Recent Downtime, Seeking New Hosting

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I apologize for the downtime.  You may have noticed the ominous “This account has been suspended” message when trying to reach us these past two mornings.  The cause of the message was a “glitch” in the billing system of our host thinking that yesterday and today we were 100 years and 2,000 years late on our payment.  In reality, our payment isn’t due until the first of the year.  Apparently when the CSR who was supposed to credit our account with a free month (For all the technical issues we’ve had) went in to change the due date, he or she forgot what year it was and set it to 00/00/0000.

Waiting in a phone queue on two lines for over an hour with zero response left us in the hands of their ticket support system which takes forever.  Hopefully the issue is straightened out for now, although I doubt it and fully expect another suspension time travel notice tomorrow morning.

Despite whatever messages you see, we’re still here and plan to be here forever.

We’re looking for a new host to help us stay up and running properly.  We require unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and the most up-to-date hosting stuffs capable of handling our traffic with ease.  Fairly standard now, actually.  The predicament I’m in is that I’ve been with my current host for so long that I’m locked into an awesome price.  I’m locked in at $4.95/month for unlimited everything.  I’ve looked around and found some great hosting that comes highly recommended, such as DreamHost, but I’ll pay almost double my current rate for it.  I’m willing to do that if that’s what it takes to have speed, up-time, and reliable service.   I may have a sweet deal on price, but I’m not being given what’s promised for that price.

If you have hosting suggestions, please let us know.  And again, sorry for the downtime.

  • Now, I dont know much about your financial situaton, but 5$ or 10$ doenst sound like much

  • I’ve always used Flarehosting.com when I created my personal websites to try new code on or built sites for other people.

    I haven’t used them in over a year, but I absolutely loved their service and performance. In the 3-4 years I used them I didn’t have any issues.

    I think I was paying ~$20 a month but I also required SQL2008 and some of the latest .NET frameworks. I’m not sure what you all use but this company was fantastic for what I needed.

    Just a suggestion.

  • @Cthreepo: Many hosting companies, like DreamHost and my current hosting, require two years payment in advance in order to get the lower “monthly” price (They just divide the total by 24 and call it a monthly price). While $10 a month isn’t a lot, $240 up front is a hit for an unemployed student living on student loans trying to budget for the next 8 months until I graduate and/or find a job.

    Like I said, I can do it but I like to know I’m not missing out on some better deal with a better host. That’s why I’ve posted here soliciting ideas and offers. I want to find somewhere affordable that is still a proper and functioning host.

  • Personally I wouldn’t even consider most hosts that offer the $4.95/mo or $2.99/mo with seemingly unlimited everything; because, well, you get what you pay for… as you just experienced.

    Why not just host at wordpress.com and pay for their upgrades?

    If thats not an option, I used liquidweb.com in the past for several years for personal stuff, and they are a good option, with good support; its $14.95/mo, with actual limits (5GB disk, 120GB bandwidth), and a support team that will actually answer you 😉

  • @Nazgum: My host actually charges closer to $11/month. Since I was a loyal customer, and had a lot of contact with them 8 years ago, I was able to take advantage of a sale they had and lock in at that price even for renewals.

    I need the FTP hosting access for storage, and I also have a forum community that wouldn’t work with WordPress hosting.

    The reason I need the unlimited bandwidth is due to the nature of our blog, we can see spikes in excess of 140gb bandwidth. We may go along one day with 3k unique visitors then hit 30,000 unique the next day if we wrote something that interests people.

    I think the sweet spot is DreamHost. They rank well among hosting providers, come recommended by several people, and cost about $8.95/month. They’re probably on the top of my list because of how much I require from a host. I feel needy, but at the same time I’m paying for something and I demand what I pay for.

  • Well, like I mentioned when I first recommended DreamHost to you, if price is really a problem, the second best alternative is BlueHost. It’s the one I personally use, and it’s rock solid. They have great support, and the only complaint I have with them is that my blog isn’t particularly fast, but I have clients on their servers that don’t have the same problem.

    BlueHost is $4.95/mo if you pay for 12 months, $3.95/mo if you pay for 24 months, if I’m not mistaken (sometimes they show different prices depending on the region you’re applying from). I’m a client for many many years now and I don’t remember really having downtime.

