Hostgator Problems - Any Suggested Alternatives?

by 216 replies
258
First, I need to just say it... Hostgator Sucks!

There, I got THAT out of my system.

I am paying a hefty monthly fee for a dedicated server with hostgator. For the 2nd time in 1 week, my server is experiencing a LOT of downtime as a result of maintenance hostgator performed.

When I notified them of my server being down earlier today, hostgator told me that they had "scheduled network maintenance" to "keep network outages from occurring" and that they KNEW this maintenance might cause a "brief period of downtime."

However, they never notified any of their hosting clients (myself included) about this scheduled maintenance that could affect our servers.

Unfortunately, the maintenance which should have only cause a "brief period of downtime" went very wrong... my server has been down more than it's been up for the past 8 hours... with no end in sight.

At this time, I am seeking other hosting solutions.

It's bad enough the amount of downtime I've experienced this past week. However, it's INEXCUSABLE that hostgator never notified their clients of scheduled maintenance that could affect their servers. If they had, I could have then notified my own clients. Instead, this is making me look very bad to my clients... and I don't even have a way to inform them of the issue b/c I have no email or support desk capability while my server is down.

If anyone here knows of an affordable alternative to hostgator, I'm open to suggestions. My criteria would be:

- Good uptime statistics
- Good communication w/clients re: server maintenance
- responsive support
- managed dedicated server
- fast server

Thanks for any input you can provide.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #alternatives #hostgator #problems #suggested
  • I am planning to move hostgator too. looking for suggestions.
  • I use host gator as well, But i Rarely have problems with them.

    Try Clearing your Cache.

    Maybe your web-browser is continually pulling in the same error page from the cache and not the updated one.

    If you post your website, I can look for you.
    • [2] replies
    • Join the club....

      I had to vent as well..

      New member here had to join since we are all in the same boat and sinking fast. Ever since HG was bought out by EIG, nothing but problems. I was never told about the buy out, just a meager announcement, that they were upgrading to "better servers". Ya right, after researching I found out HG is no longer and now just another storefront for EIG and the server upgrade was actually just a move to EIG datacenter to save money I guess. Business is business and plain and simple, the new server suxs. So while Brent travels the world, probably driving through Tuscany at this very minute, sipping fine Italian wines... We sit here in painful agony, fielding calls from angry clients, asking questions, why their websites are down and I have no real answer... I assume I am on Provo as well and it's dead today and has been teetering precariously for weeks now, with intermittent down times and slow responses. I can't run a business like this, been with HG for years, great service and company, but now it's EIG and nothing positive in the future as far as I can tell.

      So please help me, as I will be joining the mass exodus. Were do we go, how do I go, how do I migrate my entire VPS to another hosting company....

      Hopelessly Lost in a putrid swamp..
      • [2] replies
    • [DELETED]
    • Nope, this is definitely downtime in their Provo center. Many servers are affected.
  • I will have to keep an eye on this thread, as I was considering moving TO Hostgator. I'm currently with GoDaddy and recently had a lot of problems with running my blog, but haven't done anything about it now that the problem seems to have been solved.
    • [1] reply
    • We have been with that Gator for about three years, and they have progressively gotten worse since our arrival. We were with Netfirms, and they fell apart when EIG bought them out, and so we ran to Host Gator thinking to find a better company. Imagine how surprised we were, when things started getting "strange" at Host Gator, and we found out that EIG had bought Brent Oxley out..

      I would not recommend any company attached to EIG; it is only interested in acquisitions and profit. EIG is a disgusting corporation, parasites of the worst order. Everything they touch is defiled on behalf of corporate profitability.

      Now we are on our way out the door, gotta get away from that Gator. Been thinking about a company called SITE5, which has about 300,000 customers, and is still small enough to need and care about their customers.

      My advice to anyone thinking about going to HG, or any company tied to EIG, is RUN................................................
      • [1] reply
  • If you are looking for VPS or dedicated hosting, I highly recommend WiredTree.

    Fantastic service. I have never had a single problem in two years.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Please keep offering alternatives for VPS / Dedi Hosting, I am currently researching them. Thank-you!

      Any feedback on Rackspace?
    • Another thumbs up for WiredTree.

      I recently moved over to them from another "high end" host and not only are their servers actually faster, they're priced extremely competitively as well.

      If you look around you'll even find a 50% coupon for your first two months on a VPS, and I believe there was a similar option for their hybrid VPS and dedicated packages as well.

      I'm really happy with them so far and glad I switched.

      I also just finished moving my smaller sites from Hostgator over to StableHost. I had been thinking about switching since they started to go downhill after being bought out by EIG, and this outage today was the deal breaker. I had some Wordpress blogs for my parents on there as well, and they took AGES to load. I'm talking 5 to 10 seconds; sometimes even up to 14. And that was with caching plugins, optimized images and using a CDN. Looking forward to testing them out on StableHost now.
  • I have the same problem. All of my sites are hosted on HG. Everything is down at the moment.
    • [1] reply
    • I used to love Hostgator but all summer I have had issues and my sites are down right now like everyone else's. Pretty much have had nothing but problems since switching from a shared account to a VPS. I now pay 10x more for a server that is always down. I have so many people yelling at me because of the sites that are down, it's painful. I'm also looking for new options, I am officially done with these clowns. Tech Support used to be fast and now it's really slow, my server is always running slow, and the sites frequently have been down for many hours (almost a full day recently).

      What a joke this company turned out to be. Thanks for the info EIG, I'll be sure to stay away from those hosts as well.
  • Hi Holly,

    Sorry to hear of your problems.

    You are not alone, my entire portfolio has been up and down all day today. I've had to pause 50+ Adword campaigns. No idea how much traffic has dropped off the sites.

