BlueHost vs HostMonster

[DaHiA]

all of us know that hostmonster (http://hostmonster.com) is a bluehost subsidiary with same plan features except for:
*unlimited domains

believe or not, the monthly fees there goes down to $4.95 instead of bluehost's monthly fees $6.95

i'd scratching my head trying to find out why there is a gab?
same servers, same datacenter,same IP ranges,same bandwidth provider ELI/XO, same staff,same CEO

so why is the difference !! :confused:

[areidmtm]

BH is on better servers and hardware (that's what I've heard, not an official BH answer) and BH users have first priority.

[fedor]

I was going to make a thread similar like that but I was afraid bluehost would get mad:o

[DaHiA]

moderators are wise and reasonable enough to grant us space to run our whatever-discussions :)
--
so,as i thought, it's possible that bluehost invests its old equipments for a lower cost and it's okay to cover the expenses of renewals and upgradings

maybe that''s why i found out that hostmonster's boxes have around 600-800 websites at peak while the number jump up to 900-1000+ with bluehost more advanced stuff

i wonder if blue host will kill hostmonster's catch-all emails too or will let it LiVE ! :rolleyes:

[areidmtm]

No the catch-all on HM will be gone too

[fedor]

We also have these competitors
IX webhosting
Dot 5 Hosting

Thats all:)

[DaHiA]

We also have these competitors
IX webhosting
Dot 5 Hosting

Thats all:)
what about those provider? more economic you meant !

[magpie2419]

I was going to make a thread similar like that but I was afraid bluehost would get mad:o

They dont get mad they just delete the post, thats what happened last time this discussion was held, one of the reasons I dont post as much as I used to, and why I also signed up with a brand new host and have started moving my sites away. Freedom of speech my A**e!!.

I will probably keep both accounts running, but quite frankly I am very impressed with my new host. And very unimpressed with the decline in Bluehost over the last few months. Bluehost used to be excellent and I really hope they go back to the way they were.

[Subah]

I still say BLUEHOST is the best :)

[magpie2419]

I still say BLUEHOST is the best :)

No they used to be the best, but there are better and cheaper around now, but I still hope they go back to how they used to be, thats why Im still waiting around, to see if things improve.

[areidmtm]

Changing hosts because your posts on a user to user forum where customer support and the admins don't come to post, seams asinine to me.

I will basically let anyone post anything as long as it's constructive. Threads somehow always end up flaming and bashing bluehost. That's not the point here. As you can tell, there are still a lot of threads about down time and such and if you also notice that I have been more lax on deleting posts. The posts that still end up saying "I hate this. Bluehost sucks and I'm leaving", then that's usually what gets deleted. Some may not agree, but we live in a world where not everyone is gong to be happy. If someone just came here post that they think BH sucks and they are leaving, no one really cares and that's not helpful. If they want to leave, then leave and leave it at that. Don't come here and post ridiculous things like that.

I don't want to be the moderator that everyone hates, but I am acting on what they told me to do when I first started doing this. I only do what I am told, no more no less. I want to make this a happy place where people can share their problems and options, but not everyone plays by the rules and can keep things calm and constructive. At the point where it gets pointless and goes no where, then it doesn't need to stick around. Some people may say censoring and may say it gives a false impression of BH, but so does having threads like that.

I have reluctantly slowed my deleting finger and just observing what happens. So lets just all play nice and we will all be happy and have a bit less stress in our lives :D

P.S. I was told to keep hostmonster on a bit of a low down here on the forums, but anyone that is smart will obviously see that they are owned by the same person. Recently, I was told that it really doesn't matter. So talk about all you want ;)

[Early Out]

I have reluctantly slowed my deleting finger...I've noticed that. A suggestion for a compromise position - sometimes, simply locking a thread is the way to go.

Let's say there's a big nameserver failure that affects a lot of customers. A bunch of them swarm in here, and add a lot of "me too" posts to a thread about it. But when the problem is fixed, the moderator, instead of deleting the thread, just posts, "This problem has now been fixed, so I'm locking this thread." Or, even if the problem continues, "BH is aware of this problem, and is working to fix it. Knowing how many people are having the problem won't help it get fixed, so I'm locking this thread." Then, when it is fixed, unlock, post that info, and relock. The catch, of course, is that you have to have good access to the BH support folks, so you know what the status of things is, and since you're not a BH employee, I realize that might be tough.

Deleting the thread makes it look like BH is trying to hide the fact that they had a problem. Leaving it in place, but locking it, prevents it from turning into a free-for-all.

