Need a new web host

cmhbob

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I just found out my web host is closing..."soon."

It was a one-person reseller who has been great over the years; she's the only host I've had since 1999. But she passed away sort of suddenly a few weeks ago, and her daughter can't pick up the pieces, so I need to find a new web host.

For reference, I've got my professional website (on WP) one domain, plus a personal domain that has a mystery writer's forum in a subdomain, and my genealogy site in another subdomain. I run a bunch of family email addresses here, too. My total disk usage right now is about 5 GB (but will grow slowly) and my bandwidth across everything runs about 31 GB/month. Realistically, I'm seeing about 3,200 pageviews a month across all my sites.

So let's hear everything. Tell me about the great ones, and the ones you wouldn't touch with a 39 1/2-foot pole. I've heard enough about GoDaddy that they're not on my list at all. I'm also concurrently checking /r/webhosting as well as webhostingtalk and webhostchat.
 

tiddlywinks

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I've heard pretty good things about BlueHost? I'm contemplating switching to them. My current host has his hosting platform via GoDaddy and I get annoyed with the occasional down times.

WPEngine is supposed to be REALLY good (I'm migrating a work site to that), but it's $$$.
 

Brightdreamer

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I've been using Ipowerweb for years, minimal issues, fairly reliable. But I'm not exactly a power user - not entirely sure anyone even knows the place is there, TBH - so I couldn't tell you how it handles a heavy traffic site with lots of bells and whistles. (The fanciest I get is Amazon affiliate links for my book reviews; I built from scratch in the CoffeeCup HTML editor, and upload with a free little FTP program called Core FTP Lite.)

Another name for the list, at least, if you're looking for a host. And at least when I signed up, their prices were on par with average, maybe a trifle cheaper (again, at the time - I'm not exactly demanding or discerning, and since they haven't disappeared on me like the string of freebie hosts I had before them, I've pretty much just let it ride.)
 

cmhbob

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One of the things I've learned so far is that about 70 different web hosting companies are owned by EIG. From what I can understand based on what I've read in several places, EIG's MO is to buy a smaller company, then cut everything possible down to the bone, and then keep cutting. This ends up making the good employees jump ship, increasing wait times for support tickets and so forth. But they don't change the name of the companies they've bought, nor do they make it clear that a company like BlueHost, for example, is owned by EIG. What results is that someone will get fed up with the poor service at BlueHost and jump ship to iPower. EIG doesn't care that the customer has left BlueHost because of poor service, because they're still getting money from that customer, because the customer is now using a different subsidiary.

At any rate, thanks for the input so far, both here and via PM.
 

GFXJames

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I'm lately slightly disconnected, but have observed some patterns. Take it from someone that rarely needs support, I typically am savvy enough/rarely do over complicated server stuff ( I can actually handle some linux console stuff, but is not my preference). From what I read is your usage, you handle a bunch of things, yet not something of extreme requirements. Still, as you probably know, you need to read carefully the TOS for CPU share usage limits, number SQL entries, etc, that could affect more the forum, not only space and bandwidth, maybe some other apps you might have. I'm a web coder (learning JS currently, long time in a place where my colleague would code all the ruby and JS, bad habits) , so kind have dealt with deeper stuff than the average joe, but am not a backend, I don't deal with databases. The common factors these years for me, are surely known places for you too, but here I go :

About Godaddy or 1 & 1, etc... yep, probably I wouldn't register in these.... not necessarily bad, but I wouldn't. That said, I believe often negative critics are a bit often over the top (not thinking about any comment in this thread!), sometimes competitors in disguise, or cases of ppl being quite less savvy, and then when charged less, by business model, it SOMETIMES means less intensive support, which if not very very savvy, can be fatal. For me, I'm not a genius, but up time is what counts, mostly, that the server wont go down, and if their package and TOS fits the specific needs I have each time or for whatever person. So, instead of speaking badly about some (I've been watching threads in WHT and other places many years) , I'll speak great about others I feel confident about :

- Hawkhost. www.hawkhost.com Haven't checked lately, but my experience when I was registered for a pair of years: Nice people, solid, serious service, a small, but sturdy efficient business. Surely family based, not a huge thing like hostgator. Prices are very good for what they offer, but they tend to be cautious in not giving crazy specs. Still, you want to check if there's some package that fit your needs. These are good people, and all times I checked, very active in WHT, that's a huge PLUS. As in any of these cases : they have their a large portion of their reputation from there, and they protect it, so, any critical issue would be attended pretty fast if exposed in the forums. But in the case of Hawkhost, if you get no reply by ticket (extremely unlikely, they had very good support and speed in my experience) I'd bet is just some spam filter issue, as I can't think of them ignoring a single ticket.

- Hostgator. www.hostgator.com Huge specs ( a bit of overselling, like a lot do today, but as you know, is something kind of under control (balanced by the many clients that purchased more than they use, if they use the stuff at all)) . I hosted some ppl with it, went well. Also, they lately have good reputation, for already quite some time. But have not seen them reply in WHT, probably don't need it, they're very big. That means nothing. Ppl do nice reports of them, I think last time I checked stuff in WHT was months ago.