    I have a mix of sites spread across 11 shared hosting packages at hostgator.
    (About 100 sites, split about 50/50 mine and customers)

    All of which are going to be cancelled very soon.

    I too have seen the speed of my sites slow over the past couple of months. Sometimes the page-load times have doubled.

    As for the best way to go, I guess that depends on the position you're in.
    We've been considering installing a couple of Dell R210's as web-servers in our building for a couple of months now. Today's events have solidified that thought.

    I ordered the servers from Dell at 3.00pm today for delivery on the 8th.

    Good bye Hostgator.
  • Don't waste your time with "Live Chat": I got this "Canned Response" after 30 minutes waiting. The Actual Chat window is dead.

    Chat ID: *******. Question: Terrible service & Potential Cancellation
    (5:07:33pm)System:Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.

    (5:11:08pm)System:Thank you for verifying your billing account ****.******@*********.co.uk!

    (5:26:13pm)Casey H.:Thank you for contacting hostgator.com support.

    In order to improve the reliability and efficiency of our Provo datacenter, we are currently completing emergency upgrades to our network-level capabilities. We are making every effort to complete this as quickly as possible, however, until the maintenance is fully completed your server may experience intermittent downtime. We greatly appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience that this maintenance may cause. These upgrades are necessary to ensure that our service is stable and reliable on a long-term scale.

    We will provide updates regarding the maintenance on our forums, as well as provide confirmation once these upgrades are completed. You can access our forum post via the following link:
    http://forums.hostgator.com/network-...301#post474301

    Please do not shoot the messenger
    • [2] replies
    • Yes their support forums are running slower than molasses as well and the customer review section is getting hammered. But the bad reviews seems to disappear just like my income today. Customers calling me and I have no answers BS!
    • LOL what a joke!

      I couldn't even get the canned response when I tried their chat... chat didn't work at all for me. Thanks for saving me the 30 min wait.
  • Don't know how much credibility I give to this recommendation since it's an affiliate. Seems more like a way to generate affiliate commissions than make a true recommend for a reliable hosting company.
  • There's not a data center on this planet that hasn't had a significant outage...and every single one launches rants of exodus (example: Amzn S 3's snafus which begat Net flix snafus and beyond)

    Configure with downtime in mind.

    Domain Registration (vendor 1)
    DNS management (vendor 2) keeping root A record at a very low TTL
    Website Hosting (vendor 3) making daily progressive backups and weekly full backups.
    Website Hosting #2 backup (vendor 4) with unlimited domains...set up your domains keep 'em empty.
    POOF Vendor 3 craps out! OH NO!!!!
    after you can't stand it Restore backup(s) to domains' accounts on vendor 4
    Then log into DNS manager (vendor 2) and point the A record (which has the low TTL) to vendor 4 and take a deep breath.
    If vendor 3 doesn't respond soon and as expected, then replace them by backing up from vendor 4 and moving to your new vendor 3. Point your A record at vendor 2 (which has the low TTL) on over to your new vendor 3.

    There are other more involved failover methods, but the above is a poor webmaster's version.

    Outages in any line of tech are a given and should be planned for...just like everybody does regular virus scans and file backups on their office computers too....right? HA!
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • True, but the biggest issue I have with hostgator is that they did not notify their clients of this "scheduled maintenance" that might cause a "brief period of downtime" so could plan for it and notify our own clients of the possiblity of downtime.
    • I agree every data center has issues. However issues seem to be the rule and not the exception with these guys as of late.

      Also I personally dont believe there 'where doing maintenance' BS. Especially since other posts on there forums say that they are having issues. To be its horrid that they would make up some lame excuse for there issue instead of just admitting that they are having troubles and will fix it ASAP.
      • [1] reply
    • Banned
      [DELETED]
  • ^so did you change hostgator already? i am looking for a host too. was supposed to get hostgator.
  • I agree with the WiredTree recommendation. Amazing customer support, which you'll rarely need if ever since they almost never have any downtime. Bluehost has been nothing but a headache as it seems to go down at least 30 minutes about once a week.
  • Just remember to move to a host not owned by EIG company. For their hosts look here:
    Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    And go to https://www.facebook.com/HostGator and give them 1 star.
  • As my Hostgator sites are bouncing around, I'm currently upgrading my WiredTree VPS to the Pure SSD2000 plan.

    WiredTree has been rock solid since the beginning. I can recommend them wholeheartedly.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
    • Last message from HG support about this issue:

      Our data center in Provo is currently experiencing network issues and they are working diligently to resolve the issue. Unfortunately we do not have an estimated time of resolution. This currently is affecting shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated servers within that data center. We will update this post when further details are available.
    • Banned
      Are there different plans to choose from on the other hosting sites, like there are on Hostgator?
      • [1] reply
    • been having a few issues lately w hg myself. spent nearly 30 min on the phone yesterday after a few email correspondences. not exactly sure what's going on, been w them several yrs w no real issues and the few issues i did have had great customer support...one of the things i've always really liked. was up for yearly renewal, while on the phone also had billing change my account to month-to-month. keeping an eye on this thread and others like it.
  • Unfortunately, we can't transfer anything to a new hosting service UNTIL hostgator gets our dedicated server back up and running. TGIF!
    • [1] reply
    • True. I'm waiting until things stabilize and I'll definitely consolidate everything at WiredTree. This was my personal last straw.

      As you can see below, the downhill trend is obvious. June is when they migrated my server.

      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • The first thing I'd do after this outage is to:
    1) Set up a remote backup service, like Back o matic or someone similar to keep mirror copies of my account(s)
    2) Set up an account with a DNS management vendor and always point my domain(s) there and not my host's name servers...EVER!
    3) Set up a cheap shared account (unltd domains, cpanel etc) with an unrelated host to act as a temporary backup server if needed.

