the hostorian (& his reviews!) » recommended web host

Hostgator

Hostorian — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:15:12 +0000

HostGator Web Hosting Ratings

A top rated web host — highly recommended!
Click here to visit HostGator’s official website

Summary

HostGator is one of the largest, if not the largest, hosting company available to consumers. They boast about having 7,000 servers under their management, which supports the over two million domains hosted by HostGator. Those two million domains account for 1% of the world’s Internet traffic.

Quick Facts About HostGator

HostGator was founded in a dorm room in 2002, and now has 225,000 customers
90% of HostGator customers are happy with the services
Web Hosting Services: Hatchling Plan ($4.95/month), Baby Plan ($7.95), Business Plan ($12.95)
Phone: 800.866.9642867

Products and Services by HostGator

Being one of the most popular hosting companies out there allows HostGator to provide some great deals to the consumers. Their hosting packages include a lot of extras to go with prices slightly higher than other companies. Their Hatchling Package offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth, unlimited sub-domains, unlimited MySQL Databases (for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.), and unlimited email accounts. All that and more for less than $5.00 a month. Their Baby and Business packages upgrade those services to include unlimited domain names, and the Business package includes your own toll-free phone number.

All hosting packages come with a 45 day money back guarantee, $100 credit towards Google Adwords, support for all major coding/scripting languages (Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python), support for three types of shopping cart software (osCommerce, ZenCart, Cube Cart), and use cPanel as the control panel for everything. In addition, they have lots of quick install options for software (for shopping carts, blogs, forums, etc.)

Hostorian’s Review of HostGator Web Hosting

HostGator’s Performance

HostGator offers a 99.9% guarantee for uptime, and also has an automatic weekly off-site data backup for all hosting plans.

HostGator’s Features

HostGator has become one of the best hosting companies by simply offering a lot of value for the price you pay. They do offer a lot with the plans, so here are some more features not mentioned already: they include a free SiteBuilder and SiteStudio website building tools, free website/domain/MySQL/Script transfer from another provider, website statistics, web based file manager, unlimited auto-responders for email, full IMAP support with email, and Spam Assassin to kill off unwanted email before it reaches you.

Support and Customer Care by HostGator

Support for HostGator has almost as many options as their hosting packages. They offer free 24/7 support, 365 days a year with their phone, email, and live chat systems. They also monitor the servers 24/7/365. In addition, there is a online support portal with over 500 videos, and 700+ articles to browse through. You will certainly be able to find an answer in the wealth of information they offer.

Pros

Offers great choices for software to get your website operational right away.
Excellent customer service, and current customers rate it a 5/5.
Offers more bang for your buck than most competition out there.

Cons

No discounts for repeating customers.
Multiple sites/packages are under one account – may be annoying for people operating sites for clients
Slightly more expensive than other sites, but offers more services.

Actual Customer Reviews of HostGator

“I just wanted to write a quick note to let ya’ll (<—Texas slang) know how much I appreciate finally finding a host that has more than enough features for my needs and excellent educational offerings. This is my third host and I haven’t even felt a twinge of that sinking-feeling-what-have-I-done that I felt within a day or so of the other hosts. I have learned so much just from the forums and tutorials! So, thank you to all! I look forward to learning and building my business with you!” - DaniK

“So then, why am I making the change? First, I heard good things about HostGator, and I wanted to consolidate everything. Secondly, the HostGator package is solid and has more to offer. Lastly, and most important of all, is the richness of their customer support. I can get customer support when I want it, how I want it — chat, email, phone. “ - Reb

“Overall, I like HostGator. They are waaaay better than the previous host I had. That company started off great, but got to 60%+ downtime. I never have that problem with HG. My two big hang ups with HG are:
1. new customers get a 20% discount, while loyal customers get nothing except the bill at the end of their term; and
2. no elgg support or hosting on their shared/reseller hosting. Other than that, they are great.” - LC

Verdict of this HostGator Review

HostGator is one of the most referred hosting sites on the Internet today. It is very difficult to miss their banner ads on a lot of blogs. All of this publicity is warranted as HostGator is a very solid hosting company.

With a variety of software options to choose from, you can take your website in any direction you would choose. What helps with that decision is the ability to play around with their catalog of free website templates. You are sure to find something you can work with amongst the 4,500 templates available. If you need assistance in getting that site up and running, the HostGator support staff will help you right away – several reviewers noted wait times of less than half an hour when sending in questions by email. If you would rather try to solve the issue on your own, the video tutorials and knowledge base in the forum will guide you down the right path.

For a newcomer wanting to start a blog, or an experienced pro wanting to host multiple sites, HostGator becomes a great choice for you to use. They are constantly updating their software and servers, offer automatic backups for your security, and make the setup dead simple.