- Hostmantis. www.hostmantis.com My current server. I got a crazy deal for life, great coupon (until stopping it myself, ofc, a new register would require I'd pay the normal price) with plenty of bandwidth and space. They work well, feedback is nice in WHT, good reputation. Really GOOD prices. Very hard to get a better deal anywhere (not thinking about coupons, it's so even without coupons. So, you can imagine...). I'm on a Linux server. If your sites are very demanding (am thinking about the forum) not sure, as haven't had that, and these are really low prices compared to the other two. For a heavy load you might want to look hostgator, but who knows. I'd try the ones I find more trusty myself (in that matter, specially Hawkhost. Then hostmantis, then hostgator. Is just that maybe the hostgator specs match it better. Can be decided by comparing the TOS about CPU share, SQL entries....)


Those are the three I always recommend, year by year. Unless they'd have changed drastically what they've been doing along so many, many years... these are good to go. In my own preference order : 1) Hawk, 2) Mantis 3) Hostgator

if you are rich, surely rackspace ( www.rackspace.com ) is another kind of level.... But most of us aren't.... ;) This one is what I've heard companies use for a more fail proof system than the average web hosting server.

Also, for domains, I never changed, always happy with Namecheap www.namecheap.com (I definitely don't recommend the hosting they offer. Neither Godaddy's hosting These companies are fine for domains, and is in what they have more specialization, IMO). I'm one of those who likes to have the domain apart from the hosting, yet fully parked with them so the get the best SEO juice. (so, rarely use the domain company's cloaking service, is usually bad for SEO, with any company. And redirections, usually a 302 if needed, not 301, to preserve the SEO juice) . I kind of saved several situations when a hosting -none of these 3- went bad, as having the domain apart, they can't trap you, you can go preparing an alternative hosting with no real downtime. Can have an alternative hosting while long down times in the current hosting (now, if a long down time happens... must be very exceptional and well explained for me not leaving.... )

You're now collecting all you can, so I guess all adds up. Good luck !
 
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jjdebenedictis

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I've been using FutureQuest for years and really like it, but I'm also not exactly a power user. I noodle around with a bit of MySql and PHP on my site and basically treat it like a sandbox rather than a real website.
 

GFXJames

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Sandbox ? Are you learning web coding too ? I know HTML and CSS, but learning Javascript, now... A pending subject, even have worked for decades as web designer but avoiding touching javascript coding... (and today just handling jQuery wont cut it...at least at companies. Freelance is way more flexible. )
 

AW Admin

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One of the things I've learned so far is that about 70 different web hosting companies are owned by EIG. From what I can understand based on what I've read in several places, EIG's MO is to buy a smaller company, then cut everything possible down to the bone, and then keep cutting.

EIG has purchased a number of small once wonderful hosting services I used to use and recommend.
 

GFXJames

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The EIG stuff has a very long history. I remember this exact kind of comments many years ago. Specially at WHT forums. Does every service get into overselling, support probs, etc because of EIG having acquired it, or has someone checked not to be the case with some ? I mean, in other fields this has been the case with other large monopolies acquiring small companies ... : A mixed bag, sometimes it got handled properly, other times went the way of the Dodo... I really hope none of my 3 mentioned favorites are touched by this (months disconnected from hosting forums, so I actually don't know right now ). Specially I hope Hostmantis wont go that route...
 

Luke_s

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I personally use fatcow.com and have done for years.

I have also done website design in the past and set clients up on my Fatcow server.

I run a few WordPress accounts from them and they have decent speeds.

If you’re looking for lightening fast, they offer a VPS account option (but that gets very pricey) I find 123-reg can offer a good VPS for slightly less, however, from personal experience their support isn’t as good.
 

GFXJames

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The latest company I worked at used their (fatcow) free icons set for a while... is crazy how many people can be attracted by a good freebie....
 

Luke_s

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The latest company I worked at used their (fatcow) free icons set for a while... is crazy how many people can be attracted by a good freebie....

I have never use the free icons they offer, I love the 24/7 free support they offer and decent specs for shared hosting plans.
 

cmhbob

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Thanks for all of the suggestions. I ended up going with Nixihost. Paying for a year of their Pro plan up front made the price $7.00 a month (which included a "one month for a penny" discount for Redditors). I got unmetered disk space and bandwidth (with a practical limit of 50 GB, which is fine for me). Their support at this point is top-notch with 5-10 minute response times to ticket requests at various hours. My sites seem to be running just fine, and maybe even a little snappier.
 

Luke_s

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Thanks for all of the suggestions. I ended up going with Nixihost. Paying for a year of their Pro plan up front made the price $7.00 a month (which included a "one month for a penny" discount for Redditors). I got unmetered disk space and bandwidth (with a practical limit of 50 GB, which is fine for me). Their support at this point is top-notch with 5-10 minute response times to ticket requests at various hours. My sites seem to be running just fine, and maybe even a little snappier.

That's a really good price, do you know what the renewal price will be?
 

GFXJames

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For price/features ratio, and still being reliable, I find hostmantis hard to beat (specially if, like me, are able to find a "lifetime" reduction coupon, I pay really low, yearly, for 30Gb of space...Pity is I believe they do yet coupons, but not of that huge discount) ... But fatcow hosted sites of my latest company (besides my boss would get some icon freebies as I was overloaded of work to make them myself) , and they did seem good/stable...
 
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