Host experiences and testimonials thread

[express]

Steven ,
The reason we do not have this posted is because in the past we got requests to install vb for clients that were hosted elsewhere not with us. We will not install on other servers operated by other hosting companies as most companies will not.
There is no hidden fee and never has been. No where on our site have we ever stated we would install a new vb board for free. When someone signs up with us and requests the install we at that time inform them of the cost. They the client have the option of letting us install it for for fee, or getting done by somewhere else.
We have always worked like this. We have clients pay for this and have had clients do it themselves or get someone else to do it. The client always has that choice.

This is not a big deal and we really can not understand why you continue to try to make it one as we never worked with you on anything.

Good luck with your new hosting company.

Joey
RWH

[Blubble]

Global Gold

Following testimonials I'd read here I decided to go to Global Gold for my hosting. They provided me with a domain name, migrated me from my old phpBB to vB 3.8.4 and answered all my questions. The same questions, time after time, extremely patient and helpful both on the phone and by email.

I have to say Tim, Chris and the team over there are top notch. I would recommend them to anyone.

[sgdinr]

how do u back up your forums?

A+ Hosting: Shared Hosting, various plans.

Currently using: A+ Deluxe plan.

URL: http://www.aplushosting.com/

Shared server specs: Dual 1GHz PIII, 2GB of 100Mhz or 130Mhz RAM (amount of users depends on amount of bandwidth taken by each, and which plan you choose (better plan = less people on your machine)


Pros:

• Extremely fast tech support - the fastest I have ever seen, they usually respond in 15 minutes or so (in my experience)
• Uptime - 99.95%
• Constant updates to server hardware and software
• Good web-based control panel
• Fast, for the most part (read below)
• Bandwidth - although it says unlimited (which we all know can never really be unlimited), if you look closer, you will see that the amount you pay a month is really the amount of bandwidth you get (i.e. I pay $35 a month, therefore I am allotted 35GB/month, which is actually more than most hosts). Read more about it here
• RAID5/10 Storage, backups made 3 times a day

Cons:

• Once in a while (maybe once or twice a month), my forum loads much slower than normal, and will take forever to load
• Insufficient hard drive space (450MB is as high as it gets, for $35 a month - maybe it's enough for other people, but not me)
• Resource-intensive scripts and software (they do not allow UBB because it requires too many resources, but vB is allowed as long as it doesnt take up more than 10% constantly) are not allowed to be run.
• Sites with over 140,000 hits per day are not allowed on their servers because of the excess load - however, they will be accepted at special rates, which is pretty cool

Overall, A+ Hosting has been enough for both my site and my forums. Their tech support is what impresses me the most, though almost everything about them is good.

[justintime44]

Gigapros is the only way to go for unbelievable service and cheap price!

As a 100% online business owner, the host that I use is extremely important to me.

The team at Gigapros are nothing short of incredible. The prices are about a quarter of other hosting companies, yet the service that I have received each and everytime has been the best level of service I have ever received, both online and offline.

The team at Gigapros are patient, professional and take initiative. They go beyond their responsibilities to provide a level of service that is unmatched.

They helped me install everything from Magento (e-commerce platform) to SSL certificate to generic image scripts.

I would recommend Gigapros to anyone looking for top service at an extremely competitive price.

Justin Snyder
(Director of Happy Cow Leather Belts)

[Kadi]

WestHost

We just moved to WestHost about a month ago and all this week it has been loading extremely slow. When we contacted their tech people, we got conrtadicting answers! One person said it had nothing to do with our site and there was a problem with the server...overload was the word he used. The second person said we should upgrade because we were using up the resources. Whats weird is we hardly ever have more than 10-15 members online at one time and even thats rare!

We are still searching for a reliable host.

[ringo47]

Global Gold problem...

I recently had a crash with my 1&1 root server and because it was quite old so after reading all the positive Global Gold endorsements signed up with Global Gold.

I wanted needed fast response and after signing up emailed for some specifics regarding domain set up, etc. I did not receive a response for 2 days by which time I decided to "reup" with 1&1 (because I could get 24 hour support).

