Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Shared Hosting Problems

[DouglasStewart]

I've started a new (small) website in the UK (where my dedicated server for my other websites is) but am looking to move this one website to a shared hosting in the USA. Reason for the move is that my main market is the USA (for this website, not the others) and Google is giving me poor SERPS for the USA because my website is hosted in the UK.

Unfortunately I've had a lot of bad experiences with hosts before. I was previously on LunarPages but my website was often unavailable due to problems with their network. They told me that the issues were due to outside forces (hackers using 'denial of service attacks') but frankly the cause didn't matter to me. My websites were unavailable. The people were knowledgeable and helpful, but at the end of the day the hosting wasn't reliable enough so I had to move.

Prior to that I was with Apollo Hosting. Again, the people were knowledgeable and helpfull. However (this was some years ago), they put too many websites on their shared hosts, so during busy hours my websites really slowed down. Again, I had to leave them because my websites were not performing as they should.

Before that, I was with another company, again who overloaded their servers (service was fine at first, then went downhill).

I've tried going through the online reviews but frankly I have very little trust in them. Especially since companies that I've had disappointing experiences with get such good reviews.

What I'm really looking for is:
- A shared hosting solution
- A company that ensures the performace of the servers and doesn't overload them even if they have to charge a bit more per account as a result.
- A helpful technical support group
- Without excessive monthly fees

Where do I go?

[ItsJustHosting]

How much disk space and bandwidth are you looking for? Do you have a budget?

[040Hosting]

Douglas,

While you are right that review sites often are fake and only a few are trustworthy, asking for recommendations is not going to bring you much better results. You still will have to do some background checking and certainly look up if you can find and reviews about the company and make your own well thought out opinion on a short list of hosts.

That said; a few tips; make sure you never go into a long term contract without first establishing a good long-term relationship with a host.

If you are located in the US it might be beneficial for you to look at east-coast servers (that customers can load your site fast is great; but having a nice connection to do updates might be handy as well )

Always make sure you have your own backups; that way you can always switch hosts whenever you want.

Hope this helps you in finding a good host for your needs.

[KiNG-CZ]

I hosted on cprvhost.com - do not outages, good support, good price

[DouglasStewart]

Reference clarification question from ItsJustHosting, my bandwidth and memory requirements are small. I hope that the site will grow but if it takes off I can always upgrade to a bigger plan, provided that the provider supports same.

[040Hosting]

Originally Posted by KiNG-CZ

I hosted on cprvhost.com - do not outages, good support, good price

Great to hear; can you let us know a site you host with them and how long you used the services (hosted=past tense) and the company only registered their website 3 months ago.

[cartikadave]

You have not stated your budget, I can recommend Cartika Hosting. Nice clustered environment and plans start at $10 a month which may or may not be within your budget for a small site. Nice thing is their feature set, support, uptime, etc. Very high quality host allowing you to seamlessly upgrade from one plan to the next without disruption of service. You can scale from the lowest available plan to a completely load balanced cluster of servers very seamlessly. They have a very good reputation.

[DouglasStewart]

I've just looked at the cprvhost.com website, recommended by an earlier post.

Their website is full of spelling errors and appears to be written by someone for whom English is not their first language. Also, pagerank 0 suggests that they are not established.

Interesting enough, scanning the web I notice that there are other posts recommending them. A common trait is that although the poster's name varies, they end in CZ and they also appear to have English as a second language (just like the website).

Further examination suggests that CZ is country code .cz

To be clear on my requirements, I'm looking for an established USA company and cprvhost does not seem to be either of these.

[ItsJustHosting]

Originally Posted by DouglasStewart

I've just looked at the cprvhost.com website, recommended by an earlier post.

Their website is full of spelling errors and appears to be written by someone for whom English is not their first language. Also, pagerank 0 suggests that they are not established.

Interesting enough, scanning the web I notice that there are other posts recommending them. A common trait is that although the poster's name varies, they end in CZ and they also appear to have English as a second language (just like the website).

Further examination suggests that CZ is country code .cz

To be clear on my requirements, I'm looking for an established USA company and cprvhost does not seem to be either of these.

Again, it depends on what your budget and resource needs are. Almost all of the well established hosts, like hostgator, bluehost etc... oversell with "unlimited" packages and are also quite expensive when you factor only the monthly option (if there is one) rather than the price they advertise (which you have to pay 3 years in advance to get). So if you're willing to pay 7.95/mo (a year in advance) for an Unlimited host, than check out BlueHost.

If you have little trust in online reviews, then you will have to go on a trial and error basis, check out the offers section, put together a list of hosts that interest you (your needs and budget), contact their support with questions to test response times and response quality, and narrow it down to one. Make sure they have a refund policy so if you're not happy you can get a refund.

Or if you really want to live life on the edge, try more than one host at the same time (with money-back guarantees of course) and choose the best one after you have experienced them and get refunds from the others that didn't impress you as much.

[vnk1986]

I agree with itsjusthosting. Every web hosts are there for business propositions and they all wanna make money, which is understandable; but they tend to oversell on their shared hosting plans. Since there is so much competition, you have the choice to go with the one that you find most reasonable and reliable. In addition, most of them offer at least 30 day money back guarantee option, and that helps in case you are not satisfied.

[DouglasStewart]

Note to 'ItsJustHosting'.

I've noticed your signature and am looking at itsjusthosting.com.

I'm almost put off by the prices, that they are so low and yet promise such a high grade of service. Any reviews to back this up? If so, might just go with IJH.

[caesar1cz]

yes, I don´t very speak english.. Now i buy graphic and proffesional english translator. (I write with errors)

[Collabora]

Originally Posted by ItsJustHosting

Almost all of the well established hosts, like hostgator, bluehost etc... oversell with "unlimited" packages.

Its more meaningful to say that almost all (successful) hosts oversell with limited packages

As a matter of fact its impossible to oversell when offering unlimited plans. To oversell requires a defined quota, which is absent in the unlimited plan

[Softsys Hosting]

Originally Posted by Collabora

As a matter of fact its impossible to oversell when offering unlimited plans. To oversell requires a defined quota, which is absent in the unlimited plan

Very very valid and logical point!