Not All Web Hosts are Created Equal

Why does SiteGround make my top 5? This is for several reasons. The main one is the support I got when things went bad. If you can get good service you’re better off paying more. In the long run, it’s the support that will make the biggest difference.

I currently host one of my biggest sites here. I’ve had small issues but nothing that makes me worried. I actually had this site on another good host, that host was HostGator and moved it to SiteGround. I haven’t looked back since. I plan to roll with them as long as they keep up with their service. My support tickets dealt with a transfer to them when I left Hostgator and support with my SSL certificate. I did have some live chats for minimal things.

They offer their customers all kinds of service options. From shared server hosting to the most extreme. My current price is $72/year.

Probably the most underrated host I use, HawkHost provides everything you need for the best price. I get unlimited addon domains and the support service is great. I currently host 5 sites here and haven’t experienced any hiccups. You just can’t beat their price for what you get. The CPanel and the backend systems are very easy to use as well. They do provide all forms of hosting and domain buying.

The only support situation I had was when I added SSL certificates. Dealing with them was a piece of cake. HawkHost should be in your top five when deciding which host to use. My current price is $29.16/year.

This is one of my favorite hosts as well. I’ve been with them since 2014. I got the early discount at $42 a year and I’m now paying $60 a year. I ran into some early hiccups, but once those settled down things were running really well. I actually migrated some of my HostGator sites to Downtown.

I do remember opening a support ticket and receiving a quick response. This makes them better than some of the rest. The price is fair for the service and support you get. You may have to upgrade your plan depending on your needs but for the most part, you’ll be satisfied. My current price is $60/year.

This has been one of my favorite hosts since I opened my account. They offer you all kinds of services from shared web hosting up to a dedicated server.  Even their reseller accounts are reasonable in cost. Overall I’ve had a lot of luck with them.

I recently realized they did away with their ticket system for support. They created their own in-house customer support setup. I decided to test it out. Someone responded within 5 minutes and answered my question. This may be a factor for me if something were to go seriously wrong. For now, the web service has been exceptional. I will continue to host some big sites with them and would recommend them to you as well. My current price is $43.45/year.

This is a host I didn’t know much about. In fact, I created this site on Interserver and I’ve been pleased. I currently host five different sites here and the uptime has been great. I also get unlimited addon domains.

The history of my support looks fairly minimal. I had to increase my resources due to some high CPU but they took care of it quickly. I didn’t have downtime which is the important part. For the price I’m paying, I feel like I’m getting a good deal.  My current price is $54.00/year.

Hostgator was the first host I ever used. You can see my post about why I left Hostgator. I was using their reseller account from the beginning and although I had some good years, I definitely ran into a bunch of headaches. By the time I left, I was just fed up with them and decided there were a ton of other hosts out there.

At the time of signup, they were the biggest for small businesses. I felt like I was going with a trusted company and for the most part, I did. Pricing was more expensive compared to the rest. It is definitely one of the more expensive hosts out there today. I’m not going to say don’t use Hostgator because I did for so long. Remember, everyone’s experience will be different. I’m just sharing what I found. My Price when I left was $29/month for a reseller account.

I believe this is one of the first cheap hosts I used after realizing there were other options out there. The great thing about BlastPort is the fact that I get unlimited add-on domains to go with my original purchase. I believe their pricing table has changed so make sure you check for the updated pricing.

The history with BlastPort looks straightforward forward I had one request over the five years and that was to update the PHP versions. If you just want a simple blog or something with minimal resources, BlastPort could be a good option for you. My current price is $11.88/year.

At the time, this was a cheaper alternative to using a Hostgator reseller account. I wanted a new block of IP addresses for my sites. They were a much smaller company and their support was directly out of Eastern Europe somewhere. The customer support was always friendly. In my early years, I had to deal with them a lot. However, as time went on the service got a lot better.

I currently have around 10 websites hosted with them. I could move them to my other web hosts but at $60 a year that’s a really good deal for a reseller account. I believe now reseller accounts start at $11/month. I guess you can say I got grandfathered in. Their servers and services have always gotten better through the years and could be a good choice for you. My current price is $60/year.

In 2014 I was looking for cheap hosting for a small project. The site would not need to be updated that often and eventually not be updated at all. I came across the site hostripples.com. I signed up for their $ 12-a-year hosting package. It gave me a single domain only.

