Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : Site5 vs. Hostgator & Beachcomber: Ongoing Review

[nameslave]

SITE5

So I have finally cancelld my reseller account with Site5. I am not happy that they "decommissioned" third party uptime monitoring (WebSitePulse) for the server which houses my reseller account (namely, "Hydrogen") BUT NOT THE OTHER SEVERAL DOZENS which still have their WebSitePulse uptime reports some 5 months after I asked about that back in early December. Weird. And you could guess that uptime (for that "Hydrogen" server) is not particularly great. Actually, I haven't seen any even in-house uptime report (which they promised) since I signed up all the way back to November last year. (It still shows "pending" on their server status report page as of this moment.) So I guess I have enough of this and called it quit. The best thing about Site5 is that they actually have very professional support (courteous and helpful), and is not reluctant to refund any unused portion of your payment.

Now, I need to get a replacement reseller account; but this time, I decided to sign up for 2 (TWO) instead.


HOSTGATOR

I have always been reluctant to sign up with Hostgator because they don't allow overselling, which to me is an art of doing business, if handled well of course. But since I have read so much good things about them, I am giving them a try.

I signed up last Friday morning, and my account was set up in 20 minutes as promised. This is really impressive. I even contacted them early Saturday morning (VERY early, as in 6:45 AM) regarding changing my username, and everything was resolved in an hour or so, although I never receive the new welcome email as told.


BEACHCOMBER

I also signed up with Beachcomber last night (Sunday), and am still waiting for my welcome email now (almost 18 hours later). To be fair though, they mention a 24 hour time window on their acknowledge email, and their sales staffing is at a lower level over the weekend. But then perhaps I am spoilt with prompt set up, and feel uncomfortable with anything that is not done same day.


There sure are a lot more things than these when comparing them. I'll try to keep this thread updated down the road.

[crinner]

Thanks for sharing your experience with these 3 web hosts. I'm interested to see how this will go. Good luck man.

[01globalnet]

HostGator is a solid provider, never had any problem. I hope their new plans (more than double resources for the same price) can handle the load.

[ldcdc]

Hello nameslave!

And you could guess that uptime (for that "Hydrogen" server) is not particularly great.

Do you have any figures or reasons why you feel that uptime has been unsatisfactory?

I hope your two new hosts won't let you down.

[webstarindia]

Originally Posted by tonyFF

HostGator is a solid provider, never had any problem. I hope their new plans (more than double resources for the same price) can handle the load.

Even they offer 4times it won't hurt them as a host. Customers hardly use their 60% of their quota and if, you are really going to use that, then most of the hosts stop you doing that as per their ToS (by CPU usage limit, Bandwidth Cap, Data Transfer, Script restrictions etc).

[nameslave]

Originally Posted by ldcdc

Do you have any figures or reasons why you feel that uptime has been unsatisfactory?

The server ("Hydrogen") had some serious and extended (DAYS, not hours) problem back in late January, which their CFO rightfully tagged it a "nightmare", and a server-specific sub-forum was set up to channel the flooding of posts by frustrated users AWAY from their main support forum.

The irony is, Site5 has NOT provided any uptime report, either third party or in-house for this server for at least the last 6 months. And from my past first hand experience with other Site5 servers which also suffered prolonged downtime (namely, "Notus" and "Azure"), their historical uptime numbers would not look good (definitely lower than their "guaranteed" 99.9%) for at least a few months afterwards.

[NexVision]

I could list 4 pages of problems with beachcomber and multiple emails of them contradicting themselves to fit the situation. Basically I would highly suggest going far away from them and going with a real host who offers communication and a real answer rather then changing there answer to support the side there taking today.

[dhcart]

Originally Posted by nameslave

SITE5
The best thing about Site5 is that they actually have very professional support (courteous and helpful.

This is not true according to me. We have still a reseller account at Site5(but we'll close it in this month). Their support is slow and poor and limited.

[Brendan Diaz]

Originally Posted by nameslave

The server ("Hydrogen") had some serious and extended (DAYS, not hours) problem back in late January, which their CFO rightfully tagged it a "nightmare", and a server-specific sub-forum was set up to channel the flooding of posts by frustrated users AWAY from their main support forum.

The irony is, Site5 has NOT provided any uptime report, either third party or in-house for this server for at least the last 6 months. And from my past first hand experience with other Site5 servers which also suffered prolonged downtime (namely, "Notus" and "Azure"), their historical uptime numbers would not look good (definitely lower than their "guaranteed" 99.9%) for at least a few months afterwards.

I actually just rejoined Site5 (as a member of their customer service team) a day ago, so I can't really comment on the issues that you reported in your initial post (because I wasn't with the company at that time). I am assuming that the only reason the server is not listed on the uptime monitoring page is because of a human error - I will report this to the proper people today and hopefully we'll have that sorted out ASAP. Site5 doesn't attempt to "hide" uptime stats from the public at all, we make over 180 uptime reports available to both customers and the public and make an effort to update that page with new servers as frequently as possible.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that you experienced persistent problems with the server(s) mentioned above, and I am extremely sorry that Site5 was unable to serve you better. I wish you the very best in your search for a new host.

Originally Posted by dhcart

This is not true according to me. We have still a reseller account at Site5(but we'll close it in this month). Their support is slow and poor and limited.

dhcart,

I completely understand that you are set on closing your account this month, and I wont try to stop you... however, if you are interested, I would be more than happy to look into these customer service issues that you are reporting. If you PM me with additional information, and ticket IDs, I can get on this right away. If you experienced "poor" or "limited" support in any way, I would like to address these issues immediately. Thank you so much, and please let me know if there is anything else that I can do to assist you (off of WHT).

[NPSites]

I dont know I have had a few people tell me that
when they run an Amazon store they got kicked off
and HostGator basically doesnt allow them anymore

if you have a reseller account and a couple of your customers
decided to install MrRats Amazon Perl script
which is the #1 script recommended by Amazon.com

you are basically told to leave

Originally Posted by tonyFF

HostGator is a solid provider, never had any problem. I hope their new plans (more than double resources for the same price) can handle the load.

[nameslave]

Originally Posted by Brendan Diaz

I actually just rejoined Site5 (as a member of their customer service team) a day ago ..

Nice to hear that you have rejoined Site5. To be honest, I have never ruled out rejoining Site5 (as a customer).

[ALBASSAM]

Thanks for sharing your experience with all of that. I will open an ac**** with HOSTGATOR i was with Hostway.com

Thanks man,

ALBASSAM

[Nnyan]

Its been a while since I last tried Site5 (back when everyone thought they were the cat's whiskers) but I must have caught them right at the beginning of a slide or something.

From that I recall my experience was not a happy one. I would be interested to see if they now how uptime stats for ALL of their servers.

[HostTitan]

While we allow the specific amazon script listed here, it should be noted that it sometimes can cause huge loads on the server. therefore, it may not always be appropriate in a shared environment. That may be the reason why the above poster has had problems with other hosts.

[Brendan Diaz]

Originally Posted by Nnyan

I would be interested to see if they now how uptime stats for ALL of their servers.

Hi Nnyan,

We certainly do. After reading this thread, I sat down with Todd and we made sure to add the servers that were missing from the uptime reports page. I am not allowed to post links to Site5's website (forum rules), but all of the servers now have uptime reports available.

If you have any specific questions/concerns about Site5's services, please feel free to contact a member of our sales team by email, live-chat, or our toll-free sales number. Alternatively, you can also do some digging for reviews here on WHT as well as in places like Google. Good luck .