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Attention website owners!Here is why you should never use Bluehost and Hostgator (and 78 other web hosting services) for hosting your website!

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

What hosting service would you recommend instead?

  • SiteGround

    Votes: 30 41.1%
  • InMotionHosting

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Liquid Web

    Votes: 11 15.1%
  • WPEngine

    Votes: 9 12.3%
  • Pagely

    Votes: 3 4.1%
  • Kinsta

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • DreamHost

    Votes: 6 8.2%
  • Digital Ocean

    Votes: 12 16.4%
  • Flywheel

    Votes: 6 8.2%
  • Cloudways

    Votes: 7 9.6%

  • Total voters
    73

Xeon

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Cloudways, my friend.

And if you're truly adamant about traditional shared hosting, then KnownHost.
 
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Vairavan

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In your heart
I'll chime in and say I use one of the hosts in the EIG list. Arvixe.
I've used them for 10 years, and honestly, not sure why I stuck it out for 7-8 years before they improved.. a lot.

I used to get a lot of downtime and slow loading on my sites. About 2-3 years ago, they changed their servers and the performance went up very significantly. Now I have near zero downtime and the speed is good.
I'm on a shared hosting plan, even though one of my sites gets decent traffic and uses up significant bandwidth. Here is a screenshot of the summary of that one site, from August. Peep the bandwidth used.

View attachment 28066

Their customer service is 24/7 via chat and has always been effective. They had phone support until last year or so, and got rid of it.

Before 2-3 years ago, I wouldn't even have recommended them to my enemies, but now it's definitely good. Considering I only pay $10/month for unlimited everything (sites, bandwidth, emails etc). It could be less if I pay annually, but I've always had it set to monthly and haven't bothered editing it.

In essence, not everything on that EIG list is crap (at least these days).
 
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Real Deal Denver

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100% true.

My wife looked up a domain, didn’t purchase immediately and the next day went to buy it and was funneled into their “name is taken but for $69 we will broker your purchase”

Had to buy a slight variation and then a year later when it expired she bought her original name.

Can you tell I’m still bitter about it? :rofl:

Scum.

I once had everything running through GoDaddy just for the simplicity of it all. Then we had a falling out and I transferred everything except my domain registrations. At that time they were locked and unlocking them was a hassle. I just checked and now they can be unlocked in an hour or so just by selecting an option to do so. Somebody must have gotten on their case...

After your post, I will now be transferring those out as well. I can save $5 for each domain using NameCheap (where I have other domains registered) but haven't done it because of the hassle.

I won't do it to save a few bucks, but I will go to the ends of the Earth for principle.

Corporations. Enough is never enough for them. Greedy bastards.
 

C&A

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I like Dreamhost for searching (no scum moves) and registering domains.
Flywheel for hosting - they were just bought by WP Engine. I've been playing with Local from Flywheel and so far it's pretty cool though occasionally needs a restart to connect back to flywheel.
Great customer support and hosting, worth every penny. Migrating a client to Flywheel alone shaved 2s load time in TTFB compared to the previous host.
Can't stand GoDaddy. They charge for options that are included in Dreamhost such as registration privacy.
 
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MattR82

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I like Dreamhost for searching (no scum moves) and registering domains.
Flywheel for hosting - they were just bought by WP Engine. I've been playing with Local from Flywheel and so far it's pretty cool though occasionally needs a restart to connect back to flywheel.
Great customer support and hosting, worth every penny. Migrating a client to Flywheel alone shaved 2s load time in TTFB compared to the previous host.
Can't stand GoDaddy. They charge for options that are included in Dreamhost such as registration privacy.
I loved the idea of local by flywheel but aaaallways had such annoying issues with it.
 

MrChill

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HostGator used to give me a deal for only $4 or $5 per month for their shared hosting. As soon as my initial 3-year term was up, they jacked the price up to $15 per month. Talk about rewarding your loyal customers! No matter what web host you go with, I always advise doing regular offline backups of any critical database files, image assets, etc. You can't have too many failsafes in place in case your host gets attacked or some Level 1 tech support n00b accidentally nerfs your site.
 

Hazelnut

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I just moved from inmotion to cloudways/digital ocean. So far so good. It is definitely quicker especially when using wp-admin dashboard. I mainly transferred due to being unhappy with TTFB I was getting when doing a site audit. It's massively improved since and I'm happily sitting at 90+/100.

Only downside is that you need to have a bit of web dev knowledge to use it.
 
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C&A

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I loved the idea of local by flywheel but aaaallways had such annoying issues with it.
So far it hasn't been too bad but we don't use it on a daily basis. We used it for the first time for a project last Spring. I'm curious to know what configuration you use @MattR82 ?
 
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peteranalytics

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It really comes down to technical aptitude. Mainstream web hosting platforms are decent and stable, but they are LIMITED. They make $ by building their own management panels instead of the industry standard cPanel. (costs $ per user)

I recommend a standard VPS account with cPanel instead. Also pay attention to "managed" vs. un-managed. If you encounter technical issues, a managed service may be surprisingly helpful.
 