  • @Kemwer: The speed issue is what scared me off BlueHost. I want my site to load as fast as possible for my readers.

    I’m looking at DreamHost’s forums, though, and I see a startling number of people complaining about how bad their customer service has become over the past year and how so many are seeing hardware failures. Now my confidence in them is shaken.

  • Here’s my list of top choices so far in no particular order:

    DreamHost <-- Heard good things, but not sure JustHost <-- HostGator <-- Really popular so I'm looking into it InMotionHosting <-- Liking what I see there.

  • @Keen – Have you seen the list at webhostinggeeks dot com? Has a few more of them that you may not have checked out yet.

  • @Steeldragoon: Awesome, thanks for the link. I’m checking out some of those now. Nice to see InMotion is on there at the top.

  • Did you look at 1and1? I just moved from Dreamhost to 1and1 and feel quite happy with the move.

    Their “Unlimited” package is 3.49/m for the first year and $6.99/m after that.

  • Keen , What about Godaddy.com ? If you sign up for a full year Danica Patrick will attend a meet and greet wearing a bikini.

  • Why not go with WordPress (which makes a lot of blog-related things much easier for everyone) + a forum solution? Quality forum hosting is easy to find, and won’t hit the traffic you get on the blog. WordPress handles the big stuff.

  • @SynCaine: As mentioned above, I really want the FTP access. In addition to the blog, I do other projects that utilize the FTP space (WordPress costs a lot more than the hosting would for those features). I utilize additional databases as well.

    I’m also wanting to keep everything on the forum intact, and maintain control for custom coding.

    In a way, I want total control over my code. I may not be very talented at the technical side, but I make tweaks, adjustments, customizations, and I practice/learn for fun. If I turned it over to WordPress, I wouldn’t have that same level of control.

  • I’d strongly recommend http://InmotionHosting.com. They’re 100% US based, have extremely high satisfaction ratings, and in my experience, has given us no issues at all in hosting our guild website. Their “Pro” business plan ($7.95 / month if you pay 2 yr rate) gives tons of features including the unlimited data you were looking for. If you haven’t pulled the trigger on a new host, give ’em a call.

  • @Kaybek: I spoke to InMotion yesterday and felt really comfortable with them. I was told that on some of our higher traffic days we may push the limits of their “unlimited” plan for shared hosting. As is the case with most shared hosting plans, “unlimited” falls within a “reasonable use” policy. If our blog suddenly gets 30,000 unique hits in a day (which we’ve done and then some) we may face issues with utilizing too many resources on our server.

    The pro plan on that site is showing as $13.95/month at a year commitment. I don’t see the two year commitment for that plan. The “Power” plan has $4.48/month for a 24 months commitment.

    I wonder if they’re price discriminating.

    [Edit] OH wow, they’re discriminating a !$#! ton. Go to the site from CNET and you see different prices than if you went to them from webhostingsearch. They offer not only different prices, but different features within plans for different prices. Sheesh.

  • Hiya.

    I’m pretty sure I can meet everything you’ve said you’re looking for – https://www.safesharkhosting.com

    I don’t offer unlimited packages, because I feel they’re inherently dishonest for hosting companies to offer, but nor do I require any sort of lock-in for good pricing. I host just shy of 100 sites currently, the majority of them WordPress – and quite honestly, I kick ass when it comes to WordPress hosting. I offer a level of WordPress support far above and beyond what you’ll get at pretty much any host for the same price, and have all the standard uptime guarantees you’ll find from the big hosts as well.

    If you’re as heavily trafficked as some of your comments indicate, I’m also completely comfortable with crafting a custom plan with your needs in mind to meet a pricepoint we’re both happy with. I’m less interested in making a profit than I am providing a good service to people – and because I’m a small business, you’re not going to ever deal with ignorant support techs who escalate your problems and don’t fix anything. You have issues, you’ll talk to me, and I’ll make them go away. Simple, worry-free web hosting.

    Feel free to email me or drop me a note on Twitter at either @Vitaemachina or @SafeSharkHost 🙂 Either way, good luck finding a new home!

  • Personally, I use Arvixe.com for my hosting. I’ve had a website with them for awhile and had nothing but great success. Customer service has always been super prompt any time I had an issue.

    You may want to give them a look.