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We had been with GoDaddy for our company website for years. However, our website design company said they had hit a ceiling with them and that there were some things we wouldn’t be able to do reliably. Don’t ask me the details of that. Web design, to me, is far more complex than an ancient dead language.

So, they told us we should switch to Bluehost because it had all the bells and whistles, there’d be rainbows and puppies and Bieber songs had been banned there. Too good to be true! Right? It was. Our website goes offline for about 5-10 minutes once or twice a week. Always during peak times when our customers are trying to use our site. We never had this problem with GoDaddy.

So, now our design company says Green Geeks is where it’s at. The same features, low pricing, rainbows, and puppies. It’s not like it’s a flip of a switch and everything is up and running. So, I’m kind of a frustrated that we’re contemplating switching to someone else again.

Now that the context is out of the way, I have two questions:

  1. Who are the good guys in the web hosting world these days? What do you use?

  2. Every time I read a review on GoDaddy, Bluehost, Green Geeks, etc…, they say something like, “Well, they have low pricing, so you get what you pay for.” So, who are the “not cheap” alternatives? We don’t mind paying $100-$500 year instead of $30 a year if it means our customers can always access our site.

5 Spice ups
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Your web hosting guys sound like fun.

For UK hosting, TSOHost.com

For the American market, others will likely recommend good US based providers.

Might be worth getting a second opinion on your web design though.

2 Spice ups
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I’m currently using Digital Ocean for hosting for my Minecraft community website, but will be switching that over soon to a company I’m starting up with a friend. We’ll be a managed website and hosting service.

Past that, if you don’t mind handling the back end yourself Digital Ocean has been reliable. I’ve used @DreamHost and was happy with them. The bank I work at is using a specialized hosting service for banks. Not sure if you want their name or not, but I can provide it if you want to contact me through PM.

1 Spice up
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+1 for DreamHost. They’ve always kept my sites up and running properly, they’re fast, and they’re always willing to provide great support, whether it’s for people who are barely computer-literate or technical geniuses.

When something does go wrong, they understand the urgency… the top tier in the severity dropdown for creating a ticket inside the control panel is literally labeled, “OMG! EXTREME CRITICAL EMERGENCY!! EVERYTHING’S BROKEN! People are DYING!” They’ve also always gotten me a solution to any problem I had quickly.

When my last job wanted to pick a new host, also because Bluehost was terrible, I tried to sell them on DreamHost, but they didn’t go for it. They’re hosted at MediaTemple instead. The reliability there has been great, too. Since I am not there anymore and was not in charge of the web migration project even when I was, I can’t tell you how their support goes, but speed and uptime have been fantastic.

3 Spice ups
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I like Westhost out of CA… they have many levels to pick from and the reliability is first rate… been with them for years…

1 Spice up
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I’m using 1&1 Hosting right now and they seem to be decent. Their control panel leaves a lot to be desired but it’s fast and has posted the fastest benchmarks with Wordpress, faster than DreamHost and BlueHost.

Dreamhost is nice but is one of the more expensive ones out there and they don’t let you apply coupons or discounts after the first one so keep that in mind.

BlueHost is a smaller operation but has good performance though their maintenance windows are annoying and they need to work on their control panel as well.

1 Spice up
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After years of frustration with hosts I now run my own scalable multizone infrastructure on AWS. It has been a learning experience but barring a few growing pains it’s been a lot better servicewise and significantly cheaper overall.

2 Spice ups
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I have been using Webhost UK from last 5 years and I will say I have hardly faced any problem they are reliable and support is excellent. I will seriously say stay away from Godaddy or EIG owned companies like bluehost, hostgator etc they are all same downtime and poor support … since I have migrated to webhost.uk.net I have got peace of mind.

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I wish I would have learned that stuff from the beginning. I started out as a hardware/desktop guy early on and took over other duties(servers, network, etc…) over time. Now, I’m completely lost on the web stuff. I just don’t think my brain is wired for programming/web stuff. lol

Thank you all for the responses so far. It’s so frustrating being at the mercy of other people and then the owner and users look at me like it’s my fault. Perhaps, indirectly it is, but… Ugh.

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Seconding Leigh. It sounds like you may be ready to “graduate” from the Go Daddy’s/Blue Hosts/Digital Ocean’s of the world to a more robust provider like AWS.

Len, what CMS is your website in? If WordPress, we are launching a new program next week to streamline WP deployment in AWS. I will post back then with the info - when it’s officially launched - but in the meantime, feel free to DM me for more info.

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I don’t know what it is. It’s definitely not Wordpress. In fact, Bluehost tech support looked at it after we had an attack on our website and they couldn’t identify it at all. I think I remember our web design company saying they have a homegrown thing going on.

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Not uncommon. We just refreshed our website and one of the vendors on our shortlist had a homegrown CMS they proposed. Even so if you do decide on AWS, we can probably help you (or your vendor) get it there if you don’t have the expertise - possibly for free if you qualify for our Free2K program - which based on the price range listed above, you would. Keep me posted.

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Not only do I not have the expertise, I had to Google “AWS.” lol And, I’m still not even sure I understand what you and leightstillard are suggesting exactly. So, I sign up for AWS for cloud virtual servers, basically? Then, run IIS, Apache, or whatever and host it ourselves? Am I close? Nearly 20 years in IT and I feel like an old dog learning new tricks here. lol

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Best things is to go with IPower. I heard they are very reliable.

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I have used Hostmonster VPS for a few years for about 60 clients I managed. I haven’t really had any issues other than when they had their big server meltdown about 1 1/2 ago. Also utilized Rackspace and Amazon with Akamai for larger eCommerce web hosting.

What type of website is this? B2B, B2C, Enterprise corporate website, eCommerce? I can provide some solutions/references for you if I had more details.

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Yes you would sign up for AWS cloud services and setup the required infrastructure there to host the website. If you go that route my techs can guide you on the initial setup, and mange it for your thereafter if you choose. Just let me know if you want me to make that connection.

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I have good experience in using ASPHostPortal.com for US data center. My site is running faster with them. Other recommendation for you is hostforlife.eu. If you need Europe server, then you can try them. For UK hosting provider, UKWindowsHostASP.NET is also a good option.