Hi guys. After a few years at my current host, the company has been sold and I'm not very happy with the new "team" as uptime and support have been suffering since the takeover. So I'm looking to switch.

I want excellent uptime and fast/accurate support. After reselling for a few years, I now realize that those two things are more important than ANYTHING else when choosing a reseller company.

Based on recommendations here, I'm looking at Hostgator, InnoHosting, and HawkHost. I sent each company's sales dept. a few questions this morning:

HostGator- responded in 2.5 hours with a detailed response.

HawkHost- responded in 30 minutes(nice!) with a detailed response.

InnoHosting- took over 8 hours to respond and only answered half my questions :confused: A bit disappointing since Inno offers "end user support" which would be a great thing to have available. I realize that Inno lists their response time for sales as "within 24 hours" on their site, but I emailed them at 9AM CST which should be within business hours even in Europe. Waiting 8 hours for each response could mean a VERY slow setup...

Any tips or recommendations on either the hosts above or someone that I have not listed? As I mentioned- reliability and support are the top priority. Basically, I would like to know which host has service and support against which all others are judged?

Hi

There are plenty of Windows Hosting companies available. I see HG do windows now, i knew they were linux specialists, they must be trying the windows world now too :)

Good support is a priority, but also good not oversold service.

What is your budget and what features do you require?

As I mentioned- reliability and support are the top priority. Basically, I would like to know which host has service and support against which all others are judged?

Not sure what your budget or resource requirements are? I would take a look at Cartika if uptime, support, and quality of service are of utmost importance. Of course, you are going to pay for quality in a host like this.

InnoHosting- took over 8 hours to respond and only answered half my questions :confused: A bit disappointing since Inno offers "end user support" which would be a great thing to have available. I realize that Inno lists their response time for sales as "within 24 hours" on their site, but I emailed them at 9AM CST which should be within business hours even in Europe. Waiting 8 hours for each response could mean a VERY slow setup...


Our sales response time should not be an indication of our support. There is a reason we mention a 24hr response time to Sales/Billing, and that is because it can take up to 24hrs, hence a response in 8hrs is well within the response time we state. Just because it was sent during business hours doesn't mean it will be replied to instantly as we have other tickets to attend to as well. Priority is always given to existing customers. Our set up takes 1 business day as all orders are manually verified. We typically provide very comprehensive answers to questions, and answer all questions. If a sales advisor needs the input from an engineer then it is mentioned so in the ticket and a follow up provided. If you provide me your ticket number then I can investigate this..

That said, thank you for your interest and all the best with your search :agree:

I'm currently paying around $60/month for 10GB disk/150GB bandwidth on Cpanel/WHM Linux hosting. It would be nice to find a reliable host that is a bit cheaper, but it's not a requirement.

Cartika is just a little too expensive and only offers Hsphere. I'm comfortable with Cpanel/WHM, so I don't want to change.

IH- Rameen - I am PMing you the ticket number. I think the person responding to my ticket simply overlooked my other questions. An honest mistake, but a bit frustrating when it takes so long to receive a reply. I've also sent a followup to the original ticket.

Hi

There are plenty of Windows Hosting companies available. I see HG do windows now, i knew they were linux specialists, they must be trying the windows world now too :)

Good support is a priority, but also good not oversold service.

What is your budget and what features do you require?

I don't think the op is looking for Windows :)

I'm currently paying around $60/month for 10GB disk/150GB bandwidth on Cpanel/WHM Linux hosting. It would be nice to find a reliable host that is a bit cheaper, but it's not a requirement.

Cartika is just a little too expensive and only offers Hsphere. I'm comfortable with Cpanel/WHM, so I don't want to change.

Cartika is highly recommended - their support and uptime is second to none. Maybe their HAL package gives you "more for the buck".

Cpanel/WHM is not capable of doing things such as clustering (each service run on its own server - this means your website will be powered with at least 6 servers instead of one single cpanel server), your accounts will be spread accross different server (so if one server have a problem only a few clients will be affected and only a service, while in cpanel ALL your clients are affected..) etc. Plus hsphere has built in provision, billing, support, kb etc.

HawkHost is outstanding and they have an excellent reputation on WHT.

Cartika is just a little too expensive and only offers Hsphere. I'm comfortable with Cpanel/WHM, so I don't want to change.

Yep, Hsphere is really the only commercial CP that can run clustered servers across multiple OS/Services.

Take a look at InnoHosting as they have a really good reputation, and as was stated, do NOT confuse sales response time with support response time. There are many companies that devote a lot of resources to sales, but turn around and devote little to support ;)

I prefer those with quick response time to support questions than those with quick response time to sales...

I think Readywire is an amazing company with end-user support. The great thing about them is that I have always gotten fast and friendly replies to all of my questions. I highly recommend them. I have been a customer for almost 9 months now.

Our sales response time should not be an indication of our support. There is a reason we mention a 24hr response time to Sales/Billing, and that is because it can take up to 24hrs, hence a response in 8hrs is well within the response time we state. Just because it was sent during business hours doesn't mean it will be replied to instantly as we have other tickets to attend to as well. Priority is always given to existing customers. Our set up takes 1 business day as all orders are manually verified. We typically provide very comprehensive answers to questions, and answer all questions. If a sales advisor needs the input from an engineer then it is mentioned so in the ticket and a follow up provided. If you provide me your ticket number then I can investigate this..