I have not experienced or read many bad things about HostGator, so overall I would rate it a 4.8/5.

Click here to visit HostGator’s official website.

SiteSell – A Special Web Host

Hostorian — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:28:30 +0000

So what do you expect from a web hosting company? That they provide an online space for your web pages for a decent price, that their servers never go down, that they provide great customer service, right?

Right.

And most web hosts do meet your expectations. But then that’s it.

Your website needs more than just hosting space, bandwidth and uptime. It needs traffic.

Most websites (yes, most) are like a party thrown at the north pole. No one’s there.

Without traffic, a website may as well be non-existent. If no one sees it, does it exist?

Hosting space, bandwidth, uptime, and all the addon features and scripts are a matter of course for all web hosts. But what next?

Traffic from search engines

SiteSell is a web host that helps your site succeed (link opens in a new window) by attracting free, organic search engine traffic. They go beyond just hosting your site and provide tools and guidance that ensure its success.

They do this through their flagship product, called “Site Build It!” or “SBI!” (link opens in a new window) for short.

What is SBI?

That’s a bit hard to define to someone who has not yet been introduced to SBI!. Simply because there is nothing like it, in my experience and knowledge.

In short though, SBI! is a whole set of tools and packages that help you build your website, host it, and make it a success. This success part is important; do pay attention to it. Almost anyone can build a website, or get one built by someone else. It takes more to be successful.

In addition to the tools and packages, Site Build It! is a guide. A guide that will take you by the hand and help you make your website successful. You need to follow the instructions, though. It takes hard work to be successful. No shortcuts here.

But the most amazing thing about Site Build It! is that it empowers common people, with absolutely no technical skills whatsoever, to build successful websites that beat those built by professionals. You don’t need to know the technology or tricks behind building a website, having your own Search Engine Marketing campaign, creating your own Web 2.0 engine to let your site’s visitors add content to your site, or anything else. If you know all this stuff, very good. Now try to forget all that you know, and learn to focus on success. But if you don’t, and especially if you don’t, you still have a level playing field. Why?

Because SBI! does it all for you. The technology part, I mean. Lots of things will happen without you even having to lift a finger. No, scratch that. You will have to lift your finger once in a while. To click, write your content, etc.

And because you haven’t been “corrupted” yet. So you can focus on your success right from the beginning, instead of getting lost in the myriad of technological details.

But you still need to bring your own brain and motivation to the table. You are the one who knows your business, hobby or passion. SBI! doesn’t. You deliver on that count, and SBI! will deliver too.

How will SBI! benefit me?

That’s easy to answer. It will make you successful. The best part is, you define what success is for you. The rest is just details…

Site Build It! will help you if you:

Want to get your website in the top positions in the Search Engine listings
Need more traffic to your site
Want to let your site’s visitors add content to your site
Want to build a site quickly and efficiently, focusing on building your content, forgetting the technological details
Need to help people or simply reach out to them
Need to make money
Extend or bring your offline business online
Start an online business venture from your home or small office
Want to quit your day job

There are many more ways SBI! can help you. The above are just a few examples. The power of Site Build It! lies in its ability to make your website successful too. Provided you follow the system, of course.

How is SBI different?

Be glad we are not in a commercial for a certain ketchup that shall go unnamed. Otherwise I would have answered that with, “It’s different!” After a few times, you would have gone nuts.

Anyway, Site Build It! is the only package that guarantees success. And not just tall claims, but solid proof. See below.

Site Build It! is the only package that includes everything you need to succeed — tools to build your website, market your website, build new as well as ongoing traffic, etc. etc. etc. And they go on adding more and more at no extra charge.

Site Build It! is the only package that removes all the technological barriers and reduces the work and time required by 90%. But mind you, you still have to work hard. This is not one of those get-rich-quick-by-magic type schemes. You are going to build a real business, and building a real business always takes work.

Bottom line? Success.

How do you know?

I know because I am a happy customer too. I have an SBI! site of my own.

I know because they give proof of success (link opens in a new window).

They deliver verifiable results (link opens in a new window). Those are a few hundreds of their clients who have websites in the top 1%. Of course, that page doesn’t include all their successful clients, only a small cross-section of them.

35% of SBI! sites ranked in the top 1% of all sites on the web
53% were in the top 2%
62% scored in the top 3%

I know some of these people with these websites. These people are real, like you and me. I get a chance to interact with some of these people.

If you want to know more, maybe you would like to go to the Site Build It! summary site (link opens in a new window). Or you can even ask a real SBI! owner (link opens in a new window) yourself.