I did run into the site being hacked, but that was most likely from my neglect of the updates in WordPress. They were able to restore it from backup and I was good to go. I wouldn’t suggest them as a super production site, but if you want to run tests and other projects it’s nice to have a very cheap host. My current price is $12/year.

For one of my projects I needed European hosting. I went with VidaHost at the time, which was bought by TSOHost some years later. In 2013 I opened this hosting account. I paid on average $5.00/mo. Although I had decent service with a few frustrating moments, it was time to part ways with TSO. I didn’t need European hosting anymore.

All I had to do was move my sites to one of my other hosting accounts. I submitted a cancellation request soon after and the process was fulfilled before the next billing cycle. I do have servers in a lot of different countries to this day. My price when I left was $5.00/mo.

This is one of my least favorite hosts. They provided nothing but pain. I closed this account down years ago. They were completely overpriced for their quality of service. I remember not being able to use PayPal as my payment method.

Topping things off, my simple WordPress sites kept getting hacked. They kept blaming my site theme and plugins. By the time I moved they realized that their server was not fully secure. It was a frustrating ordeal and I wouldn’t recommend using them for your web hosting. My cost at the time was $11.95/month.

Around the same time I signed up for Hostripples I needed more cheap hosting for other projects. I discovered them by reading some cheap hosting reviews. In 2014 I signed up for $12/year. Looking back at all my support tickets, I realized I didn’t have any with MyTrueHost.

It turns out that my hosting here has been pretty spot on. If there are no problems in the hosting world, I would say all is well. I would highly recommend them as a cheap hosting solution. Again, my needs for this were for minimal resources and cost was the priority. My current price is $12/year.

This is another cheap host I signed up for back in 2014. The only major requirement was the price at the time. They definitely fulfilled this. Looking back on my support tickets, I’ve only had one incident in 5 years. This was due to a maintenance issue.

This is another site where you get what you pay for. I was only able to host one site with HostSo. They offer several other plans. I can’t guarantee their service on a larger scale since I never used it. The bigger plans are still more affordable and you get a lot more out of the server if you need it. The biggest plan they offer gives you a ton of power and is still way better than the sucky HostRocket. My current price is $12/year.

Cheap was strong back in 2014. I still pay the same as I did then which is almost unheard of. I do say, you do get what you pay for. When it comes to hosting at this price you aren’t seeking the best. If your needs are simple and you only want to pay a small amount, this is definitely another site to consider.

Looking back on the history of tickets, I only see issues with a billing situation. Not once have I seen downtime. My use of this host is minimal and this package only allows me one website. It’s been doing what I asked for over 5 years now. Unlike some of the other providers mentioned, they do offer all kinds of hosting packages. You can even get a dedicated server. My current price is $12.60/year.

This host was recommended to me many years ago. It was to host one of my bigger sites. Although their customer service team responds quickly, there were a few things I didn’t care about NameCheap.

• The backend dashboard for managing billing and tickets is not simple to use. (I can’t even find my old invoices)
• The support was fast to respond but they always had an issue fixing my problems. Typically they blame it on WordPress.
• I purchased a business class service which was $218/year and I felt like one of my cheap hosts was performing better at times. – I dropped this plan in 2018

Although they offer a ton of service plans, I don’t think I would tell you to use them. I currently have their base package for a different project. It gives me three domains in total. It hasn’t been foolproof. For the money, I would suggest going elsewhere. My current price is $38.88/year.

Another host just like HostRocket. In fact, I believe they are the same owners. They also hosted one of my bigger sites for a while. They raised their prices on me and I decided to leave in 2016. It’s sometimes the little things that annoy you when it comes to hosting. Getting to the CPanel had one more step than I wanted to do. Needing another username and password in my database of names was frustrating. “The little things”

They also have first-year predatory terms. Although they give you a nice deal when you sign up, you eventually get bumped three times the cost. I got sick of paying them this money so I moved on to some of my other hosts. My last price is $143.00/year.

This is a host I can get behind. They offer a wide range of services like basic shared hosting and WordPress hosting. They also go big into VPS hosting and dedicated servers. A lot of sites give you the option of paying month to month, year to year, every two years, every three years and more. I decided early on that I don’t like monthly bills. I purchased a two-year plan. It ended up saving me around $70. Their service has only given me some minor interruptions over the past 5 years.

