Host experiences and testimonials thread

[Mark.B]

I just thought I would write and say not only how pleased I am with Global Gold, but also very surprised.
On our previous hosting, server loads would often reach levels that were so high the site would often get suspended. In fact, every hosting prior to Global Gold has seen a similar issue.
I was advised by everyone that a dedicated server was really the only way to go for busy forum communities and much to the dismay of my wallet I was almost accepting that.

However, because of a long chat with some other vBulletin owners here, and on vBSEO.com (and a very high recommendation), after much thought I decided to give them a whirl - I am sure they could feel my skepticism in the beginning, frankly I didn't believe what I had heard, but I have since apologised for my somewhat overly cautious attitude out the outset. I think that a very wise decision was made that day, just over a week ago now when I decided NOT to go with a dedicated server, but a VPS from Global Gold.

In this last week I have come to realise that something must have been seriously wrong with our old server and servers before that. I think that other hosts servers are not tweaked - they are configured for a middle ground suited to run 'anything', but tailored specifically to nothing much. When it comes to hosting vBulletin powered websites I know now that most other hosts just wont cut it the same way as Global Gold. vBulletins are not ecommerce sites, they are not lightweight CMS systems or 'shop window' sites - vBulletin is a community building tool. It builds BIG communities and powers the biggest communities on the internet - I am glad that our new host recognise that vBulletin is a different animal.

In my opinion there are two types of hosting - regular hosting and vBulletin hosting. vBulletin has specific needs and demands but somehow Global Gold manage to squeeze every last drop of performance from our server, in fact maybe that's not quite accurate because our server isn't really doing anything according to our CPU monitor. Prior to moving loads of 5,6,7 and higher were not an uncommon occurrence and even at our most busy times loads now seldom exceed 0.8 - this is what amazes me, delights me and also makes me smile - a VPS server is obviously cheaper than a dedicated server, and I have saved a packet thanks to Global Gold. It's reassuring to know that as we get even busier we can upgrade our VPS and in time upgrade further to that dedicated server after all..... but I certainly don't need one now - at least not whilst on Global Gold's VPS boxes anyway.

Thanks to them, and those who recommended them to me I have regained precious time in my life, I can finally relax and quit worrying and concentrate on our community.


I can't thank them enough for their AMAZING service.

Rob
www.StudentMidwife.NET

I'll back this up because I moved to Globalgold in March as well onto a VPS, and finally I can be confident my site is up rather than wondering how long it's going to be down for.

Of course, you can get cheaper but I've found nothing comes close to them if you are *serious* about your site and you cannot have downtime. My site just never goes off, never slows down and pretty much nothing seems to phaze it at all.

I went with them after seeing all the glowing recommendations on here, and those recommendations aren't wrong.

[RedHotChili]

In my opinion there are two types of hosting - regular hosting and vBulletin hosting. vBulletin has specific needs and demands but somehow Global Gold manage to squeeze every last drop of performance from our server, in fact maybe that's not quite accurate because our server isn't really doing anything according to our CPU monitor. Prior to moving loads of 5,6,7 and higher were not an uncommon occurrence and even at our most busy times loads now seldom exceed 0.8 - this is what amazes me, delights me and also makes me smile - a VPS server is obviously cheaper than a dedicated server, and I have saved a packet thanks to Global Gold. It's reassuring to know that as we get even busier we can upgrade our VPS and in time upgrade further to that dedicated server after all..... but I certainly don't need one now - at least not whilst on Global Gold's VPS boxes anyway.

Thanks to them, and those who recommended them to me I have regained precious time in my life, I can finally relax and quit worrying and concentrate on our community.

Thanks for the post. Very good testimonial right there. And very good points about the two different types of hosting, and the experience of Global Gold with vBulletin.

My only concern is that they are halfway around the world from where most of my community will be. Hopefully that shouldn't matter.

Anyway, thanks for your ringing endorsement. I plan to contact them and get started with them.

[TheKdd]

I have a small community that was already getting run down on my server. I have now made the switch to GlobalGold as well given all the amazing reviews. I asked a ton of questions of Tim, and he was major patient... that was nice.

I just ordered it today, so set up hasn't been done yet, but given all the wonderful reviews, I am hoping to be very happy. I went with the Vbulletin 400 plan, hoping to grow from there.

[TheLastSuperman]

Edit:

I have a small community that was already getting run down on my server. I have now made the switch to GlobalGold as well given all the amazing reviews. I asked a ton of questions of Tim, and he was major patient... that was nice.

I just ordered it today, so set up hasn't been done yet, but given all the wonderful reviews, I am hoping to be very happy. I went with the Vbulletin 400 plan, hoping to grow from there.