Sent an email to GG requesting they cancel my account request. Never heard anything back. Assumed that they cancelled.

Credit card bill comes, GG billing for setup and 1st month. Said OK, will wait til next month for credit.

Got my CC statement today, another monthly charge. Called my CC provider to dispute charges.

GG may be great for a lot of people but you could not prove it by me.

[Teadeh1958]

I have two questions;
1. If I purchase a webhosting service, does that mean I can run VB4 from my laptop or desktop computer?
2. For a small forum, most likely no more than 20 users online at the same time, Disk space is 5gb, Bandwidth is 100 GB, is this good enough for such a small forum?

[stephlb]

DowntownHost

I've been with Downtownhost for about a year and a half. I have a very small forum so I have their smallest shared plan with 10GB hard drive space and 200GB bandwidth. Overall, my experience with them has been extremely positive. When I first started at DownTownHost, the server loads were exceptionally low. The server loads have increased (it's been anywhere from 1 to 3; when I started with them last year, its was really low - less than 1). Downtime was never a big problem either. Communication with customer service was always fast whenever I had a problem or question.

However, on my forum I use a chatbox plugin which gets used very regularly. Apparently, they do not allow chatboxes on their servers as they have had issues with them in the past. So, I had to uninstall it. They didn't close down my site or make it inaccessible to me. Although it is an inconvenience to me to not have my chatbox on my forum, I appreciated the fact that they informed me of the problem, and allowed me time to fix it.

I am remaining with downtownhost for now, until I can find a good host that will allow me to have chatbox plugin on my vB board.

If anyone has suggestions, Id love to hear them!

[humdesi]

hostwebdata.com


Pros:

• Always up. Say about 99% of time they are up
• Fast servers. php and mysql working good for vbulletin
• Good tech support.
• Easy to use for bigginers Cpanel .
• good plans.

Have been with them for 1 month now and found them good and help me to get my vbulletin up and running when i moved from my old hsoitng to the new hosting

[TJH4384]

Ipower: 2/10
We purchased a 2 year hosting plan from Ipower as a network to build small websites in support of
our fishing tournament series and the business sponsor advertising. Ipower does offer adequate
hosting for small, simple sites. NOT SO FORUMS:

When our forum hosting came due, Ipower assured us that they could "Handle our vBulletin forums on
our hosting package used for our fishing tourney web sites with no problems, and that if we paid
their support $75 dollars and provided log in information, their vB savvy support team would handle the
move." As Ipower admitted later, that statement was "Unfortunate misinformation"
Their support is set up in "tiers" and with a ticket system that kicks any ticket a customer updates with
questions or information to the bottom of the queue.
They do not respond to questions about their services, they promise call backs from supervisors that
never happen, and the most common update to any ticket is not with information it is:
"We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you" A response which I got seriously tired of
seeing when our forum operation was degraded with no real feel that anything wold be done about it.
Their final solution was to admit they "misinformed" us about their server capability, but if we wished
to purchase a $1200 a year package they could provide great support.

Our experience with Ipower as a vB host can be summed up in one word: Frustration

Additional note: To date, Ipower has not honored their promise of a refund for customers that are not
completely satisifed with their hosting
-----------------------------------------------------
URLJet: 10/10 EXCEPTIONAL

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Ipower sits URLJet.
After reading a few reviews about their hosting I gave them a phone call to inquire about their services,
and it was IMHO the best possible call I could have made.
URLJet is all about vBulletin hosting, and they do it up right.

From the initial contact, where they gave us a totally honest assessment of our needs and suggested
a package based on providing us the best service for the best price, to the free move of our forum
to their servers, one word sums up URLjet: Professionalism

Their sales professionals listened to our information, and instead of trying to sell some overblown,
overkill solution, offered us the solution for our hosting that offered the best package at the best price.

After submitting the "migration request" we were contacted within minutes by a technician who informed
us of what was happening, when it could be expected to happen, and who made sure to
just contact us during the move to let us know how things were progressing.
The move was flawless.
Our forum is, on average, around 3 times faster than it has ever been, and given the total
vBulletin support package that comes free, with every hosting account, there is no way
any hosting company we looked at can compet with what URLJet is providing for the
money spent on their hosting.
It is without question the "most bang for the buck"

URLJet just flat out does business "Old School" with a total commitment to customer satisfaction
in all aspects of their services.


