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jammer
06-28-2013, 05:51 PM
I don't have a website yet, but have recently been researching different hosts and was wondering if others could share their experiences with their own sites.

I don't need anything too complex, just a solid range of e-commerce features. I've looked at all of the big names like 1&1, GoDaddy and such, but am wondering if it is worth looking at other, smaller hosts.

Any help and suggestions appreciated, thanks!

MyITGuy
06-28-2013, 06:55 PM
I'm a bit biased but I'd say take a look at some smaller hosts - such as Cingular Hosting (http://www.cingularhosting.net) :)

In all seriousness, I would recommended avoiding the big names like 1&1, GoDaddy and such because they oversell their services and tend to let the security patches and other upgrades lapse.

Unfortunately, I do not have any referrals at the moment, but I'm sure other members will chime in shortly or you can check out webhostingtalk.com and solicit feedback from other people who are in the industry, and can check out the "offers" section.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will want keep your domain purchase/registration and webhosting account with separate companies. This way if you are unable to reach your webhosting company for whatever reason, that you can still access your domain and point it elsewhere if needed.

billbenson
06-28-2013, 07:38 PM
It also depends on your experience level. When I first started, I wanted to have someone I could call to talk me through stuff. The larger companies had 24/7 phone support. They also put you on hold for half an hour and charge more. But at first you may need some hand holding figuring out FTP etc. Maybe it's worth the expense at first, but honestly I have found email support to be far faster and I hate sitting on hold.

Years ago 1 and 1 and Network solutions used some scam techniques. I doubt they still do that, but I would avoid them like the plague.

Godaddy has phone support and is basically honest. They are constantly trying to upsell you, but the service is ok. I register domains there. If you want to be able to talk to someone it's probably as good as anything.

I don't host at the same place as I register domains as this is a bad practice. Starting out you are ok registering your domains and hostiing with godaddy. I'd move the hosting somewhere else when you get comfortable.

People say good things about hostgator for hosting.

Wozcreative
06-28-2013, 08:35 PM
I use hostgator, their prices are great, they work with you over the phone or chat if there is a problem and everything is easy peasy with them.

Brian Altenhofel
06-29-2013, 04:48 AM
In all seriousness, I would recommended avoiding the big names like 1&1, GoDaddy and such because they oversell their services and tend to let the security patches and other upgrades lapse.

This.

In addition to those, I've personally used Hostgator in the past (notifications of "excessive usage" at ~2500 hits/month, but otherwise very satisfied because I simply outgrew it), and moved clients from FatCow (really bad SSL configuration that broke AJAX over SSL) and Webhostingpad (complete shut down of account at 500 hits/day on a non-CMS site for "excessive usage"). Just remember that "unlimited" is not unlimited.

My Drupal hosting company (http://www.anrhizan.com) uses Rackspace as the primary upstream provider, but I'm pretty sure that's more than what you're looking for.

Harold Mansfield
06-29-2013, 10:01 AM
I don't need anything too complex, just a solid range of e-commerce features. I've looked at all of the big names like 1&1, GoDaddy and such, but am wondering if it is worth looking at other, smaller hosts.

Any help and suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Generally you can use any eCommerce system you want. It doesn't have to come from the host. But most have zen cart, and/or os commerce.

I'm in and out of different hosts all of the time, and have had to call most of them at least once over the past couple of years and here's what I've determined based on those experiences...

No I don't recommend that you go with a smaller host because they are usually just renters from larger hosts.

IMO, 1&1 and Go Daddy are 2 of the most horrible hosts in the hosting business, but, they attract consumers because they advertise a lot. Just because it's on TV doesn't mean it's better, and in this case that rings true.

If you are just running a relatively simple business site and you are new to the whole hosting thing, I'd go for a company with 24/7 phone support, just in case.

I personally use Web Air, but it's more than most people need, so I suggest Bluehost to all of my clients who don't have hosting. Never had a problem, support is great, and they have all of the products and then some that you would expect from any decent host, Automatic backups, SSL's, Dedicated IP's, Microsoft Exchange, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OS Commerce, Zen Cart, and so on and so on.

Hostgator is fine too if they've stopped that thing where they were putting ads on people's websites. Something having to do with Fantastico.

Marcomguy
06-29-2013, 07:17 PM
I don't need anything too complex, just a solid range of e-commerce features.

Having any kind of e-commerce means your website just became a bit more complex than a simple informational site. You'll need an SSL certificate, a shopping cart, payment gateway and all that other fun stuff.

I have used 1&1 for 8-9 years and never had a problem. When I was a newbie their customer service people patiently answered all my stupid questions. I'd recommend them.

billbenson
06-29-2013, 07:55 PM
1&1 Internet (&"1"more) Bill Scam!!!!! (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?739454-1-amp-1-Internet-%28-amp-quot-1-quot-more%29-Bill-Scam!!!!!)

And I am a fool for not reading the reviews about 1&1? I just didn't think it could be that bad, until they did it to me.