The backend seems like one they built themselves but for the most part, it’s pretty easy to navigate. I wish I could get a few more domains on this host for the price I pay. Currently, I can only have four total. This is the main reason they didn’t make my top 5.  My current price is $107/year.

I set up an account with 1and1 back in 2012. I was starting to move sites off my reseller account. I ended up creating a personal blog that didn’t go anywhere and a pretty strong site in the trading niche. This trading site was doing well and I didn’t want to mess with it. The performance of the server worked pretty well. I had only a couple of support tickets.

There were a couple of things I wasn’t too happy about. They wanted to charge me $5 a month more for using an older PHP version(unsupported). I wasn’t even sure what they were talking about at the time. I had to contact them to get refunds for these charges. The backend was created in-house as well. It’s not nearly as clean as a Cpanel.

The price was above average but they were one of the biggest hosts at the time. Although I wouldn’t say don’t use them, I’m also going to say I’m not using them anymore. The service I got allowed me to host up to 5 domains. I left in 2016. My last price is $83.00/year.

I started using StudyHost back in 2015. I still have an account with them today. They are a UK host that offers a fairly cheap hosting plan. I wouldn’t say they are the strongest on the list but they have provided me with decent results.

Looking back at my support cases, I did have a few. Some were for sites not loading while another was for some Cpanel issues. For the price, they’ve faired well enough. I can’t say I would use them for the main site. My current price is $18.91/year.

This host is filled with issues. The good news is I only paid once in 2015 and haven’t paid since. They suffered from DDOS attacks and other hacked situations. You definitely don’t want to sign up with LevelHosting.ca.

My support tickets are loaded with frustration. If you can’t count on your hosting provider it’s not worth it. Even at a low rate or in my case for free. I’m trying to get to one of my sites right now and it’s taking forever. Luckily I don’t really need these sites anymore. My current price is Free/per year.

I currently host a site without much importance with Hostnine. Once my annual service is up I will most likely remove them from my list of web hosts. They are a bit overpriced for what you get. Although my service has been good, I feel like I should get unlimited addon domains. I would have to pay over $120 to get that type of service.

I haven’t had many issues with my site so I can’t really tell you what the support is like. I guess that is a good thing. Bottom line is, you don’t get much for your dollar with hostnine. My current price is 47.88/year.

I only used Godaddy hosting for about two years. The price for one hosted site is above average for the industry. I didn’t need the site anymore so I ended up dropping them as a host. Overall the service was fine. I didn’t have a need to contact support.

Honest Opinion of Godaddy – I consider them a huge conglomerate and are always nickel and diming. There were many occasions when I felt like they were forcing me to sign up for services I didn’t need. You’ll see what I mean if you ever get to a checkout page.

GoDaddy Auctions is the main reason I still work with them today. Although this service could be a lot better it does allow me to find well aged domains. I’ll go over this in a future post. They are also my domain registrar for over 150 domains. Between yearly renewals and domain privacy, I send them a lot of money.  By the way, my price when I stopped hosting was 134.04/year.

I signed up with WebhostingPad back in 2015. I got a pretty screaming deal for the first year at $23.94/year. I knew if they weren’t right for me I could move my sites before the higher-priced renewal came around. I was pleasantly surprised by them. I was able to add an additional 4 sites using their Cpanel.

I did have one bout with downtime back in 2018. It appeared my sites weren’t loading but as soon as I contacted support my issue got resolved. They do have a ticketing system which I do like. My Current Price is $71.88/year.

This was one of those hosts that I needed back in 2015 to help me get more sites online. The backend client-side is really simple to use. For the past four years, my price has stayed the same. They do use a CPanel which of course as you know makes things a lot easier. I get 10 addon domains with the package I signed up with.

Going back on some tickets, I believe I had a discrepancy with them about a second account. This led to my sites being suspended but we cleaned this up real quick. For the most part, the service has been running optimally for many years. I do pay annually for my service.  My Current Price is $36.00/year. 

In 2015 I signed up with yet another big hosting company. This time it was ASmallOrange. This is definitely a simple host that provides everything you need. I get unlimited domains within their Cpanel. The fact that I keep adding domains to my account is a good sign.

