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HostForWeb reviews

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On average, HostForWeb appears to be viewed with caution by users on our web site.

This statement was automatically generated by analyzing the reviews and ratings about the company.

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Page RelevancyFootnote 1 High
# of Reviews 10
# that Recommend 4
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% that Recommend 40%
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Overall RatingFootnote 2 54.1%
Low
Review QualityFootnote 2 Footnote * 100%
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Ok at best .

I was moved to a faster server for my reseller account free of charge in Jan 2015, thats the good news. The bad news is they lost a copy of my site and had to replace it with a old back up three weeks old. I was blacklisted 8 times by others on my server it hurt my business to the point we never recovered. They say they are sorry, umm ok. How about the thousands lost by them. The old server crashed ove 10 times in one year . The new server seems to be better and faster.

What I hate the worse about HFW is they do not read the tech support reports, nor do they answer the questions you ask. They assume its user error, they did when I was blacklisted they did when they lost my site. And more recently all the permissions on my files on my server changed right after the move to the new server and they arrogantly blamed me.

HFW likes the blame game, they do not take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
They are not horrible, they are just an OK company with ok service. Kinda like buying a cheap used car would be, yea it runs yea it gives ya trouble time to time but would you recommend it. Nope !
Having tried them for a decade I wish I could praise them as an great company and why they have helped the pro-s do not out number the cons at HFW.

Biggest Pro: Servers Up Time Good,
Biggest Con: Customer Service is not conected well to customers.

Previous reviews by Paul

The information below is no longer valid because the user has posted a follow-up review above.

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Good but still not in the big league.

I have used HFW over the last tend years three times, and each time there was major issues and data loss.
The support is improving allot, however HFW tries to give the feel they are larger then they are, by having live chat people using fake names that eventually answer your ticket. Its odd but how they do it.
Each time I came back I have been on another server and each time the server failed. Last time their backup did not restore as promised luckily my own back up saved it.
And they are still having blacklisted issues with servers.

I am with them and will stay for now, it would be a big pain in the arse to move .
HFW is adequate but no where near where they should be after over 10 years of operations.
There shared servers which I tried are bogged down they cram too many accounts on these and allow mailing lists etc that force you to move like I did. I do not know of any better hosting sites, and these guys are good for the most part, they are polite and usually resolve issues quickly. That said the reliability seems to suffer around the busy times of the year they just cant handle the extra loads both technically and staff wise.

By P on November 30th, 2014 at 11:22 EST
URL: [Hidden but verified] Customer for 1 - 2 years
Plan: Reseller | Platform: Windows | Email: [Logged]

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10 people voted yes

Email servers blacklisted and your website will be down

The connection wasn't bad, the people were friendly and helpful, but if your website isn't up and your email cannot be sent or received, it just doesn't matter. Nothing else matters with a web host. How would you like a car made by a nice company, sold to you by friendly people, but it just won't start? All the other good stuff doesn't matter if it doesn't do what you paid for it to do. That is what you get with HostForWeb.

Biggest Pro: Nice people on the tech support chat.
Biggest Con: Email and website down much too often!

I was being ripped off

I placed an order for buying ONE domain name for $12.95. Somehow, my bill is $158.00 I now have 10 items on my bill. I e-mailed Hostfrorweb's billing department (they do not take phone calls). I contacted Max, the head of the billing. He said that the charges are not reversible. My credit card company found that Hostforweb charged me $270. The transaction is pending. Please someone help me!!!

Solid Service - Highly Recommended

I have small complaints. They pale so much in comparison to the big picture that they are not worth mentioning.

In reference to the person who states "Worst Host Ever", I bring attention to the fact that he/she says they have changed Web hosts 10 times. You would think, after only a couple of bad experiences, they would have a good idea what they want and need and be adept enough to find a compatible host. I did.

I went through 3 big names in Web hosting. I have over 100 customers, so I do not take moving to another host lightly. Most of these customers are my Web Development clients that I also provide hosting for. I bend over backwards to provide them good service. I created a check list and called support lines, compared features, etc., finally narrowing that list down to HostForWeb. The reasons - they gave the most accurate and detailed answers to my questions, the responses were quick, and they were available via e-mail, chat and phone.

When there are problems, I need to tell my clients what is happening. Other companies left me hanging in the embarrassing position of having to say "I don't know what the problem is and I have no idea when it will be solved". The very few times there have been problems, I have gotten an immediate response fromn HostForWeb and my questions were answered.

Even more important to mention is that the problems that have occurred have been minor. There have been NO major problems in the 4+ years I have been with HostForWeb. If down time occurs,it has usually been 3 to 5 minutes. With previous hosts, I have experienced down time up to 2.5 hours. In all the time I have been with HostForWeb, the longest down time I've experienced was 15 minutes.

Tech support is fast and efficient. I can depend on a speedy reply via e-mail, but if I am in a real hurry, I can open a chat or call them on the phone. If they can't answer my question, they put me with someone who can.

Don't fall for sales gimmicks. If you are serious about your business, your first priority should be solid service. You'll find it at HostForWeb.

Biggest Pro: Solid Professional Service

Hasn't quite made the big time

I was with HFW for a very long time 5+ years. In that time they moved their server twice and it was a nightmare each time they moved data was lost and DNS were way out of wack. So much so one site was blacklisted. Still is to this day.
Support knowledge is rushed, they just do not listed to what is being asked. I recently came back and tried them again and they still can not get it right. The packages are very misleading as to what you get and what is offered. And they are happy to upgrade you for a new fee to fix your problem.