[areidmtm]

I've noticed that. A suggestion for a compromise position - sometimes, simply locking a thread is the way to go.

Let's say there's a big nameserver failure that affects a lot of customers. A bunch of them swarm in here, and add a lot of "me too" posts to a thread about it. But when the problem is fixed, the moderator, instead of deleting the thread, just posts, "This problem has now been fixed, so I'm locking this thread." Or, even if the problem continues, "BH is aware of this problem, and is working to fix it. Knowing how many people are having the problem won't help it get fixed, so I'm locking this thread." Then, when it is fixed, unlock, post that info, and relock. The catch, of course, is that you have to have good access to the BH support folks, so you know what the status of things is, and since you're not a BH employee, I realize that might be tough.

Deleting the thread makes it look like BH is trying to hide the fact that they had a problem. Leaving it in place, but locking it, prevents it from turning into a free-for-all.

Yeah I agree with what you're saying and locking the thread and posting an explanation sounds like a better idea. Unfortunately, my contact with BH is about as good as everyone else's.

But thanks for the suggestions and I differently use it. Thanks!

[magpie2419]

Changing hosts because your posts on a user to user forum where customer support and the admins don't come to post, seams asinine to me.

I will basically let anyone post anything as long as it's constructive. Threads somehow always end up flaming and bashing bluehost. That's not the point here. As you can tell, there are still a lot of threads about down time and such and if you also notice that I have been more lax on deleting posts. The posts that still end up saying "I hate this. Bluehost sucks and I'm leaving", then that's usually what gets deleted. Some may not agree, but we live in a world where not everyone is gong to be happy. If someone just came here post that they think BH sucks and they are leaving, no one really cares and that's not helpful. If they want to leave, then leave and leave it at that. Don't come here and post ridiculous things like that.

I don't want to be the moderator that everyone hates, but I am acting on what they told me to do when I first started doing this. I only do what I am told, no more no less. I want to make this a happy place where people can share their problems and options, but not everyone plays by the rules and can keep things calm and constructive. At the point where it gets pointless and goes no where, then it doesn't need to stick around. Some people may say censoring and may say it gives a false impression of BH, but so does having threads like that.

I have reluctantly slowed my deleting finger and just observing what happens. So lets just all play nice and we will all be happy and have a bit less stress in our lives :D

P.S. I was told to keep hostmonster on a bit of a low down here on the forums, but anyone that is smart will obviously see that they are owned by the same person. Recently, I was told that it really doesn't matter. So talk about all you want ;)
I said ONE of the reasons not the only reason, probably my sites being down no answer from support and a general decline helped me decide to cover my bases and get a second host. To be honest delete as many of my posts as you want, no problem for me. As i said I dont post that often anymore.

My piont was not flaming Bluehost, I was pionting out that this discussion had already been had, and had been deleted. Now you are saying its allowed fine, again no problem from me.

Im only doing what Im told? I dont know how many times youve said Im not working for Bluehost.

Anyway I am not going to get into a piontless flame war I will go to Alt.flame for that. I have no problem with Bluhost up until recently they were great, as I pointed out earlier the high levels of service and uptime they had before have fallen dramatically, hopefully they will improve, if not I need to keep my sites online Hence a second host, just incase.

I happen to think you do a good job as Moderator just a bit abrupt and heavy handed somtimes. But someone has to do the job and it looks like the others never bother, and I also dont think anyone hates you by the way I certainly dont.

[areidmtm]

I better clarify that my post wasn't necessarily directed at you. It was more of a "just saying" type of thing. I can understand leaving because of other problems. I just have heard people leaving because just of that. If this were a forum officially for customer support and it was an active part of the techs and admin's to manage this forum, then I could understand leaving because of deleted posts.

But thanks for your comments! :)

[magpie2419]

I better clarify that my post wasn't necessarily directed at you. It was more of a "just saying" type of thing. I can understand leaving because of other problems. I just have heard people leaving because just of that. If this were a forum officially for customer support and it was an active part of the techs and admin's to manage this forum, then I could understand leaving because of deleted posts.

But thanks for your comments! :)

No problem :D

[fedor]

What is your host anyways? Just curious (OMG curiosity killed the cat:eek: )

[Demo]

blue host seems fine to me, tho this is my first hosting plan (paid plan) i'm happy with them, every now and then i'll have down time or can't connect to my site but hey that's gonna happen sometimes and you can't help it, i'm sticking with bluehost as long as i'm running my sites.

