Over the course of the last few years of running my own websites and also helping others build/maintain their websites, I have dealt with quite a few different hosting companies.
In the process, I have also done my homework as far as which hosting companies are the best by far to indeed self-host websites with.
When self-hosting, there are certain things that website owners need to be conscious of.
The three most important things that self-hosted websites must have is as follows:
- Great customer service/tech support
- High server uptime percentages
- Fair and competitive prices
When I first started out hosting my own sites, I hosted with HostMonster and actually stayed with them for hosting for over 3 years. I got comfortable, even though the voice inside my head screamed that I needed to switch for so different reasons many reasons. I knew better. Yet I hate change and fought tooth and nail to make the logical switch.
But finally, I recently switched hosting companies.
Why?
Because HostMonster’s customer service has become abysmal at best. For tech support calls/online chats, I now would sit on hold waiting for help for over an hour quite a few times in recent months.
And when I did actually get a tech support agent online or over the phone, they truly didn’t have any real legitimate reason for why my site(s) were down.
I heard it all and dealt with it all, too – from issues that continually was bringing my down with my pro server that I paid over $300 a year for, as well as to a widespread server outage that effected HostMonster and BlueHost that system admins were supposedly working on diligently, but couldn’t nail down a reason for said outage for over 48 hours (and is still ongoing as I type this for HostMonster customers) during this past week.
I knew I had to do something and fast as the many messages I received that my site was down yet again were becoming more frequent. If you do read and/or follow my websites, then I am pretty sure you noticed that my sites had been down in recent times. My twitter feed blew up with the many complaints from tons of disgruntled customers that I could completely commiserate with.
Still out of all the hosting companies I had dealt with in the past, one kept coming back to me – A Small Orange.
Their hosting was by far top notch from all I have seen in the past with my customers.
I had wanted to use VPS hosting for my sites for some time now.
A Small Orange was in my estimation the ultimate in VPS hosting.
I spoke to a customer service agent, who laid it all out for me. Then, I took the plunge.
This was Tuesday and by Thursday, Thanksgiving Day – A Small Orange tech team had kept me informed every step of the way through chat and emails. Every online chat initiated was responded to immediately by the way. In the end, my cPanel was migrated early Thanksgiving Day and all set to go.
Then, I switched my name servers and my sites were finally back up and running.
A side note to all, to have tech support available on Thanksgiving Day was truly phenomenal to me.
For all those looking for reliable, affordable hosting that is also comes with very fast tech support, A Small Orange is the way to go.
And right now just in time for Black Friday Weekend, A Small Orange are giving their customers 75% Off All New Hosting Plans and 2x VPS Memory! This sale is for four days and goes from Friday, November 27th 12:00 AM CST to Monday, November 30th 11:59 PM CST. This will bring hosting prices down to $1.04/month with a FREE domain on annual plans!
*A side note, I have been an affiliate for A Small Orange for almost a year now, but the above is not a sales pitch and didn’t get paid at all to share my experience, nor did I get a discounted rate for hosting. It is true, I make a commission off the links included here, but otherwise I am not profiting in sharing my story, but am hopeful that I can help my readers and clients to make an informed decision in finding a better option for hosting if they are indeed also possibly having hosting issues or shopping for better hosting.