The positive aspect is Alex and Max both run the place and have hands on the operations, the downside is Alex and Max still run the place and they are stuck in their ways of doing things, Which has hurt them growing. I noticed over the years many new names of techs they seem to come and go which makes it hard for them to learn the customer base. I ended up with Godaddy, I swore wouldn't go to the big market supplier, but HFW just couldn't provide the simple things I needed.

Biggest Pro: Nice people
Biggest Con: To old school, just do not meet todays needs and standards

not sure what happen to the service

I have been with hostforweb for roughly 5 years, in that time i had minor problems which they fixed quickly, however in the last year i have been having major problems with their service and ability to help resolve problems. I was on a their Supreme shared server plan, which worked out fine, just within this year i got a server overload and they stated it was a script in my site causing it, when i ask if they can help me to pin point the script causing it they said they can not help. So i went through my site and did not find any thing out of the normal. They un-suspended my page and back to normal operation on the shared server, in November time frame a server overload happen again, seem to be that same problem yet they where still unable to help and recommended i upgrade to a VPS even suggest that their HFWVPS-1 would work fine. They did the migration well so i though, because my site was up and running again. Here it is January 2010 and i get billed for the Shared server i was on after paying for a VPS. Come to find out they never migrated my site over to the VPS. So they finally begin the migration over to the VPS and know the site does not even load or work correctly. They are claiming i am using to much memory and i need to upgrade yet again to a higher priced VPS package. I asked if my site has been running fine for the last few months without server overload, why can't you get it running on the VPS if the VPS is better than the shared plan. There was no clear answer. I must say this is back for business for the last three days my site has been down loosing customers. they just continue to bounce my tickect (s) from one level to another without any answers what so ever. I am leaving this company and would not recommend them to anyone. Bad customer support for long term customers, they are un-willing to help you resolve problems. For small businesses like mine go to another hosting company.

Biggest Con: force upgrades with no support

fast and reliable

I have been with HostForWeb for almost 5 years now and they have been perfect. For years before I was with them I had many issues with a lot of previous hosts, and had just come out of a situation where I lost nearly all my data after recently moving hosts. But that was the last problem I ever had.

HostForWeb has friendly staff and 24/7 knowledgable, helpful technical support. Whenever I do have an issue it gets resolved very quickly. Although problems are sparse - they have excellent uptime and stable servers. This has been consistent throughout the 5 years I've been with them.

The prices are a tad higher than most hosts, but I feel comfortable with it as they don't suffer from overselling and shared server customers taking advantage of "unlimited" bandwidth and storage. I wouldn't trade HostForWeb for any other hosting service, and they are the best I've been with in the near decade that I have been hosting websites.

Biggest Pro: excellent staff, uptime and backend
Biggest Con: a little more expensive than most

Previous reviews by ryan

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always there to help

All hosts I had been a part of before HostForWeb had abysmal technical service and caused me so many problems.

Since moving to HostForWeb, everything has been perfect. On the occassion that there is downtime, they are always there to explain what is going on and when it will be solved. If I need help with something, someone is always there to either answer my question or help me open a ticket. Problems are resolved swiftly.

Uptime is very impressive, there has never been a period of downtime longer than an hour that I have ever seen. The servers are fast and are never slowed - and I believe this is because they do NOT oversell their packages. Many hosts will offer "unlimited" bandwidth and space. This is obviously impossible and can be easily abused. I think HFW could increase what they offer for the price a little more, but I am glad they do not boast these ridiculous "unlimited" packages. Because of this their service is stable and fast.

By Ryan on June 26th, 2009 at 16:58 EST
URL: http://www.thebackalleys.com/ Customer for 3 - 5 years
Plan: Shared | Platform: Linux | Email: ryan@thebackalleys.com

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18 people voted yes

4 years and no problems

I'd say as a hosting company they are great, I've had a reseller account for years now, The only draw back is due to shared servers you sometimes get your mail accounts blacklisted due to something stupid the other users did but thats the nature of shared hosting.Down time has been minimal , I've had a few billing issues usally on my part not theirs they haven't shut me down due to lack ot payment anytime. They have been quick replied for most tech support issues. I like them would use them again and I still use them

Matt

Biggest Pro: Cost / flexiblity
Biggest Con: not able to get a live person on the phone

Worst web host ever

This company is utterly abysmal and completely incompetent, even at the manager level. My billing ticket is still unresolved after nearly 6 weeks and they continued to charge me after cancellation and lie about making the refund. Even the managers do not read the tickets. Worst customer service I have ever experienced in about 10 hosting companies during my lifetime. Avoid like the plague.

Biggest Pro: None
Biggest Con: Customer service are idiots that do not read your inquiry at all.

Impressed with Hostforweb

2007 is my third year with Hostforweb (HFW) and I have nothing but praise for them. I find their prices to be very reasonable, and I am satisfied with the level of uptime I receive (close to 100% from my experience).

Their support staff are the best I have experienced, with the problems I have faced (maybe a couple a year) all being resolved in quick time. Their live help is very efficient and the majority of smaller issues they are able to resolve. For other (larger) issues, an email is usually required to be sent, and from personal experience, response times would be, on average, under 30 minutes. Sometimes I have received replies within minutes.

HFW have online forums, and while I am not a regular visitor to them, when I do occasionally drop by, I am impressed to see the HFW staff asking the customers what they would like to see improved, for new ideas, and then taking on board what has been suggested.

My only suggestion to HFW would be to introduce a VPS plan that is lower than $40 a month, as it would lessen the gap between the most expensive shared plan ($20/month) and the lowest priced VPS plan ($40/month).

I would recommend Hostforweb to anybody currently looking for a webhost!

Biggest Pro: Support

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