My Review of URLJet.com: My new home after months of hell

[ryan1918]

Thanks to urljet not doing very good to a few customers, I actually gained 2 customers from them in the past few weeks..

[syrus.xl]

Question, how exactly do they tweak their servers to exclusively run vB with 50+ mods?

SSD-RAID, which is what I'm doing? Noatime? I'd like to see their setup.

Well, the only way you'll find out those features is by using URLJet - SSD Raid perhaps for a MySQL server, but thats about it at present with the prices.

There's many unpublished tweaks for vBulletin, then again you need the knowledge on how to implement them. I have seen one forum that boasts 60 million+ posts and runs faster than what vBulletin does on here, with multiple servers. There's much more to just tweaking a few parameters on some server - optimizing vBulletin is a task in itself, and not just something you learn overnight. Making it SEO friendly is just another area which needs much work on, but that may not be seen until around vBulletin 5.0 is released.

The key factor here is experience, pure and simple - just reading manuals and a few blogs just gets you 'tunnel-tutored', but lacking the practical experience to back up your knowledge. vBulletin can be tweaked in to a powerhouse of a forum, but getting it to work like that takes time and money, URLJet may provide you with 50+ tweaks, but there are many more tricks and tips that can be done. I have learnt many things over the years from people that are guru's in their own specialized areas, and implementing them in to scripts like vBulletin does make huge differences, not only in running but making your sites hit No.1 rankings on Google using the right keywords.

Many people make huge mistakes to start with when choosing a domain name, get this wrong and it can be the end of your forum before you even start. 'Out-of-the-box' vBulletin is really just the bares bones of any forum script, how you configure it can have a huge impact, getting that right style for your niche, using modifications that just create excessive queries is not the way to go, even though many users tend to add them like there's no tomorrow. I always think of vBulletin as a bare-boned system, and build upon that - this is probably why I have so many clients asking for my knowledge to ensure they don't make mistakes that would normally cause a forum to fail. I have many clients that would recommend me, I work on levels way above most people, and I have never had a single client leave me - coincidence, no - presentation and the level of work I do is what clients like.

I may praise URLJet on these forums, as well as others I am a member of, but it is all for good reasons, their support is one area that stands out from most - say, for example your vBulletin license was nolonger active, where would you go? Any standard host would try their best to help you, but URLJet just goes beyond anything I have ever seen from a support point of view - they certainly do not just leave you in the 'cold', they will still provide you with a high level of support even if your license has expired.

Having just a high-speed server with all the top hardware and software these days, is just not good enough, you need the support that will guarantee your forum stays online, regardless of any issues that may arise.

Ryan, you ask why URLJet packages are higher than most - simple, you get what you pay for! A few negative reviews here and there will not make much difference to a company that has a very high reputation already. URLJet is mentioned on many hosting sites, includng WHT - and on there I don't think I read one bad report. Like most say, the staff always seem friendly and no job is too small for them to deal with. In the past year I have only used their support twice, once to ask if they would migrate my data, since I was very busy at the time, and another time when I lost access to my sites, but that was due to a network issue and not URLJet.

If you think about it, lately the maintenance release frequency of vBulletin has increased rapidly, does URLJet charge for doing upgrades or new installs? No... and they must have many upgrades to do, my experience of vBulletin is that no single installation is the same - which makes the process even more drawn out.

[XLCR GODFATHER]

I could sit here and tell you the Countless reasons I left Urljet until my head exploded. Instead I will leave you with this, the end of my experience. After 1 year of hell at Urljet I submitted a ticket to close my website down on their server. They instead left my site operational and left me unable to access my Urljet account so I could foreword the urls I purchased from them which mind you are still paid in full. Thankfully I had already decided to go with a different format and was able to contact those I needed to via other means. Yes They are nice as can be on the phone and when you first start with them but give it time you'll see. Considering I was on here looking for other hosting opinions or suggestions I Really wasn't going to even post anything since I'm sure between the Urljet fanboys and the users on here that actually work for them this post will be lost in the sea of BS. I just had to say something in hopes that I can save at least 1 person from the same fate I endured. To be honest I even Partially considered dropping vBulletin due to their issues but to be honest I have become far to familiar with the script to do that at this point in the game. Whats even funnier in my support ticket to Urlet I mentioned this and they were more than happy to suggest "a more stable solution that we also provide full support for."

You can defend them, You can Argue semantics, you can even spam this thread in hopes of my post getting lost in a sea of others but you will never change my opinion or the facts of my experience.

[FreakyGsMom]

I love URLJET, they handle EVERYTHING for me and I have zero complaints and I've been with them for 8 months. I've had Greg and Les work on several things for me and they're nice fellows. We had iPage for one month prior to switching to URLJET and they were the absolute WORST. My website was down for 3 days (the problem was on the server end) and they acted like it wasn't a big deal If you put in a ticket to URL JET they act on it practically immediately AND their customer service is just very nice.

The speed difference in my site between iPage and URL Jet was also like night and day.

Thanks and Good Luck to anyone switching servers!

Missie

https://www.numissociety.com

An Online Coin Forum

[ryan1918]

I've actually got many customers say they had bad services at urljet, they were previous hosts, I don't know exactly what the issues were, so I couldn't say for sure what was the problem, but no matter what host you run, and what you do, you will always have complaints/problems, but if you work with the customer to fix/resolve them you should be able to keep the customer and make them happy.

[sticky]

Thanks to urljet not doing very good to a few customers, I actually gained 2 customers from them in the past few weeks..

You may gain another, I'm getting very frustrated with my hosting with urljet.

