Doing Social Good with a Great Hosting Provider

3 months free hosting? Not bad! I’m trying to look for a good webhost. If their service is good for the given free months, I’d probably stick. Besides, it’s for a good cause.

this is a bad review on MT and MOSSO at the same time. Good for us to know about them. thanks

I have a number of sites on ANHosting. They occasionally go down, but their uptime is still much much MUCH better than any of my previous hosts.

And yes, I agree with the article above – their customer support is wonderful! A quick email and any of my problems are solved in a jiffy.

Nice post! How about http://www.hostway.com/ ? I’ve heard good things about them… does anyone have more info?

Thanks,

I was almost about to consider Mosso as my solution. Another reason why I was banking on mosso was cause it offered .NET and php solution which works best for my requirement.

Would be glad if someone can suggest hybreed solution at lower cost.

Siddharth Menon
Borget Solutions

I agree with your comments about Mediatemple. Though it’s a good solution for my e-commerce sites because of the easu installation of Magento, the support are very slow and unhelpful – not only that but the sites hosted there seem to go very slow.

I am from Belgium and first I had my websites hosted with PriorWeb, a belgian hosting company.
Because I saw the logo of MediaTemple all over the place when surfing the web and because they have that high tech look and because they were cheaper than my current hosting company and had a great controle panel and,… I decided to transfer all my sites.
It lasted for … 12 hours. After 12 hours I transfered all my sites back to my previous hosting.
At one point I had several websites simultaniously running on both hostings and it was stunning how slow MediaTemple was compared to my other hosting company. With my ohter hosting company the sites popped immediately on my screen, Media Temple made me wait for ages for like just the images to load for a not so big website. And that website didn’t even have the cms attached to it.
So I chose to transfer everything back because I expected Media Temple to be technologically superior to everything else out there and they couldn’t even load a simple website faster.
I am now still hosted with PriorWeb. The company grew and so did their controle panels and service. They also offer online support by chat and that is really handy.
I pay more but I get more and that’s how the world works I guess.

For your european readers (same here, no profit for me or any association with the company) have a look at http://www.eurovps.com

Moved a while ago all of my customers and personal sites and i must say the rock. Excellent support (most important for me).

Thanks for this. I was looking in to moving our hosting to MT, but after I read this, it confirmed the questions in my head about them. I gave UK2.net a call and now they sound like they are the right guys for the job.

Good to hear from fellow UK2′ers! I’ve been with Midphase/AN Hosting for 5 years now, I love them.

One thing you may not know about yet is that they just developed their own stats software. I’ve been beta testing it and its simply amazing! It totally blows Google Analytics out of the water, and it can even integrate your Feedburner and Twitter info!

Checked out the offer. So much for “no catches”. It’s not three months free. It’s three months EXTENDED to your 12 month commitment.

* *
The coupon code you entered has been accepted!

We will extend your hosting contract for 3 month(s) for FREE!

NOTE: This offer is only valid on 12 or 24 month terms.
* *

Same result from both ANhosting and Midphase. Tried with both the “WEBDESIGNERDEPOT” and “Another3″ coupons (ANhosting offers the same deal on their front page), to the same end result.

I’m not sure why you’d even put up this post with the “no catches here” line, since you’d have to know a lot of people would check it out, and find out there is indeed a BIG (12 month) catch.

I’ve been hosting with Godaddy.com for almost a decade, and have never had my sites down. I found the Mysql server was down one time (site was otherwise functioning), and with a single email, that was fixed in under 5 minutes.

Without having done business with ANhosting, I already don’t trust them, after they thought they could fool me like this.

I have been using http://siteground.com for a few years now. I recommended them to all my clients that have us design websites. I have at least 7 websites hosted with them (my own and some clients) and they are up 99% of the time. Their support is great and the price is reasonable for what you get.

If I didn’t already have a good hosting company I would definitely take you up on your offer because I would love to get 3 months free. Maybe I can recommend some new clients your way so you can reach your goal….

Thanks,

Eric
Zero 3 Computers

UK2Group recently purchased my long-time favorite host, Dotable.com.

Since UK2Group took control of Dotable the service has gone to crap. Not only is the support something to laugh at (unanswered questions for days or weeks at a time) but they double billed me twice, and the servers go down without reason for hours at a time.

They also make changes to the server environment without even a notice of warning, which can severely mess up your websites if you are using certain settings.

Anyway, I’m glad you’re happy with your service… but I have had nothing but bad experiences with the company.

