Hi All,
I’m at the end of my tether, having tried two web hosts and getting worse than useless support.
I have a domain name already. All I want is the ability to upload my currently very simple Sparkle created site via FTP, and point my domain name at it.
I’d like a sensibly priced (ie. less than £10 inc. per month) web host, preferably based in the UK or Europe so that on the odd occasion that I need personal support, it isn’t affected by time zones.
I know there are the ‘biggies’ out there, like Squarespace, Wix etc but I obviously don’t need all their website creation tools as I prefer to use Sparkle.
If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be very pleased to hear about them.
Hosting is an absolute minefield and you are right to consider support. There are actually very few independent hosting companies left now. For instance, Newfold Digital is the parent company of more than 100 hosting companies!!
I flipflop between two hosts - Inmotion and Siteground. As far as I know these are still privately (Siteground) and employee (Inmotion) owned, too!
Both of these providers have a very attractive new customer offers (just checked them both and you can get better prices if you commit for three years, or longer, fixed price contracts.
Why two hosts? Well at the end of your contract term the renewal price skyrockets! The only reason I left Siteground was because at the end of the contact the renewal cost for one year was too high and they refused to negotiate. I fully expect Inmotion to do the same next year when my contract runs out and I’ll probably switch back to Siteground as a “new” customer.
Don’t get hung up on support and time zones. Most decent providers have 24/7 chat support.
I have no connection, other than as a user, with these companies but I can vouch for their support. I’d give Siteground the slight edge on speed of response.
Both these hosts offer “shared hosting” with free SSL (you will need this), cPanel (makes it easier to switch hosts and manage your site), and all the usual stuff such as FTP, site caching (makes your site load faster), email, etc.
Thanks for answering Duncan. I don’t like to publicly ‘name and shame’, so I won’t mention the names here.
Since posting my plea, I think I may have found a solution. Fingers crossed!
I’m using One.com since 2003 to host all my sites and I’ve been very happy with them. From the start they gave the whole package, unlimited email addresses, where others gave you a limited starting package. Pricing has always been the best around. Their support is fast and excellent. So can only recommend it. I really would say, look no further.
I can appreciate that. I guess what I was hoping to prove is that all web hosts are problematic, they all have issues or can cause issue depending on the approach and experience of the customer. What has not worked for you has most likely worked for others.
For example many web hosts, including ones mentioned in this thread, will state that they don’t support Sparkle if asked directly. You just had the bad luck of talking with a support representative who’s clueless, or who has the mandate to upsell everybody to wordpress.
Many web hosts, including ones mentioned in this thread, have bizarre server configurations that will interfere with the website functionality on some level, because their configuration is optimized for wordpress, or assume their customer has enough tech savvy to fix the default configuration.
And I’m not saying I have a great answer, because large web hosts have multiple configurations, depending on the plan, the country, or the timeframe/generation, and maybe some configurations are fine while some are more problematic. Or their customer support depends on which team is active when you contact them. Or their server setup was great at some point but is now overbooked or has questionable technical setup (or viceversa). Sometimes even the love-to-be-maligned godaddy (or the €25/year Italian Aruba) end up in fact working great.
All this makes it very hard to answer “which web host works best”?
It’s a bit of a gamble, and I guess switching once a year is a reasonable strategy to keep costs down and if it doesn’t work out you have to wait for next year’s switch.
I have always used Siteground. Very good in my opinion, and I have never had a problem with their support over the years. The only downside is their implementation of SFTP, I just use regular FTP because of this. If you have a lot of sites to host then open a reseller account with them, that’s what I did.
Greenhost.nl works for me
Basic webhosting costs €54 a year.
Very good support.
They care for privacy, open source, sustainable ernergy.
highly recommendable.
Based in the Netherlands
active minds GmbH - dirk.schaufert@activeminds.de
they are equally responsive as the excellent team of Sparkle…
and I never had a single problem they did not resolve in minutes.
(for about 7 years now)
That resonates with me. The last three hosts I’ve been with were each great to start with but went downhill as the years went by. Regular switching might be the way forward.
and you can get better prices if you commit for three years, or longer, fixed price contracts.