Hey TheKdd, good to see yet another positive post regarding GlobalGold, if something goes wrong w/ my current host below I know where to go! (Thanks to everyone for the comments made regarding GG)



Siteground...

good for one year, had a 7500GB Monthly bandwidth, after the year had passed, we renewed and then the site is slow slow slow... they did not contact us we had to call them to find out they placed a bandwidth limitation on us, even though we were using 1/16th of the 7500GB that we had been using the entire year before and why partially through a contract hit us w/ such a low blow? We moved hosts immediately and waiting on service to run out. I canceled my just renewed hosting for another site I own and informed the 15+ others I had sent their way, most either did not sign up or immediately choose not to renew.

Now w/ GoDaddy, have heard good and bad but so far good IMO. FYI large boards beware, 200MB DB limit on GoDaddy however I confirmed before purchasing and they said that a bandwidth limit would never be placed on the site I was purchasing.

S-MAN

[mavortium]

Steer Clear of InMotion Hosting (inmotionhosting.com)

Summary: Stay away from inmotionhosting

I started my first forum in 2001 and migrated to vBulletin in 2007, a largely positive move. I now run two vBulletin forums and the original is quite a decent size with a loyal membership. Having been with 4 hosts since 2001, it has been my experience that while the first 3 promised great bandwidth, storage capacity, memory, addon domains and parked domains (none of these resources came close to being used up), when it came to running the forum they would give me a hard time about my CPU usage. InMotion Hosting developed an annoying habit of shutting down my server and leaving me to figure out it was off and hassle them to turn it back on again. InMotion weren't very helpful with trying to figure out where the load was coming from either, despite the fact that I was paying quite a fee to them and I worked for a number of years as Unix server administrator (i.e. I have a clue). This "shutdown now and don't bother asking any questions later" attitude is dispicable and while I tolerated it happening rarely over my 2 years of service, it got progressively worse as they piled on other customers on my VPS machine.

Inmotionhosting let me down and hurt my organization and my revenue.

When I asked to close my account with them on the basis of their poor handling of my account, InMotion Hosting refused to refund any of the money I had paid in advance for the coming months on the basis that I initiated the closing of the account. Be aware that if you host with US companies you are subject to despicable US consumer law (or lack thereof) and therefore at the mercy of the scruples of the company you choose. InMotion Hosting in my experience have been the least fair in their behaviour regarding moving servers/closing accounts. Addendum: After kicking up a stink InMotion did give a partial refund for the time left, but it was not for all of the time left - 1 month out of 2.

Stay away from InMotion Hosting if you know what's good for you.

I am now with Globalgold, and touch wood, so far so good.

[BowlingBoards]

RealWebHost.net review for web hosting

Hello to all,

I never make testimonials as I am very busy and you mainly here the bad, not the good.

Yet I have finally found a great VBulletin host.

I am a real person, I do not get paid or anything from anyone.

I have been with Startlogic, Hostgator, Godaddy, and recently Serverpoint.

I am now with realwebhost.net

I must say that I have paid my dues and have finally found my home.

From the moment I called I was happy. The owner Joey helped me and spoke to me for almost an hour. I asked every question under the sun about hosting with realwebhost.net and he answered everyone.

He never talked bad about any other company, he was polite and respectful with my MANY interruptions I made while he was talking.

He covered absolutely everything and never was making me feel rushed to get off of the phone.

So then I threw him a screwball. I asked why would he choose realwebhost.net if he was me and a potential customer?

He did not act judgmental or anything bad. He placed himself in my shoes and answered as if he was me.

So then I signed up online. I called back 10 minutes later and he confirmed someone was there. I also asked about plans. Again Joey was helpful and ready for my questions.

After I signed up I waited and got my confirmation emails. I then the fun and nervous part... the database move.

If you are like me, your forum has been your life for a long time. For me my life has been my forum for the last 2 years. So to lose it would be a knife in my heart.

I gave the proper info and within hours, yes hours I was able to view my new link to my forums. Everything was better than ever. My old host was very restrictive of what I can do with my forums. Now I can use the blog and everything else I could not use before.

I have sent some support tickets for simple help and within minutes to an hour at times I have gotten the help I needed.

So in short, I do not believe you can go wrong with realwebhost.net because as your site grows you have so much room to grow.

I am again a real person, I am not paid, yet I am the happiest I have ever been.

If you own a forum, internet marketing, moderating, and posting is what you should focus on, not whether you have uptime, a bad host, or bad servers.

Please pm me or contact me for any further questions.

Chris in Colorado

BowlingBoards.com

[amjadz4]

With hostmonster right now. Going pretty good with them. no down time at all.

[theforumking]

Hello to all,

I never make testimonials as I am very busy and you mainly here the bad, not the good.

Yet I have finally found a great VBulletin host.

I am a real person, I do not get paid or anything from anyone.

I have been with Startlogic, Hostgator, Godaddy, and recently Serverpoint.