Bluehost – Consumer complaints and comments, facts, and company profile

Hostorian — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:28:41 +0000

Summary

Bluehost is one of our recommended web hosts. They have been around since 1996, and currently host over 750,000 web sites. They provide professional web hosting plans that include all the features one can possibly want, and at the best possible price. From top-notch support (I personally have seen answers to my support requests within minutes) to great service and features, there is everything to like about Bluehost, and nothing to dislike, from my personal experience.

Why I’m so impressed with them: Among other things (read below for more), I once sent an email to their CEO Matt Heaten, just to see what happens. I got back a personal reply from him! Now look. It’s not like Bluehost is a company running out of someone’s basement or anything. They host 750,000+ websites with them! So the CEO replying back to an unknown person is a BIG DEAL, as far as I am concerned. It shows how much he cares about his customers. This is reflected in everything that the company does. They keep improving their technology, their packages, their support system, and everything else.

Website: Click here to go to the official Bluehost website

Quick Facts

Number of domains hosted: Over 750,000
Services: Shared hosting (at $6.95/month) with free set-up, no hidden fees, domain included, unlimited disk space, unlimited domains and sub-domains, unlimited data transfer, and support for almost every script you can imagine
Location: Provo, UT (USA)
Guarantees: 30-day money back guarantee, highest uptime, no hidden fees, free domain for life
Contact information: Call (888) 401-HOST, (888) 401-4678, or visit their contact page.

Click here to go to the official Bluehost website

Products & Services

Shared Linux hosting (at $6.95/month) with free set-up, no hidden fees, domain included, unlimited disk space, unlimited domains and sub-domains, unlimited data transfer, and support for almost every script you can imagine.

Hostorian’s Review

Performance

While Bluehost does tend to oversell like every other web hosting company out there, they have tried really hard to not let that affect the overall performance of the servers. Judging from the feedback by other people who host their sites with Bluehost, and other reviews (and my own personal experience), they’ve just got to be one of the better performing hosts in the shared web hosting space.

With the rapid growth that Bluehost has been experiencing in the recent past, they have constantly been upgrading their bandwidth as well as servers and data centers to keep up with the increasing demand.

Overall, they seem very reliable for hosting serious websites.

Features

The number of features offered by Bluehost just boggles the mind – unlimited storage, unlimited domains and sub-domains, unlimited data transfer, drag and drop site-builder, support for 100 databases, e-commerce support, several plug-in scripts and shopping carts, blogs, forums, wiki, multi-media support, and so many other things, it just boggles the mind.

They offer almost everything you would want from a Linux web hosting service – cPanel (the best hosting control panel), fantastico support, .htaccess customization, custom php.ini files, and more. They even allow shell access (SSH), and have DDOS protection and power backup and complimentary site backup services.

Support and Customer Care

Here again I can speak from personal experience. Their support is unlike ANYTHING I have ever seen. They are the best!

I have received answers to my questions within minutes of sending emails to their support no matter what the time was. And the biggest surprise (!) was that the support person used to actually read my email and give me exactly the answer I needed!

They even helped me with a problem I had with a PHP script I had installed on one of my websites.

Not surprisingly, they have won several awards for customer support. And why not, when they take such good care of their customers.

Click here to go to the official Bluehost website

Actual Customer Feedback

Used bluehost for 2 years now. Always up, good customer service, and good value. - g torregrassa

They are definitely WELL worth the $6.95 per month and even more! I’ve been very impressed with their service, speed and features. The uptime could be a bit better, but I’m guessing it’s about 98%. Just a few unannounced outages over the year. Overall, I couldn’t be more stoked about a Web host. I run 30k unique users and about 20gb of monthly bandwidth no problems! - Jason Mitchell

I’ve been with Blue Host for one year now. They are the BEST! Best overall and best value. Outstanding customer service. The company is always making improvements AND they are HONEST. A novice might find it a little challenging to figure everything at first, but once you do the number of features is unbeatable. - Brad

Bluehost is amazing. Their service is really amazingly outstanding. They go well beyond what is required and are always eager to help. - Amit

I have been with Bluehost for over 5 years and as a web designer, appreciate a good host. I recommend Bluehost to all my website clients. I have worked with many different hosts and have not found one yet that I liked more than Bluehost. - Chantal

I have been with bluehost for over a year, and have not had a single hick up, i am running 3 domains. Whenever i have needed help their support has been able to promptly help me. - Isaac Witton, Australia

Click here to go to the official Bluehost website

Verdict Of This Review

Bluehost beats almost every other web host in the Linux shared hosting space. Unbeatable pricing, unmatched features, what more could one want?

Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Click here to go to the official Bluehost website