HUGE Bluehost Sale - May 2018

[shaneisthename]

Hello everyone,

Bluehost is having a huge sale for all new signups, for as low as $3.95/mo

Signup now --> bluehost.com/

You can thank me later!

 

[ntjedge]

Price is always an issue I think they'd be too expensive for little me I definitely need cPanel included in the price.

If you are looking to host low-to-mid resources normal websites, wordpress sites, then try cpanel reseller hosting plans from BuyShared (part of BuyVM, FranTech). Priced perfectly, host as many sites as you want and also you get a dedicated IP and unlimited ssls for $4 a month. Good support, since the support team is the same as BuyVM.

 

[Name Trader]

If you are looking to host low-to-mid resources normal websites, wordpress sites, then try cpanel reseller hosting plans from BuyShared (part of BuyVM, FranTech). Priced perfectly, host as many sites as you want and also you get a dedicated IP and unlimited ssls for $4 a month. Good support, since the support team is the same as BuyVM.

looks promising

 

[daica85]

I don't see any VPS deals on DO either. Just their lowest price of $5. but no $2.50 deals.

If you create a new account at Vultr, you can get free $25 credit, plus $3 free with Twitter. It's total $28 free for new accounts. Link here: https://www.vultr.com/promo25b

 

[Name Trader]

Knownhost is best of the best. Amazing support. Fully managed, thus no cheap.
Also can vouch for Greencloudvps, but we're only using them for dev and SEO scripts so can't really say how are they with regular sites.

But probably admins could push this discussion now to another section.

It's becoming a tad difficult discussing KnownHosts plans in detail with their sales support staff. I cannot get answers to all of my questions without asking 2 or more times. Sometimes I've even had conflicting information.

 

[Name Trader]

OK. I got all my questions answered by KnownHost, eventually. I'm still waiting for reply (for 2 days) from BuyShared after posting from their website. But their offer on their website looks too cheap to include cPanel/WHM. It doesn't help to include unhelpful information, or not to reply to sales inquiries.

 

[greatdomain365]

Hello everyone,

Bluehost is having a huge sale for all new signups, for as low as $3.95/mo

Signup now --> bluehost.com/
There is 2 options , $2.95/Month or $5.95/Month there offer of $3.95/mo does not exist.
You can thank me later!

 

[Primary Names]

Good support, since the support team is the same as BuyVM.

It has been more than 24 hours. I too haven't heard back from their support. Usually not a good sign. No one live in their "live-chat". Its really sad as the packages were so impressive.

@stub Have you signed up with knownhost yet, any tips you could share from the answers you got ?

 

[ntjedge]

OK. I got all my questions answered by KnownHost, eventually. I'm still waiting for reply (for 2 days) from BuyShared after posting from their website. But their offer on their website looks too cheap to include cPanel/WHM. It doesn't help to include unhelpful information, or not to reply to sales inquiries.

Haha yes, that's true, their pricing is ridiculously low to include cPanel/WHM & a dedicated IP. I do have their $4/month reseller package in Luxembourg DC with them and it just works. If you want to know some of the sites running in the accounts, ping me and I will give you the list. I dunno about the live chat - never tried it. Whenever I have created a ticket, it's been handled fairly fast.

Things to note: I don't have any mission critical sites with them, just about a dozen lightweight HTML/WP Blogs & sites of some of my clients.

One more thing to note: They are not a big team, hardly 2-3 guys I believe. Mostly I get replies from the same guys so I guess they share the shifts among themselves.

Another note: The owner is fairly active on LET forums, that's where I got to interact with him. He has been in the industry for quite long.

Finally: Do your own research before you signup. What works for me, may not work for you

It has been more than 24 hours. I too haven't heard back from their support. Usually not a good sign. No one live in their "live-chat". Its really sad as the packages were so impressive.

@stub Have you signed up with knownhost yet, any tips you could share from the answers you got ?

 

[Primary Names]

I dunno about the live chat - never tried it. Whenever I have created a ticket, it's been handled fairly fast.

Generally one would expect to get a response if there is a chat widget. NOW, I understand that it may have be hooked with their secondary email or something. I will now sign up and create a ticket and try my luck.

I don't have any mission critical sites with them, just about a dozen lightweight HTML/WP Blogs & sites of some of my clients.

That is what exactly I have and need to shift from my old host due to performance issue. How would you rate their server performance in the scale of 1 to 10, in the $4 reseller package ?

Just out of curiosity - what is a LET forum ?

I really appreciate your response

 

[daica85]

Just out of curiosity - what is a LET forum ?