I am now with realwebhost.net

Because of this review I decided to go with RealWebHost for my forum.

WARNING TO POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Even though it doesn't say this anywhere on their website and despite marketing themselves as a VB friendly host (They even use a testimonial onm the front page about how great the host is for vBulletin) they will ask after for a $50 vBulletin fee.

Just to let you know this should not have been installed by us unless
approval was given for charges, our charge for a vbulletin install is 50.00.

Joey

Personally I feel this is ridiculous as a) They don't state this fee anywhere and b) There are tonnes of hosts out there that offer the same service without any fee.

Unless you want to pay the fee stay clear of RealWebHost for VB.

(On a side note I am now with HostGator and they are excellent).

[express]

Jazz, vbulletin would have charged 2 to 3 times for this as they do with all their installs, we have always charged 50.00 for installs and upgrades. Our techs should have informed you of this and they did not and I am sorry for that. But the forum did get installed and you were not charged for it. I do not believe you were fair to us on vbulletin though. Good luck with your new host and thanks for giving us the chance to host your website. Your account will be canceled later today.
Joey

Note: We have moved many accounts with vbulletin already installed in most cases depending on the size we do not charge anything to do so.

[BowlingBoards]

Because of this review I decided to go with RealWebHost for my forum.

WARNING TO POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Even though it doesn't say this anywhere on their website and despite marketing themselves as a VB friendly host (They even use a testimonial onm the front page about how great the host is for vBulletin) they will ask after for a $50 vBulletin fee.



Personally I feel this is ridiculous as a) They don't state this fee anywhere and b) There are tonnes of hosts out there that offer the same service without any fee.

Unless you want to pay the fee stay clear of RealWebHost for VB.

(On a side note I am now with HostGator and they are excellent).

I believe that if your forum is important to you, then the host should be a major role in your forums succeeding.

Think about it like this, if a host tells you that they are VB friendly, what do they mean?

Is it that they will add every mod you want? Make usergroups for you? Maybe even be a moderator for you? No a VB friendly company worries about server load, compatibility, and software requirements.

RealWebHost.net spoke to me for almost an hour and I have support tickets answered with compassion and respect. I have not been charged anything! That is VB friendly.

I needed my database transferred, they did no with ease for me. That is VB friendly!

Truly if you cannot install your own VB, then you need to learn while it is small. That way if you make an error you will be ok. Because why would you want to pay for help every time VB comes out with a new version?

Why don't you ask them what makes them a VB friendly host? Is it because hundreds of VB owners use them? Maybe its because of their passion to help people? Or maybe it is because they know what a customer wants, and attempts to meet those needs before they are asked for.

Really $50 would be a small fee in comparison to what you get with them. I came from many hosts who would not even help me because of VB being a third party software.

So really there is no need to bash RealWebHost.net. I love that I get real bandwidth, storage, and so much more. Try working with a host like ServerPoint who state the same that they are a VB friendly host, but then you cannot use htaccess files, they do not use Apache, you cannot use many vb mods, and more. That my friend is not VB Friendly.

For an example I bought the VB Blog, it would not work with Serverpoints servers, so I had to remove it. I was sick of being told what I could and could not use. I also tried wordpress and I had to use it on a mirrored server and had no options.

So really as a VB owner, worry about finding the right host, then worry about internet marketing, growing your forum, and moderating. Leave the guess work behind you as with a real web host, you are like on auto pilot.

ALSO

Since you love Hostgator, tell us how much you love them in a few months depending on your forum size when they tell you that you must move up to a bigger account like a dedicated server and such. Or how you are using too much power and your account was suspended.

The owner bashes people on sites who put down hostgator. If you say that they are horrible, he fires back at you with when were you a customer? and where is your proof?

How do I know, because he did it to me. I gave an honest review and got banned as hostgator is a site supporter of this site I was on. I had to prove I was a customer to get unbanned. It is just a big joke and it sucks that people cannot be honest, as the bigger fish comes after you.

Really as a VB owner you should worry about finding a good host, yet please do not post warnings for decent companies that actually do care. And I am not sure what you do for a living, but sometimes doing things for free takes a toll on a person.

I do not post testimonials and such anymore because of past host abuse. I figure who cares right? Well I would have never found RealWebHost.net without this thread. I am grateful that someone took the time to start it.

I am not paid, I do not work for any hosting company.

But I am a husband, father, and a real person who deserves respect. No one pays me, no one gives me anything for this review.


Thanks for your thoughts, yet bold letters and flaming is not needed to prove your point.

Chris

[[email protected]]

I don't usually post in these sort of threads but if it helps others to avoid some of the poor vBulletin hosts there are around then it's worth me doing it.

We have a small to medium size board with approx 45,000 Threads, 666,000 posts, 5,800 registered users and we usually get around 60-70 people online in the evenings.

