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  1. #1

    Similar problems with Hostgator

    We currently host three websites with Hostgator - here's what our experience has been:

    1) Online LIVE Support is generally useless. The only thing they have ever been useful for is in answering sales related questions.
    2) Technical support issues are generally resolved quickly (usually less than 12 hours of submitting a ticket - most often less than 4 hours)
    3) The fact that I know how quickly technical support takes to resolve issues is BAD - there are recurring problems we have with our accounts (php issues, mailing list issues, and problems with file permissions which lead us to suspect that the cpanel file manager does not actually provide us with proper ability to manage file access)
    4) On average we encounter minor outages (which occasionally correct themselves) or more significant issues approximately 1-2 times per month - more often if we are actually making any changes via the cpanel or sohoadmin (which is less likely a hostgator problem and more likely issues due to those products or the implementation of them by Hostgator).
    5) In general I'm still a big fan of Hostgator - mainly because their support staff generally respond quickly, and seem to be able resolve the issues we've had quickly as well - however it's harder and harder to defend them to my colleagues who only see the outages and issues - and haven't had much exposure to how poor many other providers/hosts are.
    6) We HAVE begun to explore other alternatives and are currently shopping around for a new host (hence my visiting this site - which is full of some GREAT - ableit sometimes subjective - like my own - information and opinions.)

    If anyone can suggest a good solid reliable web host in a similar price range (under $20/month) with excellent email stability, good continuity and support, and great follow up on billing and support issues - it would be much appreciated!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    969
    What can i say.. HG seem to be p*ssing alot of customers off over the last couple of weeks.
    Jon Black

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,785
    Quote Originally Posted by kanapei
    What can i say.. HG seem to be p*ssing alot of customers off over the last couple of weeks.
    Yeah 1 in every 1000 complain gosh that's a lot. I just think people like to post complaints about a host all at the same time then posts continue to get bumped by other hosts such as myself in an attempt to show that the big guy is bad!
    Tony B. - Chief Executive Officer
    Hawk Host Inc. Proudly serving websites since 2004
    Quality Shared and Cloud Hosting
    PHP 5.2.x - PHP 8.1.X Support!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    US of A
    Posts
    430
    Quote Originally Posted by kanapei
    What can i say.. HG seem to be p*ssing alot of customers off over the last couple of weeks.
    I second that.

    Just look at the first page in this "Web Hosting Forum", there are at least serveral topics that are HostGator related.


    To the OP: There are plenty of stable hosts that are under 20/month. It really depends on how much bandwidth and space you need. If you're looking for something like 5 GB of space and 50 GB bandwidth a month, chances are you'll have a tough time finding any host with great support. If what you need is less than the numbers I just gave, you should be fine.

  5. #5
    I can agree with you on your first point. Online help is USELESS!
    All they do is make you wait for five minutes, and then tell you to email your problem to support or submit a ticket. I alreayd know i can do that, but theres online chat support. The online chat support staff isnt the friendliest either...

  6. #6
    I use CirtexHosting. They have excellent customer service. They generally get back to me within 10 minutes when I submit a helpdesk ticket. Thats pretty good! Also they have extremely friendly staff. And the prices are good for the packages. They have customer reviews on their forum.
    Web and Computer Resource
    ihelpdeskexpert.com

  7. #7

    Thanks for the responses

    Thanks for the info - my concern hasn't so much been about their support - the support at Hostgator (once you submit a ticket) is pretty good - my issue is more regarding the need to have to request support so often to begin with... we are generally guaranteed to have at least 1-2 issues a month that seem to occur without any explanation - no root cause is ever provided, though they do manage to identify the immediate problem and have been able to resolve it quickly enough.... (for our part, we encounter the symptom such as mailing lists failing to work, web pages failing to load, control panel being inaccessible, or being unable to modify or update content etc). of course our real concern is that we want to have confidence that our site is working properly even if we are not monitoring our site daily to ENSURE that everything is working properly. The general goal for us would be to find a host that is generally reliable - and when there are issues or outages, we can understand the root cause and thereby have confidence that it was just an anomaly and won't be recurring once or twice a month for some unknown reason.