In short, I had registered/maintained a domain with 1&1 for about 2 1/2 years. No problems to report with their hosting. However, shortly after I had closed my business I received a renewal invoice for the domain that I no longer was going to be using. I cancelled using a very well hidden cancellation page
https://cancel.1and1.com/ along with a confirmation

Today I received a 3rd party collection notice stating that 1&1 had sent this account to them for collections. I thought "No big deal" it must be a mistake and called and explained to them that I no longer used this domain, It was cancelled 3 days after their emailed invoice so I should not have been billed or sent to a collection agency. The first reply was.........

"Unfortunately domain names are nonrefundable as stated during the
ordering process and in our Terms & Conditions
(http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Gtc): 3.9. Upon cancellation of this Agreement you will receive a prorated refund
of any pre-paid, refundable fees for the remainder of any term."

That seemed like a candid response and completely irrelevant to my issue, so I spoke to a supervisor and received the following response:

"Our records indicate that your cancellation request was made after the billing due date for the domain "

And after telling them the above is true, but as I had cancelled the domain 3 days after the expiration the last reply I got was:

"Our records show the effective date of your cancellation was after the billing date for the domains. As such the invoice you received is valid and the balance must still be resolved."

They claim to still have the right to bill renewals for this non-existing domain. In other words they are charging me renewal fees without renewing anything, which is pretty close to stealing in my opinion. And therefore I am left with no other option that to make this scam public in hopes of having some good come out of all this.

Monetarily my loss is not going to be a big one (less than $50), but it is annoying to have to waste time trying to resolve issues 3 months after my business has closed to find out that they had no intention of doing the right thing but were scams from the beginning.

Please don't make the same mistake as I did, and stay away from 1&1.

Marcomguy
06-30-2013, 12:57 PM
Bill, Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the scam. The Sitepoint poster says the account was closed 3 days AFTER 1&1 sent their invoice. In my experience, domain name registrations are non-refundable at any registrar, not just 1&1. The person would be liable for the registration fees for the entire year.

I have canceled domains at 1&1 on several occasions. As long as I did it before the domain's renewal date, I didn't get a bill for the following year.

As for the "very well hidden cancellation page" - agreed, it's unusual that 1&1 has a separate cancellation subdomain. But on the main account management page there is a link saying "Cancellation" that takes you to the subdomain. Also, typing "cancel domain" or "delete domain" into their FAQ brings up clear directions on how to cancel. And customer service reps tell you straight up how to cancel.

I'm not offering a blanket defense of 1&1, just relaying my experiences and observations.

Harold Mansfield
06-30-2013, 01:37 PM
I don't know how it works with 1&1, but whenever I don't renew a domain, I just don't renew it. That's it. I don't have to do anything special before the renewal date except go into my control panel and change auto renew to not auto renew. If I don't do that, then it renews automatically.

If, by chance, the card I use for renewals has no money on it at the time of a renewal, it just doesn't get renewed. I don't get a bill saying that I owe for the renewal. That seems a little odd to me.

You're under no obligation to renew a domain.

billbenson
06-30-2013, 05:26 PM
Bill, Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the scam. The Sitepoint poster says the account was closed 3 days AFTER 1&1 sent their invoice. In my experience, domain name registrations are non-refundable at any registrar, not just 1&1. The person would be liable for the registration fees for the entire year.

I have canceled domains at 1&1 on several occasions. As long as I did it before the domain's renewal date, I didn't get a bill for the following year.

As for the "very well hidden cancellation page" - agreed, it's unusual that 1&1 has a separate cancellation subdomain. But on the main account management page there is a link saying "Cancellation" that takes you to the subdomain. Also, typing "cancel domain" or "delete domain" into their FAQ brings up clear directions on how to cancel. And customer service reps tell you straight up how to cancel.

I'm not offering a blanket defense of 1&1, just relaying my experiences and observations.

The issue with 1 and 1 and Network Solutions is if you registered both your domain and hosted with them they wouldn't allow you to move your domain or change name servers. It actually happened to a friend of mine who eventually abandoned the domain. You didn't have access to a domain control panel so you had to call them. They would say ok, I'll transfer you to that department and put you on eternal hold.

I don't think they have done this in quite a while, but it still puts a bad taste in my mouth when I think about using them.

Marcomguy
06-30-2013, 05:50 PM
He may have been on auto-renew, in which case 1&1 was justified in renewing the domain and sending him a bill. He neglected to mention whether the domain was auto-renewed or not.

Even for my auto-renew domains, they send me an email saying so-and-so domain will be renewed in so many days. I have plenty of time to stop the renewal if I want.

Harold Mansfield
06-30-2013, 05:53 PM
Auto renew I understand. What I'm not getting is them acting as if you owe them if you don't renew it. Even if it's on auto renew and let's say your card on account expired. It just doesn't renew. But you don't owe them. You just lose the domain if someone registers it.

I've let plenty of domains lapse because I didn't want them anymore, and my registrar has never sent me a bill for it anyway.

Marcomguy
06-30-2013, 05:59 PM
The issue with 1 and 1 and Network Solutions is if you registered both your domain and hosted with them they wouldn't allow you to move your domain or change name servers. It actually happened to a friend of mine who eventually abandoned the domain. You didn't have access to a domain control panel so you had to call them. They would say ok, I'll transfer you to that department and put you on eternal hold.