    It's not expensive at all, but it gives you options to maintain control when you are up against brick walls who THINK they own you.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Thank you for the suggestions. I didn't even KNOW (until you mentioned it) that there are DNS management vendors. Definitely something to look into.
    • This sounds good - who do you use for DNS management?
      • [2] replies
  • They have had some serious issues since the server migration within the last month.

    My sites have now been down for a number of hours. Also the server has been loading slower than when it was in their last datacentre.

    I hope they solve these issues as otherwise I will be looking for another hosting company.

    Shame as before the migration things were great...
  • BTW - If anyone is looking for VPS or dedicated servers etc, you should use Servint - http://www.servint.net/

    Their customer service is totally superb and I couldn't rate them higher.

    (no affiliation)
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • this is insane. Can anyone suggest hosting alternatives?
  • I can't recommend MDDHosting highly enough: MDDHosting - Professional Hosting Solutions

    I'm on their Intermediate Semi-dedicated plan and the support is fast, professional, and super helpful.
    • [1] reply
    • I second MDD along with Stablehost and Mediatemple.

      I did the exact same search last fall just because I couldn't deal with HG anymore, but those three are the main contenders I have seen so far.

      Webhostingtalk is a great place to find a good host (god knows they have enough reviews) but MDD, Stable and Media get my vote.
  • This is what happens what corners are cut by investors. They reap profits at your expense. The "upgrade" was a mere cover-up for a migration "OUT" of SoftLayer. EIG has a history of doing things in secret.

    EDIT: This is a prime example of why people should keep their own copies of backups. Anyone who doesn't have them, is at the mercy of whatever's going on up in Utah.
  • WiredTree looks good but people are saying the same things about it that I used to say about HG before EIG. Is it just a matter of time before EIG scoops up WiredTree too? From the looks of the list further up this thread of everything they own, it looks possible, if not likely that WT will be in this same boat sooner than later.

    Are there any larger hosts out there, besides GoDaddy, that don't seem easily picked up by EIG?
    • [5] replies
    • I will move to stablehost, hopefully a good solution.....
      • [2] replies
    • You know, every once in a while things go right.

      After many GOOD years with Hostgator, I started having what sounds like the same issues as everyone else in this thread.

      My problem was I had a dedicated server with several hundred active domains online for myself and my clients.

      On Tuesday, I bit the bullet and, along with my VA, spent the entire day migrating my domains to Hostnine. WHEW! I dreaded doing that but it appears I make the right move at the right time.

      I have had a reseller account with Hostnine for around 18 months. I was not thrilled with their uptime originally but it has gotten MUCH better as Hostgator has gotten worse. Their customer service has been excellent. Their pricing is very good and they have a unique system for picking IP's that, if done right, allows you to have 100 domains on 1 reseller account ALL with different IP's. Pretty cool!

      Hostnine would be my recommendation.
      • [1] reply
    • I've just bought a dedicated server with liquid web.

      They offer 100% uptime.
      • [1] reply
    • Banned
      try MDD Hosting or HostDime. MDDHosting has super fast servers and 1 gbps ports; they won't likely be picked up, not very big yet and the owner does it really well (not unusual to get a response directly from Michael).

      HostDime on the other hand has been holding up for some time with locations in Brazil, UK and US. I doubt they will be bought over too easily.
    • This is great WarriorMatt, even though I was asking if this was possible, not declaring it so. Since I am not privvy to the inner workings of hosting companies will you please explain how you can be so certain?

      I'd like to be able to choose my next host with this same certainty.
    • Banned
      [DELETED]
  • It will end soon they claim as their techs working the phones look for windows to jump out of.

    http://mashable.com/2013/08/02/bluehost-down/
  • I'm using HostGator and just leaned that HosGator, Bluehost and HostMonster are all down,, because they use the same server network in Provo, Utah. That's the same city NSA is building their new super center.

    You can go to the following HostGator Forum link to get updates from HostGator:

    http://forums.hostgator.com/network-...301#post474301

    I wonder if we will any credits back from HostGator because of the downtime?
  • Some good alternatives are StableHost and TigerTech. I have a VPS with WiredTree and they have been pretty good as well.
  • Well at least we can learn a lot from this down time. Never let a good failure go to waste.
    • [1] reply
    • LOL Thanks for the laugh among the frustration!

      My site is back up too. Switching hosts just became top priority. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend. (Sigh...)

      Michelle
  • Go for Beyondhosting or liquidweb.

    Check out these 54 companies currently owned by EIG. Avoid them: Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You've been warned!
  • Thought I'd pop into this thread because 'misery loves company'!

    I've been with Hostgator for years with no complaints. Until recently! Ever since the server changes I get up each day just hoping my sites are up and running. Definitely no way to run a business.

    The suggestions on this thread have been a huge help....I will be packing up my sites and moving on.
  • Called WiredTree and after getting my answers, decided to move all accounts from HG to their SSD4000 plan (fast!)

    Uptime is supposedly one of the best in the world (#3 by independent monitor) and support/sales seems to be well informed.

    Adios HostGator!
  • Jeeeeez - I've never had an outage last this long! I hope to God that they don't scratch up any of my furniture before I can get it moved out of there!
    • [3] replies
    • All of my sites are back up. How about anyone else?

      Added: And they are running much faster too.
      • [1] reply
    • I'm finally back up and running. Hope everyone here is too. Really tough day for a Friday but looking forward to switching hosts. Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
    • Within the last 8 hrs. my downtime has been 5.5 hours. Well, I don't care anymore and will give my money to someone else.
      • [1] reply
  • Hey everyone,

    I just thought I will add my voice here. I am really ticked off. I've been seeing some problems with my sites since the takeover, but I always thought that their support is awesome. Then, lately I've been noticing that their support was also not top notch. One of the suggestions caused me a major problem to my site.