LET = LowEndTalk forum: https://www.LowEndTalk/

 

[ntjedge]

That is what exactly I have and need to shift from my old host due to performance issue. How would you rate their server performance in the scale of 1 to 10, in the $4 reseller package ?

Quite honestly, I would give them highest marks when comparing the features they offer for the price. Zero complaints so far. I would rate them a solid 9/10.

I have attached my uptime screenshot of my package there.

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

I know that a lot of the members here wouldn't touch 1&1 due to their service but I use their UK company Fasthosts for my hosting package.
They only recently were bought by 1&1 (couple of years probably) and as far as I have heard from some of my contacts, they are not integrated with the German systems so their service is excellent as far as I have experienced.
They are not cheap in comparison to other packages but they accept up to 100 sites on the biggest package, upgraded me to a low contention server and setting up things like catchall emails for your domains or setting up new user emails is also quite simple and included.

Only had to contact them once for an issue (of my causing) and I got through to someone quickly and they sorted it first time within minutes.

 

[Name Trader]

OK. I'm STILL talking with pre-sales support at KnownHost. at least 1 exchange per day. The problem has mostly been, they just don't make things crystal clear on their sales page, which has lead to many more questions than answers. And some questions I never seem to get an answer to. Or they tell me something is not my concern, even though I'm paying for it. The last exchange was quite heated from them. I think I'm within my rights to clarify every detail of the package I'm buying into. Especially since I've got to pay three years upfront to get the 50% discount. And they want to give me vague or no answers. Even mildly starting to abuse me. It's not acceptable. So I am probably pissing them off with all these questions. There is only 1 issue currently outstanding. Which is whether they upgrade CentOS 7 on their Reseller Packages as later updates to CentOS 7 are released. To date. I have never got a straight answer to this.

This has been a marathon slog with pre-sales to this point. I'm not saying the fault is all one way. But I do think, they think, I should pay the 3 years upfront and ask questions later. From all account from customers, it is almost impossible to get a refund out of them. Also, If I need to change specs, it's 3yrs at their full rate. Which isn't so attractive. So I want to be absolutely clear what I am signing up for. Personally, I think that is fair and reasonable. I don't think giving me an angry reply and telling me it's none of my concern, is good for their business. Perhaps they just think their product is so superior, that they are doing us a favor to allow us to use their services. That certainly has been my impression.

To be honest. I've been a tad surprised by the attitude of the pre-sales staff, after reading such glowing reviews of their support staff. If I sign up with them, I truely hope the glowing reports I've heard about their support staff are true. It's actually the reason I'm looking for fresh hosting. I get a totally overspecified VPS in the Cloud, from my current hosting, which would cost me much more in the open market, at a cheap price for the spec, because I've been thru all their upgrades. It's just their support staff almost never reply. It's driven me to distraction. Hence looking for better support. If I select KnownHost, it will be because of their glowing support from customers (which I crave). Not because of their slick (sic) pre-sales staff.

I never did get a reply from BuyShared. But they look a tad expensive when you add cPanel costs into the equation.

 

[Primary Names]

@stub which one did you end up with ?

 

[Name Trader]

@stub which one did you end up with ?

I would have chosen KnownHost.com if they hadn't tried to upsell me, simply for asking too many questions, and then moderately trying to rebuke me. I felt like they knew they had a good product, and they didn't need to actually be nice and answer my questions. I was only looking for 1 remaining question in the end. They thought I'd be happy paying 3 years up from, and not know what I was actually getting. Them whammo. This is not the package for you, you need to upgrade, at full price for 3 years. I'm always wary if somebody doesn't actually answer the question I asked. It's always better for it to be specifically stated beforehand.

I was as the same time, asking my existing host questions, which sounded like I had a bargain of a deal (at 2.5 times the price) and overspecified but no 3 year sword of damacles being held over my head. But with crappy support.

So I've put the decision in limbo. I'm cogitating

 

[Primary Names]

@stub thanks for sharing your experience.

For now, I have decided to move on with buyhared's $4 reseller package just because I am exhausted by the search and could not find a better alternative in such a price. Mostly the decision is influenced by the fact that an NP member is confident about their services. I definitely want to test out knownhost too, may be within a month's time for a pending project.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Name Trader]

@stub thanks for sharing your experience.

For now, I have decided to move on with buyhared's $4 reseller package just because I am exhausted by the search and could not find a better alternative in such a price. Mostly the decision is influenced by the fact that an NP member is confident about their services. I definitely want to test out knownhost too, may be within a month's time for a pending project.

Thanks everyone.

Personally I think Known Host offer was better than BuyShared's after you add-in cPanel. It was a good offer using LiteSpeed. Which not everyone offers.

