I have used HostGator for some time, but have ran into issues with their support lately. After reading a lot of different forums and blogs, I discovered that HostGator had been acquired a few years ago by an investment group Endurance International Group (EIG). This group has acquired a lot of highly successful web hosting companies. Once the companies are acquired, their model has been to strip away costs and pack more and more users onto shared servers to increase profit. This usually means that a majority of the staff who used to provide the quality of support which drove the host’s success is now gone. It may be a moving target as EIG continues to acquire popular hosts, but I have been searching for a host free from the grasps and have landed on one group which received pretty good reviews.

If you are also searching for a new host, you’ll find that searches such as “Best Web Hosting 2016” can yield a lot of advertisement like results. I have been digging into the forums and reddit and looking for real feedback from customers. While you’re never going to find a host that everyone is 100% happy with, you can get a pretty good idea if they’re reliable and have good technical support. I am currently evaluating Site Ground and LiquidWeb which both come highly recommended, and will report back on what I find. If you’re in the market for a slightly higher cost web host ($50 per month) Liquid Web always receives rave reviews. Until June 29th you can get a VPS server from Liquid Web for only $10 for the first month. Link to the promotion here.