    I am not very technical, so I am looking for a host with great support and cpanel. I too will be moving and I have been with them for a number of years.
  • Mine are still down.
  • I paid my hostgator bill earlier. That was kind of dumb

    Sadly over the 14+ years online I've "switched" hosting a number of times. Seems the same pattern, the new host is great, then slides down hill. Or I keep using the wrong ones.

    For some folks it's not so easy to move. It can be major work.

    aarrgh....
    • [1] reply
    • Many hosting companies will migrate your site for free.
  • This is an interesting post about HG holding up their 99.9% guarantee as stated in their T&C's...

    http://forums.hostgator.com/we-autom....html?p=474444
  • I'm hoping, in time, HostGator will get it together. With that said, I just moved all my sites to HostGator because I was so pleased with their past service. Not so pleased today. I moved from another EIG host thinking it was the right move. Get it together HostGator and EIG or risk loosing all our business.
  • I'm up! - Let the exodus begin.
  • Having worked with web hosting, linux servers, windows server, sun servers, cisco gear, netapp, vmware, dell, EMC, among many others for going on 10 years...I have NEVER in my life seen a networking issue take 9+ hours to resolve. For some reason, I get the feeling that there's more behind it.

    Funny how everyone was being so called "upgraded" when it was a mere cover up for a migration. Half the customers didn't even know EIG bought HostGator and not all got notices about the anticipated upgrade/move.
    • [1] reply
    • HostGator is no more.
      At least the one we all signed up for.

      It pisses me off that they can sell our accounts to another company that then moves us to crappy hardware and calls it an "upgrade" without full disclosure.

      The "new" Hostgator is not the same company, hardware or service, so in my eyes, I am no longer hosted by the company I signed up for.

      Total BS
      • [2] replies
  • I just received this email response from hostgator to my multiple support tickets:

    Hello,

    Thank you for reaching out to us this afternoon.

    We'd like to start by apologizing for the issues connecting to your sites today. In hopes of resolving the latency reports which have recently been brought to our attention by a number of our customers, we began maintenance with our datacenter overnight with aims of providing a more permanent solution to the issues faced. Following this work, regrettably our datacenter begun experiencing networking issues which are currently still in the process of being fully resolved by our service providers. Unfortunately we have yet to receive an estimated time frame for the work to complete, but we are providing updates via our forum at the following link:

    http://forums.hostgator.com/emergenc...o-t278588.html

    We apologize once again for any inconvenience and appreciate you contacting us for more information. I’ve also adjusted your billing account to reflect the one month credit based on our network guarantee which has not been met today. While that offers a pro-rated credit typically, I don’t believe that’s appropriate and applied the full month as such. No action is necessary to make use of the credit, you’ll simply not receive an invoice this coming month. If we can address any additional questions or concerns you may have, please do let us know.

    Best Regards,
    Joshua Martin
    Director of Customer Service
    HostGator.com Support Portal
    HostGator.com | 1.866.96.GATOR (42867)
    Follow us at: @HGSupport @Hostgator
  • The best one for me has been always web hosting, but they just got bought up. It was by Sozo Technologies of Indianapolis, IN and I do not know if the good quality will go on. Time will tell as we say. HG is so bad now that I am considering moving away. Problem is that always web hosting is a lot more expensive. Still, we get what we pay for in many ways. Sadly, HG is not the same company anymore.
  • [DELETED]
    • [2] replies
    • is this a specific hosting company? Or just amazon? Please provide more info... sounds interesting
    • Your link to the site (Insty.me) in your signature is an affiliate link, which is against the forum rules.
      • [1] reply
  • I have to say this is the first time I've heard a complaint about Hostgator.
    I dont use a dedicated server so I cannot comment on that, but there regular service, I believe, is good enough for any simple wordpress money site set up.
  • I've used hostgator for a while, mainly because it seemed like the perfect choice at the time, it made things very simple.

    What other web hosting services would you recommend over hostgator.
    Im hearing a lot of talk about Amazon, i didnt even know they had a web hosting service.
    • [2] replies
    • Basically any hosting provider that uses cPanel is going to be simple - and that includes pretty much any hosting provider. A lot of people here have this idea that cPanel and "1 click Wordpress Installs" through Fantastico are features exclusive to HostGator, and that's simply not true at all.

      I can't name you any particular host to use, but I can say you should steer clear from any EIG owned brand. GoDaddy is also particularly awful, but for what it matters, they're better than some of the lesser EIG brands like iPage or FatCow.

      You should disregard that.
    • I like amazon as well, I use their S3 hosting, but like abundantliving said, you have to be a tech-guru to figure out the way they run things over there. It's not user friendly in the least.

      I just signed up for WiredTree from suggestions here on this forum. That and the fact that they are based out of Chicago which isn't too far from me. If you are interested, you can find a coupon online right now for Virtual Private Servers that will get you half off for your first 2 months. I'm going to be paying much less than I was for hostgator, and according to their sales page I'll be getting more. So if it works out I'll be a happy man.

      I'll report back to let you know how long they take to setup my server. I'm expecting that it will be a little longer than normal, because of the hostgator exodus today.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • The truth of the matter is ...
    Most of us aren't very technical about hosting services.
    Remember ...
    In the land of the blind, the ones with one eye are king!
    Many of us are complaining, yet very few will make the move.
    The "One-Eyes" know that!
  • I have been on Host Gator for over 5 years with NO problems until they upgraded to "better" servers and now I have gone from 100% up time to lots of down time and all kinds of problems including all my files were gone on my site and had to up load them again. I am really not happy now and I have used Go Daddy didn't like them and Just host for a short time but might go back.
  • Thanks everyone for all the ideas and suggestions, I will be one of the ones to be moving from HostGator.
  • I am curious, has any one noticed SE ranks drops because of the "upgrades" with hostgator a couple months ago?

