Is there such a thing as a "good" host? That stays good?

I've been looking around the thread, and it seems like every host that was a good host, at one point, eventually went bad.

People I talk to tell me that i should probably expect to go through 2-3 bad hosts before finding one that actually works properly. Is this true?

Are there any webhosts out there that have good service and most importantly for me, reliability? webhosts that have been good for years, not months, and so will probably remain to be good?

lol just find a good small company and becom friends with the owner friends turn corners 4 friends lol

Yes and No. There are good hosts and bad hosts. Good hosts are sometimes small hosting companies which start up and are able to provide excellent customer service because they have yet to achieve a high customer base. Then, when word gets around about their great service...everyone jumps on board....the host is unable to keep up with the surge in demand for server space and yes...that all important top quality support the first few customers were receiving.

Now, they're in a "crunch"...a period lasting about 2 weeks ..they will try to hire and get backup to speed with support requests and eventually customers will receive the quality support they were expecting.

So...what am i trying to say? Well...every host has it's ups and downs.....yes...even good...excellent hosts. However, i am not trying to say that just because a host is unable to provide you with quality support ....you shouldn't be angry or "pissed". Hey...you're paying them to provide support right? ... :)

First thing to remember....every host has downtime. However, they must always treat you with respect and give you support when needed.

ok enough rambling......hope that made some sense & helped.

:cool:

It depends on what you expect from your host.
For example, if you expect 99.9% uptime, you will probably consider your host bad sooner or later.
If you expect no error at all from your host, you will also be disappointed with your host with time being.
Also, if you expect too much for cheap hosting, you will also be disappointed one day.

Originally posted by FlowerDragon
Is there such a thing as a "good" host? That stays good?

I've been looking around the thread, and it seems like every host that was a good host, at one point, eventually went bad.

People I talk to tell me that i should probably expect to go through 2-3 bad hosts before finding one that actually works properly. Is this true?

Are there any webhosts out there that have good service and most importantly for me, reliability? webhosts that have been good for years, not months, and so will probably remain to be good?

Originally posted by klisis
It depends on what you expect from your host.Hmm... good point, klisis. Pretty much like any relationship, whether it is "good" depends on what you expect. I have friends who have gone through several jobs and have never been happy, mostly because they have the unrealistic expectation that they have to find the perfect job. If there's one sometimes-unreasonable co-worker, it bothers them to no end. If a boss is lazy, it bugs them every day. But other people shrug those things off, and accept that there'll always be some negatives along with the good.

If your expectation of what makes a host "good" is perfection, you'll probably never find a good one. On the other hand, now many times have we seen people post here about having been with hosts for months or years, even though tech support is bad, there are billing errors, etc. With lowered expectations, those are still "good" to some people!

So the question "are there any good hosts?" can only be answered if you can first define clearly what is "good."

Today, I am philosophical.

I've been looking around the thread, and it seems like every host that was a good host, at one point, eventually went bad.

Yes, you've got it right. As soon as they start gaining some foothold and get enough clients -

1. success goest to their heads.
2. it gets harder to manage the now larger customer base.
3. the owners and the people who were supporting will now be involved in running the company and making it bigger, whereas in the beginning they would be working one on one and watching the support team and now they have no clue what the support team is doing.
4. if they lose one client and if they are signing up 5, 10, 15 new each day, they are no longer interested in you anymore as now they will have more coming in.

and so on. That's the story. I have been with a company that has been called one of the worst in this forums and I have now tried several others including that is made out to be one of the best. My experience is really - the worst is not the worst and the best is not really the best. If you ask me, always keep looking and be ready to move.

Well 2 weeks is an awefully short time frame to get your act together when running into a hard time. For us, ever since shortly after we went to using cpanel, it's been a nightmare. Finally after realizing cpanel issues were never going to get fixed, we switched to another control panel. During that time of conversion, we had some hardware failures, but fixed those relatively quickly.

After several months, we are finally pulling back up. Pro was once highly praised, when it was new. Most pay hosts are great when new. We've had a complete overhaul since then, but it's been a long, hard, drawn out fight to make it happen... luckily most of our clients held on as well.

