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February 22, 2007
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I’m Lookin’ for a New Host, Baby…
…a new host, yeah yeah.
Okay, so I’m no Jody Watley, but that’s what’s been going through my head the past week or two. The new web host that I loved so much back in October seems to be cratering under its own weight, and I now believe it’s more likely that the problems will get worse before they get better — if they ever get better.
I can’t suffer through this with them, so I’m looking for a new host. I love the fact that I can host multiple sites under the account that I have now, so that would be nice to have, but I don’t know that I really have any firm requirements other than the fact that they need to offer both Windows and Linux hosting. (I still have a few Windows sites hanging around.)
So any recommendations? I’m pondering DreamHost and Media Temple (even though I had a horrible experience with mt almost a year ago), but I haven’t found anything to really sway me yet. I have lots of smaller sites that will make it easy to test some new hosts out, so let me hear what you think! I’m ready to start testing.
Update:
Thanks for all the great recommendations. Seems like individual mileage may vary significantly, though, so I’ve decided to take my own advice and go with AN Hosting. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
March 2
Turns out, AN Hosting is just a reseller of midPhase hosting, so now I’m trying out StartLogic.
March 12
StartLogic was a terrible experience. Had basic setup problems with both DNS and Plesk right off the bat that Support took several days to get to and the interface was very confusing. However, they did make canceling very easy, in contrast to AN Hosting.
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I have nothing but good things to say about Hosting Matters.
Avoid DreamHost. I’ve never dealt with a more inconsistent host. My client’s site experiences several 5-10 minute intervals of down time a month, always at the most inconvenient moment. They also only run PHP as CGI on new accounts, which has performance and compatibility issues.
try 1and1
MediaTemple all the way. I’ve gone through a dozen hosts over the years, everything from shared and dedicated servers to grid setups, and the best host by far is MediaTemple, hands down. Their dv packages are incredible and the Plesk install is a breeze to work with, and of course what can you say about their support team other than its the best?
crystaltech.com has great plans of cheap. Their reseller program (hosting multiple sites under one account) gives great discounts. And I dig their 24/7 tech support from a real person!
A Small Orange for the win.
I have been using MidPhase out of Chicago for two years and have never had or heard of one complaint about them. Great control panel, excellent 24/7 customer service, and great prices.
I’ve got to say, I have never been so “gung-ho” for a host like I am for http://www.hostgator.com/ (Host Gator) - I’ve never had any problems with them, but I would say the biggest strength they have is AMAZING customer service. These guys care. I would never choose another host.
Avoid Surpass Hosting. Company I work for has a dedicated hosting there and it’s terrible. There is always something wrong: mail disappears, server crashes… Customer service is a pain in the ass. I think we will try Host Gator next.
Personally I use Dreamhost, and I’m very happy with it. Easily takes the load of about 20k users per day and I think it could take a lot more.
Without a doubt the best hosting package I can find ANYWHERE on the net is from Servage.net they give you more than double what guys like Media temple offer for about >.5 the price. I mean just go to their site and look at the package features. And I can speak from experience when I say they have the great reliability and fantastic tech support. These guys will get back to you within the hour every time no matter what time, day or night.
They constantly update their servers and are always adding new features to my plan without charging me a sent.
If anyone can find a better hosting plan then what these guys offer I’ll switch in a heartbeat but I’ve been looking and asking and so far no one seems to be able to beat it.
Customer coupon: http://www.servage.net/?coupon=cust16580
That’ll get the both of us some extra perks. ;)
I’ve been with Dreamhost for 18 months now, and have nothing but GREAT things to say. I see others feel differently.
To me, there’s no clearer picture than a company that has a blog announcing outages & downtimes. It’s raw, honest & real. http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/
We use hosting.com. Love them. Have dedicated servers with them, but they offer just about everything else too.
As a basic consumer client, I’ve been with Media Temple for probably close to 5 years now.
I am switching to another host.
Despite a rock solid hosting ground with 1000 bells and whistles (that I’ll never use), their basic service has gone downhill considerably in the last year. I wasn’t really warned of the GRID server exchange. I get updates for maintenance, but got nothing in my email that said to make sure you DB is connected or it’ll break. Well now my primary portfolio site is a train wreck, and I’m an amateur coder. More fun for me I guess.
Their customer service, though helpful, has slowed down considerably.
Their multiple domains are really just sub-domains with fancy names that are hidden inside three folders from root SSH entry. I might as well be using Windows everything is so buried.
Their email is the main reason. It has been working off and on all year for me. Not enough to finally move until now, and there’s no pattern so they can’t fix it. It has four panels that your browser determines as the choice. If you’re a freelancer at multiple offices this is a nightmare because you never remember where anything is. You can’t toggle or unread items, and it won’t cache anything you type, so you have to re-type it everytime you send an email to somebody. Of course they’ve got the fancy address book, but I don’t want to make a profile for support@whoever.com. I want to hit S, when I have an additional comment. EASY.
Bottom line, they have Starbucks and everybody else under the sun as their client. I guess that’s another reason to pay $20 a month for more than you need, and not enough of basic functionality.
If you’re a developer with mojo, they would probably be awesome, but for somebody who doesn’t want to think about their hosting or email and just wants it to work without tampering. Media Temple is in my opinion too high-tech for somebody like me.