    If there is any way to even say it had an effect.
  • HostGator was never a good dedicated or VPS hpst. Their technology/infrastructure was lousy, and the plans expensive. Not expensive because it was good -- not a premium host, not even close -- but expensive to give HG pure profit.

    Knownhost. LiquidWeb and EuroVPS are two of my top suggestions.
    For dedicated, Futurehosting or EuroVPS.
    For shared, Site5 and Arvixe are good non-EIG alternatives. Or Stablehost is you're tried of "unlimited".

    Good luck!

    Yes, definitely. It fails the site speed aspect of Google. It was definitely affected!

    I've been telling folks about this for a year now, since EIG bough HG out, I knew it was coming. This has happened with EIG brands for 10+ years now.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • You say you've been warning of this for a year. Where have you been doing that (do you have your own blog)? I ask b/c you seem to be "in the know" and I'd like to be able to follow you... to avoid a similar situation in future.
  • I use Servint.net for my money sites and client sites. I've been with them for 8 years+.

    I'm also using HostNine, which is also EIG . I'm in the process of moving from them.

    I just signed up for a free trial with SiteGround.com (click away from the submit order page to get a slightly better deal).

    I'm also considering Arvixe.com and HawkHost.com.
    • [1] reply
    • Those are all pretty good ...

      ... except ServInt. Service has degraded in the past year or two. So watch out for that. (I hope it was temporary, but the jury is still out.) There's a few alternatives should you need them. Just keep a close eye on it, and submit some easy tech question from time to time to see how fast they are.

      I think HostNine was part of the A Small Orange deal. ASO had something like 5-6 brands that are now EIG too. I wrote it down somewhere, which was which.
      • [1] reply
  • I'm with Hostgator too - they emailed me to tell me of an upgrade. I thought it was a hoax mail since it didn't address me by name. a week or so later I got two more emails telling me new details and giving me new log-in link. It has all worked fine for me and no down time that I'm aware of. But they didn't say they had sold out...
    • [1] reply
    • Alternatives depend on what you are looking for.

      Based on our countless projects we did for clients rackspace turns out to be one of the best dedicated hosting till date.

      However if you are looking for other cheaper alternatives mediatemple is another

      And you can also have managed hosting services from page.ly or wpengine or firehost

      They aren't EIG hosting and offer good support and very reliable uptime and statistics.

      Yes hostgator, godaddy, bluehost and hostmonster have oversold their servers. Not their fault.

      Over selling have made them made over the years.
  • Just a follow up - I signed up with WireTree, and my server was ready in 4 hours just like they said. I'm getting ready today to move all of my sites. See ya later hostgator.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I just signed up with Arvixe.com using lifetime 20% off coupon "whmcs" (more codes: http://www.retailmenot.com/view/arvixe.com?c=4526776).

    I also signed up with HawkHost.com using lifetime 30% coupon "startblog". HawkHost.com gets recommended a lot on WebHostingTalk.

    Neither hosting setup was instant unfortunately. Hopefully it doesn't take until Monday...
  • Again hostgator have network issues f***** http://forums.hostgator.com/provo-da...8-t278820.html. Guys I need good alternative
  • Not sure if anyone mentioned Rackspace yet, but since I switched from a dedicated server to their "Cloud Sites" service, I have been extremely happy.
    • [2] replies
    • Is your "cloud site" a managed server?

      I really need a managed solution. However, since I'm forced to move from my dedicated HG server (to avoid similar downtime in future), I may as well consider hosting in the cloud... it's much more flexible and can grow as my business grows.
    • Rackspace is so 1990s in how they operate. RS is also very, very slow. I tend to think they overload their servers like the mass-market hosts. I've tested this a number of times now. There's also a possibility that some of their "cloud" services (shared) isn't really cloud. For example, shared on a SAN is what some call a cloud. But that's not a cloud.

      RS is also expensive. Not expensive good, just overpriced for what you get, and the speeds you get.

      You can find me here, at webhostingtalk.com, and at digitalFAQ.com (my home site). When it doubt, ask me questions at the forum of that last site. I answer all hosting question there personally. I've not had time to write lots of editorials (blogs) lately, as that's not my job, but I'm trying to do more going forward. Yes, I know a lot of people in this industry: CEOs, CTOs, IT directors, etc. And I mean real companies, not "CEOs" at home in mommy's house.

      www.digitalFAQ.com
      www.webhostingtalk.com

      Thanks.

      Edit:
      If I were you, I'd get a dedicated server at Futurehosting or Namecheap.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [3] replies
  • They claim they fixed it we'll see Endurance International Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Beyond Hosting is where I went awhile back...

    First I run CPV traffic through them. They have always been able to handle an incredible load of traffic.

    Once I saw that, a few months later I moved almost everything to their VPS servers. Mainly the $69 ones.

    When I write a ticket to support, if I don't get an answer within 15 minutes, I am actually shocked lol.

    I mean 24 hours a day...

    Although I don't need them for support much, since I have a background in administrating large groups of Linux servers... but either way, in my opinion, they rock.
  • Media Temple.

    I've been with them for seven years now...I couldn't tell you about their customer support.

