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VARhosting vs. Site5 vs. Hostgator
| Posted by dgoss, 04-15-2005, 01:30 PM |
| I'd like some advice please.
I am considering VARhosting, Site5 and Hostgator for a reseller account. My current situation is that I am not reselling but have a few websites that I would like to consolidate. I have opportunites to resell some very lightly used personal accounts and would like to be able to do so. Just to start with my sites I would be well served with an account that is in the bottom end, something like the $18-$25 accounts that are offered by these providers.
One thing that intrigues me by these three is how turnkey the reselling is. I can build a site well and do rebranding, etc. What I like is that they all have accounting software that seems well integrated, domain reselling and even merchant accounts it seems on some. Particularily of interest is the included live chat and support for clients at VARhosting. That seems awesome if they can deliver otherwise. Finally I would like to offer POP access over SSL so my users can check email via SSL.
I think I want to start with a bottom plan that offers at least one static IP and possibly do a private nameserver, so that with the extra 2 IPs. It seeems each host can do that on their lowest plan for around $18-$25.
Should I be considering a fourth host I don't know about? The included support to my accounts is key (if it works). With my three choices can someone give advice especially if they have been to at least to of them to compare? Of certain interest is how well setup the billing end is (how automatic and easy to integrate with actual CC payments, etc.)
Thank you in advance for the help!
Best,
d.
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| Posted by kmcb, 04-15-2005, 07:23 PM |
| Of the hosts you've mentioned, I've only used hostgator. I've been with them for over a year now. I WISH I would've gone with them right from the start instead of learning the hard way about "cheap" hosting.
I can't praise them enough. IF you go with hostgator.com, you won't regret it.
I can't think of any downsides of going with them.
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| Posted by Alicia, 04-16-2005, 01:23 AM |
| Hi,
i have reseller accounts with couple of companies including varhosting..
guess what, varhosting is the cheapest among all the reseller accounts i have but with the best support team
it proved to me that cheap doesnt mean not good.. give varhosting a try..
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| Posted by dgoss, 04-16-2005, 02:23 AM |
| Alicia - have you had problems with downtime? Also can you tell me how the accouting software is integrating with your accounts and how you handle your billing? Any insight with them would be great.
Thanks
d.
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| Posted by ebiohosting, 04-16-2005, 04:17 AM |
| As far as I know, there was some minor problem of downtime on one of the server but so far I have not yet experienced any major downtime. They give free billing software accountlab. Their support team is not only fast but also very knowledgeable and friendly. Givem them a try, its worth.
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| Posted by jmweb, 04-16-2005, 08:43 AM |
| Out of the 3 companies you have mentioned it seems Hostgator is most popular however have had a couple negative reviews around here lately (don't let that discourage you as they do have a lot of clients). Site5 seems to be following Hostgator.
I would suggest giving Hostgator a try, and if that doesn't work go for Site5.
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| Posted by Kishin, 04-16-2005, 12:04 PM |
| VARhosting is very nice aswell, They have very nice uptime(so far) and they reposned to questions within 15-30 mins.Also cant beat there rates
Anyway hope you find a good one for your needs.
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| Posted by poorboy, 04-17-2005, 12:07 AM |
| I have an account with HostGator (no experience with the other two). I have a few personal sites there and am not using the account to anywhere near it's full capacity yet, but have not had any problems there. The couple support questions I had were answered quickly and accurately, and when there was downtime due to the recent problem at The Planet, they honored their 99.9% guarantee and gave me a refund for the full month. Happy there so far
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| Posted by Alicia, 04-18-2005, 09:23 AM |
| i have a long downtime with varhosting few weeks back... i am in node103..
but now it is working fine =)
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| Posted by ACcomunica, 04-18-2005, 10:14 AM |
| I am a very happy Site5 customer. They are so good that I don't have to think about my accounts. Since I've signed up with Site5 my support center is empty. I don't have tickets to answer and my clients are always happy. I can just relax and do other stuff.
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| Posted by BeYourOwnWebHost, 04-18-2005, 10:54 AM |
| There should be one among the three that your mind is telling you to consider ... I would say go for that one.
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| Posted by emagin, 04-18-2005, 11:48 AM |
| Hello, just wanted to chime in here that I have been a very happy Site5 customer for over 8 months.
I have a reseller account and host many clients there with great success.
Some notes for hardcore webdevelopers or resellers.
I add these to help nuance any differences you might be assessing, not as a criticism:
Pointing multiple subdomains to one file location is problematic.
You need to get into email exchanges w/tech support about parking domains or symbolic links, which you can't set up. You can't touch Apache httpd.conf files.
SSH access is very good, but only ONE ID per account/site.
The rest of users must use ftp. Since you don't want to share primary account IDs with developers all the time, I solve this by using a basic pw for developers during site development, and then hand things off to client and change pw. For large scale projects this is impractical.
ClientExec "billing system" is not exactly intuitive and requires a lot of work on your part to make it work. It's nifty, but not clear to me if / how it syncs up with cPanel information and whether things stay dynamically in sync (as far as WHM account limits settings - changes there do not automagically change pricing for client)
TECH SUPPORT
Support is very fast for sure, and they are *always* around, even on weekends, although on weekends it takes a couple of hours to get an answer sometimes. Still good in my book.
But they DO NOT have a PHONE SUPPORT, so if you are a verbal type, freak out when you can't 'touch' somebody, then think about this carefully.
SUMMARY
Site5 is very reliable, with very rare down times which are almost always announced.
Site monitoring is good by 3rd party, altough monitoring is only from a few locations aroun USA every 5 minutes.
If you can handle email-only support, then I think they are hands down the best LAMP host out there.
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| Posted by dgoss, 04-18-2005, 12:35 PM |
| emagin - thank you, that is exactly the kind of detailed account I was looking for. Thank you
d.
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| Posted by emagin, 04-18-2005, 01:06 PM |
| I had only one experience with HostGator in which a client with a fairly high traffic site was shut down unexpectedly for an 'abuse' of policy which was not clear.
My client is a reputable operator.
I saw the email exchanges between client and HostGator support / management and it was not that pleasant. There were unprofessional 'that's tough' type of statements in the exchange.
The shut-down seemed to happen very quickly, without giving client a chance to either rectify the problem (mostly related to traffic volume, not to content or anything strange) or put up any kind of a "we're down" page.
I am NOT an expert on HostGator, but after that one bit of news, and review of emails, I was not that impressed.
Good luck.
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| Posted by dgoss, 04-18-2005, 02:26 PM |
| emagin - curious, why was your client in direct contact with Hostgator and not though you? I'm just wondering as my understanding is that VAR is currently the only one of the three that extends support to a reseller's clients on it's plans.
Again, thanks -
d.
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| Posted by emagin, 04-18-2005, 03:03 PM |
| They had gone to them on their own and I wasn't going to interfere without knowing more about HostGator first. They are now...guess where
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| Posted by Auracletech, 04-30-2005, 02:48 AM |
| I have had a really great experience with HostGator so far. Their support is marvellous.
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| Posted by osirion, 04-30-2005, 12:48 PM |
| I have been with HostGator for the last 5 months now and I havent had -any- downtime. I can't speak for Site5 or VAR Hosting though I have heard good things about Site5 and well, to tell you the truth - I dont think you can go wrong with any three of the choices. From personal experience I would say 'go with HG' - but I guess if your just starting off, maybe the cheapest of the three wouldn't be a bad move since no one has said anything bad about the three.
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| Posted by Gary King, 04-30-2005, 01:10 PM |
| I've read way too many bad reviews about HostGator in order to even look at their site any more
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