We're considering moving to Helm from Plesk. The guy in charge there seems to be a "Mark Hall". Anyway, that's the only person who's responded to our emails. It seems to take 1 day+ for responses. Is this normal? Is this typical of Helm support too?

Just wanting to know if this is what I can count on in the future before making a buying decision.

About a year ago I have test Helm on our very first production envoirment for two months. As far as I can remember all of my sales/pre-sales related emails have been replied by Mark Hall. The response times was not that fast as I have expected(like yours) however this had never caused any real issues or problems.

On the other hand, which is your exact question, all of my technical, support emails/tickets were handled in a very satisfactory turn around times. Never thought or felt that the responses were late(depending on the severity of course).

One year left behind and I would expect Helm to be improved even more in service quality. Helm did not worked for my requirments that time and I(unfortunantly) had to go with Hosting Controller but I still have a very strong belief in WHA's professionalism.

This is kinda off topic.

I have never really used Helm, but I have used Plesk a great deal. If you haven't had a chance to play with it yet you should. It's a great control panel. I was orginally going to use CPanel, but the more I played with it the less I liked it.

Mark Hall is the CEO Of WHA i think or thats what his email signature was for me

We use Plesk and love it - BUT if there is "one" hiccup in Plesk - you are screwed. The support forums troll very very slowly, paid support is prohibitively expensive and errors - well at times Plesk will run smoothly for months and then WHAM! one error and you will spend your good day or two trying to get it fixed.

We looked at HELM for this very purpose, however, two things were important - one - I am not sure (as of yet, still exploring), HELM does not offer any ability to export client data / contact information / records in CSV format.

Plesk has a configuration (or repair) utility, I'm not sure if HELM offers something like this.

HELM from the sounds of it - looks very good, just haven't actually converted to it..... as of yet. Hosting Controller - no matter how sh*t their website and the GUI that sucks - their support is top notch. We only have "one" Hosting Controller runnin and as much as I hate it - it works like a charm Whenever it has had a small problem - their tech support took care of it.

If Plesk were to do the same - (or HELM), I'd be sold for life and not be hedging my bets on various control panels.

Yeah, Helm has been very slow for the numerous times I've messaged them. Helm is in the UK, I believe. So, for Americans expect 1 day turnaround for support requests.

When you say "messaged them" I assume mean contacting support? We actually have support in the US so you should generally receive an official response within a couple of hours max, usually faster.

Plesk has a configuration (or repair) utility, I'm not sure if HELM offers something like this.

Yes. Even better Helm stores ALL it's configuration data in a database so as long as you have backed up you can restore or fix any server or domain very easily. You can also use the "Helm Restore Tool" to move sites, etc. from one server to another, or change between different products.

Hiya

you say it takes 1 day to get a message from mark, well its not every day you only have to wait 1 day to get a email from the company founder/director, mark must be a busy man ;)

As a HELM Lover, i think its a excellent control panel, and could not recommend it anymore to anyone in the world, once you go HELM you dont go back ;)

I'd settle to speak to a normal employee, than the CEO, if it meant a faster response time, haha. Shows how small the company is.

I'd settle to speak to a normal employee, than the CEO, if it meant a faster response time, haha. Shows how small the company is.

Feel fee. Our phone numbers are listed here: http://www.webhostautomation.com/webhost-53 and you can talk to a someone straight away. Or if you want to email sales you can use the form on the site.

HELM from the sounds of it - looks very good, just haven't actually converted to it..... as of yet. Hosting Controller - no matter how sh*t their website and the GUI that sucks - their support is top notch. We only have "one" Hosting Controller runnin and as much as I hate it - it works like a charm Whenever it has had a small problem - their tech support took care of it.



I agree with Babushka. The support at hosting controller is really efficient. In case you have problems they are very fast to respond and give you the best service you have ever had. And unlike Helm which has a paid support system, hosting controller people give free support. That counts cos one cannot simply afford bucks going down the drain for support issues.

am i right by saying that helm was based in Bristol UK? somone im hosting told me this, as if this is right i only live down the road :)

Yes that's right! We're probably about 30 mins from you in Chippenham.

I can only add this:

If I have a problem at local GiantStore USA and/or have questions about GiantStore USA then I'd not expect a timely response from the CEO. I'd expect a timely response from sales staff or support staff but I'd expect the CEO to have better stuff to do than to respond to my questions.

Unfortunately there's no law preventing use of the C-level titles. You can put the label of CEO, CIO, CSO, etc on anyone you want and that doesn't mean that you're needing to be incorporated, listed on stock exchanges, etc... It just means that you've given them that title. When I'm forced to apply a title to myself (lots of companies expect one) I put down CPO... It stands for "Chief Peon Officer" and it seems to satisfy anyone's need for a label. Go figure?

KGIII

mark just out of question did you right HELM yourself? and is your head office in Bristol or do you just live there lol and how am i able to display the powerd by helm logo on my site? (when its launched that is)

mark just out of question did you right HELM yourself? and is your head office in Bristol or do you just live there lol and how am i able to display the powerd by helm logo on my site? (when its launched that is)

Origingally yes, I developed the very first version of the product with my co-founders Adam Saunders. It's come a long way since then I haven't been involved in development of the product for a number of years.

Our Head office is in the centre of Bristol.

As a customer you'll be hearing more about the re-launch of the "Powered-By Helm" programme soon.

Off-topic... That sale you have listed looks, well, pretty interesting. If I could justify buying I imagine I would but, alas, even as a MVP I still prefer Linux or Unix hosting. (That may change when SQL Server 2k5 becomes offered at a realistic price from hosting companies or when I opt to colo.)

Bah... I will send it as a sale inquiry I suppose. Helm Lite 500 and 1000? 100+ (per additional 100 domains)? You can answer here or I'll ping sales but consider me JUST a tire kicker. I don't suppose I can trade a MSDN w/VS Team Edition? (Just kidding...)

I think I'll take the demo for a spin locally and review the options with my partner. Intrigued...

KGIII

Off-topic... That sale you have listed looks, well, pretty interesting.

Yeh, we had a promotion funded by Microsoft and due to it's success we've been able to extend the offer of 50% off all Helm licences, at least for the time being.

There's 2 domain-limited versions (Helm Lite 20 and Helm Lite 100) and the unlmited version called Helm Control Server. It's a good way to start small and expand as you grow. From there you can Helm Remote Server licences to allow you to manage multiple servers.

Any quesions just PM or email me directly @ mark.hall@webhostautomation.com