Stuck between Bluehost, SSL and Hostgator

I am not very sound technically but I know to make sites in html and wordpress and run several of those successfully for past many years. Now I read that SSL installation is a necessity for SEO, I had a shared hosting account on bluehost so I asked them about SSL, they said its free for wordpress sites with them and not free with html sites. Also to install it to html sites I need a dedicated ip that is available on their VPS server so an upgrade will be helpful to meet my needs. I had many addon domains. I purchased the VPS hosting and just when the migration began, one of my websites stopped working and bluehost support team was not helpful or responsive. I redirected its DNS and purchased a shared hosting on hostgator and hosted it there. The migration to VPS server on blue host took around 6 days and then SSL on one of my wordpress sites stopped working and support team is again not very responsive. Now I don't know if I move my websites to hostgator or keep these on bluehost VPS. I don't have any one around who can help me with the decision. What would you guys recommend?

 

There are several issues with their response to you:

1. It is no longer required for a website to be hosted on a Dedicated IP Address in order to install a SSL Certificate. This was the case in the past, however with the introduction of Server Name Indicator (SNI) several years back, a SSL Certificate can be installed without requiring a Dedicated IP Address. The fact that they are requiring you to purchase a Dedicated IP Address to install a SSL Certificate suggests that their technicians are inadequately trained, or more likely, their company policies dictate that they try to upsell their customers.

2. It is odd that in order for them to provide you with a Dedicated IP Address, you need to upgrade to a VPS. In fact a Dedicated IP Address can be assigned onto their usual hosting packages as an add-on (and with all other hosting providers). Usually a Dedicated IP Address add-on only costs anywhere between $2-3/month depending on the hosting provider.

3. It is odd that they only provide free SSL Certificates for their WordPress packages but not their normal HTML packages. Do take note that many hosting providers now offer free SSL Certificates with their hosting services because cPanel implemented AutoSSL about 1-2 years back. Therefore they shouldn't be charging you for a SSL Certificate. Most likely, it is because in the past, prior to AutoSSL being introduced, BlueHost has had many customers who purchased SSL Certificates from them and they are refusing to give up that source of recurring revenue which is likely sizeable.

To summarize, you do not need to upgrade to a VPS, and you also do not need a Dedicated IP Address in order to install a SSL Certificate on your existing websites.

Also, please note that both HostGator and BlueHost are hosting companies which were acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG) many years back. If you do a check on EIG, you will find that they generally ruin the hosting companies that they acquire.

 

Go with namecheap, the ones you mention they all suck, especially hostgator.

 

Thank you for this very detailed and comprehensive reply. Which other hosting company would you recommend that is affordable and reliable?

 

I purchased all my domains from namecheap but never tried hosting a site there. They also charge around 10$ for positive SSL I think. I'll check with them to get more details. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

You are welcome! I use them from quite a long time, never had any issues. But with hostgator...wow I had so many problems back in the day.

 

No problem.

Although NameCheap is definitely going to provide much better support than any of EIG providers (that goes to show you how bad EIG providers really are!), I would say that there are much better alternatives available. Generally speaking NameCheap is best known as a domain registrar and since that is their specialty, they aren't as competitive in providing web-hosting services.

To illustrate further, and also to ensure that you know I am not providing a biased viewpoint, I will also add on that if you were to want to choose a company whose primary product is domain registrations, then I would definitely choose GoDaddy over NameCheap because while both companies' primary products are domain registrations, GoDaddy has in recent years made gigantic strides towards mainstream web-hosting services. However again, that is not to say I endorse GoDaddy's services and as I've said, there are many companies in the industry whose primary focus is not domain registrations and therefore can provide you with a much better and competitive service than either NameCheap or GoDaddy.

Also, generally the rule of thumb is to separate your web-hosting account from the domain registrar that you work with. This ensures that there is no "nightmare" situation where your domain is being held ransom should you decide to switch hosting companies. While NameCheap and GoDaddy are large enough companies that I don't think they are going to utilize such underhanded methods to retain your business, I still find the adage to be meaningful to keep by.

In summary, keep your domains and web-hosting services separate. Since you have your domains at NameCheap currently, keep it there - they are one of the better domain registrars to work with. As for web-hosting, look for a provider whose primary product is web-hosting services. This way you will get much better value and support for both your domains and web-hosting services. For example, a provider whose primary product is web-hosting services is never going to be charging you for a SSL Certificate - as mentioned in my previous response, most if not all of the reputable web-hosting providers are already offering SSL Certificates for free, there really isn't any reason for you to be paying $10/year per SSL Certificate (if you have 5 websites, that churns out to $50/year which is money that can be put to much better use).

 

I think that you need ask the company for test account. That is not forbidden to ask and test. Only your own tests will help you to understand if that is the company worth for you or not.

 

Yes, you will need SSL, it provides authentication, encrypts sensitive information, etc. SSL ensures your web traffic is kept safe from security threats.

 

personal, for Wordpress I prefer InMotion Hosting(unlimit space)
NameCheap is good if your site will not need too much space(use it usualy only for HTML site)

 

Here's a list of Endurance International brands:
2slick.com
AccountSupport
Arvixe LLC
A Small Orange
ApolloHosting
AppMachine
Berry Information Systems L.L.C.
BigRock
BizLand
BlueBoxInternet
BlueDomino
Bluehost
BuyDomains
CirtexHosting
Constant Contact
Directi
Dollar2Host
Domain.com
DomainHost
Dot5Hosting
Dotster
easyCGI
eHost
EmailBrain
EntryHost
Escalate Internet
FastDomain
FatCow
FreeYellow
Garin IT Solutions Co.
Garin Technologies
Glob@t
Homestead
HostCentric
HostClear
HostGator
HostNine
Bluehost, HostMonster
HostV VPS
hostwithmenow.com
HostYourSite.com
HyperMart
IMOutdoors
Intuit Websites
iPage
IPOWER/iPowerWeb
IX Web Hosting
JustHost
LogicBoxes
MojoMarketplace
MyDomain
MyResellerHome
MySocialSuite
NetFirms
Networks Web Hosting
Nexx
PowWeb
PublicDomainRegistry
PureHost
ReadyHosting.com
ResellerClub
Saba-Pro
SEO Gears
SEO Hosting
SEO Web Hosting
Site5
Southeast Web
SpeedHost
Spertly
Spry
StartLogic
SuperGreen Hosting
Typepad
Unified Layer
USANetHosting
vDeck
Verio
VirtualAvenue
VPSLink
Webzai Ltd.
WebHost4Life
webhosting.info
Webstrike Solutions
Xeran
YourWebHosting

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Both Bluehost and Hostgator are managed by same company EIG still so much issue.. Infact they should be more co-operative to resolve the problem. Regarding SSL issue why dont you just go for Letsencrypt FREE SSL service gets installed in minutes and resolved the SEO and google related SSL problem.. and best thing is you dont have to pay for it. I am not sure if your provider offers it.

 

I've tried several EIG hosts, and never cared for any of them. They'd continuously have outages, without any estimated time of fixing the issue. It really hurt my reputation with my web clients. I really liked hostgator (when Brent Oxley ran it) until EIG bought them out. Now, I use Iowa-Host. You'll have to decide if you're comfortable with outages or not. As a web designer, I couldn't afford to stay in business using EIG with the monthly outages that I was experiencing. Good luck.

 

just to let you guys know if the provider is using cpanel you now get SSL for free and it auto updates

 

As Bluehost and HostGator are both owned by EIG, as many here have pointed out, and managed in the same fashion - you will likely experience similar challenges with both of them. I would encourage you to look outside of EIG for your next hosting plan.