I just got a very interesting email from one of my readers and he has inspired me to write this post.
“When searching reviews it is hard to decide which is best for basic shared hosting, many of these hosting companies have sold out or have too good looking reviews. I have written a couple but not finding much in the way of making my move, wondering if you could kindly point me in the right direction.”
Millions of people are looking for new reliable hosting web companies every day in 2018 and you need to understand that some of the biggest hosting providers are not the best choice for you and it is my duty to name them and tell you why you should avoid them like a plague.
I have used all of these sites mentioned in this post at some point in the past so you are going to hear real stories from my own experience, not some made up bull$hit stories.
You Need Be Aware Of Fake Review Sites
You may ask me:
Dude, why you recommend to avoid them while almost every other review site tells to use them?
Well, it is an unfortunate truth that the vast majority of the web hosting review sites and blogs are actually set up by the big companies that hire writers who write fake reviews to fool new customers or they are run by people that promote only web hosts that pay them the most money, not the providers that provide the best service to their clients.
It is a real shame that most of internet site owners only care how much money they will make and they would try to sell you the worst web host ever if they would get a high commission for recommending them.
1) WordPress.com
This is a free web host and they are one of the most known free blogging platforms on the web.
You should avoid them for numbers of reasons but the main one is that they can suspend your blog and delete all of its data without any prior notification.
Thanks God, when I used them back in the time, my blog was not removed but they did remove a few of my posts without any warning because one of my competitors reported them and they delete them without even checking whatever the report is legitimate or not.
One of my friends got his blog deleted from the web because he posted two affiliate links within his posts and the worst thing is that they would not let him to move the data to another web host.
If you use WordPress.com for your blog, you can not upload plugins or even themes and you can not modify themes that they offer so it is a big no no for all people that want to run a serious online business.
Another reason why you should not use them as your web hosting is that they can and will most likely place unrelated ads on your site and they will not pay you anything for these advertisements.
On top of that, you are not able to review paid products on your blog if you are using them since they prohibit any commercial activity unless you will pay them to upgrade your account.
2) HostGator
If you are on the prowl for a web host for your new online website then please do not use the site called HostGator.
They used to provide a really quality service back in the time but a few years ago they got bought out by the EIG company that now owns over 80 different hosting brands and they started very quickly to cut all the costs and outsource everything they could to maximize profits.
Unfortunately, I have used them in the past and I can say that their servers are really slow because they are way overloaded and their support really sucks and they charge their customers for features that are offered for free on other hosting providers.
It was not uncommon for them to put my websites down for a few days without any reason and they had charged me many for services that I have never used or intended to use.
The sad fact is that they are very popular on the web because they pay lots of money (way more than average host pays) to webmasters to promote their services.
The biggest bloggers like John Chow promote HostGator and other EIG owned hosting sites and if a one bigger blog starts to uncover the truth, HostGator’s people contact them and try to remove its post from the web after they might offer them some money.
The search engine results are dominated big boys that are making money through promoting HostGator and that is why you will rarely see any negative feedback about HostGator.
If I were here for money, I would probably also try to fool you to sign up with the one of the dubious web hosting companies like HostGator.
3) GoDaddy
Another super big company that you should avoid is GoDaddy.
There are over 43,514,142 websites using them for hosting and even more people use their site to buy domains.
You need to be careful while visiting their site, because they have incredibly pushy sales people that will try anything in their power to sell you some bullshit stuff here and there.
When I was using them about a three years ago to host some of my smaller niche sites, their support was really rude and unhelpful, but after reading a few forum threads, it seems like nothing has changed at all in that matter.
My servers were so oversold that my simple WordPress sites would load in about ten seconds and they would go down every two days or even a several times a day.
Basically, their support may seem really good and they may respond rather quickly if you ask them some pre sale questions but once you become their customer, they do not really care about you and your websites.
Like other big boys in the hosting industry, they try really hard to reduce any expenses and increase profits aka get as many sales as possible at the same time.
While they might be a good choice for the domain registrar, they should be avoided like the plague if you want to use them for hosting your online websites.
4) 000webhost.com
I have decided to give them a shot some time ago, because I have heard a lot about them and since I do not use free web hosts for my business sites (and you will recommend you to do the same), I decided to create a test website with them.
Like all free web hosts, in my experience, they do not offer an actual support and they try to have you upgrade your account to a paid one since the day one.
They suspended my test site even though it does not even get more than a few clicks a day and they tried to force me to start paying for a hosting on their sister site called Hostinger and that was the time when I decided to end my journey with them.
They even have an affiliate program for people that want to promote them on other sites or forums.
They will pay you five bucks if someone comes from your referral link and signs up for their website.
It might sound really great for a newbie that wants to earn some money on the side, but I have never seen someone that has ever been paid by them.
They might ban you, completely remove your website and delete all the data and do some other scary things.
Honestly, I have seen this time and time again. Why is anyone using free web hosts for work that matters and earns them money?
You do not have to spend a lot of money on hosting, but if you are trying to earn money off a blog, you can not use a free hosting solution.
I would not expect anything less from a free web hosting.
You better avoid them, unless you want to build a personal or a test website that you do not mind losing.
5) BlueHost
When researching hosting sites for my blog three years ago, I picked them because mostly what I saw was positive and because they accept all kinds of sites.
I have had a bad hosting experience with BlueHost and I do not recommend them at all, even when I upgraded to a VPS I still had problems with their reliability (you just have to visit their status page to see the ongoing problems they have).
When I asked them some simple questions in the ticket, their support staff would simply ignore me and if some issues arise with the server, they would just blame me for everything so if you are going to use them, do not expect them to really help you with anything.
One day, out of the blue, they decided to suspend my account and deactivate my websites and they literally commanded me to upload some personal documents like the identity card or driver license or otherwise they would delete my sites and data from their servers.
Of course, I uploaded the required documents just to get my sites back so I can move them over to other more reliable web hosting provider.
They will try to charge you for literally everything that they possibly can.
If you want to move your website to them, you will have to pay a fee.
If you want to set up SSL on your website to make it more secure for your potential clients, then guess what my friend? You will need to pay them for that too, even though most hosts do this for free.
Over 2 million websites are hosted on their servers so many webmasters still choose them, because they offer pretty cheap hosting plans with unlimited everything and there are thousands of blogs that promote them but they only care about the monetary gain that they will get after recommending them.
You have to avoid them if you really do care about some very important things like the data protection, customer support and speed of your site.
Conclusion:
You just need to be aware that sites mentioned in this post are popular because they are hundreds of thousands of webmasters that join their hosting affiliate programs every day and they are paid a really handsome commission to push them everywhere they can.
I would also advise everyone here to make sure EIG does not own your hosting provider, if they do, move to one not owned by them as soon as possible.
A hosting company (even if it is their sales department) that takes 2 days+ to get back to you are not worth using.
They are buying up everything and trashing every company they come into contact with. If your host is bought by them, run away as fast as you can.
Wait, are you using any of these hosting providers yourself?
I know how you feel, I was with a very solid hosting company for many years, they got bought out and the service went downhill, even though much of the same staff remained. Since then I have moved many times, a good hosting is getting harder and harder to come buy.
You better go with 247-Host whether you need a shared hosting plan or you have a bigger site and you need a dedicated server. They will treat you the same on either type of account – great!
I started on shared and I am now on my second dedicated server with them. I could not be happier.
They offer an excellent service, a very little downtime and I would trust them over any other company. They are slightly more expensive than some others but as far as hosting goes you get what you pay for.
It is one thing I would never try and go for the cheapest with.
It would be great if others would share their experiences as well to help you make a decision. Hopefully this helps with your decision and I wish you the very best.