WhereIfish.com will never need look for another hosting solution.

[Front Range]

URLJet: 10/10 EXCEPTIONAL [/B]

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Ipower sits URLJet.
After reading a few reviews about their hosting I gave them a phone call to inquire about their services,
and it was IMHO the best possible call I could have made.
URLJet is all about vBulletin hosting, and they do it up right.

From the initial contact, where they gave us a totally honest assessment of our needs and suggested
a package based on providing us the best service for the best price, to the free move of our forum
to their servers, one word sums up URLjet: Professionalism

Their sales professionals listened to our information, and instead of trying to sell some overblown,
overkill solution, offered us the solution for our hosting that offered the best package at the best price.

After submitting the "migration request" we were contacted within minutes by a technician who informed
us of what was happening, when it could be expected to happen, and who made sure to
just contact us during the move to let us know how things were progressing.
The move was flawless.
Our forum is, on average, around 3 times faster than it has ever been, and given the total
vBulletin support package that comes free, with every hosting account, there is no way
any hosting company we looked at can compet with what URLJet is providing for the
money spent on their hosting.
It is without question the "most bang for the buck"

URLJet just flat out does business "Old School" with a total commitment to customer satisfaction
in all aspects of their services.


WhereIfish.com will never need look for another hosting solution.

After days and hours of frustration trying to get vBulletin Gold working properly I signed on with URLJET yesterday. Not only did they move everything quickly but they went the extra mile and fixed a major problem with my installation. I couldn't get the cms to work w/o errors despite advice I received to fix it. They fixed it no time at all, very professional, very thorough and very fast.

I couldn't be more impressed or happier I found them.

I highly recommend URLJET.com for your vBulletin hosting!

[zeus_r6]

Run as fast as you can from siteground.com .... After they attempted to extort a ridiculous amount of money from me for a dedicated server (my forums weren't even that popular at the time) I moved away from there.

Horrible customer service, uptime was not good, nothing but problems contacting them as well. Do not use siteground.com .... look for a host elsewhere.

[abqtj]

Add me to the list of happy clients of URLJet.com.

I just moved my forum from Godaddy over to URLJet and couldn't be happier with their service. A few of things stand out so far in my very short time with URLJet.
1. I sent an inquiring email on the 31st and received a reply within 8 minutes, from Todd. He answered every question for me and never once tried to "sell" me on moving to them.
2. Once I decided to make the switch, I was having a little trouble importing my database (I was doing everything myself and the db was too large) and submitted a support ticket. Within 4 minutes, I got an email back from Sam with a solution.
3. Finally, this morning I was trying to figure out why I wasn't up online with the new site yet, and received more excellent help in just a few minutes.

Each time the help came swiftly and professionally. So far, I'm sold.

[minimock2000]

virtualbinge.net

I have been using virtualbinge.net for 3 years now for 6 of my vbulletin clients. Not a big company by any stretch, but the one thing I really like about them is they only put 25 vbulletin account clients per server. (I Know the owner, he is mainly in it for the stability of his web design clients)

They are preconfigured and optimized for vbulletin, memchaced option enabled, although you have to ask for a prefix for your individual site before you enable it.

They also have a customised pick what you want package...... you litterally pick and only pay for what you want and use. Monthly payments too.

Customer support is ok, you wont get an answer back in 2.5 seconds but its good as I need.

But like anything else in life, its only an opinion.... like trash cans, everyone has one, and they all stink LOL

[Jo-Ann]

HostGator

I stumbled across this thread while doing a search for something else.

I'm sure that with 30+ pages in this thread, HostGator has already been written up. Since I don't feel like going through all 30 pages right now, I'll just say that I've used HostGator for quite a few years and am extremely happy with them. For me it's all about customer service. There's nothing worse than being in a panic and waiting days for a response from customer service of any organization. HostGator gets back to me almost immediately. Our board is small so I can't really judge connection speed et al, but we've never had any problems. We are very, very pleased with HostGator.