Going back on my support tickets I was pleasantly surprised to have only a billing issue back in my first of 4 renewals. I had paid the bill upfront only to realize after that my PayPal account was set up to auto-renew. This was a simple refund. This host doesn’t do much of my heavy lifting but it may one day since their uptime has been that good. It could break into the top 5 one day.  My Current Price is $50.00/year. 

In my spreadsheet of all my hosts, I wrote, “Garbage Host” next to them. This is for good reason. I actually got one addon domain with my account. This domain was moved soon to another web host. By the end of 2019, I will be getting rid of them. There is no need to have a host at this price for just one domain.

My support tickets weren’t pretty either. There were latency server days. I would say stay away from HostMetro. At the time of sign-up, I was paying $33.00 a year but after the first two years my price went up. My Current Price is $41.00/year. 

This was one of those hosts in which I thought was a good idea. Fast forward a few years later, I’m asking what was I doing back then. Although they have what I need in terms of Cpanel and uptime, they limit me to only one addon domain. Just recently I renewed my account not realizing the full situation. This was a user error for sure.

You can get better deals all over the world. They moved their hosting system to Australia. Although I’m in a US data center, there is no reason for me to be with them as my host. I also signed up for a 3-year billing cycle. This turns out to be much more than most of the hosts I use today. If you have one site that you will depend on this host may work for you but you have to consider the price for the lack of addon domains. My Current Price is $96.00/year. 

I created this host just like the rest. I was expanding my portfolio and needed a new host to start carrying the weight. I do host some pretty significant sites with Arvixe. Based on my support tickets it’s a good thing. I don’t see any tickets that showed my sites as offline. I’ve been very pleased with them.

With the Cpanel, I get five addon domains with this host. I feel like this is a good setup for the basic hosting plan. I pay on a two-year cycle which works for me. At my current price, I don’t feel like I’m crushed come billing time. You can go with them and feel good about your purchase. My Current Price is $48.00/year. 

The good news about HostUpon is that I was just migrated to newer and better equipment. I get 250 addon domains with them and they do use the CPanel which is my favorite. I currently host 7 domains. There is plenty of storage and bandwidth for what I need. The price is fair and it could be a good source for you.

Looking back on the support tickets I did have some minimal downtime. Once was during the migration and the other dealt with downtime but was taken care of within an hour. The fact that I can host this many domains is great. I had just renewed my plan as I wrote this post. It’s a three-year billing cycle. My Current Price is $47.00/year. 

This was another host I added back in 2016. They do use the Cpanel. The service I’m using allows me four total domains. Maybe a bit shy of what I think is fair but good enough. The big bonus to HostWinds is the fact that they give you the AutoSSL. This can save you a lot of money and time over the long run.

The support backend doesn’t look completely clean. I think a year after hosting with them I suffered some downtime but it was resolved quickly. The cool thing was the SSL support. They installed it for one of my new domains from a simple request. My Current Price is $60.00/year. 

I think the only reason why Site5 isn’t in my top 5 is because of price. They allow me to do everything I need without any issues. I get unlimited addon domains and a Cpanel to go with it. You have access to regular hosting all the way up to fully managed VPS. Prices will vary based on needs of course but if you find a price close to this one, Site5 should be considered.

Going back on support tickets I hardly had anything worth mentioning.  If you have the money and want a solid service you should go with Site5. I added one of my big sites to this host. In the future, I will add domains to this host. My Current Price is $108.00/year. 

Probably my most expensive host at this time. WPEngine is my latest web host. I opened another big site hoping for a lot of traffic. I’m running some big API’s and need a robust WordPress Hosting provider. Out of the big names, this is the one I chose. It’s been pretty steady this whole time. I’ve run into issues but those get resolved relatively quick with their live support.

Since they are a WordPress Host, they don’t offer some of the bells and whistles a normal CPanel host would offer. For example, you need to create a third-party email setup. This is a bit disappointing for the amount you pay. If email isn’t that important it’s no big deal. They want you to use companies like MailChimp if you have newsletters or marketing plans. The Afternoongrind is using a newsletter service from Mailchimp. I’ll break them down in a future post. For now, if you want solid WordPress hosting WPEngine is a good place to start. My current price is $245/year. You save two months if you pay annually.