    Since I've never had to contact them.
  • Hi,
    Sorry for all your troubles. I use Hostwithcarol. It's not shared and if you want the basic plan it's $9.95 a month. There is also a business plan that is $39.95 a month but, it's great. If you want any more info, please PM me. I don't get compensation for the recommendation. There is no affiliate program, yet. I know she is working on it.
    Geri Richmond
  • Hey all

    I haven't read EVERY post in this thread so this may have already been mentioned, so apologize if these points have already been mentioned - but here are a couple of things I've learned over the years in regards to web hosting (which incidentally I have spent over $100k on in the past several years! Yikes!):

    (BTW - I too was affected in part by the latest HG outage but did still manage to keep in contact with my customers)

    1. Don't put all your eggs in the one basket (if you can help it)

    I learned this the hard way many years ago, and now host my sites and clients' sites across multiple hosting companies, servers and data centers. I even have them hosted in different COUNTRIES. This means that my support desk is almost always running even if some of my other sites aren't. (Even a shared account through a decent host should do the trick for most support desks and wouldn't break the bank.) I would highly recommend running your support desk or support email from an alternative server to your main sites (or your hosted client sites if you do any hosting like I do.) That way you will still be contactable if some of your other sites go down - or your clients' sites go offline.

    I know a lot of people whose entire business froze with this latest HG issue and they were unable to even contact their customers or have their customers contact them.

    2. Backup, backup, backup

    It's always good to maintain a robust backup plan in case the worst happens. A LOT of people rely on their web hosts to keep backups for them but what happens if you web host goes bust and just shuts up shop? It actually happened to me many years ago when I was probably hosted through some cheap reseller.

    Bottom line - NEVER rely on your web host for backups. Most will tell you that they offer backups "as a courtesy" and cannot guarantee that they will have all of your precious data. "Murphy's Law" would have it that the very time you REALLY need a backup from your web host will be the time they tell you that their backup is corrupt or something and that you "should have been backing your sites up yourself too as outlined in the terms and conditions" A.K.A the fineprint!

    Anyhow... hope this helps.

    Aaron
    • [1] reply
    • It's definitely a point worth mentioning. A lot of hosts do offer backups but as you say, they won't guarantee it or be held liable if things go wrong.

      So always make sure you do periodic backups of your stuff. Make it a weekly or fortnightly thing.
  • I've always backed up my files and never counted on the hosts having my backups even though they boasted that they keep backups.

    I take a backup of all my sites daily. You can never be too careful.

    Chad
  • HostGator is one of the top web hosting company today, but after the acquisition with the EIG, many people are complaining on their services. It will be hard to look for an alternative that has the same service that HostGator offers to their users. I also been looking for an alternative to HostGator until I found Stablehost. You can find more info's here:
    Alternative to HostGator that is not owned by the EIG | Techyv
    • [2] replies
    • Very excellent thread. Top solutions suggested here. Media Temple hosting looks good will check
      that one out.
      Thanks to sharing poster.

      I recall some time back reading in some article that Marlon Sanders well-known marketer used
      these guys for his hosting: olm.net

      Don't know if that is case now, but maybe can check it in and out.
    • Thank you also for bringing this very useful info and list to the attention of WF.
      You can easily see that EIG are becoming the purely profit driven 'Google' monster of web-hosting.
      And inevitable casualty....poor quality of service and resultant outages!

      Excellent advice also from post#157 by Infinite.
      • [1] reply
  • Switching over to a VPS (virtual private server) hosted by Media Temple has been the best hosting decision I ever made. I still have a bunch of sites on my Hostgator business accounts, and a few other companies, but all my money makers are now with Media Temple.

    They aren't cheap but if you get a lot traffic and need a lot of cpu power and storage, they are definitely the way to go. Great customer service, reliability... I can't say enough good things about them.

    Some of the big corporations who use Media Temple are Sony, Adobe, jQuery, Volkswagon, Samsung, NBC Universal, and Red Bull... just to name a few.
  • try mediatemple
  • BlueHost has been good for me, although I do prefer HostGator over them. Another good option with an unbeatable price yet unheard of to most is Zyma.com who have options for various sized sites. Both have really good prices and customer support.
  • Have not read every post on this thread, so I don´t know if anybody has mentioned HawkHost

    I have had no problems with HawkHost

    Not a fan of HostGator because they took all my blogs down without any warning (because of Cache issues) about 2 years ago. I would have appreciated at least 24 hours warning.

    So, again, HawkHost gets my vote...
  • kpmedia wrote these articles and sent them to me. I'm posting them here because I think everyone on this thread will find them very eye-opening:

    HostGator Alternatives, Part 1: Who is EIG? – The Digital FAQ – Media Guides & Services

    HostGator Alternatives, Part 2: Who to Use and Why – The Digital FAQ – Media Guides & Services

    HostGator Alternatives, Part 3: The Future of EIG? – The Digital FAQ – Media Guides & Services
    • [ 4 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Yea, most people have absolutely no idea.
  • I've never been a fan of Host Gator ever since I had my server admin run tests on my 'dedicated' server and came back with IP addresses being shared with pornographic websites.

    One of the things I did when I switched hosts was use: Web Hosting Search Tool, Reviews & More at WhoIsHostingThis.com

    However interesting I ended up using Amazon AWS cloud hosting which was pretty complicated to setup buuut does the trick. I also have an account with Dreamhost for testing (mainly because its cheap and non-critical)

    Hope this helps!

    ~SW
    • [1] reply
    • Ouch. That's some really shady stuff indeed.
      • [1] reply
  • have you checked beyondhosting.net? I have used them for a while I am very satisfied with performance and support. I'm hiring a VPS from them...
    • [1] reply
    • I have to say, their support team is excellent. I'd submit tickets and would have a reply within 10 minutes.

      But my VPS1500 at WiredTree is faster than the more expensive VPS1024 I had at BH.