They upgraded to a new server which my site is hosted on and the inconsistency is driving me nuts, fast then slow then fast then slow then down then up then DB errors, I WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT. Getting a ton of database errors and the site is down right now for the 15th time in the past week. Driving my users away in droves...

[sticky]

I could sit here and tell you the Countless reasons I left Urljet until my head exploded. Instead I will leave you with this, the end of my experience. After 1 year of hell at Urljet I submitted a ticket to close my website down on their server. They instead left my site operational and left me unable to access my Urljet account so I could foreword the urls I purchased from them which mind you are still paid in full. Thankfully I had already decided to go with a different format and was able to contact those I needed to via other means. Yes They are nice as can be on the phone and when you first start with them but give it time you'll see. Considering I was on here looking for other hosting opinions or suggestions I Really wasn't going to even post anything since I'm sure between the Urljet fanboys and the users on here that actually work for them this post will be lost in the sea of BS. I just had to say something in hopes that I can save at least 1 person from the same fate I endured. To be honest I even Partially considered dropping vBulletin due to their issues but to be honest I have become far to familiar with the script to do that at this point in the game. Whats even funnier in my support ticket to Urlet I mentioned this and they were more than happy to suggest "a more stable solution that we also provide full support for."

You can defend them, You can Argue semantics, you can even spam this thread in hopes of my post getting lost in a sea of others but you will never change my opinion or the facts of my experience.

They are really nice guys and I have been with them for a year but I'm starting to come into your line of thinking.

Who do you recommend?

[ryan1918]

I would stick with a smaller company that is going to actually work with you when you need it, and provide you what you should be getting instead of you being a Number they can actually know you by name.

[Shamil.]

I would stick with a smaller company that is going to actually work with you when you need it, and provide you what you should be getting instead of you being a Number they can actually know you by name.

Sometimes smaller hosts are better, though I don't know what that category is.

[ryan1918]

Yeah, completely agree.

[DelphiVillage]

urljet is overpriced you just pay to much there who needs vBulletin install/upgrades anaway

[ryan1918]

urljet is overpriced you just pay to much there who needs vBulletin install/upgrades anaway

People think because they mention there servers are designed for VBULLETIN they jump on it, but there is no set way to do that, but let people keep paying a lot for something they are getting with any other company.

[syrus.xl]

People think because they mention there servers are designed for VBULLETIN they jump on it, but there is no set way to do that, but let people keep paying a lot for something they are getting with any other company.

Ryan, servers are not designed for vBulletin - that's not a true statement. They state they are setup to run vBulletin at the best possible speed, there is a big difference from what you offer and what URLJet offers. What they provide is suipport on a level that exceeds many others, you do not see services like custom vBulletin modifications or design with other hosting companies, well I have yet to see it. How about vBulletin Server Optimization? Where else do you see that apart from on here, done mainly by staff. Their prices are higher than most hosts but then again you get what you pay for these days, it's not the same as taking out a package with the likes of Hostgator, etc.

You certainly do not see the word 'Unlimited' used anywhere on their site - they provide exactly what they state, nothing less. Since I have been with them, my hosting has increased in speed even though it was faster than anything I had been with before and that is quite a few of the largest hosting companies in the world. However they have their servers tweaked to run quicker than most, probably via LiteSpeed, I know mine is in the WHM. But I have tweaked it further than when I first got it for my own development purposes. One forum I use even showed me how to tweak my server even more, but I am not mentioning which forum that is on here - but they have some very clever guys that tweak servers way beyond anything I have ever seen.

People are more likely to signup with URLJet that have just bought a vBulletin license, why because URLJet will install it for them for free, saving them $150 straight away. Any updates they will also do for free, but they do not just stop there they provide you with support that covers virtually anything that is vBulletin related, including 3rd party modifications, commercial modifications. Anyone that is new to vBulletin and does not understand or want to learn how it all works just leaves it in their hands, they take care of it all.

I, on the other hand very rarely submit support tickets - I have been with vBulletin for over 5 years, released modifications over on vBulletin.org and have numerous forums running, only one is not vBulletin. I know my data is safe, not just daily backups like most hosts but hourly backups - this is one feature I like and I have used it twice since being with them. I always remember a client of mine that was with one hosting company that stated daily backups were made, it wasn't until her site went down and she asked for a restore that she found out they had done no backups at all.

Yes, I pay more than most for my hosting, but from what I have experienced in the past year or so, it has been worth every penny!

[Shamil.]

I may not have the necessary experience, but I know someone who has. URLJet's founder may be joining my team as product manager.

[ryan1918]

"People are more likely to signup with URLJet that have just bought a vBulletin license, why because URLJet will install it for them for free, saving them $150 straight away"

How does that save them $150 from installing it, and who in the world would charge someone $150 to install vBulletin? Any customers that I have had, I haven't charged them a dime to do it, If someone charged more than $25 to install it I would think they were trying to rip them off, but if someone can charge $150 to install/setup the software, than all means go for it, I sure never would do it. The most I would charge is for moving a large site with a ton of files, like recently I moved a vBulletin site that had 6GB mysql database, with over 60,000 files, total was about 12GB of data, which I charged $40 to transfer/move/setup which is probably cheap but I don't mind as it's not very hard to do, but I'm sure I could of got away with charging at least $80-100.

I just did a google search and found this for example.

http://www.installvbulletin.info/professional-vbulletin-services/vbulletin-installation-service/

They charge $20 to install it, now I would see that be a normal rate for any company or in that range, but any higher would be a rip off in my eyes. But just about any host that wants to get a new customer or transferred from another company would be willing to setup/install there software for them, as long as it's not a big issue.