web hosts

[allen]

All right DC brain trust... my company is in need of a new web host for our clients, as Hostgator has been in a significant state of decline over the last couple years. Ideally we're looking for shared hosting plans as VPS managing/reselling has proven to be more trouble than it's worth for a shop as small as ours. 

I can read feature lists and prices as well as the next guy, but what I'd really like is recommendations based on real experience--especially if you've used a host for a long-ish time and are happy with them. Obviously reliability is important, customer service being a close second priority.

[eleman]

I'd recommend hostso. Mostly due to price. You can't beat $8 per month for unlimited web sites.

I use them for 5 years now.

They sometimes have downtime. My uptime estimate for their services would be around 99%. Well yes, I know 99% and 99.5% are really worlds apart when you have an angry client. And 99.95% is entirely something else. But see the price.

Sometimes (once a month or once every two months maybe) the site is slower than it needs to be.

Their responses to tickets are quick (within 24 hours), and they solve the problems in the first response. I never had to have protracted exchanges with a clueless support staff in India. Every problem I had, from billing to password resets, to vulnerable php scripts, were solved immediately.

And again, you can't beat the price.

[rgdot]

Consider hawkhost (hawkhost.com) too, been happy with them for a few years.

[allen]

Thanks guys, keep 'em coming!

[TaoPhoenix]

All right DC brain trust... my company is in need of a new web host for our clients, as Hostgator has been in a significant state of decline over the last couple years. Ideally we're looking for shared hosting plans as VPS managing/reselling has proven to be more trouble than it's worth for a shop as small as ours.  

I can read feature lists and prices as well as the next guy, but what I'd really like is recommendations based on real experience--especially if you've used a host for a long-ish time and are happy with them. Obviously reliability is important, customer service being a close second priority.

It's been a while, but if nothing else but for education, a few years back I did a slightly unorthodox survey of free (but payment greatly appreciated!) web hosts from FreeWebSpace.net.

The point is, a while back I wanted some simple hosting for my own projects and got tired of fake outfits folding in four months at a time, so I set out to find a couple long haul guys.

http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?2224602-Time-to-rebuild-my-host-spread
(Tip - scroll to the end of the thread to post - you likely don't care about my multi post history to get there)

Of my four winners, the two I recommend are either Seraphim Labs or Decker Services. By now both have been in service for some 5+ years. Post in the thread to say hello and get some basic info to sign up because that forum saw a rash of fake signups but once they see you with my referral they'll know it's a different league.

Once you request hosting aka it's easy to prove you are not one of the junk spammers taking over that service area, you have a good shot at either. And they have decent techs to solve problems. At the total worst if you tell them TaoPhoenix sent you, you can get the other one to spot help any rare problem that pops up on the other's service, which is pretty rare.

[app103]

My long time friend and fellow DC member pip2kk has owned a hosting company for about 5 years (My Custom Hosting) which I will be moving all of my sites to, as soon as I can find the will to stop being lazy about it. 

Not just taking his word for it, but also reading the reviews (because I'd like to remain friends with him, for many more years to come), hosting with his company is not just cheap, but also reliable. Customer service, however does leave something to be desired, if you are too inept to RTFM. He is not going to hold your hand and be your teacher.

So, if you know what you are doing, you shouldn't expect much in the way of problems. But if you are a clueless newbie that has no idea how to create a database from within cpanel and don't know how to use phpmyadmin, or don't know how to upload your files via FTP, you might be better off with someone else that charges more money that goes towards paying a larger support staff, paid to hold the hands of the clueless. (one of the reasons why his rates are so low is because he does everything, himself. But he also still has a day job, too.)

[SeraphimLabs]

I'm still here representing Seraphimlabs.

At the moment my own site is down indefinitely, it is in dire need of an overhaul and redesign that I just plain haven't gotten to. But I do have servers still active, and can set you up with an account.

[TaoPhoenix]

I'm still here representing Seraphimlabs.

At the moment my own site is down indefinitely, it is in dire need of an overhaul and redesign that I just plain haven't gotten to. But I do have servers still active, and can set you up with an account.

Yeah, don't play the "Judge Book by Cover" game here. Seraphim Labs won my exhaustive survey of free-yet-donation-appreciated hosts.

Though Seraphim, a tip, smash up a dumb site just so people have something to look at that resolves before Crabby's cats in the humor thread take them away again. : )  You know, 2003 style. You've been good by me, so don't crush yourself with a dead site. Just make it "Hosting by request. Submit ____ in this form here and we'll talk". Should take you three days tops given the near-genius you are.


Basically anyone here is way beyond the junk guys at FreeWebSpace.net that we all grew up on.

[wraith808]

I've been through several- but not recently.  LiquidWeb has had my business since I found them.  Reasonable Prices, Personal Service, and the only time my site has been down is b/c of planned reboots.

[allen]

Thanks for the input all, getting a nice little list of options to mull over!

I'm still here representing Seraphimlabs.

At the moment my own site is down indefinitely, it is in dire need of an overhaul and redesign that I just plain haven't gotten to. But I do have servers still active, and can set you up with an account.

I appreciate the offer, and if it was just me I'd probably jump on it. For present purposes though it's probably not what we're looking for. We're generally deploying 1-3 standalone client-owned sites per month and my parent company is going to require a service with a more obvious support structure to lean on when/if things do get bumpy.

[TaoPhoenix]

Thanks for the input all, getting a nice little list of options to mull over!

I'm still here representing Seraphimlabs.

At the moment my own site is down indefinitely, it is in dire need of an overhaul and redesign that I just plain haven't gotten to. But I do have servers still active, and can set you up with an account.

I appreciate the offer, and if it was just me I'd probably jump on it. For present purposes though it's probably not what we're looking for. We're generally deploying 1-3 standalone client-owned sites per month and my parent company is going to require a service with a more obvious support structure to lean on when/if things do get bumpy.

Hi Allen, my other winner of my survey that I actively support is Charles Decker of Decker Services (known in some forums as Deeplist.)
http://deckerservices.com/

They're both as sharp as they come, and I've worked a bit that at worst they can tag team a little on each other's issues on the rare chance they need a consulting tip.

By now you're a "Smart Client". Web Hosting has suffered in the last few years since Facebook - people don't post pictures of cats on their webpages anymore. But if you need stuff, either of those guys can do you well.

Regards,

--Tao

[xtabber]

Have used FutureQuest for 12 years and they have been rock solid.