But it's the 3 year commitment up front which is the gamble. I wasn't prepared to take that risk (in case they wanted to upgrade me because they wouldn't specify whatever I was asking for to be clarified) before going for the 3 yr contact deal. If what they refused (by ignoring my request) to specify, was not included (but it probably was), I'm not prepared to add a 3 year upgrade at full price, for something that's bait and switch tactics.. I know what that feels like. So we were maybe very close to a deal, but leaving things unspecified to me is an absolute, no no, for me. When they are asking me to pay a full 3 year contract, up front.

I admit I probably pestered their sale people. more than most. But to ask at least 3 times, in some cases, is not what I'm accustomed to. I expect straight talking sales support. And to leave questions unanswered, isn't acceptable to me, when I'm being asking to sign and pay for a 3 year contract upfront. Good Deal or not (Bait 'n Switch)

Also. I never, ever did get an answer to my inquiry on BuyShared's website. So that was anyway out of the question.

 

[Name Trader]

@stub thanks for sharing your experience.

For now, I have decided to move on with buyhared's $4 reseller package just because I am exhausted by the search and could not find a better alternative in such a price. Mostly the decision is influenced by the fact that an NP member is confident about their services. I definitely want to test out knownhost too, may be within a month's time for a pending project.

Thanks everyone.

Let us know how it works out?

 

[ntjedge]

@stub thanks for sharing your experience.

For now, I have decided to move on with buyhared's $4 reseller package just because I am exhausted by the search and could not find a better alternative in such a price. Mostly the decision is influenced by the fact that an NP member is confident about their services. I definitely want to test out knownhost too, may be within a month's time for a pending project.

Thanks everyone.

Try it out and let us know your experience with them. I am pretty sure it will be a good one for you

 

[ntjedge]

Personally I think Known Host offer was better than BuyShared's after you add-in cPanel. It was a good offer using LiteSpeed. Which not everyone offers.

But it's the 3 year commitment up front which is the gamble. I wasn't prepared to take that risk (in case they wanted to upgrade me because they wouldn't specify whatever I was asking for to be clarified) before going for the 3 yr contact deal. If what they refused (by ignoring my request) to specify, was not included (but it probably was), I'm not prepared to add a 3 year upgrade at full price, for something that's bait and switch tactics.. I know what that feels like. So we were maybe very close to a deal, but leaving things unspecified to me is an absolute, no no, for me. When they are asking me to pay a full 3 year contract, up front.

I admit I probably pestered their sale people. more than most. But to ask at least 3 times, in some cases, is not what I'm accustomed to. I expect straight talking sales support. And to leave questions unanswered, isn't acceptable to me, when I'm being asking to sign and pay for a 3 year contract upfront. Good Deal or not (Bait 'n Switch)

Also. I never, ever did get an answer to my inquiry on BuyShared's website. So that was anyway out of the question.

May I ask which exact service are you looking for? Is it a shared hosting product or a vps?

I checked the vps plans by knownhost and they look nice. What are the questions you asked their sales team that they are asking you to upgrade?

 

[Name Trader]

May I ask which exact service are you looking for? Is it a shared hosting product or a vps?

I checked the vps plans by knownhost and they look nice. What are the questions you asked their sales team that they are asking you to upgrade?

I have a VPS at the moment but my requirements are probably only Reseller Hosting. The VPS uses VMWare Managed Cloud Hosting (Which is considerably better than the KVM offered by Known Host) with 2 cores (not shared) and 200gb vSAN (with excellent redundancy), 1.5gb RAM (not shared), 2xIPV4 addresses, free SSL's on each Domain (a WHM feature I believe), unlimited domains, but lousy support (which I was looking to change). Cost $26/month which is a special rate because I've grown with them as they expanded. But probably over-specified for my needs.

The half a question I couldn't get a reply from, (because they were concentrating on belittling me), was "Would my Shared CentOS 7.x ever be upgraded to a newer CentOS 7.x+1...7.9. on the Reseller Cloud Hosting Package. They would never answer that question directly, and only just danced around the question. Surely this is an answerable question, even if it has caveats? Every other question, and there were quite a few, were answered eventually, but it might be a tad difficult to consolidate them all from probably 20 or more replies from 4or5 different individuals.

I am comparing my current VPS package $26/month with no commitment and better infrastructure, lousy support, no DDoS protection (I'm aware of) with Known Host's RS-2 package at $9.97/month x 36 = $358.92 (which is 50% discount) with free DDoS protection (with apparently good support). But I'd question that by the percentages of questions I asked sales support, which got answered without clarification. And the risk they are going to upsell me a package at full retail prices after a few months. They did say they would credit (not refund) any unused amount. But even jumping to RS-3 after 3 months would mean $29.95-$9.97x 33 months = $659.34+ 9.97x3 (1st 3 months) =$689.26 for 36 months compared to the $358.92 I committed to only 3 months earlier.

