Hannah.nu

Hosting Reviews

It's useful to hear a client's story when you're looking for a web host. While these aren't the best reviews (I'm probably stretching it a bit by calling the reviews in the first place) but I've done my best to share what I've been through with all my hosts. I've been with four different providers and here I'll share my experiences with each, starting with my first host and ending with my current hosts.

Active Web Hosting

I cancelled my hosting with AWH in December 2006. It's been a long time since I was hosted with them, so I can't offer the best review, but I'll try my best. AWH offers "unlimited" space and bandwidth, and to get PHP access you had to request a sub-domain to be created at cgi.your-domain.com and that was the only place you could use it. I was starting to discover PHP at the time and this turned out to be a con that eventually convinced me to cancel and switch to a provider with immediate access to PHP.

DreamHost

Early on, Dreamhost was really a dream host. I never had any serious issues with them (looking back, any downtime I complained about was rare and quick, I just had no life). They oversold hosting, sure, but I ended up on a server that wasn't being abused by other clients. My favorite thing about DH was that you could click a button and DH would change your MX records to point to Google Apps for you (I'm lazy).
Why did I leave DH? Simply because it didn't have cPanel. Freelance clients and hostees used to cPanel were confused by DH's setup. I also could not resell my hosting, which I can now do for freelance clients. I was also worried about the fact that DH oversells and that at some point, the other clients on my server would use up the space and bandwidth and there would be serious issues. So, really, I left DH on mostly good terms. I was just looking for something a little different.

GeekStorage

I purchased the cheapest reseller from GS ($15/mo) and they transferred my files for me (I had to transfer MySQL data since my previous host, DreamHost, didn't have cPanel). I submitted a ticket with a list of the domains and sub-domains I wanted transferred but they ignored me and transferred it all (I'd already transferred Geekish.nu so they overrode it and caused problems).
They aren't great at responding to tickets (I waited almost 24 hours for a response to an urgent issue) and it seems that they only have two support techs (at least, in the tons of tickets I had to submit for problems, only two guys ever answered). Then, for about a month or so, I had a lot of downtime and my complaining eventually got me moved to a server with lightning speed and no downtime. I eventually moved to Holdfire, though, for financial reasons. I had been trying and trying to get a refund for the downtime that I had had, as their policy states that I could get one for the amount of time that my sites were down. I had submitted tickets about this a while before cancelling. However, after cancelling, I went back and looked for the tickets because I couldn't remember why it hadn't been resolved, to find that they had been deleted. There is a small chance that there was a glitch, but I had submitted numerous tickets throughout my time of being there, and comparing to the copies of the tickets in my email, that was the only one that had disappeared. I submitted yet another ticket about the downtime and was told again that they would look into it. I replied after a few days and asked if it was being looked at- nothing. After one week, I wrote a pissed off reply ending with "I don't see what's so hard about taking a glance at the screenshots I gave you and sending me a few bucks. Jesus." and that's what got me my money. I guess they wanted to shut me up so they sent me the refund for the downtime plus for the amoutn I had paid to renew my account shortly before cancelling. I finally got my refund, but I would not trust Geekstorage.

Holdfire

Holdfire has been nothing but awesome. When I was hosted with Dreamhost, I did a panic-y switch to Holdfire and got overwhelmed by cPanel and moved back to the host I was familiar to. The owner, Jordan, was very helpful throughout, but I was too dumb (lol) to stay with Holdfire that time. In Just 2008, though, I went to buy a .nu domain (this very domain!) and went with Holdfire (because Dreamhost didn't sell them and that was my registrar of choice then). Then, I went with GeekStorage as my host and when things were going downhill financially for me (and I was getting annoyed by GS), I realized I didn't need to pay $15/mo for hosting and GS had no cheaper reseller options (and wouldn't merge my reseller accounts into a shared). I contacted Holdfire inquiring about a transfer. You can figure out where the story ends up now. I'm still with Holdfire and I intend to be as long as it is possible. Go Holdfire!
As of August 2009, Holdfire is offering free master reseller access to all resellers. You can bet I am very happy. In July, I switched to a custom reseller because I was barely using any resources on my Alpha plan. I now have a master resller account and I'm only paying $42/year.

Bubble.nu

I have had a few of my sites hosted at Bubble for a few months: magic.witchling.org and studio.skyness.org. I am allowed three hosting accounts there for being a staff member. I praise Bubble for hosting so many people for free and giving them cPanel. I have had no downtime since I've been hosted and everything runs smoothly. I definitely recommend Bubble for those in need of free hosting!