I wonder what web hosting companies you guys are using, recommend or not recommended, especially to host various RW (business-) websites.
Thanks
I’ve just moved from GoDaddy to Chillidog Hosting. They’ve been great!
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I’m curious @jacksona - why did you make the move away from GoDaddy ? Poor support for web developers, lack of options, too slow or something else ? My experience of GoDaddy so far has been OK. The fact that they charge for SSL certificates is unfortunate and I deal with this by re routing via Cloudflare. I particularly like the C Panel support they provide and the benefits that this has. In short what does ChilliDog have that Go Daddy hasn’t ? or was your decision down to the price of hosting ? #opentoideas
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GoDaddy was very unreliable for us - slow FTP and our sites were being served very slowly, too. They are expensive (comparatively, as my Partner had been with them for a while). The SSL thing was an irritant, as well.
Chillidog are smaller, and more responsive - I drove them nuts before and during the move, with my just-enough-technical-knowledge-to-be-dangerous questions, but they were always helpful. Their background is Rapidweaver development, so they get it. Pricing is keen (definitely cheaper than GoDaddy), and I’ve not had any performance issues, either with FTP, or the sites. They also have cPanel!
I’ve been really impressed so far.
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Thanks @jacksona .Really good to know. And so how did you find the process of transferring your domains away from GoDaddy to ChilliDog. What is a relatively straightforward - or bit chewy. I take it you have a few ??
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As I mentioned in the DM you sent me @TINO — I can highly recommend DreamHost. I’ve been with them since 2007 and have found their service and support to be top-notch.
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It was all pretty straightforward in the end. Didn’t have any issues - just a LOT of questions because I hadn’t done anything like it before.
Getting to grips with IPS tags, a subtly different folder structure (add-on domain roots are a level above GoDaddy’s), and just the general process flow of moving sites without causing an interruption were things I wanted to make sure I understood. Chillidog will actually do it all for you, but I chose to do it myself. Once I’d got my head around it all, it was a piece of cake, and I wouldn’t have any questions if I had to do it again.
Moved four sites (main site, and 3 add-on domains) one by one, and wanted to change the hierarchy at the same time.
Had one site where my partner’s email is routed to Gmail, for historic reasons, so had to delve deep into cPanel to ensure the MX record didn’t automatically move with the A record, but Chillidog talked me through it. I think their cPanel has more options than GoDaddy’s, for more control - but it’s still familiar, which is nice.
Did have a slight issue with a specific stack (non-Elixir!), under very specific circumstances, which was playing up. Chillidog worked directly with the developer to sort it - took a couple of days.
I’m in the UK, and Chillidog are US-based (sites are hosted in their EU-based farm), so there was a slight lag with support tickets, but nothing problematic.
All of this was ironed out through the test phase, so was fully resolved when I flipped the DNS nameservers over. Everything is now settled, and working smoothly. We certainly don’t miss GoDaddy!
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Hi Tino, as you live in Europe you might take a look at Ovh.com. I work with this host for ten years and have no complaints whatsoever. Domain and hosting cost me around 40 euro per year, SSL certificate included. Very professional service. Based in France.
Hans
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Hello Hans, thanks for the recommendation. However, we have moved from Spain to Costa Rica, I mean that we are no longer based in Europe.
Cheers
Hi Stijn (this is not a spanish name 
), good for you. Hope you have a good life over there.
Cheers,
Hans
Yes, in fact, I am Belgian 
Ik vermoedde zoiets. Ik ben er ook weggegaan, woon in de Provence nu. Zolang er internet is, kunnen we werken, niet?
Veel succes in Costa Rica,
Hans
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Ja, in je naam zag ik al dat je niet Frans was. Ja, in feite, terwijl er internet is, kunnen we werken. Provence is ook erg leuk, misschien zal ik in de toekomst ook verhuizen naar Zuid-Frankrijk, voordien woonde ik in Zuid-Spanje. Het klimaat in België is niet het meest aantrekkelijk …
Bedankt, ik wens je ook het beste succes toe 
¡Pura Vida!
I’m also with Dreamhost, but would not recommend them. No cPanel, quite limited ability to control your websites. Their extra security via their modsec rules has given me no end of trouble so that I’ve needed to turn it off (against Dreamhost’s advice). The modsec rules don’t work well with RW and stacks. It broke Alloy and if you’re using Machforms or Sendy also breaks those installations.
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Sorry to hear you had these experiences. I’ve literally had none of those problems whatsoever. And as I said, I’ve been with them since 2007. Sounds like purely bad luck IMHO.
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Chillidog has been a total awesome experience for me. Greg moved all of my websites from a rip-off host and I barely had to lift a finger to help him. I have used his service since 2/18 and have never had a single hiccup.
You will not go wrong by using Greg’s hosting service. I cannot recommend Chillidog high enough.
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I use DreamHost and this is a feature I like about them. Like Adam, I have not had any real issues with how the web sites work. Their security is a bit much, though. I had to have them whitelist my domains.
I moved one domain and three sub-domains from GoDaddy to ChilliDog this past summer. Two reasons for moving: (1) performance and (2) cost. I volunteer to create a couple of web sites for local environmental non-profits. I took them to GoDaddy initially, but after I had looked around in more detail, I realized the costs were way higher than they needed to be. Our sites don’t get a ton of traffic, but the performance improvements were striking. FTP processes are also much snappier. Like @jacksona I pelted Greg and Brian with a zillion questions about the process before I actually made the switch. GoDaddy added some friction in the process of transferring my domains, but ChilliDog was steady and patient as I worked through them. I heartily recommend ChilliDog Hosting over GoDaddy.
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I wish it was, but it was evident from the start that their modsec rules where the problem. They even encouraged me to leave my site broken so they could see which rules where causing the issue.
My conclusion is that if you use php apps or dynamic content dreamhost does not function well with their security. Since I’ve turned off their security I’ve had no issues.
To each their own of course. I’ve never had any problems like you describe. I test and run Alloy on DreamHost servers with their mod_security setting both on and off with no issues, and Alloy is mostly PHP. Again, this is why I suggest you had bad luck. Glad you’ve got something you like to use.