Bluehost Woes = Big Gain for Hostgator

Many of you know that I have been having major hosting issues as of late. From July till now, my sites have gone down daily, and Bluehost's support has been less than helpful. I have used them for almost two years, so it was truly sad for me to have to even think about leaving. I have never had the problems I was having. If you read my blog, you will notice long absences (when I couldn't even post due to not being able to even get to the backend of my blogs!), and I wrote about a lot of my issues. My final straw was when support finally told me to delete my old posts and put them on a static page. Well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of a blog. I think I just outgrew them. I do have to say that to cancel Bluehost was super easy, super fast, and they were super nice.

I had asked around quite a bit about what other hosts were out there that people liked. One I heard a lot of good things from was Hostgator. Before I made my decision, I even online chatted with some of their sales people. The other thing that impressed me was that they are green. I personally believe that every little bit helps and that if I can help the environment with my hosting, why not. Granted, Hostgator isn't running their own windmills in downtown Houston. Instead, they have bought RECs for 130% of the electricity used to power and cool its shared and reseller servers. What's a REC?

Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are tradeable credits representing all the environmental benefits of 1 megawatt hour of renewable energy. So when HostGator purchases 4,009 Texas wind RECs, it’s basically paying a Texas windfarm to generate renewable energy on HostGator’s behalf. HostGator doesn’t own the windfarm, but for every REC purchased by HostGator, that windfarm generates 1 megawatt of Texas wind power and puts it into the grid. When HostGator draws power from the grid, it can then claim credit for that wind power generated on its behalf.

Another thing I really like is that if there is a problem with one of your sites, they don't pull them all down. That was a big grievance of mine before. They will also transfer your domains and your files to them for free! That was what really got me to come over to them. They saved me hours of time of having to move my sites! Every step of the way, I got an email letting me know what they were up to. The only thing you end up having to do is check to make sure that your site looks good and to change your DNS settings. It doesn't get easier than that!

Any issues I have had so far have been dealt with quickly. When I didn't get my welcome email (due to my own typo), they responded to my ticket in 15 minutes. I ended up sending in a ticket due to a WP hiccup last night (which I think was my fault too – lol) and had a response in about 2 (aff) hours. I love that kind of customer service! They have been nothing but nice and helpful. The thing I love the best is that I went from throwing errors on all my blogs to not throwing any. I am not sure how that happens, but I'll take it!

If you are in need of new hosting, I highly recommend checking out Hostgator. They are very competitive in pricing, and they are everything I wanted in a host.

Lisa Martin

In April 2006, Lisa began blogging to stay connected with distant relatives and friends. As she delved into blogging, she discovered the potential to assist others by sharing her experiences. Lisa has actively engaged in numerous exclusive media ventures. Notable among these are her participation in events such as the Sony Mommy Bloggers Event, the Pampers Mommy Bloggers Event, the Epson Event in Chicago, the Stouffers Event, a memorable yacht excursion with Lands End, collaborations with 1-800-Baskets, an exclusive tour for bloggers by Mrs. Prindable’s, partnerships with Hallmark, PopCap games, Chicago Cubs Mastercard Priceless Events, and Rug Doctor. In addition, she has collaborated with Nutrisystem on a weight loss initiative, teamed up with Buick and Chevy, and served as a brand ambassador for Sprint. Lisa's collaboration portfolio also extends to Disney, where she has participated in press trips for significant movies such as Frozen, Guardians of the Galaxy, McFarland USA, The Good Dinosaur, The BFG, and Cars 3. Notably, for projects like Frozen, The BFG, and Cars 3, she was granted the privilege of walking the red carpet and conducting interviews with celebrities. The impact of Lisa's blog has gained recognition, with The New York Times referencing her content. Moreover, she has been featured in interviews by respected publications such as the Southtown Star, The Chicago Sun Times, and inside.

This Post Has 27 Comments

  1. Jules

    🙂 🙂 🙂 I'm glad you are happy with HG 🙂 🙂 🙂

  2. JMom

    I'm still with bluehost but I'm glad for the heads up on Hostgator. At least I have a back up in case Bluehost ever messes me up 🙂

  3. Cynthia Blue

    I'm glad you found a host you like. My host (VPS Steadcom) is currently down, looks like they had a hard drive failure. Yuck. They are usually quite stable though!

  4. Magaret

    I canned Bluehost in March, but not because of any downtime, just because Holdfire.net had such a deal for bloggers. I have a website at WebHSP, but can only have 3 sites hosted there and it looks like HostGator is offering unlimited domains for the same price I'm paying at WebHSP. I may have to switch so I can get all my sites under one CPanel. That would be so convenient!