      Just my two cents.
      • [1] reply
  • Just wondering, has anybody found anything worth looking into in this forum?

    Web Hosting Offers

    Probably not a good idea to post a negative, just looking for positives.
    • [1] reply
    • I just found Stablehost coupons there, will give it a try.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • WiredTree is Virtuozzo (commercial version of OpenVZ, same difference). It's not the best way to virtualize, no. It's an outdated method, before stuff like Xen, VMware and KVM existed. WiredTree is a good host, but I keep my important sites on Xen or VMware. KVM is too unstable still.

    EuroVPS is a good host with VMware.
    LiquidWeb and Namecheap are good hosts with Xen.

    Almost all budget hosts use OpenVZ.
    OpenVZ vswap is okay for non-essential sites. OpenVZ UBC is crap.
  • For shared hosting, we use Webfaction and A2hosting with great success. Webfaction does not have Cpanel, but it does have fast loading times and great support. A2hosting offers Cpanel.

    Hostgator sites generally load slowly (nowadays). Hostgator used to be good, though.

    Bill
  • I'm sure my suggestion has been mentioned at some point in this thread and I'll apologize for not checking. I had massive problems with HG, not just the fact that all of my sites went down for over a day which was poor and cost me quite a bit of money. But they also changed security settings meaning that i ended up with an IPN forwarding issue, which ultimately made my membership sites impossible to automate. The problem persisted for nearly two weeks and their support was useless.

    The upshot: I have switched to LiquidWeb who are independent and definitely not owned by EIG
  • Regarding some of the comments in this thread about
    Endurance International Group (EIG), their business model,
    and their business practices.

    Given the scathing reviews in this thread regarding the manner
    in which Hostgator has been irreparably damaged as a result
    of EIG having acquired the company, an interesting question
    arises for which there does not seem to be a clear explanation.

    How does a company like EIG stay in business and continue to
    grow, if, as alleged in this thread, they essentially "mess up" the
    companies they buy? Hostgator was not their first acquisition,
    and in one link provided in this thread, there is speculation that
    EIG could possibly purchase GoDaddy one day. Again... how is
    any of this possible if the companies being acquired by EIG are
    being irreparably damaged?

    Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, thanks!
    • [2] replies
    • Affiliates keep driving sales via fake top ten lists.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • EIG companies don't cater to a discerning or educated customer base.

      The same question could be asked regarding McDonalds.

      You don't think they serve the best burgers, do you? (if you think that MacDonalds serves the best burgers in the business, then disregard the next paragraph).

      How does McDonalds stay in business if they don't make the best hamburgers? They serve pretty basic burgers with reconstituted onions on them. They serve "chicken nuggets" made from ultra-processed chicken parts. Their food is nothing special. In my town, and probably yours, there are better burger joints that most people will never hear of. They make better food but they will never be as successful as McDonalds. McDonalds customer base doesn't go to McDonalds because they serve the best food. There are other reasons, like cost, convenience, brand recognition, poor taste....

      The same goes with hosting. The people who go with the mega-hosts I'd guess are not the most discriminating, or the most demanding, customers. As long as it "seems like" their web site loads fast (directly from their browser's cache! ), they think they've got a pretty good web host. They don't think of more objective ways to test web hosting service and they'll never know that their sites are slow or have much downtime.

      tl;dr - most consumers of EIG hosts just don't know any better. Most people don't know much about hosting or how to tell if hosting sucks. It's easy to sell an inferior product to people who don't know what a good product is.
      • [ 3 ] Thanks
  • I have always trusted and chose hostgator, it is really great and I never had any issues with them. Their support team is great and gives good response.
    • [1] reply
    • Do you work for HostGator ? or are you by chance a reseller for them if I might ask.
  • hollie.. i would recommend D9 Hosting.. they are very fast.. support is the best Ive ever experienced and any issue get solved asap..
  • A few ways to tell are listed here How to verify if a dedicated server is really dedicated? - Server Fault

    As Kingfish85 pointed out, you could just run ifconfig and look for a network interface called venet0:0. That's a dead giveaway that it's an OpenVZ container.

    So you've actually seen this on servers sold as "Dedicated servers" from HG?!! If so, that, I believe, is deceptive advertising if it is the case.
    • [2] replies
    • Yup. I have personally seen it on quite a few customer migrations from dedicated servers and they admitted to it on WHT a bit ago. It got buried in thread replies so that was that last mention of it.

    • Have read through this thread: (the entire thread)

      How Hostgator cheated /fraud my 199$ - Dedicated Server - Web Hosting Talk

      Virtualizing shared & reseller servers are one thing but selling a physcial, dedicated server with one large VPS and not telling customers what they're really getting is another.

      Now, here's the kicker. Say a customer orders a dedicated server with 500GB drives...how do you know they aren't sticking 2 500GB VPS's on 1 server with 1TB or 2TB drives? You don't. They're also selling you on the dedicated cPanel as well which is double the price of a VPS license - right there is a 50% profit if the costs incorporate a full cPanel license. Makes you think a bit about what's actually going on behind the scenes...

      Smaller dedicated w/ 250GB drives? Are they running multiple VPS's with smaller configs on single servers calling them dedicated servers?? Think of the possibilities here...

      User gatorpatrick goes on to say....

      Unfortunately, I'd be willing to wager that the "*overwhelming* majority of our clients (99%+)" have no clue as to what's going on despite what they say. I told one of our customers whom was being migrated a few months ago about this and needless to say he was shocked. So no, I highly doubt the "overwhelming majority" knows.
  • I havent had a problem with hostgator so far.
    You could try liquidweb. I have heard good things about them
  • GO FOR DREAMHOST. THERE PLANS AND HOSTING ARE MUCH BETTER AS COMPARED TO HOSTGATOR.
    • [1] reply
    • I moved all my files from Hostgator to Liquid Web and never looked back.

