Introduction
I have been a loyal Siteground customer for more than 5 years but finally decided to switch to Namehero. It’s not that I was dissatisfied with Siteground. Their services are fantastic, reliable yet premium priced. Customer care is great, too. No complaints here.
I’ve been using Sitegrounds Netherland data center, picked a static IP and mid-range WordPress hosting package. Not a single time did they let me down. My site was up literally 24/7 and I just paid my service fees. That’s it.
However, costs kept going up and I felt it was too much. I also didn’t like the fact that they don’t use CPANEL for managing backend services but rely on their own proprietary management tool.
There are few things you should be aware of when picking a web hosting company. And NONE of the common “web hosting review” websites will share those secrets with you.
How to REALLY pick a web hosting company
#1 Customer Care
I’d say that about 99% of the webhosts out there provide more or less reliable hosting services. That’s at least my personal experience. I tried them all including Godaddy, WestHost (been a customer for over 10 years), Sitground, HostGator, Bluehost…
Over the years I learned to ignore cool tech. Who cares if servers have 0.05ms faster response times. But what DOES matter is CUSTOMER SERVICE. That is the single MOST essential factor. Good customer service makes or breaks your experience. Imagine being stuck with a PHP problem and your site being offline for many hours. Even worse, if you build an e-commerce presence and rely on your store front. Not only will you lose reputation but your Google rankings may suffer. Or imagine your server being relocated or “upgraded” and things suddenly malfunction on your site. You only want to do business with a webhost who will be accountable and reachable.
Personally, I wouldn’t even host a personal, non-commercial blog with a company with poor customer care. Period.
So remember, customer care is the most important “feature” you want.
#2 Price
Web hosting companies usually heavily discount the first year of your hosting package. It’s not uncommon to see 50-70% discounts. Things look cheap. Sure, they want to get you on board. But as soon as the “honeymoon period” is over, you’ll be paying way more. Make sure you look at the regular rate after your first year of service. When I started with Siteground, I paid just a few Euros a month (yearly basis) but that price kept increasing massively.
#3 Data Security / Privacy
Don’t overlook this one. If you like within the EU or target an EU audience, you’re subject to GDP (General Data Protection) laws. Even simple violations may result in hefty fines. Those can destroy your existence. You cannot host sensitive customer data – and that includes logfiles with IP addresses anywhere you want. Imagine a simple data breach of your webhost and what that means to your buiness. Even a personal blog with a newsletter would put you at risk. That’s why you want a web hosting partner offering multiple data centers and strict adherence to data protection laws. Honestly, I’d even pay a bit more every month for peace of mind.
My Personal Experience with Namehero
I heard many great things about Namehero all over the web so I had to have a closer look. Sure, prices look absolutely amazing. But one thing attracted me even more which is their response time of under 2 hours.
So I gave them a try and switched from Siteground. To this date I have never received this level of professional and attentive customer service EVER! Namehereo was absolutely amazing in assisting me to get this blog up and running again. And I didn’t buy their most expensive plan.
I remember having two issues during site migration. One of them was in connection with a PHP mis-configuration (my mistake) and then a problem with the name servers. Namehero was able to fix these issues during a live chat session(!). It took only minutes to sort it out. I was blown away.
I initially forgot to choose the NL data center – Namehero fixed that, too. They re-provisioned my account on the different server and moved my entire blog over with no disruption. I couldn’t believe it. Wow.
Not only do I save over 50% compared to Siteground. I also enjoy premium customer service. I receive more than I paid for. I’m a happy customer and will continue using their services.
Please do yourself a favor and check out Namehero using this link. Note that I’m a PROUD affiliate because I stand 100% behind their philosopy of outstanding customer service. If you sign up through the above link, I may receive a commission which will be used to pay for maintenance of my blog. But even if you don’t use my link, I still highly recommend them – this is a company worthy of your business in my opinion. I will also migrate my domains to Namehero to have everything in a single place.