[Early Out]

Finding a more reliable host is a tricky business. You can look at reviews that describe things in glowing terms: "Yes, MyBigFatHost is a great service, offering oodles of space, 24/7 professional help, blah, blah, blah..." You see great user reviews, and appreciative comments on their user forums. But then you notice posts like this:

"Boy, I really love MyBigFatHost! They're the best. Whenever the server that hosts my website goes down, they get it up and running again pretty quickly, usually the same day. I'm a happy camper!"

That's when it dawns on you that not everyone has the same concept of "reliable!"

[magpie2419]

What is your host anyways? Just curious (OMG curiosity killed the cat:eek: )

Google reseller and zoom and you will find it.

[magpie2419]

Finding a more reliable host is a tricky business. You can look at reviews that describe things in glowing terms: "Yes, MyBigFatHost is a great service, offering oodles of space, 24/7 professional help, blah, blah, blah..." You see great user reviews, and appreciative comments on their user forums. But then you notice posts like this:

"Boy, I really love MyBigFatHost! They're the best. Whenever the server that hosts my website goes down, they get it up and running again pretty quickly, usually the same day. I'm a happy camper!"

That's when it dawns on you that not everyone has the same concept of "reliable!"

I agree finding a new host is not easy, this is my second year with Bluehost, and there has been a fall in service, they are getting too big too fast and dont have the infrastructure or support in place to deal with it.
They were excellent and I hope they will get on top of this problem, Im sure Matt will sort it out eventually, but I cannot have my sites keep going offline or taking a couple of mins to open a simple HTML page, and trying to get support is getting to be impossible.

Lets hope they get these things fixed because it is a good honest company and up until recently they were very good. I have mirrored my sites on another host just incase things get worse here, I was caught out once before when something similar to this happend, I will make sure I have my Ass covered this time :o.

[Frusis]

BH is on better servers and hardware (that's what I've heard, not an official BH answer) and BH users have first priority.

I thought that might be the case too. However, I asked support a month or so ago and they assured me the servers on HostMonster weren't inferior in any way. (I pretended to be a potential HostMonster customer...)

I'm not annoyed about HostMonster customers having unlimited domains as I still have plenty leftover on my BlueHost plan. Furthermore, the extra domains would only be useful to a small minority of customers. What does irk me is the price of the HostMonster plan. If BlueHost has established they can profitably offer their services for a lesser price, I think they have an obligation to do this for all their customers. What they've done somehow feels like a betrayal.

I know technically everyone could ditch BlueHost and change to HostMonster... However, this is A LOT of hard work. BlueHost is effectively punishing customers that set themselves up on BlueHost for the long haul… Customers that trusted they'd benefit from the new plans and prices BlueHost would release in the future.

I know that creating multiple sister companies is a common trend throughout the industry and certainly not unique to BlueHost. AN Hosting is Midphase, Dot 5 Hosting is StartLogic, IX Hosting is Host Excellence etc. (Why create a new plan when you can create a sister company? *cough cough*) However, these companies offer roughly the same value for money... Or they're better in one aspect and worse in another. It's not like customers on Midphase will be pissed at those on AN Hosting.
Unfortunately this is not the case with BlueHost. The company that offers more (HostMonster) charges less. That's where my problem lies. It’s a slap in the face for no reason.

[areidmtm]

Bluehost is geared to a different user base, more of a heavy user thing. Bluehost is Matt's (The CEO) baby. Matt always talks about bluehost and I believe is more dedicated to bluehost. Not saying that he inst at all to hostmonster. I think that you'd get better support with BH and a better looking cPanel, anyway.

I feel that HM is the less of BH, in BH's shadow. Personally, I'd rather stay with BH then switch to HM.

[Frusis]

I think that you'd get... a better looking cPanel, anyway.

I agree with that part! From the demo the HostMonster cPanel theme is quite, well, erm... interesting!

[dougkc]

You people do not know what a bad provider is. My first webhost was readyhosting.com. I was happy with what they offered at first, but started to out grow what they had to offer. The nail in the coffin was they did not allow you any MySQL databases on their $99 per year plan. The only advantage they had over bluehost was unlimited email accounts. When I told readyhosting I was leaving, they kept pounding that point home. I only use a few email accounts, but use many forwarders to those accounts. I do not see myself using up those 2500 accounts even if I quit using forwarders.