Nick Nelson here. I think Walter meant “no catches” with the $100 donation. Comment #11 is correct. It’s not strictly free hosting – you do have to make a purchase, and then we give you 3 more months of free hosting on top of that.

Dotable was a special case. There was a lot that went into that that was poorly planned, we fully admit to this, I’m not fully aware of it’s conditions now..but if you would like to move to another brand – or a refund or anything of this sort – please email me and I’ll make sure you’re squared away. I do know that they have almost completed the move to a new datacenter.

When you purchase a host, there’s always a period of transition, like any transition (moving, new jobs, new family members) it’s tough…it doesn’t go as planned always.

The ball was dropped there. Nobody in UK2Group management will refute this.

What about Dreamhost, i used it and don’t have any complain.

Yea, what about Dreamhost, I’m a happy dreamhost customer.. even though I live in NZ.
I love the control you get over almost everything in Dreamhost, and their tech support is outstanding.

And what about http://www.eleven2.com/ ?
Is anyone here who tried it?

I switched many hosting services, from cheap to vps and so on. Now I’m using Steadfast Networks. Very stable, good support and cheap.

I have had very a frustrating experience with uk2net in the past week or so. I signed up for their business hosting package (after switching from supergreenhosting.co.uk who are another bad story) and it took days and numerous emails from me before PHP started working, and when it did they didn’t even inform me – I found out for myself using a test PHP file that I hit periodically. Then when everything was up and running, and I was happily editing a web page via SSH, I was kicked out of my session only to find that my websites and IP address were now pointing at a sex toys website! It took many hours before this problem was fixed and I didn’t get any responses to my urgent emails aside from an automated ticket response. After a few hours I gave up and paid 1 pound for a one week trial of a virtual private server with http://www.tagadab.com; it was provisioned within four minutes, my website was up and running in as much time as it took me to upload it and I’m very happy so far.

GoDaddy FTW!

There will definitely always be good and bad stories of hosting. And, there’s no such thing as the “perfect” host. Only a hosting provider perfect for your needs.

With that said, UK2Group makes mistakes, but we stand up to them, and correct them.

If anyone has any standing issues, I always invite you to email me at the address on this blog post.

Walter (WDD) is a valued client, and we would never want a recommendation he made to go sour, we will do everything we can to make sure every client is a happy client.

With most webhosts, dedicated server customers usually suffer a lot less downtime than shared plan customers, and usually are offered much better customer service. Reverse IP indicates that WebDesignerDepot is on a dedicated server, so I suppose that your experiences have been better by far.

At the moment i´m using the german hoster “Strato”. Service is a bit poor, but prices and performance are very good.

We used to host with Netcom, then MT, but for the past few years we’ve used Above Systems. We get a dedicated rep and they have 24-7 tech support by phone or email in USA that really know what they’re doing. Downtime ? Can’t remember any plus they have 99.999% guarantee. Not familiar with Anhosting but sounds good.

E,

WebDesignerDepot is not on a dedicated server. They are on a dedicated IP, and on a server with many other high profile sites. As Walter said, he’s not no the standard $6.95/mo account, but he’s definitely not on a dedicated server.

I can’t disclose all the other clients on these servers, but I can say Yoast.com is on the same server, as well as CopyBlogger.com, and many others. (I requested permission from them 2 to mention their domains here, can’t reveal others due to privacy agreements.)

Any other questions, let me know.

Diablo,

Strato is in the process of selling their business. Not sure who to yet, but it’s public that they are selling their hosting division.

I also must let everyone know that Media Temple Sucks hard.

I have about 50 sites currently hosted on Media Temple, three of them are as large as WDD in traffic and rank.

Big issues with slow load times, esp with wordpress for some reason, like wordpress with 2-3 plugins.

Last few times I called for help, they are rude, and don’t help.

Good luck with online ’support’ they have like a 2 freeken day wait time.

Since I host a lot with them, and have referred over 50 people to them, you would think they would give me a little discount, even 10% since I estimate I have referred at least 30,000 bucks worth of yearly business to them. NOPE… they don’t even give a crap, they basically say that you are a small fish and don’t matter, even though I know for a fact that my sites are within the top 1% of their hosting bandwidth users.

So have been moving everything to Slicehost. Its not the best solution for most people, but they are way cheaper, and super fast, helpful and friendly.

Im now going to be looking closely at ANHosting, love that they will help transfer all your sites to their hosting.

Im going to be moving all my hosting, including every single person I referred to MT in the last 3 years to another host in the next few months.

