Hostgator Is Unreliable And No Longer Recommended
Hostgator has become completely unreliable ever since "upgrading" the server hardware that my sites were on (Early June).
I have "caught" them down at least 10 times. Sometimes for just a few minutes, other times longer. How many times have my sites been down where I didnt' catch it?
My adsense revenue has plummeted. Part of that is, I think, a change at Google. But Google now shows some site metrics that includes "Site health". They have noticed!
Each time I complain I get some message back about "data center issue" or "networking issue". It's costing me money and REPUTATION.
I have started moving my sites to Media Temple. $20/month for 100 sites. Not as cheap as Hostgator, but I'm told by one of my partners that the support is at least U.S. based, unlike Hostgator. They do not use cpanel like Hostgator, but they do have 1 click installs of WP. That's all I really need. Hostgator's cpanel is hard to find what I need anymore anyway with all the options that are little more than "ads".
If you want to check out MediaTemple, message me for my aff link. Or if you prefer, go to MediaTemple.net
Update: Again, the response claims they are upgrading their Provo (Utah) - which is new I think - data center networking capabilities. For the how many'th time? Is it the last? Will know next time my sites go down.
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Hey Folks,
Thought I'd chime in here to see if I can shed some light on the HG situation.
* Bluehost, HostMonster, HostGator and JustHost are all are all divisions of Endurance International Group and are experiencing outage from server maintenance at the Provo, Utah, data center.
* Your sites are backed up daily (or weekly) to another server location so, you are not going to lose your site(s).
* You can follow the HG forum thread for updates here: http://goo.gl/yFLIUc or their twitter account: https://twitter.com/hostgator
* Yes, this sucks - but I am confident they are working feverishly to get things back online.
Very interesting Jay...
I knew about the Provo data center, but was unaware of the Endurance International Group involvement with all of the companies... makes sense though (I've used 3 of the 4 hosts listed).
And I agree with you about "Yes, this sucks" but this is a first in the almost 3 years I've had an account there, so I'm confident too that they're scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off to get everything back up properly.
They host over 9,000,000 sites there so can you imagine being a support staff member today?
I appreciate the input Jay, I didn't know that. For me, this is the last straw as I've been fighting this for 2 months.
I have one site moved to Media Temple and I just created a new site yesterday that I installed on the MT account.
See you tonight at the WAbinar!
Sorry Roger, I decided to create a Discussion because I did not want to hijack your blog post.
Well, I typed a reply to @NatureLynn and now her comment is gone...
here it is:
Actually, when Hostgator is down, you get access to NOTHING. Depending on your DNS service (I use OpenDNS to help avoid malware sites - free) you will get a "this site is not responding type message).
You won't get your WP admin because you cannot connect to the server where the database is.
I've been looking at some plugins to do the WP move; the problem with most WP backup plugins is that you still have to "remember" or otherwise record and duplicate your basic WP settings as well as any plugin settings.
If you have any additional files you have uploaded to your server, those you have to move on your own also.
Not feeling well today and was not thinking clearly. Makes sense that I cannot access the Wordpress backoffice. I guess that I've never experienced a true outage before.
I look after and maintain local clients sites hosted over at canadianwebhosting
If you WANT downtime you should try them, but I guess you get what you pay for.
In regards to HG I had few problems on the following day after the transfer/upgrade process, but this was a DNS type problem they messed up.
I know Jay is still recommending Hostgator as recently as last Friday night's WAbinar; seems he hasn't been seeing the issue. Perhaps since he's in Canada they have him on a different data center?
You're not allowed to put your affiliate link to anything inside WA because that amounts to promotion.
Well, I don't know where to look for that, but in days gone by and all the other forums I participate in as long as it's clearly marked that way there is no problem. What bothers me is when someone signs up for a recommended service and doesn't use ANYONE's aff link. Missed opportunity and then some.
I guess that's an additional answer to the comment below as to why I don't use WA's hosting. Well, this is "my blog" on WA, but someone else is telling me what I can and can't do. That's the argument for buying your own domain, on your own hosting and do what you want. Then only some corrupt government can tell you what you can/can't do.
Do whatever - it's up to you - but it has led to people having their blogs cut and/or eventually banned if they do it persistently.
Just about all of my sites using HostGator are down at the time of writing this (about 40 sites spread out through nearly a dozen accounts [some are client accounts]).
The weird thing is though, that I also have some clients set up with BlueHost - and their hosting is down too.
Something big must be going wrong for them, because if you go to Live Chat support at HostGator this is what you will see: http://d.pr/i/dNgP
That's probably because Hostgator and Bluehost are in the same data center in Provo - just a guess I could be completly off base - but it would make sence - I am checking out a company called Midphase right now
I looked further into this, and @leomery is right about them sharing a data center (I also found out that JustHost is a sister company of BlueHost, the only difference in service is the price).
Apparently, the data center at Provo is having some sort of network problems which is causing a whole butt-load of websites to go down :(
Why don't you just use the hosting here ?, I host over 25 + sites here and I don't have a problem, except for 1 time there were down for like 2 min .... other than that WA hosting have been really reliable.....
I also use a VPS for hosting clients sites that are large, they run around 40$ per month and its like Virtual computer that you can log into anywhere, and you can create name-servers from within the VPS pretty sweet....
- Cheers
Also with a VPS you can literally host 1000 + Sites, and depending on the VPS provider, you get different class C-IP's, so google doesn't see are you client's sites as 1 person / entity
- Cheers
It's a control issue. If I decide to drop out of WA at some point - and I did for a short time once before - then where's my hosting...
VPS is sweet but takes more time to manage and more money up front. I have no sites that are large or _that_ profitable
@ZachMN, I've been wondering about getting a VPS for some time now... Do you have any experience with this (or have one yourself)?
That's interesting. This is the second time in the last week I've heard someone complaining about this with Hostgator. I've noticed in the last couple of months they're support isn't as quick as it was in the past.
And I've experienced down time as well. What do you use to track your down time? I've been looking for a free solution but haven't found one yet.
I have never tracked downtime. It's really never been much of an issue in all the years I've been using them. Sure, once in a while, but no big deal.
And, quite frankly I just don't have time to mess with metrics. I'm too busy trying to creat content that I hope might rank and get some traffic...
thanks
I have noticed the slow support time over the last couple of months as well Eddy. I used to only have to wait 10 minutes at max, and over the last couple of months I have come across waiting times as long as 30 minutes plus.
Hopefully this does not continue, as I have been a big fan of HostGator for quite some time now!
Jroth, that's exactly what I've been experiencing. I feel the same way. I've always referred people to hostgator for the great service but I'm feeling that is less like the case.
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Is this why I have such big sales today??? All the other sites are down? **giggles like a school girl and runs off
That is odd. My site is on hostgator and is working just fine.
@xcfastdude - I first noticed the problem at about 7am CT; about an hour later it was resolved for me, afaik