But according to my experience Siteground is so much better than bluehost. Their support is amazing and their servers are fast.

I have had terrible experience with Bluehost, I would stay away from them.

You’re perhaps right about my “apples” comparison, Fred, though I do think it behooves you to avoid looking like you’re trying to milk the referral cow, and to be honest this article seemed a bit milkier to me than some others that mention Siteground (and I do look at your site with some regularity), but I’ll accept that I may have become a bit hypersensitive to these things.

At any rate, thanks for taking the idea of transparency seriously. There are, as you say, a *lot* of junk articles on the web trying to milk referrals without any real pursuit of truth, and I really do think that being up front about how and why you use referrals, such as how you did in your “About the Reviewer” disclosure, increases considerably the appearance of credibility. In the long run, I think its presence will be a net positive for your brand.

Damn all those affiliate websites recommending a poor service.

Siteground: Very happy in the 6 months so far that I’ve been using them. What a relief.

Actually I tried Site Ground, and phone support started off quick, but that heartbeat got tiring when I got redirected to leave a message. Also the GoGeek just did not cut it with no WebHostPanel which one uses to separate domains to their respective cpanels. I think its an option to get a reseller account but the price is astronomical. And any security checking software was an Optional extra on top of the price. If I had only 1 domain I might have got by with SiteGround.com

However I also tried A2Hosting.com, its not at the top of your lists, but it did have a server rewind, and it did include checking for security issues included in the package and emailed me of some security updates that SiteGround did not seem to address as I did not buy the additional option.

With SiteGround GoGeek I was attempting to use their automated tool to move domains and using support because it wasn’t working 100%. With A2Hosting they let me do a cpanel backup of each of my domains directed to their servers and then they finished the restore process and voila they were all nicely placed in the WebHostPanel there. I gave myself 3 months overlap with my previous hosting company which was greatly helpful. (I use a different location MyDomain.com to look after my domain dns so was able to easily able to point 1st to one then the other) I do find telephone support slower with A2Hosting but it just seems to work better to type a ticket, so one can have a written trail when issues need resolving.

My real life experience was I quit Site Ground within 30 days so was able to cancel the long term contract, though I did end up about 30 days of fees out, but it may be due to currency fluctuations between US and CAD dollar. It was well worth it to know I found something better for myself, A2Hosting.com

That is the main reason I have been using my hosts’s RESELLER plans for more than a decade now – each site gets their own cpanel.

It is only rarely my clients need to get to their cpanel, but when they do, I don’t want them getting to the cpanel for ALL my sites.

Don’t get me wrong, I used to be a Bluehost affiliate and evangelist from 2006 until 2015 or so. One time I had an issue and emailed Matt Heaton, the former CEO, who was very responsive.

When the company was sold to EIG, isn’t began sliding downhill in several areas:

* The low price is achieved by disabling several standard cPanel features and reselling them back as extras.
* Any perceived security issue (an e-mail address they don’t like), and they will shut off features without telling you. One company could not figure out why no leads were contacting them via a web form, only to discover that Bluehost had turned off email sent by WordPress. This was very costly until it was discovered.
* Bluehost is a magnet for attacks, and provides no real security. If your server gets infected by malware which could even be a virus attached to an email that you did not open, your complete service is shut down, only to be reinstated if you can clean the issue yourself. They try to sell you expensive cleaning and security products at this point.

* If you want e-commerce they will make you buy their static IP and SSL cert (last I checked – this may not be true anymore).
* No backups or expert WordPress support is provided (backups are an add-on and not WP specific.

A good host will cost more – although not more than EIG hosts once you have the required add-ons.

Questions to ask before you buy:

* Does the company specialize in professional WordPress for business?
* Who does security and uptime monitoring?
* Who does backups, and where are they stored?
* Is there security against hacks and malware?
* Who keeps core software, plugins, themes, frameworks, etc. upgraded? Who will tell you if a plugin has degraded and should be replaced?
* Who provides tech support? Do they understand WordPress for business?
* Will they scale with your business or tell you that you are out of bandwidth right when you need it?

A good host will not just sell you space on a server and hope you know what you are doing. They are an essential team member that cares about your success.

The issues with a bad hosting company can be ameliorated somewhat, by having a good care plan and support provider.

OB Disclaimer: I provide enterprise-grade WordPress hosting and care plans at johnsimmonshypertext.com

I’m on your mailing list and look at your newsletters somewhat regularly, so I’m starting to get the idea that SG referrals are your only reliable source of income. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I have nothing against taking referrals if you’re providing quality and relatively unbiased content, but the relationship to quality and non-bias is at best tenuous with this piece. And at the very least you should be very transparent about it with clear disclaimers about referrals – the absence of them just makes you look manipulative.