That said, thank you for your interest and all the best with your search :agree:

That is a very good explanation mate. I agree with you in this. Sales response within 8 hours is not bad at all. That is not a measure of their technical support and quality of service. @OP: So don't solely decide by the sales response times. Try to find reviews on each of the provider you have short listed. And I don't know about the response quality like whether it covered your questions in a detailed manner or not. But as far as the reviews I have seen here inno has got a great reputation here. Any way it is up to you to decide with which host you should go. Best of luck to find your best provider.

I'm currently paying around $60/month for 10GB disk/150GB bandwidth on Cpanel/WHM Linux hosting. It would be nice to find a reliable host that is a bit cheaper, but it's not a requirement.

Cartika is just a little too expensive and only offers Hsphere. I'm comfortable with Cpanel/WHM, so I don't want to change.

IH- Rameen - I am PMing you the ticket number. I think the person responding to my ticket simply overlooked my other questions. An honest mistake, but a bit frustrating when it takes so long to receive a reply. I've also sent a followup to the original ticket.

You get what you pay for, but my personal opinion, you are overpaying. There are many providers out there who can more meet your requirements pretty easily and not charge an arm and a leg for it. Avoiding unlimited providers is usually one of the best things you can do. Be realistic with your expectations, for example:

If you buy an unlimited reseller account (space/bandwidth) for 7.00/per month and they offer "master reseller" (software which promotes an oversold/unmanaged server), then do not expect quality from that provider.

Best of luck with your search :)

The current price that you are paying for the amount of space/bandwidth that you are getting seems to be slightly too high. I think you definately can find a cheaper host. You may also want to check offers section.

I would steer you back towards Innohosting. There have been gripes that their sales department is slow but hey - hosting has become a total "now now now" world but realistically, it is an acceptable amount for a company to respond to a ticket-based query.

Don't let sales fool you, Innohosting's actual technical support is hyperfast (10-15 minutes to respond 99% of the time) and very helpful. Their servers are rock solid as well. The one I am currently on has had 99.94% uptime since early 2008.

With all of the value-added services they tack on to their plans, they are really tough to beat.

Dave

Really - its very judgmental and immature to relate a sales answer back within 8 hours for a reply and equate that to technical support?!?!?

Thanks for all the advice so far.

Just to make myself a bit more clear... My concern with Inno's response time was that pre-sales questions and initial setup might take a long time. Or that an issue during the server migration might take a while to get a response. I've read enough in other WHT posts to know that Inno's support times are much faster.

I've actually been back in touch with the Inno guys since my first post and have gotten some good info.

Really - its very judgmental and immature to relate a sales answer back within 8 hours for a reply and equate that to technical support?!?!?
Be sure to let me know when you discover the concept of IRONY.:gthumb:

mellowhost are cheap and great support

from my experience GeekStorage is the best one.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

I've actually been back in touch with the Inno guys since my first post and have gotten some good info.


You are welcome. Nice to hear you got good informations from inno after that first query which was not satisfactory. Once again best of luck to find your best provider.

I think Readywire is an amazing company with end-user support. The great thing about them is that I have always gotten fast and friendly replies to all of my questions. I highly recommend them. I have been a customer for almost 9 months now.

Had a peek at their website, icon said "live support ONLINE"
But when clicking on it then said support was offline, sorry but thats a pet hate of mine and a big turn off.sent them a message though, be interesting to see how long it takes for an answer.

I know sales response and support response shouldn't be confused with each other, but really, would think the sales guys would be on that like white on rice! Just an opinion...

Would agree with biggestbh that I think you're paying a bit much. Out of the ones mentioned, I would lean towards the ol' Gator.

I host my sites with SuperbHosting.net, and (personally) have never had an issue. Wouldn't be with cPanel unless you want a dedicated server, but their CP isn't horrible either... my 2 cents. :)

Had a peek at their website, icon said "live support ONLINE"
But when clicking on it then said support was offline, sorry but thats a pet hate of mine and a big turn off.sent them a message though, be interesting to see how long it takes for an answer.

Fergal, even though live chat isn't always available, our help desk is. :agree: In fact, Matt responded to your email about 18 minutes after it entered our ticketing system. :)

Kjetterman, thank you so much for your kind words!

Why not buy a good manage VPS at price $40 to $50
From reputable VPS providers.

Fergal, even though live chat isn't always available, our help desk is. :agree: In fact, Matt responded to your email about 18 minutes after it entered our ticketing system. :)

Kjetterman, thank you so much for your kind words!

Matt responded just to say he was passing it along to admin,and to clarify was another 4 hours before a reply to my questions,i had a few more questions which i got a reply to after 47 hours although over weekend so maybe limited help then.

$60 for 10GB space is way too much to be paying. You can get a decent managed vps with cpanel for that price.

Well, just wanted to echo some friendly advice to the OP here, but I do have to say that you must think about judging a company solely on the Sales Department response to your inquiry. I don't necessarily mean any of this specifically for the above companies, but I've known others in the past to keep that Sales area well staffed as opposed to a lackluster Support team. Keep in mind that many companies devote a lot to sales, because that's ultimately how they make the money. A fast sales response maybe indicates that the company is vibrant, but it might only indicate that the sales team is on the ball. (IE: I wouldn't make your decision based on how fast a sales team responds.)

Just some thoughts to consider. :)

Goodluck with your search!

What sort of requirements (besides reliable support) do you have for your provider? Perhaps we can suggest a few more companies for you to test so that you have more to choose from