more. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group
They have all gone down in support and the speed of their services since EIG bought them. Especially HostGator. BlueHost is just really slow. I had a clients site that took 10 seconds to load before we moved him.
I have not had the same experience with Bluehost. At least not yet. But I do have busier sites on dedicated hosting with ServerBeach, so perhaps that’s why.
@sean yes they are but they’re also unmanaged. I have two of them for my dns servers and I use another unmanaged provider called dediserve which gives me full redundant servers.
That’s really too bad. Like I said, I haven’t experienced the fallout from that with any of my Bluehost sites or my cients’ Bluehost sites…yet. Sounds like perhaps it’s inevitable. We shall see!
Yes it is a shame but to someone like EIG it’s all about profits and the more sites you can store on one server the most profit you can make. Customer service and speed of a clients site has gone out the windows. I’ve had them all. BlueHost, godaddy, dreamhost, HostGator, HostGator dedicated, hostdime dedicated , Hivelocity cloud, wasn’t until my current host (which is also cloud) I was happy They have full redundant self healing hardware where your data is stored on SSD hard drive storage servers which copy your data to two or more. Then you have a server called a hypervision that processes your data. If the hypervision processing your data fails it transfers to another one to keep everything online.
I like HostGator and I resell hosting to my clients via HostGator. Never had any major issues, site outages or anything that has me downing Tylenol Rapid Release. I have never heard anything bad about Bluehost either and they always sponsor WordPress WordCamp’s so that’s pretty cool.
GoDaddy Sucks, do does BlueHost (but not as bad) —- It’s a given that GoDaddy sucks. Pretty much any forum you read … they’re just bad-bad-bad. I used BlueHost for awhile, but then all my sites went down. They couldn’t tell me why and they couldn’t tell when they’ve be back up again. And I had to wait 45 minutes on the phone for them to tell me that.
HostGator has gone from Great to God Awful —- I USED to think HOstGator was the best. But now that EIG bought them, my experience is awful. They migrated all my sites to a new server, and one of them took 27 seconds to load. Got a hold of customer support, and they tried pushing the blame out on me – that I should use wp super cache, etc. But when I told them that even my test sites (using Twenty12, with one plugin, and one page) were taking 15 seconds, that killed that conversation.
I told the guy to get me a supervisor, which took the better part of a half hour. While I was waiting I did some googling and found that others were also having my experience. And that their issues were going unresolved. I got the same runaround that the others were reporting. My sites are really sporadic – sometimes they load in 5-7 seconds, other times they take close to a half minute.
Bottomline: HostGator’s exemplary service is a thing of the past. EIG has turned them into another “we don’t give an effin’ eff” about you” company. So I’m on the hunt for a new hosting company.
I told the guy to get me a supervisor, which took the better part of a half hour. While I was waiting I did some googling and found that others were also having my experience. And that their issues were going unresolved. I got the same runaround that the others were reporting. My sites are really sporadic – sometimes they load in 5-7 seconds, other times they take close to a half minute.
Bottomline: HostGator’s exemplary service is a thing of the past. EIG has turned them into another “we don’t give an effin’ eff” about you” company. So I’m on the hunt for a new hosting company.
Here’s an interesting one — THIS might be the one I go to:
http://larishosting.com/
Laris Hosting provides high performance cloud hosting for CMS systems such as WordPress and Magento.
http://larishosting.com/
Laris Hosting provides high performance cloud hosting for CMS systems such as WordPress and Magento.
depends on what you are doing. But, I use a combo of Godaddy for registration, Host 9 for national campaigns and Hostgator for basic low traffic websites.
http://www.hostgator.com/company
HostGator.com LLC is a world-wide provider of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting. Privately held and based in Houston, Texas, the company was founded in 2002 by Founder and current Chairman Brent Oxley, who started the company from his dorm room at Florida Atlantic University.
