Need a reliable, affordable host with real human customer service

frickinmuck · 2023-12-28 02:26:39

I can’t believe how difficult it has become to weed through the scammers, upsellers, cheats and creeps to find a decent hosting provider these days! Does anyone have any suggestions? I host multiple sites and don’t mind shared hosting as long as it doesn’t constantly end up on spam blacklists due to the activity of other users.

My main requirements are that it’s Textpattern friendly, has good or at least passable HUMAN customer support, and I will need a goodly amount of storage because one of my sites features huge media files.

Bonus points for:

Included SSL
Included domain privacy

(Both of which should always be included IMNSHO).

Last edited by frickinmuck (2023-12-28 02:58:55)

Kjeld · 2023-12-28 08:05:04

Since late October 2022 I run my Textpattern sites at FASTCOMET.

The basic customer support is extremely good. However, I have felt frustrated when I required specialized assistance (eg. when my email address was blocked). The staff made many unqualified assumptions and I was handed over from one person to another without each new person being sufficiently informed about the issue.
I use lots of large photographs on my sites, so storage may be sufficient for your needs. However, check if the bandwidth they offer is sufficient!
SSL certificates are included and updated automatically.
Fastcomet offers huge discounts on their services.

Although I am not 100% satisfied they are much better than the two previous companies I worked with.

Dragondz · 2023-12-28 08:16:34

Hi

You can try Hawkhost, i have more than 10 website with them for more than 8 years, you can have the 10Gb shared package wich is quite cheep. They have an unlimited package but i hade some trouble with them defining the Unlimited, when your storage is over 100Gb they begin complaining!

Their support is quite good and reliable, there is also SSL certificate, backups and a good antispam services (better than spamassassin).

For domain privacy it s not the hoster to have but the domain registrar, i use Porkbun that offer domain privacy for free.

Cheers.

phiw13 · 2023-12-28 08:24:47

I use opalstack.com for some Textpattern websites. Good customer support (forum or direct support mail addy). Not sure if they fit the bill for your storage requirements. Con: some of their server stack is a little old (Apache version), upgrade promised for 2024. Prices go up on Jan 1.

They are fairly down to earth and you can install lots of stuff yourself.

Not fully enthusiast but mucho better than some bigger names (I am looking at you Dreamhost).

wet · 2023-12-29 10:51:40

…and then there is uberspace.

They lend you 10GB of webspace with no artificial limit on the number of websites, domains, databases, mail accounts, whatever you can put on it.
You pay for it as much as you want (although they’ll be happy if you give them 10 EUR or more per month to cover their costs and increase their wealth).
You can use your space however you like: Websites, email accounts, databases.

They are very nerdy, but very helpful. Their user interface is a Linux shell command.

There is no graphical interface except the simplest one.

Uberspace User Interface

I migrated there after 17 years of Dreamhosting and am happy so far.

Kjeld · 2023-12-29 11:13:05

wet wrote #336240:

…and then there is uberspace.

They lend you 10GB of webspace with no artificial limit on the number of websites, domains, databases, mail accounts, whatever you can put on it.

You pay for it as much as you want (although they’ll be happy if you give them 10 EUR or more per month to cover their costs and increase their wealth).

You can use your space however you like: Websites, email accounts, databases.

They are very nerdy, but very helpful. Their user interface is a Linux shell command.

There is no graphical interface except the simplest one.

I migrated there after 17 years of Dreamhosting and am happy so far.

Wow, what a different company. Love the anarchist and cooperative approach as exemplified in this announcement:

Aktuell kann es auf dem Host ferdinand zu einer Einschränkung der Performance kommen. Dort läuft aktuell eine Kampagne von postmitherz.org über die wir uns sehr freuen, die aber teilweise zu hohen Lastspitzen führt. Wir haben für den Host daher bereits einen eigenen Server Node freigemacht um für den Zeitraum (bis 18.12.) der Kampagne möglichst viel Spielraum zu geben.

Solltest du dennoch ein Problem mit deiner Seite feststellen, schreib bitte unserem Support und wir suchen gemeinsam nach einer Lösung.

wet · 2023-12-29 13:02:06

Kjeld wrote #336241:

Wow, what a different company.

Quite so. uberspace earned their fifteen minutes of internetz fame when they got sued by the music industry for hosting the site of Youtube-dl, a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and other video sites.

Kjeld · 2023-12-29 13:26:38

wet wrote #336244:

Quite so. uberspace earned their fifteen minutes of internetz fame when they got sued by the music industry for hosting the site of Youtube-dl, a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and other video sites.

Fascinating!

bici · 2023-12-29 17:09:21

phiw13 wrote #336237:

I use opalstack.com for some Textpattern websites. Good customer support (forum or direct support mail addy). Not sure if they fit the bill for your storage requirements. Con: some of their server stack is a little old (Apache version), upgrade promised for 2024. Prices go up on Jan 1.

colour me a happy customer.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2023-12-28 02:26:39