    As to our requirements, we're basically just looking for a stable web host - our storage and bandwidth requirements are not very significant (2 GB of space would be plenty, and not a lot of significant traffic).
    Last edited by Teklancer; 03-15-2007 at 03:27 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    771
    Quote Originally Posted by Teklancer
    As to our requirements, we're basically just looking for a stable web host - our storage and bandwidth requirements are not very significant (2 GB of space would be plenty, and not a lot of significant traffic).
    If this is what you want, you should not be looking at budget hosts. Look at business hosts(do a search on business grade hosts, business class hosts here). The quality and speed of support should be higher as well as getting higher levels of reliability. And, since your space and bandwidth requirements are low, the cost should not be very different to what you are paying now.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    771
    Quote Originally Posted by Teklancer
    2) Technical support issues are generally resolved quickly (usually less than 12 hours of submitting a ticket - most often less than 4 hours)
    This would fit my derfinition of slow. I expect responses from support within minutes with resolution following shortly after (depending of course on the issue - some things will take longer to sort out).

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    509
    Request to admins of WHT: Please make a special forum for threads with Hostgator related complaints. Right now there are 4 threads on page 1 of the forum that are hostgator related.

  11. #11

    Any Recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dormouse
    If this is what you want, you should not be looking at budget hosts. Look at business hosts(do a search on business grade hosts, business class hosts here). The quality and speed of support should be higher as well as getting higher levels of reliability. And, since your space and bandwidth requirements are low, the cost should not be very different to what you are paying now.
    When we were originally searching for a web host, Hostgator came highly recommended, and seemed to meet our needs based on anectdotal reports and the pricing-storage space-bandwidth offerings. I didn't really realize that they are considered a budget host... we currently subscribe to two "Baby" accounts and a "Swamp" account - all very reasonably priced from what I can tell... so I guess that explains the "budget" category.

    Could you make any recommendations as to a better choice of host based on the requirements I mentioned before?

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Quote Originally Posted by Teklancer
    Could you make any recommendations as to a better choice of host based on the requirements I mentioned before?
    Rather than hunt for a provider based on resources -- do so based on support.
    Test their support thoroughly prior to signup.

    Avoid any hosts that are offering massive quantities of bandwidth and space. If they are a good bit of what would have been their profit margin is going towards excess resources rather than staff.

    As far as recommendations go I've had fairly decent support from www.synhosting.com

    I'd recommend hostrocket but it looks like they've had some nasty instances of downtime lately with not much for explanation.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    3,146
    Welcome to the Forum, Teklancer.

    As Hosters themselves are not allowed to reply to your posts with their Hosting package details, nor PM you BTW, you'll need to depend on recommedation from other users of Hosting companies.

    Best advice is to start making a list of potential Hosters. Spreadsheet format might be best as you can detail why you like, don't like, someone's packages. Once you have a shortlist of about 5 names you start getting serious. Contact them by eMail, phone, whatever, and ask a few questions about their packages. That should give who to start with now and who to immediately move to, if plan B is required. And don't lose that list!


    With any potential Hoster, Features / Price / Support can be checked out before signing up. The last point to consider, Service or Uptime, cannot usually be determined until one actually starts using it.

    To help overcome that, there are various places that provide Free or Paid uptime monitoring and the following three provide both:

    http://easymonitor.com/
    http://siteuptime.com/
    http://host-tracker.com/

    Using a combination of all on one Hoster or each on different Hosters, can give you a good idea on their Service before using them. And, as people are quick to complain and slow to praise -- just the way we are I guess -- look for a Forum at your potential Hoster. Reading through various posts will give a good idea of how other people judge the Hoster along with how they reply to posts.

    Overall, research and patience are two important tools when checking most things, Hosting or otherwise.
    PotentProducts.com - for all your Hosting needs
    Helping people Host, Create and Maintain their Web Site
    ServerAdmin Services also available

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    771
    Quote Originally Posted by Teklancer
    Could you make any recommendations as to a better choice of host based on the requirements I mentioned before?
    This should not be taken as a list of recommendations, but the sorts of host included when business class hosting is looked for include Pair, Steadfast.
    And the wets (Fluid, Liquid)
    And others.
    What I do recommend is a search of threads on WHT looking for business class (or grade) hosting or enterprise hosting.

    What businesses generally want in a host is reliability, support and service. Price generally comes lower down - most businesses expect to have to pay for what they need (though they will look for the cheapest price) and hosting is a small cost for most businesses (having to look at hosting problems is generally a high cost in management time). Service is about the host's ability to provide for the businesses individual needs. Business hosts are generally not small (though some are and a lot of small hosts do host businesses) because businesses need confidence that their suppliers will continue to be around. Most business hosts have plans with addons (at cost) and a pricing structure that links usage to price. Businesses with business hosts generally use the resources they buy.

    Budget hosts offer a lot of everything knowing that most customers won't use more than a small fraction of what they 'buy'. Hostgator are more expensive than many budget hosts but they are much more at that end of the market than at the business hosting end. Budget hosts can be fine for what they offer.

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