This review is lengthy --- but important for those seeking a first time hosting company or wanting to move your existing site.
I have been a 28 year customer of Network Solutions. I purchased my domains from Registry.com through NS. For the first 15 years of our partnership NS was very reliable and made sure my site and emails were properly working. My last 13 years however, have been frustrating to say the least. Somewhere, in the growing their company, several business practices were abandoned. Here is what NS looks like now.
1. Overpriced domain renewals $59 per year.
2. Not responsible for installing SSL certs. As if I know how to do that.
3. Phishing emails looking just like NS trying to gain access to my manager account.
4. Emails (actually from NS) telling me my site is no longer up to code and my email accounts were not configured properly and I had to manage it myself. What? I don’t know a thing about managing my website or emails. I thought my $900.00 per year to NS was paying to keep my stuff running. Nope!
5. Then, putting all emails on hold. And suspending my site because my SSL cert. was corrupt. I paid for a two year option of my SSL cert. After 8 months of that renewal, the cert. became corrupt and the only solution from NS was to buy another SSL cert.
6. These email and SSL problems happen nearly every year for the past 13 years. I was so done with Network Solutions and wanted to find a hosting site that cared about me. But wait, there’s more!!!!!!!
7. In looking on-line I was excited about Wix, SquareSpace, GoDaddy and other hosting companies offering an easy way to create a website complete with e-commerce. Because I am not a web designer and their stuff looks really refreshing and modern, I almost decided to go with one of these companies. Beware; once you commit to and create a beautifully responsive site your site is NOT TRANSFERABLE. If at a later date you choose to go to another hosting company, your site along with your e-commerce, and in some cases your domain name are gone. Ouch!
The answer: Be aware and ask a bunch of questions when deciding what hosting company is right for you. That’s what I did with IonBlade. Dan Soliz (sales) and Max (tech support) were really very helpful. I have found them to be true to their word. For one, we spoke in person over the phone. And two, got me up and running in no time. They moved my entire site and emails from NS then optimize them for the web. I can upload a ton of images to my site for my clients to download and review. The upload speed in very fast. A 20meg image file takes less than 3 seconds with IonBlade. I am super happy I chose IonBlade as my hosting company. If Dan’s boss is reading this review, I suggest you allow this review to count as 3 for this month since I am so impressed with how Dan gently talked me through this process and did so in the midst of a very frustrating customer. Thank you, IonBlade.