Another thing, if you have a DV 3.0 ($50 USD per MONTH) they dont give you any support to update it to DV 3.5 (128mb ram, now up to 512mb ram, about 2 years late)

I know that a lot of the sites that are like WDD (top design and tutorial sites) were on MT and are now actively moving away from them.

Sorry for the rant, but MT has cost me a lot, and I mean a lot of money, time, hassle, and stress.

I have been using the hosting from siteground.com for a long time now and I can say : these boys make`s a good job.

Well I must admit i`ve been very happy with Host Gator and we offer our students a free two months hosting with courses cause they are very helpful and good servers.

Very nice review on hosting providers. For more info check out Hostjury dot com where anyone can review hosting providers. I strongly recommend to check out the reviews their before selecting your next hosting provider.

Dreamhost is the best! They have great tech support, offer good prices, are employee owned and use green energy to run their servers.

And to think that I was contemplating moving from ANHosting to MT. Highly unlikely now

my experience with anshosting was less than stellar. i dumped them over a year ago- i wrote about my experience with them without mentioning them by name here
http://digitalapplejuice.com/wordpress-modsecurity-polurnet/

at that time, when i called to notify them that i would not be renewing my account so don’t charge my credit card, they cancelled my account on the spot and i lost 2 websites on my shared hosting package. they were kind enough to reactivate so i could ftp into the site but anyone who runs a wordpress site knows that is just useless. up to that point i never had a complaint with their tech support

either their servers have been upgraded considerably in the last 18 months or you have a dedicated server.

i use polurnet. i love them. i recommend them. they are helpful and quick to respond.
my other choice? hostgator. my clients who want environmentally friendly are happy to go with hostgator cause they windpowered.

I’d recommend http://e-noise.com if you are in the UK. They are quite good and specialize on Joomla Hosting.
Their support is usually quite responsive too.

what u siad is corect and new ppl should keep in mind that these thing to be remind when buying hosting.
i am using a local hosting service. cos now only i launched ma site. and it should take some time to popular(atleast 1 year),so the next year i ll be anyway in job and i ll choose uk2. still iam a student ,i dont need to take risk.

Thanks..

Quite cool.
Now i’m considering the anhost.

My sentiments exactly w/ Media Temple. We couldn’t get my CMS (ModX) to install properly, their support was meh, and to boot, it was 50 dollars for their base package that would allow for reseller hosting. I’m on http://www.WebHostingBuzz.com now and its been okay. Support is alright, but its half the price for way more storage than w/ Media Temple and its carbon neutral hosting. Thought I would mention that since greenness is a selling point for most these days.

I haven’t tried (mt), but I’m on bluehost, and I love it. Fast load times, a lot of customization capability, and wonderful support. I paid $7.50 a month, prepaid for 2 years. I was on GoDaddy for a while, and when my domain expired, I re-registered it with bluehost, and have had a great experience. The worst I’ve had are a few performance hiccups around 4 am (i get a text message when it goes down and comes back up) every now and then. Maybe once every two or three months. I just think that it’s awesome given I am a bottom-of-the-line customer and they are still willing to bend over backwards to help me with things I need . Just my two cents, and no, im not getting cash for this.

Hey mike, I wanted to check out your site for curiosity and it’s down.
check the phone if you have a text message
just jocking, I’m sure yours it’s a honest review. still the situation is ironic.

i prefer STARTLOGIC, is a great site and very good hosting, faster, good service

M1chael, the ironic thing is right after I wrote it, i started to 404 . If it was that, then ur right. Ironic. But my site was, until recently, under construction, but it is up now. But they just took a turn for the worst in the last few weeks, and I’m about to jump ship on them.

I was looking for a new provider, but i think i´ll stay in germany for support-reasons.
Support and prices must fit together …

The need to host a company’s website on a good web hosting provider has never been more improtant. It is important for businesses to focus on good web hosting providers as opposed to the cheapest ones available. Now a days, dedicated servers are becoming very cheap and it does not make sense to go for the really cheap providers that claim to offer unlimited bandwidth but your site will go down with the slightest of burtsts in website traffic.

I would like to try one of these new hosting providers that you have listed here… but I am afraid that their interfaces just aren’t friendly enough… Media Temple has such a solid interface that makes everything so easy to use and set up. If they’d update that I would be on board so fast, I’d love to try something new.

thanks for continual good stuff!
Mike

Look, I used to have some site on ixwebhosting on a shared server and as it was stuff with very few traffic it was ok even if a bit slow. plus, I have to say they have a good customer service. everytime I needed help I used their chat and in a couple of minutes I had someone helping me out. I really loved that because it was fast, easy and reliable. so that’ my true experience with them.