      Sent major launch traffic at it - without a hitch.

      I even convinced them to move all my sites from HG to LW for free (they normally charge $500 for this).

      If you're looking to switch PM me and I'll send you my affiliate link and tell you how to get your sites moved from HG for free.

      BTW, I had Bluehost - same story - they sucked.

      Liquid Web for the win.
      • [1] reply
  • I have moved over to Arvixe.com
  • try servint com
    • [1] reply
    • I moved from godaddy to hostgator some months ago, since godaddy all of a sudden chose to shut down all my sites, without explaining me what. They talked about having some code on my sites (classic asp), which made the servers slow. That I did not have, and they could not give me any details, so I decided to move everything to hostgator (wordpress blogs now).
      However, for the last couple of months response times on my sites have been horrible.

      Would it be an idea to move back to godaddy?
  • Any input on the current response times, godaddy vs. hostgator?
    • [1] reply
    • It depends on how you try to get ahold of them. You can call both and wait a few minutes to talk on the phone, but HostGator offers live chat which GoDaddy doesn't.
  • Try to look for Liquidweb as their servers have never been down in my experience and their supports are quite impressive
  • Thanks, Kenny. How about the response times? Right now my sites' response times is 10-30 seconds, compared to Facebook at around 0,8 seconds.
  • Check out Crocweb. As soon as I heard EIG had acquired Hostgator I went on the search for a new host. I narrowed it down to some well known ones but then found people talking about how happy they were with crocweb and decided to give it a shot.

    My websites are far faster than they ever were with Hostgator (even though their servers are in Montreal). They also don't have all that "unlimited" BS marketing ploy. It's easy to see how much resources you are using and with a few simple clicks to upgrade or downgrade your plan if need be. They immediately started on transferring my sites even though it was about 3AM their time on Saturday. I was expecting to have to wait for a business day for my support ticket to be worked on, so that was a pleasant surprise.

    So I moved from a gator to a croc and am happy I did (even if they did sort of copy hostgators name and mascot).
  • I DEFINITELY recommend WiredTree. We changed our 100,000+ visitors per month site to a WiredTree VPS at the recommendation of others on the Warrior Forums after lamenting our continuing problems with Hostgator and it has been the best decision we have ever made regarding any technical part of our business. Their system works well, the support staff are amazingly helpful and we even get periodic e-mails from managers/VPs asking if everything is going well. Once we were all transferred, we have never had another problem with our hosting.

    Previously, we used a Hostgator VPS and had nothing but trouble for a year and a half. With Hostgator, our site was overwhelmed with technical issues that brought our site down during critical sales. Hostgator attributed the problems to our coding, plugins, Wordpress, store software and so on, but after switching to WiredTree, the problems miraculously vanished.

    Ironically, the price at WiredTree was a lot less, so we were also able to get double the resources for 40% less cost, although we never come close to using all of what's available to us. I'm very happy with WiredTree and I recommend them to anyone who doesn't want to spend a lot of time chasing technical ghosts and wants good hosting that just works with great support...

    Michael
  • I moved away from Godaddy. Don't even think about them. I have accounts on Bluehost, Hostgator - and most recently on a VPS at Wiredtree. I recommend Wiredtree. I have about 80 domains on there and not a lick of trouble. PROMPT responses to the very minimal number of support tickets I have had.

    Bluehost.com is continuously having problems. I am frequently getting downtime notices from Google Webmaster tools on domains there. Then there have been multiple *extended* outages in the past. I will likely be moving most of my priority domains away from there when I have time.

    I have no issues with Hostgator so far since the change but I just have a run of the mill account there, not a dedicated server.

    In general I like spreading my domains across different web hosts to guard against my entire business going down at once. But Wiredtree shines in terms of support and performance and seems solid after 13 months.
  • 5 pages and barely any suggestions.... Hostgator stated sucking and that's the deal... anybody going to suggest alternatives or...?
    • [1] reply
    • You're not going to get any. Most of the people posting don't bother to read the thread.
      • [1] reply
  • I have been very pleased with WiredWeb.
    Performance and support have been excellent.
    They currently have a discount offer here on the WF.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • The problem with google searching web hosting options is that most (like 99.9%) of related articles/sites are built around commissions. A few of those webmasters might not recommend companies they don't like. Yet they still recommend from a pool of the same companies--those which pay the highest commissions. This is one reason why you see a zillion hostgator recommendations.

    For the same reason, I think a lot of people who would offer you a sincere recommendation, aren't even aware of better options.

    There are a lot of web hosts that you don't usually hear about that provide good speed, bandwidth, and stellar support, all at an excellent price. I left hostgator and godaddy for stablehost, which I had never heard of before (until discovering the site below), and which was a world of difference. I also looked favorably at MDD, VeeroTech, and many others.

    While searching for a new host, I found webhostingtalk(dotcom) There you can read objective reviews from all levels of webmasters and developers. Additionally, many of the good companies have a presence there, so you can see for yourself how they respond to issues, and how many issues there are for each company.

    Many of the hosts offer big discounts in the special offers section, so check there.

    Do your research. This is by far the BEST resource I have found for researching hosting companies. If more people knew about it, fewer of them would flock to the most commonly promoted companies, which really don't compare in terms of quality.

    DISCLAIMER: I am in no way associated with webhostingtalk. But: 1) I know what it's like to need a new host but distrust affiliates reviews and 2) I am really glad I found them.

    By the way, if this helps, please hit the "thanks" button. I need a few of those
    • [ 4 ] Thanks
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