HostGator is a leading provider of web hosting, reseller hosting, vps hosting, a…See More
HostGator.com LLC is a world-wide provider of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated web hosting. Privately held and based in Houston, Texas, the company was founded in 2002 by Founder and current Chairman Brent Oxley, who started the company from his dorm room at Florida Atlantic University.
HostGator is a leading provider of web hosting, reseller hosting, vps hosting, a…See More
What HostGator WAS and what HostGator IS after EIG are two different companies. WAS = GREAT; IS = AWFUL. (no attitude there, eh?)
It looks like that never happened though from the quick research I did. It says they are a privately held company and that would lead me to believe EIG never bought them out. I’ve never had bad service with them but know everyone’s experience with a company can be different. I love HP products and others hate them. I don’t like Dell and others love Dell. Ugh. haha
Eig purchase was in 2012… They also own bluehost. They are still operating as a seperate entity.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HostGator HostGator is a Houston-based web hosting company with an additional presence in …See More
@Dennis, honestly you’ve been the lucky one. There were tons of HostGator clients fussing about their websites slowing down on other forums and twitter.
Dennis … your experiences are DEFINITELY different. I once bought an HP laptop. It busted within 13 days. And I once bought a Dell … it lasted 27 days. Thank goodness for Costco’s awesome return policy.
The thing about choosing a host depends on the site. I put sites into two categories: hobby sites and productions sites.
Hobby sites are small to medium businesses, local business, static sites, consultant sites, etc. Which translate to low traffic sites, sites that may only get small and/or in-frequent traffic bursts, casual streaming, etc.
$5/$10 a month hosting accounts are fine for this. I think over time all the low cost solutions have the same highs and low, so it does not matter which on you choose and their SLA’s are fine for hobby sites. That is way you have so many different experiences.
However, if you run a production site with high traffic or periods of high traffic like during a product launch were you have heavy traffic for 30 to 45 days straight then hosts like bluehost and hostgator just don’t cut it.
Even if you are using a hostgator dedicated (virtual or not) does not make any difference. They are just not the same infrastructure when compared to a proper high traffic host.
For example, I think anyone would have a huge problem trying to say that a hostgator dedicated and infrastructure are equivalent to a rackspace solution. It’s like comparing a banana peel to a diamond.
I have seen product launches with mailing list of 8k to 10k take a virtual hostgator site to halt on the first day of launch.
I do lots of high traffic product sites, to the point that amazon s3 stops streaming (which is about 1000 to 1200 connections) so I have a host that works very well with high traffic. I also have low traffic sites and run them on the same sever…because it does not make since otherwise.
I only mention this because if most of your sites are low traffic the cost difference from a host that is more traffic capable to a hostgator reseller can be only $5 to $20 more per month.
I never have any of problems mentioned in this thread or other threads on the same topic. My sites run problem fee 99.9% of the time.
So even if you are not involved with high traffic sites, for a few extra bucks a month you can go from slow server, down time, problems etc. to almost no issus at all.
But in the end the answer this hosting is relative at best.
Hobby sites are small to medium businesses, local business, static sites, consultant sites, etc. Which translate to low traffic sites, sites that may only get small and/or in-frequent traffic bursts, casual streaming, etc.
$5/$10 a month hosting accounts are fine for this. I think over time all the low cost solutions have the same highs and low, so it does not matter which on you choose and their SLA’s are fine for hobby sites. That is way you have so many different experiences.
However, if you run a production site with high traffic or periods of high traffic like during a product launch were you have heavy traffic for 30 to 45 days straight then hosts like bluehost and hostgator just don’t cut it.
Even if you are using a hostgator dedicated (virtual or not) does not make any difference. They are just not the same infrastructure when compared to a proper high traffic host.
For example, I think anyone would have a huge problem trying to say that a hostgator dedicated and infrastructure are equivalent to a rackspace solution. It’s like comparing a banana peel to a diamond.
I have seen product launches with mailing list of 8k to 10k take a virtual hostgator site to halt on the first day of launch.
I do lots of high traffic product sites, to the point that amazon s3 stops streaming (which is about 1000 to 1200 connections) so I have a host that works very well with high traffic. I also have low traffic sites and run them on the same sever…because it does not make since otherwise.