Yes, there has been some downtime. Guess what I had it with readyhosting also. I am a network engineer with a utility. You are always going to have some downtime. You do eveything to limit it, but it will happen. Is bluehost's downtime higher that it should be? Yes, but from Matt's email we now know why. I am amazed they did not have more downtime lately, since I now know they were moving to a new datacenter.

Customer service is not as good as it used to be. Guess what, they were moving their datacenter and that was their top priority. I am surprised they did the MailFounder change while working on or getting ready for the datacenter move. As they cleanup those issues that will always be there after a datacenter move, I believe we will see customer service go back to what we were use to 6 or 8 monthes ago. If I fault bluehost for anything, it was not letting us know the datacenter move was happening. I think their customers would have been a little more understanding if they would have been told about it or at least those of us that understand what a huge job that is.

As far as the as hostmonster being cheaper and offering more. If you need more domains, then by all means move to hostmonster. If you are upset they are $2 dollars a month cheaper, then move to hostmonster. I myself am quite happy with bluehost. I have all the domains I can use for now, more email accounts than I even think I will even need, uptime in a range I am happy with, decent customer service that I believe will return to great customer service and at a price I am happy to pay every month. If that changes, then I too will start looking for another provider, but I doubt that will ever happen.

[Frusis]

Hey dougkc... You do realise that HostMonster & BlueHost are run by the same people in the same datacentre. Matt owns them both. I certainly wasn't calling BlueHost a bad provider. I was upset that Matt is offering a discount to some, yet not all, of his customers. I seriously don't understand why your tone is so negative! If you want to pay more than you have to for a service, then do so... However, you can't blame the people that don't.

[fedor]

Well hostmonster isn't all that grate I tried a demo:o
But why did matt do this (standard marketing technique?:rolleyes:) Joking:p

[dougkc]

Frusis, this is something that goes on all the time. Why is he doing it? I am sure some business plan said it was a good idea. Time will tell if there are differences between the two companies besides the cheaper price and more domains. I know I would expect better support to be given to the users who pay more. If that does not happen, then people will slowly move from Bluehost to Hostmonster and Bluehost will eventually die.

[areidmtm]

If any of them would die, it would be HM. (Not that any one of them is going to die) BH is Matt's baby and he is not about to loose bluehost. BH has a bigger name than HM. From what I've been told from customers, services is better at BH.

[aceofspades]

so whats the dif between hm and BH. Its owned by the same people and is 2 bucks less yet the plan is identical.

Its not that i want to go to hm but im just wonderin' what is going on.

[areidmtm]

so whats the dif between hm and BH. Its owned by the same people and is 2 bucks less yet the plan is identical.

Its not that i want to go to hm but im just wonderin' what is going on.

Isn't what this thread is all about? The difference between HM an BH?

HM is directed to a different marked. BH is more professional and for more unexperienced users. and I like I said, better support.

[swilson]

They dont get mad they just delete the post, thats what happened last time this discussion was held, one of the reasons I dont post as much as I used to, and why I also signed up with a brand new host and have started moving my sites away. Freedom of speech my A**e!!.
Know that feeling all too well. :rolleyes:

On a side note, will BH and HM also be using this new registrar called Fast Domains, Inc. for all their domain names? I mean now that BH has left Go Daddy/Wild West Domains. Guess BH isn't big on the commercials? :)

Seems they have an issue with how to unlock a domain properly and contact between the two entities (which are actually one in the same. BH owns Fast Domains, Inc.) is to say the least...lacking.

I mean that yes, one can unlock their domain in their control panel but after doing so...have a look at any whois site to see if it actually unlocked. Outside of BH that is. ;) Give it 24 hours to see if anyone is curious enough. Actually less is normally required just for a quick check.

Any ideas? Comments?

[Frusis]

Hostmonster have just raised their monthly price from $4.95 to $5.95. I'm speculating that $4.95 might have been an introductory price to attract members and that eventually it might increase to match BlueHost's $6.95. HostMonster is growing at a massive rate though! In the last month they've added 17,000 domains taking them to a total of 59,342! In the last month BlueHost only added approximately 11,000 domains. However, BlueHost does still have the greater numbers hosting 215,000. When I say 'only', that's still a very impressive number. As a comparison, Ipower's domain numbers are in decline! In the last month they managed to lose 8,000 domains. However, they're still way ahead of BlueHost with 492,000 domains.

[DaHiA]

Ooops.. i'm afraid bluehost would increase its monthy price too [in return] :eek:
it could happen.. everything is possible :rolleyes: