Looking To Move Away From Hostgator. Any Suggestions

Yep! Hostgator and ASO used to be really good companies. Within months of being bought out by EIG, they both just went completely to hell. Check out any decent web hosting forum that isn't loaded with shills and affiliates and you'll see the real reviews. They are astounding.

Here is a handy list of the EIG brands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group

 

I ended up signing up with www.pair.com. I'll try them with one of my sites and see how it goes.

 

Good Luck Nima. All these small time companies are resellers with big names, won't do much help unless you have small sites.

 

From my research Pair.com seems to be a pretty solid long term company. we'll see

 

You don't know what you're talking about. Sure, there are some kiddie hosts out there that just resell from the larger companies, but most companies do not. You just have to do your research to see who resells and who is a legitimate company in their own right.

 

I don't have to. That was just my opinion, and I was not pointing to any company perse but I was just suggesting Nima to do a research before going with any service provider .

 

from the looks of things, pair seems to have been around for a very long time - longer then alot of others.

As for resellers, depending on your point of view, wasnt hostgator simply a reseller? (using softlayer's hardware?) There would be alot of companies that simply rent the hardware, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The main thing that I discourage, is hosting with someone that is:
1. not a legal company
2. under 18.

 

Sure - Thanks Matt.

 

And THAT'S the key exactly! Most people looking for hosting don't understand that probably 90% of the hosts out there aren't real businesses, or are run by kids, or hobbyists, or what have you. This doesn't happen in any other industry really. You aren't going to go to a restaurant, for example, that is not a real business, run by kids, etc., because there are rules and regulations in place to prevent it.

Hosting is also very cheap to get into (even free), unlike most other business ventures. No investment means it's easy for kids and folks who have no intention of running a legitimate business to get into the industry.

Web hosting is unique in that there are no regulations, no permits required, etc.

 

I am actually in the process of having some comics made up that illustrates that point exactly!

I was pretty gutted, I took over someone elses hosting company, and recently lost a client to a hostgator reseller as he wanted to save money, the entire concept of reliability etc, didnt matter as much as saving a few dollars.
Worked out his refund (based on under 3 weeks of his 12 month hosting period remaining) was $0.47USD. -> lets hope he doesnt spend that all at once!

 

Check for offers from Planethoster.net. They are offering trustworthy plans with nice features and reasonable pricing.

 

I was with Hostgator for about 10 years with very few issues but over the last year they went to crap so had to move. They can't can't even get my cancellation done correctly and have had to cancel 3 times and still get billing notices.
I have a lot of hosting clients that have been with me a long time so tested several hosts like hostdime, crocweb and few others that were highly reviewed at webhostingtalk.

Ended up with a reseller account at Bigscoots.com and they have been great. I have a had a few tickets answered and my request taken care of in less than 60 seconds. Support tickets & and chat support are both great, you request something or ask a question once and it is done correctly the first time. At hostgator I would have to go back and forth on chat support for a half hour trying to explain a simple issue and they still couldn't get it right. I have some customers that haven't updated their sites in a long time but support quickly let me know any required changes.

I even had an old site I created like 8 years ago that was having a problem that was really nothing wrong with hosting, just outdated code and they had a developer correct my code and get the site running. Most hosts just will tell you to contact the script developer when you have a conflict.

I tested many hosts and these guys had the quickest responses but also the most knowledgeable. Doesn't matter how fast support is if they don't have much experience.

 

If HostGator is not fulfilling your needs and you are moving to another host then look into which hosts are now owned by EIG. The list is getting pretty extensive. There are a few good providers that have been in the industry for a number of years that are affordable and reliable. Web hosting is a competitive market but if you aren't a fan of EIG host then you might want to look into providers not owned by EIG that are still solid hosting providers.

 

Yea, I looked into a lot of hosting and later found out they were owned by EIG. The most surprising one was BlueHost

 

I like bluehost. Their cPanel is a lot easier to use than HostGator.

 

Ipage and Hostgator are also the same company too

 

Bluehost, Ipage, Hostgator = EIG
Hostgator looks a little different though because they kept their old system when it was migrated. Most of the hosting companies share the same custom-made control panel.

 

Although I don't think asmallorange.com is EIG. I worked at EIG for about 5 years and have never heard of it. Unless it's a new acquisition. But the whois information sure doesn't match EIG.

Edit: Nevermind Just checked their website and asmallorange is infact listed as a brand. It's just strange the the whois information shows an individual rather than their company information.

 

Are there any insights into how the company is run that you can share with us? Why did some of these hosting companies get so bad after the acquisition?

 

Asmallorange was owned by Hostgator. EIG aquired both more or less with the Hostgator sale.