I don't think they have done this in quite a while, but it still puts a bad taste in my mouth when I think about using them.

Maybe they did this in the past. A couple of years ago, I moved hosts for a particular domain. There was no problem changing nameservers. It took me about 2 weeks before I couldn't take the other hosting company any more and changed hosts again.

I recently registered a domain with 1&1 and got my email hosted elsewhere. No problems changing the records to point to the other email server.

billbenson
07-01-2013, 01:33 AM
I did a few searches and the last of the complaint posts for this activity ended in 2008 that I could find.

Auto renew had nothing to do with the issue I am talking about though. Customers wanted to host their websites elsewhere for whatever reason and they didn't give them access to change their nameservers.

Marcomguy
07-05-2013, 07:51 PM
Bill - my comment about auto-renew was in response to Harold's post. I wrote about my experiences with nameservers in post #14.

Harold - I didn't see where 1&1 billed someone after the person didn't renew and the domain lapsed.

Harold Mansfield
07-05-2013, 08:31 PM
Harold - I didn't see where 1&1 billed someone after the person didn't renew and the domain lapsed.

I must have misunderstood then. In the words of Rosanne Roseannadanna, "Never mind".

easysites
07-06-2013, 09:55 AM
One of my favorite hosts is FatCow. They're pretty cheap for the entire first year with a coupon code and they have very good support. I just chat them on the off chance there is a problem. You also get unlimited domains, storage and all the other good stuff. However, make sure you don't flood the server with files because that will slow your sites down for sure.

Khalifa
07-17-2013, 03:39 PM
Over the years, I had the experience dealing with many hosts. Here's my short review.

GoDaddy, don't even bother with them, they are probably the worst host out there. Try searching Google to know why.

Namecheap.com, I think they are okay, I tried their shared hosting, it's not that bad really, but sometimes the server gets really laggy, their support is good though.

Web-hosting.com, they are owned by Namecheap.com, the quality is about the same.

HostGator, I tried both their shared and reseller packages, shared is awesome, it's a little pricy compared to other companies, but the service is just amazing.

I didn't like their shared hosting however, it goes down a lot, database issues, etc. I think the reason here is their resellers sell so many accounts on the same reseller account, making the server freeze at times!

StormOnDemand, they are owned by Liquid Web, I had dedicated/VPS servers from them.. never tried shared... but I would vouch for them for the best company out there. The speed is just awesome and I don't remember having any issues with them. I'm talking about handling tens or hundreds of hits per second (on my PPC tracking software) without having ANY issues or delays! Support is top notch as well.

sahabdk
08-27-2013, 08:54 AM
I would suggest hostgator. You can try to search for coupons to get it for 1 cent the first month. I pretty sure they are still out there :)

nexxterra
08-28-2013, 10:15 AM
If you are an expert at managing your website, then go where you are comfortable
If you are NOT, then examine YOUR needs and narrow your search to a few hosts, then open support of phone them and ask specifically if they can fit your needs.
This will give you an idea of the support you may get in the future.
As for smaller hosts, There are a lot of choices, and most of these have a "reseller" account with a larger company. While this does NOT make them a bad choice, their investment in their business is probably less than you will pay for hosting for the year.
Companies like ours and other "smaller" hosting companies that have invested in their own servers and have a lot of money and time invested are more likely to give you the attention you desire in order to keep you as a client.

Gabe
08-31-2013, 02:23 PM
If you're just starting, try something cheap and reputable like Bluehost or Host Gator. It's important to remember that the vast majority of hosts are just resellers, so for low-end, cheap hosting where everyone competes on price, you're usually better off with the bigger names for better features and higher uptime. In that race-to-the-bottom industry there aren't any real standouts though because it's hard to be remarkable at such a low price point.

If you have specific needs, you'll pay a bit more for what you need but it's almost always worth it. For example, if you're focused on ecommerce and need a store it's worth investing in a service like Shopify that hosts as well as provides your online store. They cost more, but they're one of the best at it. Hope this helps.

Michael Fied
10-07-2013, 03:09 PM
Here are the top three I would recommend.

Ecommerce - myshopify.com
Unlimited websites - Hostgator.com
Wordpress - WpEngine.com

Best of luck! :)

patrickprecisione
10-08-2013, 03:46 PM
I'm not an expert when it comes to web hosting, but I've heard really good things about Host Gator. Does anyone know about them?

thecly
10-15-2013, 06:52 PM
Dream Host. By far the cheapest and you get the most for your money. I use them. Godaddy's site is rough I'm sure there are others but i always recommend dream host

Brian Altenhofel
10-16-2013, 02:48 AM
you get the most for your money

By what metric?

VUUmarketing
12-04-2013, 07:41 PM
Rackspace for experts.
Hosgator for newbies.

ryantc
12-05-2013, 06:31 PM
Some suggestions for best web hosting service would be ipage.com, web.com, justhost.com, bluehost.com, fatcow.com, and godaddy.com.

billbenson
12-05-2013, 06:41 PM
Godaddy as one of the best web hosting services? They have their place, but quality webhosting isn't one.