Bekit

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P.S. If you have any horror stories using EIG products or have any other recommendations for hosting feel free to post. It may help others.
I once went through an acquisition where EIG bought the company I was working for.

The company under original ownership was a truly world-class organization. They treated their employees and their customers like gold. Management was fantastic. Employee perks were super generous. The culture was incomparable.

EIG took over and the culture instantly went down the toilet. The company is still out there, but it's never going to be the same again.

As we were going through the process of the acquisition, we heard from some guys at Bluehost that the exact same thing happened to them when EIG bought them.

EIG is a company that grows through acquiring other companies. That's how they make their money - not through caring about the customers or the employees of the businesses they buy.

This is why I agree that you should stay away from their brands.
 
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PapaGang

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Godaddy is maybe one of the oldest and most popular domain name registrars out there. But, Hosting is not their cup of tea. In fact, they're one of the lowest-rated hosting companies around. They're worse then EIG. They put thousands of websites on a single server. All those websites compete for server processing time and bandwidth. Your website will be very slow and not stable. Downtimes will be high. It will be a surprise to me if you are still not having any issues with them.

Completely awful. I had to explain to a client that their web speed issue was due to the fact that GoDaddy had about 7,000 other sites on the same server, I checked. He then called them and got promptly upsold their next level package where it was apparently less crowded. He took it. Dumb move.
 

Devampre

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Interesting.

Anyone have experience (good/bad) with Webflow's hosting?
 

Jcoil

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I use Amazon Web Services (AWS) for all my hosting. There is a slight learning curve but the freedom it allows me is unparalleled to any other hosting I've used. Plus it's often cheaper.

I wonder if there is a niche for courses on how to use all that AWS offers.
 
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FierceRacoon

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Well, they could extract the last 4 digits of your password once you registered/changed your password and hash the digits separately.
When asking you for the last for digits of your password, they also hash that and compare it to the hash of the last 4 digits in their database.

The downside to this is that (when the hash matches) they know the last 4 digits of your password.

Well, then they might as well store the last 4 digits in clear, as a hash on 4-digits can be broken instantaneously. (You can precompute a full table which will fit in memory).
Which means that they can easily recover all 8- and, with some effort, 9-character passwords, because the search space becomes much smaller. Surely, if your password is @#93289023809322u0932fhF#3uF___%$@, it makes no difference. But realistically they can recover lots and lots of passwords in plain text with very little work, which is functionally identical to storing them in plain text.
 

Sean P

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I've been using Interserver for some years and have never had any major issue. It is a one-man show although the owner may have a small team to help him, but he has been very quick and responsive whenever needed. Some of these smaller hosting companies run because of their reputation and credibility through word-of-mouth, and hence they really care about their customers. Besides, I am grandfathered into a cheap plan for shared multiple site hosting that costs me a mere $1.99/mo.

Another hosting that I have used in the past is Hawkhost, again a small company but very quick to respond and fix any issues that you might have. I got a discounted rate that was very cheap and used them for about 3-4 years. I stopped using them after I sold off the websites that were hosted on them.

I have also used Justhost and Bluehost almost a decade or so ago and had issues even the before EIG took over. But then to be fair I was also newer then and cut my teeth creating websites during those days. When you're more experienced you tend to be able to tackle most issues on your own more easily, or at least know what to to if your site goes down, like how to get help fast and so on.

The learning from my experience and what I have observed is that as these hosting companies get bigger they care less for their customers, and instead focus on scale and cutting costs to maximize their profits. They spend money on branding and advertising, and don't mind losing some customers as long as more new customers buy their hosting after clicking on their ads.

On the other hand the smaller companies like the ones I have mentioned above including the one I use are mostly one-man shows. They don't spend much on advertising and are not known except by the people who use them and those who have received word-of-mouth recommendations. They are also present on many online forums like Webhosting Talk where they put out their offers.

The risk with small companies that are highly recommended could be that if something happens to the boss who runs the show, there could be problems. But I am only guessing and they being in the hosting business which bears the most impact of any interruptions or redundancy, I am sure that they must have taken steps to ensure a smooth business continuity even if they are not around.
 

Devampre

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I host one website I have on Github for free :rofl:

Haven't experienced any issues, but it's not a high traffic site by no means.
 
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Kshatriya

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100% true.

My wife looked up a domain, didn’t purchase immediately and the next day went to buy it and was funneled into their “name is taken but for $69 we will broker your purchase”

Had to buy a slight variation and then a year later when it expired she bought her original name.

Can you tell I’m still bitter about it? :rofl:
Had the same experience at GoDaddy, but the difference is, I didn't really need the domain name. But had a desire for it. They registered it. When I checked the availability after a few weeks, it was gone.

A similar thing had happened with a well-known domain back ordering business. I tried to backorder the domain name authoritech.com in the last 30 minutes before it was about to be deleted from the ICANN database. They said it must be listed at least X-hours earlier than the scheduled deletion time window.

Within seconds after the domain name was deleted, it was re-registered and was on sale by a business. Within a week, it was moved to another business and the price was hiked. What's common among the entire series of events, is that all these businesses were a "Web.com company".