It's my opinion, they don't specify exactly what you are getting, hoping you will under-specify your requirements, so that they can upsell you a larger package at 100% pricing. This is only my impression. They may be the truest blue hosting company on the planet. But my interaction with their sales department didn't cement that fact into my mind.

 

[ntjedge]

I have a VPS at the moment but my requirements are probably only Reseller Hosting. The VPS uses VMWare Managed Cloud Hosting (Which is considerably better than the KVM offered by Known Host) with 2 cores (not shared) and 200gb vSAN (with excellent redundancy), 1.5gb RAM (not shared), 2xIPV4 addresses, free SSL's on each Domain (a WHM feature I believe), unlimited domains, but lousy support (which I was looking to change). Cost $26/month which is a special rate because I've grown with them as they expanded. But probably over-specified for my needs.

The half a question I couldn't get a reply from, (because they were concentrating on belittling me), was "Would my Shared CentOS 7.x ever be upgraded to a newer CentOS 7.x+1...7.9. on the Reseller Cloud Hosting Package. They would never answer that question directly, and only just danced around the question. Surely this is an answerable question, even if it has caveats? Every other question, and there were quite a few, were answered eventually, but it might be a tad difficult to consolidate them all from probably 20 or more replies from 4or5 different individuals.

I am comparing my current VPS package $26/month with no commitment and better infrastructure, lousy support, no DDoS protection (I'm aware of) with Known Host's RS-2 package at $9.97/month x 36 = $358.92 (which is 50% discount) with free DDoS protection (with apparently good support). But I'd question that by the percentages of questions I asked sales support, which got answered without clarification. And the risk they are going to upsell me a package at full retail prices after a few months. They did say they would credit (not refund) any unused amount. But even jumping to RS-3 after 3 months would mean $29.95-$9.97x 33 months = $659.34+ 9.97x3 (1st 3 months) =$689.26 for 36 months compared to the $358.92 I committed to only 3 months earlier.

It's my opinion, they don't specify exactly what you are getting, hoping you will under-specify your requirements, so that they can upsell you a larger package at 100% pricing. This is only my impression. They may be the truest blue hosting company on the planet. But my interaction with their sales department didn't cement that fact into my mind.

Usually when it comes to shared hosting (shared web hosting/reseller web hosting) all software/OS/DBs/security etc are maintained upgraded by the provider. It's their responsibility. The user anyway does not have access to them. So in case of CentOS upgrade, yes it is their responsibility and they will do it as per their convenience/upgrade schedule (you can't ask them to do it when you want it though). And I have also seen providers neglecting this, running outdated OS/software versions for a long long time - stay far away from them.

When it comes to vps, if it is a managed service then the managed service is clearly defined as to what is included. Usually most providers have upgrades & maintenance as part of their managed service. For unmanaged vps the user is wholly responsible.

I am not sure whether you were enquiring with knownhost about the upgrade of OS for a vps plan or the reseller hosting plan. Usually the reseller hosting plan is considered shared hosting so it's their responsibility. Eitherways, I think their sales team should be a able to clarify this - this is basic info.

 

[ntjedge]

Ok I got it now.

Would my Shared CentOS 7.x ever be upgraded to a newer CentOS 7.x+1...7.9. on the Reseller Cloud Hosting Package.

For reseller cloud hosting plan, they should be doing that unless you are getting root access to do the same yourself.

One more thing to note is that most providers will only upgrade to the next major stable release of the OS only. So some minor releases are skipped.

 

[Primary Names]

Let us know how it works out?

Try it out and let us know your experience with them. I am pretty sure it will be a good one for you

As of now my requirements are around a dozen small-to-medium level customised sites built on wp for clients and a couple of self-coded beta-level saas apps running on simple LAMP stack, with moderate traffic. So nothing too resource-heavy. Although I do not require cutting-edge backend-stack for this, I still expect a decent level of performance.

I intend to keep things switchable with a fallback mechanism in place and regular auto-backups, in case of worst case scenarios. So yeah, this will be a test run in a controlled environment. I do have somewhat serious plans to expand / upgrade if things keep smooth for at least three months.

I will keep myself subscribed to this thread so I will post status updates now and then.

@ntjedge I just hope they have not denied SSH access.

 

[ntjedge]

@ntjedge I just hope they have not denied SSH access.

I don't need ssh access for any of the sites currently hosted there so never asked them. Have you talked to their support?