We started on a shared server back in 2005 with UKHosts4U who did give a good service and we didn't really have any issues. This was up until late 2007 when we started to get timeouts, long page loads and db errors. This would usually happen once a week, so we started looking at other solutions. We decided to go the route of our own server and get colocation hosting for it. But after 12 months this was proving expensive and not really worth it for the size of forum we were (bear in mind we are a non-profit making board). We then switched to a US based host (Cirtex) who seemed to offer what we needed for a cheap price, but after going live on their hosting and a few days of constant errors and timeouts we knew that enough was enough and we needed a proper long term solution.

So I set about doing some research on here and .org but by also looking at other vBulletin boards and seeing who they were hosted with. I then sent a few emails off to different companies to see who would respond the quickest and most efficiently. And the first to reply was Tim from Global Gold, he answered every question i put to him and also asked me some regarding what we were looking for, what our plans were for the boards and site. And he recommended a VPS package to us, which was well priced and exactly what we needed, he then sorted the switch over for us, copied all the files and the database over from our old host and got us running with them within a few hours

To say we were amazed with their service and response times was an understatement. Never have I known a company to take so much time with a customer and get things done so quickly and efficiently. We have been with Global Gold for approx 6 months now with no issues at all.

We have also just upgraded our package with them to the next level up which went seemlessly and with no downtime at all. We chose to upgrade packages as we have been growing more than predicted over the last few months so thought best to upgrade to ensure smooth running.

If anyone has read all that and taken it all in then well done

But to summarise, if you want a clear talking, helpful, efficient, well priced host then Global Gold (www.globalgold.co.uk) is the host for you

[StevenAvery]

realwebhosting

Hi Folks,

I just called up RealWebHosting on this, since I am checking the possible best hosts for a new install, they answered immediately with someone obviously well informed on a Sunday night Labor Day weekend ! (Rather impressive, a meeting was mentioned.)

However even a new customer new install is $50 (a transfer is free, you would think it would be the other way around !).

The telephone fella seemed a smidgen upset when I said the fee was "a bit of a dealbreaker" for me as a new potential customer. (It is, especially since it is hidden and I only found out about it here.)

The poster above may have been a bit harsh in tone, however if you can complete a purchase without being informed of this .. not on the FAQ, they really should simply credit you back. Especially with the vBulletin testimonial on the front page. And then, if they keep the policy, put it on the Sales FAQ and make sure if the word vBulletin is mentioned this fee is mentioned.

Only fair. They seem like a real good company that has one errant pricing item, under the covers, that directly effects vBulletin that should be made transparent.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

[steven s]

Hi Folks,

I just called up RealWebHosting on this, since I am checking the possible best hosts for a new install, they answered immediately with someone obviously well informed on a Sunday night Labor Day weekend ! (Rather impressive, a meeting was mentioned.)

I've been very pleased with rwh. I have 3 accounts with them. Two VPS and 1 shared.

Tell me where else will you get someone to speak to you?
Sometimes I can't wait for an email or support ticket to be answered.
I like being able to pick up the phone when something can't wait.

[AfterWorldForum]

Global Gold

Add one more satisfied customer for GlobalGold. After reading here that GoDaddy really was not up to hosting semi-serious forums, I signed up with GlobalGold based on the testimonies in this thread.

Though office hours in the UK were already over when I signed up, shortly after sending my mail, I got a mail from Tim, who has been absolutely fantastic helping me get things up to speed.

My forum was installed (for free) within the blink of an eye after I changed the nameservers to point towards my new host, and after adding ad sense and only then finding I would have to do a reinstall, Tim did that for me as well, and was kind enough to answer a whole bunch of other questions in the process.

All in all, I'm a very happy customer, and I fully plan on hosting more sites with Global Gold .

[StevenAvery]

realwebhosting - put the install fee on the FAQ

Hi Folks,

I've been very pleased with rwh. I have 3 accounts with them. Two VPS and 1 shared. Tell me where else will you get someone to speak to you? Sometimes I can't wait for an email or support ticket to be answered. I like being able to pick up the phone when something can't wait.

Yes they were cordial and easy to contact. I went with Global Gold and their communication is extremely kewl, sharp and to the point on email or phone as appropriate. Note, they installed vBulletin (and more) for free.

Simply put, RealWebHosting should not just say "look, we are much cheaper than a vBulletin install, we have charged this for years"
.. which is true.

They should simply put on the FAQ .. "new installs of vBulletin are $50" .. and they should tell a prospective new customer who mentions vBulletin, "oh the install is a modest $50". The fact that they refuse to do the FAQ, even when asked nicely, is a weakness. Also and apparently do not rush to do the second, getting one customer upthread understandably upset.

They probably are generally very fine hosts, I am just sharing my surprise on the FAQ stonewall.

Shalom,
Steven Avery