I only mention this because if most of your sites are low traffic the cost difference from a host that is more traffic capable to a hostgator reseller can be only $5 to $20 more per month.
I never have any of problems mentioned in this thread or other threads on the same topic. My sites run problem fee 99.9% of the time.
So even if you are not involved with high traffic sites, for a few extra bucks a month you can go from slow server, down time, problems etc. to almost no issus at all.
But in the end the answer this hosting is relative at best.
More news on EIG and HostGator. Seems that HostGator is moving everyone from their trusted Softlayers datacenter they’ve been with since the beginning BlueHost aka EIG data center in Utah http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1280493 this could be the reason to the recent issues. So anyone that is still having wonderful speeds and performance with HostGator just hasn’t been moved. Everyone I’ve seen getting moved including Doug said they had issues after the move.
Troy … thanks for that post. It may take me a month or two, but I’m going to migrate all my sties away from HostGator.
Do you have a reseller account with them or just a shared account? If it’s reseller you should be able to pull them with your new host via cpanel.
Just a shared account.
Haven’t tried the move with a shared account yet but I do know you can tell it to transfer via ssh or ftp for individual accounts so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Let’s get back to the basics. Are you looking for just a shared host or someone that has reseller platform where you can use WHMCS automated billing?
Shared host and my sites are not high traffic at this point but I’m not one that likes to jump around to the next trending company (hosting site) so I’d like to pick one and go with it. I’m amazed at how many opinions there are from people who are far more accomplished than me in this arena. I like simple, user friendly with outstanding customer service and few problems (am I asking too much?).
Oh, didn’t I mention that I’m looking for value, as well? Up time isn’t the END of the world but I’d rather not have 15-30 second page loads, if you know what I mean. Right now I’m hosting 5 sites on GoDaddy (stop laughing!) and it’s running about $120-ish a year. I’d like to stay there or below…
Space isn’t a huge issue at this point but down the road it would be nice to be able to expand the space I need seamlessly….
Some choices are www.siteground.com, www.HawkHost.com, www.Site5.com and I’ll throw in my company too www.larishosting.com. Choice is up to you.
A key question to ask is if the host is a reseller (meaning they only control the interface you get) or do they have their own sever farm (meaning they control the software and hardware).
There are so places calling themselves a ‘host’ you can run into them with your eyes closed and lots of them are resellers.
To me they are not a real host if they don’t have their own server farm. It makes a huge difference when trying to solve problems, quickly.
There are so places calling themselves a ‘host’ you can run into them with your eyes closed and lots of them are resellers.
To me they are not a real host if they don’t have their own server farm. It makes a huge difference when trying to solve problems, quickly.
Jason A. Kinney You are 100% correct sadly most are just resellers. For my company we have our own servers. The only thing I do not control is the hardware part because the data center handles that but everything else from software installed on the server, updates, etc is all managed by myself or my team. Our hardware setup is a big difference from most host. It’s in a group of cloud cluster servers (hypervisors) so if the server processing the websites fails it switches to another server to keep the websites live. For anyone that wants the geeky details haha http://onapp.com/cloud/technology OnApp helps hosts and service providers create their own next-gen cloud, CDN and storage services – quickly, easily and at very low cost.
Also, just an FYI, if you want to get in the nitty gritty hostgator is a reseller of servers. They use softlayers data center and hardware for their hosting. http://www.hostgator.com/network I do know what you meant most are just reselling from a provider such as site5, hostgator, etc.
Hostgator also rents server farms and backbone from ThePlanet.com. Lots of hostgator’s reseller accounts sit on a rented server from ThePlanet.com and in these hostgator reseller accounts, hostgator only has interface access the site provisioning. That is why sometimes hostgator says everything is fine (as far as they can see) but the real problem is deeper and you have to wait for ThePlanet.com to notice and fix things on their end. That is when your hostgator site all the sudden starts working again.
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