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  5. A. Caleb Hartley

    I'm so glad you went with Hostgator! I LOVE them… did you do a reseller package, or simple hosting?

    I've got a reseller package to host all of the sites I have, and it's great!

    Namaste,

    A. Caleb

  6. Tom Jones

    Glad you found Hostgator, I trust that your experience will be better. Having used them for a couple of years I can only speak highly of them.

  7. tahtimbo

    There has never been a more timely article, then the one you just wrote. I have been going back and forth between the two for some time now (I'm a newbie and this will be the first time I break free from Blogger and get my own site). Thank you very much for the information. I guess I will be going with the Gator :mrgreen:

  8. Lisa

    @ Julie I am too. I was slightly worried I was bringing my problems with but so far so good

  9. Lisa

    JMom – Let me know if you ever need to change, I can help walk you through it. :mrgreen:

  10. Lisa

    @ Cynthia Blue I can understand when stuff like that happens. It was being down every day that killed me. My last straw was their solution to start deleting my old posts.

  11. Lisa

    @margaret If you decide to switch, let me know if you need any help :mrgreen: It's pretty painless!

  12. Lisa

    @A. Caleb Just the simple hosting. I figured I could move up the food chain later when I know what I am doing. :mrgreen:

  13. Lisa

    @tahtimbo If you need any help, let me know! You can pretty easily import all your old posts from blogger if you want if you end up going with WP too.

  14. UptakeInOH

    I've been hearing a LOT of rumblings lately about Bluehost. It's good to know that there are alternatives out there, and it sounds as if Gator is a good one. Thanks for sharing your personal experience with it. :mrgreen:

  15. willy

    I've been a user of HG since 4 years ago, and so far I still satisfied with their features and customer services! By the way, Lisa. You've mentioned out the main points of HG and I bet you also have a good understanding about it!

  16. Rebecca Zwar

    It's funny you mention this, because I work with a good friend that uses Bluehost, and we both usually recommend them, but lately she has been having issues as well. I actually use Hostgator instead, and with the issues she's been having, I think I'm going to start recommending Hostgator to our clients. I've never had any issues with them – not even enough to need to put in a ticket

  17. milo

    I use hostgator and have never had any trouble what so ever in the last 2 years. I went for the reseller package.

  18. Bill

    I use hostgator and recommend them to all my web clients

  19. incognito

    I've been doing the web thing for about 9 years already with different hosts. Lots of crappy hosts throughout the year. All my sites are also on Hostgator except for 1 which i've been too lazy to move from Netfirms. Hostgator is fast and efficient and best of all it's cheap! I host a bunch of sites on one account. Also one of my sites got hacked and they attended to it Quick! Probably within a half hour and fixed the damage. I'm probably going to stick with them for a long time.

  20. Greg

    Hi,

    I had some similar issues with a host, but my sites were static sites. Something about "excess resource usage" which makes no sense to me, since it wasn't a blog and I had few scripts running.

    Also, their customer service, usually quite good, went away with my sites. No sites, no service, no help. I moved to kiosk.ws and they've been great, even helping to fix a hacking attempt (DoS attack.) Maybe not the same as incognito's, but the site was down until fixed.

    As he says, I'll be with them for awhile. Nice to hear good things about HostGator, too.

  21. Kim

    I'm with bluehost by recommendation of a friend (you know who you are lol) if I ever have any problems, I'll be sure to pop back in and discuss my options with my friend. lol

  22. Jerry @ Web Hosting

    I am customers of both Bluehost and Hostgator – both are good and recommended. Fortunately, I have never had a problem like you're having (on deleting the old posts and putting them on a static page) with Bluehost. The only reason I am working with both is because I need a reseller hosting account and Hostgator's good with their reseller hosting plans.

  23. Hussein

    I do recommend hostgator too. I had never experienced any downtime or any problem with them since my first day there.

  24. Best cPanel editor

    I too have switched to HostGator! I like it a lot better than my old host, and all the other hosts I've used. I have finally found a host I consider the best. I don't like hosts that use proprietary control panels, I like cPanel the best.

  25. Hosting Reviews

    Ive used probably 10 different web hosts. Included in that list is blue host and hostgator (also seohosting which is part of hostgator).

    Bluehost was always just "ok" while hostgator is one step above them. Thats why I finally settled down and now I only use one host and hopefully never need to switch again.

    Highly recommended by me! 🙂

    Aaron

  26. David M

    I joined Hostgator shared plan 1.5 years ago. I am very happy with their support. Only thing you have to look out is that you don't have way too much traffic on shared plan or their silly system might suspend your account without warning. I am also Hostgator affiliate because they pay well and I sincerely think they are a very good host for such low prices for shared plans.

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