There are a bucketload of blog posts out there about web hosting. The vast majority of these are either praising their current hosts (along with a nice little affiliate link for you to click) or berating them for poor service.
Today, I’m going to do something different: I’m going to praise a web host that I no longer use and for which I don’t have an affiliate link.
Why would I take the time to do this? I truly believe that the company in question, kwikhosting, offers exceptional customer service.
First some background: I first used kwikhosting back in 2006 to host a single short term website (related to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany). I can’t tell you exactly what the uptime was like. I didn’t notice it, which means it must have been pretty good. The site was fast, despite the server being on the other side of the world from me (it was in Houston, I was in China).
There were a couple of issues in the initial setup of the site (my fault), but they were resolved like lightening. Answers came back within minutes (at best) or a couple of hours (at worst).
So why did I leave kwikhosting? Well, I’m ambitious and I had my eyes on creating several different sites. Kwikhosting didn’t offer unlimited domains. Hostgator did (yes that is an affiliate link).
I swapped and, as they say, the rest was history.
I’m very happy with HostGator. I’ve been with them for several years and have had very few problems. On the couple of occasions when I have needed to contact Hostgator support, the issue has been resolved pretty quickly. But as great as they are, the service can’t compare with kwikhosting.
I guess the analogy is that HostGator is like the large national chain of supermarkets that’s cheaper and has more products, but which has large impersonal service points, while kiwkhosting is like the corner store that’s slightly more expensive and doesn’t have the range, but the guy behind the counter knows all the customers and treats them like old friends.
Would I move back to kwikhosting? No, I need the extras offered by HostGator.
Would I recommend kwikhosting? Definitely, especially to people who only have a single site.
Why am I writing about this now? I recently moved to consolidate my domain names onto one domain reseller. I had a domain name being looked after by kwikhosting and wanted to transfer it away from them.
Halfway through the process, I realised that it would take up to 5 days to transfer the domain – which put the transfer day as the same day the domain expired. I was worried there’d be complications as a result.
I contacted kwikhosting for assistance in fast tracking the transfer. Even though I was transferring away from them, the service was just like it was back when I was a new customer. They were very fast to respond, they found out what I needed to know and they fast tracked things for me.
They even offered to renew the domain at the price of the new domain registrar (lower than their normal fee). Pure class.
Anyway, this post is just a shout out to kwikhosting, a web host with great customer service. Thanks guys!
I like the customer service of HostGator however, I am planning to move out because of the problem I usually encounter when my traffic occasionally kick-in then causes CPU overload (according them) and causing a DOS which is bad specially if the traffic is crucial for that certain period. I can’t still afford their dedicated/VPS but I found a hosting that solves this problem and might move my site later this year.
There are many web hosting companies on the internet today…The best one’s offer good costumer service and that is something one should do researh on before going with any comany and starting business!
Hi Stephen –
Whatever happened to the good ole ozzie sport of knocking the opposition? This is most unwebmaster-like behaviour, offering disinterested praise!
I’m pleased to get your feedback on Hostgator, though, ’cause I run a couple of affiliate links from them, and it is nice to have their quality endorsed.
Rhys – 😀
P.S. I think it is unsporting to offer KeywordLuv without Dofollow, seems like a bit of a left handed offer?? Like come and comment here and get a nice keyword-rich link; it will look good, but it won’t actually work!
Hi Rhys,
Nice to see you here. Not sure why why I’m praising people (I guess they must really deserve it). I’ll try to be more of a knocker from here on in… 🙂
Actually, I don’t run KeywordLuv here anymore, except on the KeywordLuv plugin pages. I’m the author of the plugin, so I have to let people try it out. I was getting mountains of spam so I said goodbye to KeywordLuv on the rest of the site and to my DoFollow plugin.
It doesn’t help that I rank number one for most searches that include KeywordLuv. I’ve done a few of those searches myself, so I’m not knocking people for targetting blogs running KeywordLuv, but the amount of crappy comments go to be too much here.
Also, I came to realise one of my strongest pages (the KeywordLuv plugin page) was bogged down with 500 comments leaking page rank all over the place, so I moved the comments to another page.
I’ll have to check out Kwikhosting. I use OCHosting and they have a great team of customer support staff. I had trouble with a CF form handler and they helped resolve it because it was a registration form for an event, so ti was mission critical.
Hi,
i´m useing aslo the hostgator and it works very well!
Very good support and always quick replays.
Interesting blog here. I think customer service is quite important for web hosts. But also the value for money. I think apart from that, it is really hard to differentiate them.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comment. Good luck with your site (I use to teach English in China).
I now transfer the sites in hostgator. Before I was on a hosting at us in Russia. I am tired from a mistake of a server 500 and to me have advised hostgator. It is unique their support service to me not absolutely to like. What is usually free from them costs a lot of money. I’m talking about moving sites. Also at them paid backup if you have not kept the files
I have never tried either of the 2 you mentioned so I can’t really comment on that part. What I like about your article is that it shows customers insight which you can’t really get while looking for a host pr browsing their websites.
I am using Dreamhost for my sites and they are perfect. Customers support is the key element I’m focusing on and if a host doesn’t have good customer support I’ll never consider using it.
Well, I’ll admit that I landed here from a Keyword Luv link. I stayed because the name Stephen Cronin seemed like quite a coincidence. Several of my American cousins have (or have had) that name; we’re descended from the Cronins who lived in southern Co. Limerick and northern Co. Cork, Ireland.
Anyway, I’m commenting because I liked reading your recommendations for hosting services. I’ve used Hostgator for a couple of years, and I’m generally happy with them. I use Omnis for one huge domain that needs special services, and it was at Omnis before I moved the rest of my domains to Hostgator.
That said, it’s good to know about another option. I’ll keep kwikhosting in mind. Thank you!
Hi Aisling…
When I visited Cork I noticed it was full of Cronins: Cronin The Butcher, Cronin’s Funeral Parlor, Cronin’s Corner Store, etc. Maybe even Cronin’s Art. 🙂
It was a little unsettling because it’s not that common here in Australia.
You know, I appreciate this blog posting and I could not agree with you more. As a newbie to the virtual world, I have spent quite a bit of time searching for a recommendation for good web hosting. And, I found LOTS of sites giving kudos with affliate links. Now, that is just not a real recommendation! Thank you for providing your recommendation no strings attached!
You know, I appreciate this blog posting and I could not agree with you more. As a newbie to the virtual world, I have spent quite a bit of time searching for a recommendation for good web hosting. And, I found LOTS of sites giving kudos with affliate links. Now, that is just not a real recommendation! Thank you for providing your recommendation no strings attached!
one. com have always been brilliant with me and my business. They have 24 hour ‘online chat’, whcih has got me out of a few situations! I will stick with them for a while, and they’re cheap!