When I shared this experience on WebHostingTalk, there was a swarm of members running over the thread aggressively. In addition to coherence in their aggression, what assured me that those members were indeed a part of the Web.com concern was, one guy even mentioned in his reply "... your 'Authoritative Technology' company", even when I didn't mention my desired domain name on the forum. I used the same e-mail address on both WHT and on the fraudulent domain back ordering service. I believe that's how they pin-pointed my WHT thread to the domain name concept.

Now, when I logged into WHT to take the screenshot to share it here, the thread has been deleted. So it now feels like WHT is also a part of the same concern -- or at least, Web.com has enough influence over WHT.
 
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skid2964

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I use A2 Hosting and don't see them on either list. Where do they fit into all of this?


My personal recommendation would be Siteground or if you can afford it use Pagely. Pagely uses AWS for hosting your website which is also used by Amazon (They own it) and Netflix. So, your websites will be never down.

P.S. If you have any horror stories using EIG products or have any other recommendations for hosting feel free to post. It may help others.
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

Guest
I am not an expert in hosting or IT.
But our network administrator / IT master guy has everything set up on our own hardware, so that we don’t pay any third party hosting services. I feel like that is the best option.

Does anyone else here do it that way?
Why or why not?

edit: this is also due to control. The big boss doesn’t trust the other companies to keep our information secure or keep us online at all times without slowing us down etc.
 
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Last edited by a moderator:

Bekit

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I am not an expert in hosting or IT.
But our network administrator / IT master guy has everything set up on our own hardware, so that we don’t pay any third party hosting services. I feel like that is the best option.

Does anyone else here do it that way?
Why or why not?
That's control right there. I have thought that a lot of businesses who are hosting on cloud services could have their hosting pull the plug if the business owner (or product) gets canceled for whatever reason.

Plus, it's a higher barrier to entry because not everyone can figure out the tech stuff to have their own server.

Way to go!! :clap:::clap:::clap:::clap::
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

Guest
That's control right there. I have thought that a lot of businesses who are hosting on cloud services could have their hosting pull the plug if the business owner (or product) gets canceled for whatever reason.

Plus, it's a higher barrier to entry because not everyone can figure out the tech stuff to have their own server.

Way to go!! :clap:::clap:::clap:::clap::
Thank you! I didn’t do it, the guy who handles that is just really great at what he does and has worked here for 20-30 years.

We have our own domain and email and everything, all in our own building.

It’s funny because some of the guys in the office think we need to switch it all to Amazon or gmail or something! No thanks haha
 

Devampre

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I am not an expert in hosting or IT.
But our network administrator / IT master guy has everything set up on our own hardware, so that we don’t pay any third party hosting services. I feel like that is the best option.

Does anyone else here do it that way?
Why or why not?

While it can be a good option, one needs to invest in reliable hardware and also be aware of their locations power and internet connection reliability. Perhaps even getting a backup at a separate location and/or a backup power generator if necessary.

You do have more control in having your own server, but depending on your use case and needs it can be overkill and an unnecessary hassle.

Some people don't need more than a free Github Pages hosting and other people need a multiple servers in multiple locations. It's important for one to understand their own use case for what it is that they are hosting to make the most informed decision.

It is also worth noting that in having your own physical server that it does require extra time and effort both in terms of setup, maintenance, troubleshooting, etc. When you pay for a hosting provider, you are paying for the convenience of not having to deal with all of that (of course in addition to covering their expenses and helping them make a profit.)

I don't believe there is a clear cut answer as to what hosting option is the best for everyone. Personally, I am not married to any hosting provider and I would probably try out hosting from my own machine if I didn't live out in the middle of nowhere.
 
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Choate

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I use managed Wordpress hosting from HostGator. Domains with Google. Never had an issue and customer service has always been above and beyond.

I've read this "avoid EIG" at all costs multiple times over the years but it seems a lot of that is tied back to moral dilemmas, like them buying up smaller hosting companies or being "too big" with lots of subsidiaries. Seems like normal business to me.

I suppose there could be issues with their shared hosting, but it's not something I see since I'm on cloud hosting.
 

MattR82

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I use managed Wordpress hosting from HostGator. Domains with Google. Never had an issue and customer service has always been above and beyond.

I've read this "avoid EIG" at all costs multiple times over the years but it seems a lot of that is tied back to moral dilemmas, like them buying up smaller hosting companies or being "too big" with lots of subsidiaries. Seems like normal business to me.

I suppose there could be issues with their shared hosting, but it's not something I see since I'm on cloud hosting.
Well shared hosting is what most use it for.
 

phonic

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Hostinger is quality and the pricing is excellent.

One of the best out there for sure. Highly recommended.
 

Choate

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Well shared hosting is what most use it for.

It is also the cheapest option... One gets what they pay for. Costs me $360 per year for 5 websites for cloud hosting, around $72 if you break it down, and that might run $100-$125 instead if you have a single site. What is the cost of shared hosting... $30-$50 per year for one site?

The difference is $100 per year at most and that's being generous. It is just not worth it to use shared hosting as a small business.
 

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