I have been thinking about this post for a very long time. Partially I have states my opinion for some hosting companies you shouldn't even visit, but today I'm going to try to set a bigger picture.
For those who don't know, Endurance International Group (EIG) is a company based in Burlington Massachusettss. The company has been quietly buying up some of the biggest web hosting companies for the past few years.
To date, EIG controls over 90 web hosting companies, including some of the biggest names in the field: HostGator, BlueHost, HostMonster, iPage, FatCow, JustHost, Arvixe, A Small Orange, HostNine and many others.
In the web hosting industry, there is a misconception that "the biggest and most established companies always offer the best in quality and service".
This may be true for some other companies, but it certainly does not apply to the web hosting industry.
So since we mentioned that a large part of the hosting companies are owned and operated by EIG, it is important to mention what exactly is going on behind the scenes.
EIG focuses on the web hosting companies market, which helps them grow their customer base. The acquired companies continue to operate under their previous names and do not disclose that they operate under the EIG umbrella.
Where does this help?
A dissatisfied customer leaves EIG 1 and looks for a new hosting provider.
The customer searches for the term best web hosting on Google and comes across them top 10 lists mostly made up of hosting companies owned by EIG (unbeknownst to them).
So he decides to buy hosting from the company EIG 2.
The end result is that EIG does not lose the customer! Repeat until the customer wakes up.
The following is a list of hosting companies owned by EIG.
2slick.com
AccountSupport
A Small Orange
ApolloHosting
AptHost
Arvixe
Berry Information Systems
Big Rock
BizLand
BlueDomino
BlueFur
BlueHost
BuyDomains
Cirtex Hosting
Cloud by IX
constant Contact
Directi
Dollar2Host
domain.com
DomainHost
Dot5Hosting
Dotster
easyCGI
eHost
EntryHost
Escalate Internet
FastDomain
Fatcow
FreeYellow
Glob @ t
Homestead
HostCentric
HostClear
Host Excellence
HostGator
HostMonster
HostNine
HostYourSite.com
HostV
HyperMart
IdeaHost
IMOutdoors
Impress.ly
Intuit Websites
iPage
IPOWER / iPowerWeb
IX Web Hosting
Justcloud
Justhost
LogicBoxes
MojoMarketplace
MyDomain
MyResellerHome
NetFirms
Network Web Hosting
Nexx
PowWeb
PureHost
ReadyHosting
ResellerClub
SEOGears
SEO Hosting
Site5
siteBuilder.com
Sitelio
Site
Southeast Web
Spry
StartLogic
SuperGreen Hosting
TypePad
USANetHosting
vdeck
Believed
VirtualAvenue
VPSLink
WebHost4Life
WebHosting.info
WebsiteBuilder.com
Webstrike Solutions
Webzai
World Wide Web Hosting
Xeran
YourWebHosting
We will update the above list with each EIG purchase.
All EIG companies are promoted with a lot of advertising (including paid reviews) and of course with amazing SEO. Their names appear first in Google results, so why the engine search it does not "sell" quality.
Examples
@hostgator - What a way to screw up a good thing. You used to be good. I am tired of the outages and EIG SUCKS! Time to move on!
- Debt RoundUp (@DebtRoundUp) August 2
Dumping Hostgator and Bluehost was definitely a great move. All EIG owned hosts just suck. Siteground will be ok until you have to renew and the price triples. Then its either pay and stay or move again 🤔
- Raj Ramdan (@rajramdanator) April 2, 2019
To add on, look up the hosting provider before you get it to see if it is owned by EIG (Endurance Investment Group).
They own 60% of the market and they suck.
I forgot Bluehost got bought by them. I won't forget again.
- Swordsfall - Still Here, and Not Going Anywhere (@ Swordsfall1) January 14, 2020
@asmallorange It is over... we are breaking up. Please fix my #server so that my new better #hosting company can move my stuff out. The years of neglect and indifference have added up #EIG. 😂😂😂 But seriously, you guys suck. Ticket: YYG-838-13149 pic.twitter.com/1wvTuhdOYK
- Michael J. Emery (@mikeeshift) May 22, 2018
@ConstantContact
Your service is not good. Really sucks. How can you deduct 24,711.56 after account cancellation?Dear Customer, your Account XX2254 has been debited with INR 24,711.56 on 21-OCT-18. Info: MSI * EIG * CONSTAN * 201810211857. #badcustomerservice pic.twitter.com/MZbQmVv08R
- Chirag (@chirag_buddy) October 21, 2018
EIG sucks.
— Shane Gentle (she/her) (@shane_gentle) March 23, 2020
Something was "stinking" to me with some of the companies you mention and you just came and confirmed it to me. All ads and come out first in comparative tests of well-known technology websites (e.g. https://www.techradar.com/web-hosting/best-web-hosting-service-websites) but many complaints from Internet users who used them.
I hope the ones you advertise too https://iguru.gr/2020/06/27/vps-cloud-hosting-prosfora-apo-iguru-gr/ do not have the same ending.
It would be good, if you have the opportunity, to combine some of the big ones (eg Azure, AWS, Google, OVH, Hetzner, Contabo, GoDaddy, etc)
how do you like the speed of iguru.gr? She is the one I advertise….
Azure, AWS, Google are out of competition due to price (approximate) OVH away and loved ones because they rode the rod (otherwise started and otherwise ended) .
The speed of iguru.gr is very good, but from what I understand (I am not 100% sure) 1st you use a lot of lite theme from WordPress and 2nd you use Cloudflare CDN?
Azure, AWS, Google I agree, they are expensive and have complicated setup, control panel, but when we talk about real cloud hosting these are the only ones (along with some Chinese eg Alibaba!).
I also agree with OVH, but together with Hetzner I consider them a top for large and critical installations, if you do not want to get involved with Azure, AWS, Google.
I will disagree with Contabo because they have improved a lot and at very good prices, I have tried their new VDS https://contabo.com/?show=vds and it is very good. The bad thing is that they do not have SLAs and, ok, they use Supermicro and not DELL or HP. But if the machine works, I do not care about its brand.
I mentioned GoDaddy because it is known as a name (mainly in England) but their support in Greece is a bit "strange"… the site is in Greek, they have 2 Greek phone numbers but the conversation is in English and in fact Indo-English (maybe to happen to me)!
the theme matters but not so much, it could have a bunch of images and again the results would be the same. Yes we use Cloudflare on every site for many different reasons. Hetzner guarantee if you use new servers and not used ones, which are cheap, but you do not know if someone has an SSD.
From Cloud, it has many good ones (try closte for WordPress, or Upcloud) My favorite is Prgmr. Simple but has amazing ttfb even though it is US.
I do not know Contabo.
As for performance, if you do not think about Google money
Because of my job I am looking for my clients VDS or Dedicated Server for Windows Server, MS SQL and IIS and Linux Server for MongoDB, RavenDB, monitoring, and to be Europe (because of speed but also legislation). I am not so different from sharing hosting.
Thanks anyway for the info.
no problem, it is good to say them in order to distinguish those who deserve from the swindlers
I've basically tried them all, and my start is far from canned. The fact that Godaddy has a Greek site does not say anything. We once had a translated Korean subdomain