HostGator vs Kiosk?

Mike Filsaime Recommends them as well as getting domains from name cheap.

kiosk.ws ithink is the url

ya hostgator is good

how about justhost or pronethosting.net ... or easy cgi ?

theimgroup:
Thank you for the information. I'm a total newbie to internet marketing and I found your post very useful. Thanks. This is my first post by the way, after lurking for a long while.

I've tried ProWebSpace, Fasthosts and Hostgator in recent years.

Hostgator would be my recommendation, particularly if you're thinking of having a reseller account in the future.

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I read that Kiosk is much easier to deal with regarding problems like somebody making a spam complaint even after they double-opted-in, and how other hosts will just yank your site & ask questions later, but Kiosk will work with you since they know the IM world.

Do you know anything about this aspect of it?

I hope you are right. I just signed up with them and am moving my website over from PowerDNN - which is pretty good, but they specialize in Dot Net Nuke and I just don't like it much.

Well Hostgator didn't last long for me. They refunded my money about 1 hour after I signed-up. They said it's due to my site is roboticforex.com and "forex violates our TOS." When I called & asked what exactly did they mean by "forex", the kid couldn't say - he just read from the rulebook. "No forex or other ponzi schemes."

When I told him I sell automated forex trading software that I wrote myself via my website and it wasn't anything fishy or scammy, he said oh ok, they'd let me host with them after all & said I should just log back in & pay the new bill. Crazy.

Having no idea what they even meant by "no forex" (and since the boy I spoke with there also had no clue) I decided I'd best host elsewhere -otherwise it seems they could suddenly decide to blacklist me again for their mysterious "no forex" policy and they could shut down my site at any time.

So I'm trying kiosk.ws for their 30-day $1 trial. We'll see how that goes. As I said, PowerDNN wasn't bad - quite excellent, in fact. I just don't like DotNetNuke. Otherwise, I'd have stayed with them. Though they are a bit pricey. $20/mo for just one domain, no frills at all. Very basic hosting. But blazing fast website performance and top-notch support.

Well, based on what I've seen so far with kiosk.ws, they are far far superior. So far. Of course, it's only been a few hours. But they have a real-time chat room with SOUND (and typing also) where you ask a question & support sits there & talks to you in a virtual conference room in realtime.

It's wonderful. They talk you through moving your DNS servers, setting up your cPanel, Fantastico, website - everything. So far, so good.

I forgot to mention: I asked the kiosk.ws guy about hostgator's "no forex" policy & the guy was like "Whaaa? what r u talking about? Of course you can sell your software here. Why not?"

And I just found out: you can have only 4 domains at kiosk for the minimum-price account ($18.95/mo) whereas hostgator allows unlimited domains for $7.95/mo - so that's a major drawback. On the positive side, each domain at kiosk has its own cPanel! They're not just "add-on" domains like hostgator. Which is nice, I guess.

This is an interesting observation. I have no opinion as I'm a total newbie to IM & pretty new to webhosting also. I never really had reason to think much about hosting until I discovered IM with its mailing lists, potential for spam complaints & concomitant risk of having your website(s) summarily executed by your own webhost based only on mere suspicion.

Or they take you down because you have a sudden dramatic spike in traffic after a hugely successful product launch (something I'm hoping happens soon with my software.)

These are obviously very serious issues if you start making real money with a website. It goes way beyond cost & uptime & speed of the servers - it goes to the heart of "what is the nature of IM and how is IM different from a "normal" website and does your hosting company understand *successful* IM activity (e.g. mass emails, sudden traffic spikes, etc.)

It appears that kiosk understands and supports successful IM and it appears that hostgator may not - based on my experience with merely signing up with them and having the "wrong" domain name.

And regarding traffic spikes etc, this guy's experience is exactly what I'm suspicious of when it comes to cheap providers like hostgator (I can't post links til I have 15 posts, but it is exactly what I fear with hostgator down the road if I host with them):

(remove spaces)
webhostingtalk com showthread.php?
s=7e6563f23f1a6de
fa313510692c60ff8&
t=876857

But this idea that kios's MLM scheme somehow adds to their monthly cost (and the seeming hint that since it's MLM it must be "bad" - at least, that's what came to MY mind when you said that) - makes me pause.

So I just emailed kiosk and asked them their comments on the idea that their MLM model adds to monthly cost.

I'll let you all know what they say.

I suppose that's true. And if they ever did shut down your site(s) for a spam complaint (even from a double-opted-in prospect who'd forgotten they'd double-opted-in), or because you had a successful product launch and you had a sudden surge in traffic let's say, then you could just move on to a new hosting company & call it lesson learned.

Hello Warriors,


At the end of the day hosting plain and simple is a commodity. You can always find someone to do it cheaper... my recommendation is if your just looking for hosting for a few sites than hostgator probably makes the most sense.


With that being said if you're an IM'er or plan on being a reseller than hands down Kiosk which is now GVO is the way to go. As previously mentioned Kiosk/GVO is run by Internet Marketers for Internet Marketers. It's not just Filsaime who has been a customer for years but almost of the top guys...Frank Kern, Daegan Smith, Stephen Pierce, Todd Gross, Tellman Knudsen, Ewen Chia, and the list goes on. Do you really think guys like that would trust their business to to this company if they didn't provide a great service.

I hope this is helpful... I'm also posting their hosting features below.

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[/FONT] all the best
-Dave

Features:
-Your own Web Host Manager
-Create your own hosting accounts
-Unlimited Domains
-70,000 Megabytes of space
-200 Gigabytes of Bandwith
-Unlimited MySQL databases
-Unlimted sub-domains
-Unlimited email accounts
-Unlimited forwarders
-Unlimited Auto-responders
-Top notch 24/7 Technical Support
-FTP access to Easy to use website builder
-Professional templates included.
-Front Page Extensions
-UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)and power generator
-24/7 monitoring using downtime witness
-Fantastico 50+ easy to install scripts

Although this is not directly related to either HostGator OR Kiosk, I feel compelled to comment for those who mentioned they have 1and1.com.

I previously used 1and1.com for domains. Great pricing and all, but I had the following problem with them, and at the time it caught me unaware and was a nightmare, albeit a temporary nightmare.

I had one account with multiple domains in them. One domain came up for renewal, and at the time my credit card had expired. Their policy is, all domains autorenew unless you specifically notify them you do not want to renew in advance. And my card, being expired, did not clear. So they froze my account. NOT the DOMAIN that was due for renewal, but THE ENTIRE ACCOUNT! At the time I needed to make changes to a domain that was not due for another six or seven months. This means you cannot even transfer out domains that are not up for renewal yet.

And the thing is, once they freeze your account, getting it unfrozen once you give them updated credit card details is NOT automatic. As a matter of fact, it took 3 days before I could access any of the domains AFTER I provided the updated credit card details.

The reason this bothers me is that every other domain registrar I have ever been with has a per-domain policy and doesn't freeze the entire account for not renewing a single domain.

Another thing. They don't just hit you with the cost of renewing the domain if your card details are no longer any good. They also charge an additional fee that is 2 times the cost of renewing the domain PLUS the domain renewal charge, and this is even if you are only 1 day late with providing updated billing details.

Needless to say, after paying the renewal and all related charges I transfered all the domains out to leave them as soon as I could.