However as I opened a blog on which I was hoping to have some traffic I decided to switch to another hosting maybe less known and capable to handle high peeks even on the shared plan. I found it in Webfaction, which is not famous and you really can find only a couple of reviews online about them, but they are all good. No bitchin anywhere.. so I decided to give it a try cuz it had a fair price for the simple plan and 3 months money-back. So far so good. has been only a month but I already feel I can trust them.
it handles the traffic and performances are fine, although my site is light and I host all images on AmazonS3.
The only difficult thing at first can be to understand their Cpanel which is quite unique, but I watched the 5min video and I was good to go. it’s different to set up a site then on other hostings, but it’s quite intuitive, it just need to read how it works and there’s no problem.
hope my advice can help.

Michel.

I second WebFaction – http://www.webfaction.com
I’ve been with them for over 3 years and they have been absolutely flawless. These guys know what they do!

I have experienced the same issues with Domatic after leaving Yahoo (way back when). Domatc went downhill as you describe with Media Temple, their support is for their bigger clients now and the quality of service (randomly switching you from server to server with no warning, breaking all your settings) is definitely down the drain.

I have recently moved to http://mobiuz.com, and I am very ecstatic so far – treated with a one on one attitude.

They make sure they’re saying my name right always, and are very laid back/grass roots. I feel like I am talking to a long time friend when I was moving. They even looked at my sites to make sure nothing was horribly/obviously broken.

yes startlogic is good. i prefer it too.
but anhosting is also good.

Ein Kompliment für diese tolle Seite.
Eigentlich bin ich durch Zufall darauf gestoßen und dachte mir,
einen netten Eintrag und viele Grüße zu hinterlassen.
_____ \\\!!!///____
______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___
Vielleicht schauen sie mal auf meiner Homepage vorbei!

wow just so good

This is great site. You are the best in this matter.

I forgot, thanks for this stuff

A very good site! Go on in 2010!

Many times web hosts are good for a while then drop down in quality and go back up. Some never do and are steady. You have to try it out and mostly depends on your expectations. Some people expect an entire server to themselves for shared hosting prices. Not going to happen.

Just make sure you purchase a plan that surpasses your own needs, not the needs of others telling you what you need.

Best regards from the north of germany….
Holiday at the Schönberger Strand at the baltic sea (Ostsee)……
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______( ô ô )_____
___ooO-(_)-Ooo___

It’s such a breath of fresh air to see someone talking about the hosting company I love. I am telling you now, there is no better host than AnHost/MidPhase!! I’ve been with them for over FIVE years and have not once regretted my decision. I would say about a year or so ago they did some upgrades and O. M. G. My reseller account speeds went from nice to blazing fast! I mean fast as in it felt like I was sitting right next to the server when FTPing and requesting pages. Seriously, that’s not an exaggeration.

Their support is great. I’ve always gotten an answer to my questions within minutes. Cost is unbeatable as well. Just a rockstar web host that seems to get over-shadowed by the likes of MT and other “look how hip we are” hosts.

I have used all of those hosting companies and you are spot on. They all start out good but soon go downhill. I am in need of a change as well. Fatcow has been alright but the ten thirty down time ever day is a bit frustrating lol.

I’ve used many host for both private use and for companies I have worked for.

ICDsoft I have been hosting my portfolio site with for almost 7 years and they have been great for the size of site that I have (not very big). They’re always current with the versions of PHP and MySQL, and have even upgraded my plan(bandwidth and hosting size) a couple times throughout the years without charging me more!!! I thought that right there was just plain awesome. And their prices are very affordable. Though my only gripe is that you can’t(or I haven’t found an easy way) install an dedicated (read:not shared) SSL certificate. And they’re support is mainly handled through http://www.suresupport.com which is ok for finding quick generic answers but not so much when doing more complex things. And i love their control panel software(cPanel).

IXWebHosting I’ve had great experiences with too including their support which is top-notch! And prices are reasonable too. Not a big fan of their control panel(hSphere). But ehh, its not that bad.

Hosts that I wouldn’t recommend include MediaTemple(their GS server was horrible, but their DV server was ok though it went down quite a bit) , 1&1, and Web.com.

my sites which run ruby on rails have gone through many hosts, dreamhost was up and down, and godaddy just plan was horrible. i’m still searching