Surely there are many good hosts on the Internet. However, with so many players in this industry, and virtually anyone being able to “start” a hosting operation, it can be very difficult to find one that meets your needs as well as falling victim to non-credible operations. I think the biggest problem is lack of real industry consumer information and consumer expectations in this industry, which can be distorted by competing hosts themselves.

A good host can have an isolated case or incident that can cause negative views by some users or even a small percent, and the nature of the net, can spread those opinions quickly, wither it be temporary growing pains as explained here or any other reason, doesn’t necessarily label them as a good host gone bad if that was an isolated case, and not a continual chronic problem. If they were good once, must be for a reason, and should warrant further investigation if your requirements are met.

I think the biggest factor is your expectations, requirements and price. Are you looking for a very low price? If that is a requirement, should you expect that $4 month account to have instant live support, around the clock availability, the latest features, experienced top level technician? You will be surprised how many do and complain here and elsewhere when their expectations failed. Now likely its not their fault, as after all the host is claiming these features right, however the expectations where obviously way too high.

The ultra low end priced hosts are mostly not concerned with customer retention really, but a steady abundant stream of new customers they attract with the ultra low prices. If your not looking for a lot of support, and want something just a bit better than free hosting, this may be a viable option.

Now a cheap host can be great and an expensive one horrible, however the point is, are your expectations reasonable, does it meet your requirements, are you really just finding your self searching for the best price or support is your top requirement?


Once you have a large list (easiest part) You can start narrowing down your candidates like this,

1) Set a budget, if $20 per month is the max you want to spend for example, remove those with a minimum price above it. If price is not a real concern, following factors will narrow it down also.
2) Select the ones that meat all your requirements such as special features, space and bandwidth. Email and call to confirm the requirements, get a name.
3) Check third party sources for credibility, such as the BBB. Believe it or not, when there are chronic problems, not even everyone’s favorite enemy here it seems (*****.com) can keep a satisfactory BBB record.
4) Do any of your associates or fiends host a site, do they recommend them or not?
5) Find out how long they have been in business, that can help assess the risk if they will be around tomorrow or not, though not a make or brake factor on its own. New can be good.
6) Find out how they handle support, and if the average turnaround time for problem cases is available.
7) Watch out for pay only once for a lifetime deals if your expecting good support, and also some of these have hidden annual costs and such.

These are just some ideas and hopefully helpful

I've used quite a few web hosts over the years and it really is amazing the wide range of quality you will find in hosting providers. I think there are just so many variables that have to be controlled to make a good host that it's easy for even a good intentioned host to swing the wrong way.

They've got the server, the network, the control panel, support, billing, and I'm sure several other factors that I've not mentioned. In many cases they may not have control over some things and are at the mercy of their provider if they are a reseller, lease a dedicated server, or co-locate. Even a host that owns their own NOC may have network or other issues beyond their control.

I personally think there are two kinds of "good" hosts. The lucky ones that haven't run into these uncontrollable factors and the smart ones that were prepared for them :D

Anyway, just for fun here are some of the hosts that I've used and my experience with them.

OkayWeb - RaQ based. Very cheap, but unreliable. No longer in business.

Digital Space - Cheap, but unreliable.

Jumpline - Pretty reliable, OK support. Left because I wanted some features that they didn't offer.

LiquidWeb - Had problems getting things set up. Subdomains wouldn't work. Left before 30 days and received a refund.

Communitech - My company uses them for their corporate and customer service websites. I've read plenty of complaints about them, but they've been a pretty good host for us. We've used them for about 2 years.

Wizards Hosting - When I first signed up these guys were great. Unfortunately it was right before VDI started having problems. They then moved to their own NOC and had some hardware problems and problems with runaway scripts crippling servers. I hope that they've been able to clear up their problems. I think they had every intention of being a good host.

QWK.net - My current host for my main domain. I've been with them for 3 months now and have been very happy so far. Their uptime has been great and their support is quick and knowledgeable.

Aletia - I decided to give them a try for some other domains that I own since they allow hosting of multiple domains in one account. It's only been about two weeks, but so far reliability seems good. Support seems to be a little slow. It took a week to get the extra domains set up. They said they didn't receive the setup requests, but it still took two days of prodding to get a response to a support ticket about the extra domains.