OC(UK) Host Review :-)

superleeds27 · 15 May 2017 at 08:23

Vidahost needed a nudge on Twitter friend me for them to respond to my support ticket last week. Granted the problem got fixed but I feel like if it wasn't for me nudging it might never have got looked at.

The only other thing I can complain about with them is the initial load time. From me entering the address of a site, to the site starting to load seems quite long. The DNS request is taking up to the beat part of 2/3 seconds.

I might need to move to a dedicated WordPress hosting company.

this_is_gav · 15 May 2017 at 10:25

superleeds27 said:
Vidahost needed a nudge on Twitter friend me for them to respond to my support ticket last week. Granted the problem got fixed but I feel like if it wasn't for me nudging it might never have got looked at.

The only other thing I can complain about with them is the initial load time. From me entering the address of a site, to the site starting to load seems quite long. The DNS request is taking up to the beat part of 2/3 seconds.

I might need to move to a dedicated WordPress hosting company.

I felt the same with Wordpress on TSOHost's (obviously Vidahost's sister firm) 'Optimised UK WordPress Hosting' - like you I even moved from Vidahost for it, yet it was just slow in different ways instead.

I moved to Krystal a few months back, and while there were a few niggles getting going, it's been far smoother and the speed of everything is on another level (uploading, processing uploaded media, extracting/compressing archives and site loading). My only real complaint was that the documentation was fairly poor to begin with and the support only seems to be active during UK hours (which isn't a complaint as such, but caused initial concerns with a problem I had working overnight).

Since those initial issues things have been smooth and fast.

superleeds27 · 15 May 2017 at 18:22

this_is_gav said:
I felt the same with Wordpress on TSOHost's (obviously Vidahost's sister firm) 'Optimised UK WordPress Hosting' - like you I even moved from Vidahost for it, yet it was just slow in different ways instead.

I moved to Krystal a few months back, and while there were a few niggles getting going, it's been far smoother and the speed of everything is on another level (uploading, processing uploaded media, extracting/compressing archives and site loading). My only real complaint was that the documentation was fairly poor to begin with and the support only seems to be active during UK hours (which isn't a complaint as such, but caused initial concerns with a problem I had working overnight).

Since those initial issues things have been smooth and fast.

I've just had a look at Krystal, it might be that I shift my two websites over to them.

Don't get me wrong, vidahost seem fine but it's that page loading speed. Pingdom tools and GtMetrix report a slow DNS request. (If it wasn't for the slow DNS request my site would load in ms)

superleeds27 · 16 May 2017 at 20:00

Anyone had any experience or know of anyone who's used Siteground before?

Zaphan58 · 27 May 2017 at 16:56

I've used TSO for years for personal projects and found them to be great. Was about to take out a managed VPS with them for work so had a quick read of recent reviews... Seems they've gone down the crapper.

Anyone able to recommend a VPS host with good support?

We have a other server with United Hosting who's support used to be not so good, but in all fairness they've been very good the last year or so. So might end up using them again if there's nothing better.

superleeds27 · 4 Jun 2017 at 09:26

Zaphan58 said:
I've used TSO for years for personal projects and found them to be great. Was about to take out a managed VPS with them for work so had a quick read of recent reviews... Seems they've gone down the crapper. Anyone able to recommend a VPS host with good support?

We have a other server with United Hosting who's support used to be not so good, but in all fairness they've been very good the last year or so. So might end up using them again if there's nothing better.

Maybe worth looking at Krystal!

AHarvey · 26 Jun 2017 at 20:12

Just had an email from Vidahost, due to inflation and a weaker pound they are making a one-off adjustment, the price will increase for my package from £59.00 to £70.80 (Annually) All prices exclude VAT if applicable.

Can't say I am overly thrilled by it, i don't use it enough but it was always a cheapish option but I'm on their older systems because they couldn't upgrade the server I am, they did move me but it caused all sorts of issues with links and logins as everything points at the old one and not the new one.

Steeps · 26 Jun 2017 at 20:40

I pay mine triennially and they have hiked the price up a lot, my last invoice was £141 inc VAT, now they want £254.88 for the same service. I will be moving away when it expires next May.

Just checked all my invoices, it has doubled in 6 years.

leezer3 · 27 Jun 2017 at 00:14

One-off adjustment due to inflation etc. my foot.....

They've been bought out, and the chickens are coming home to roost.

Highly unimpressed, actively looking to move as opposed to just grumbling now.
I'd don't mind so much a small increase now and then, but a massive hike (25% odd in my case) is taking the mick.

AHarvey · 27 Jun 2017 at 02:33

any suggestions on who to try? TSO and Vida have always been the top ones on here, with me hopefully moving jobs soon I don't think I stand much chance of getting a personal Azure account from my current job.

Steeps · 27 Jun 2017 at 09:23

I'm probably going to give krystal a try, paying what I am now for the same package I was on, might even upgrade to the unlimited storage one and risk backing up some data to it.

superleeds27 · 30 Jun 2017 at 16:30

AHarvey said:
any suggestions on who to try? TSO and Vida have always been the top ones on here, with me hopefully moving jobs soon I don't think I stand much chance of getting a personal Azure account from my current job.

Steeps said:
I'm probably going to give krystal a try, paying what I am now for the same package I was on, might even upgrade to the unlimited storage one and risk backing up some data to it.

Krystal have been fine for me over the last few months. I'm currently on their lowest package, but will probably move up soon once i get a few more sites under my belt.

Mark M · 4 Jul 2017 at 15:30

Just reading through the last few pages of this thread and is the general concensus to give TSO/Vida a miss now? Ive got 3 sites with them and touchwood none have had any problems but I need to register 2 more in the very near future.

Azza · 4 Jul 2017 at 22:10

MrMason said:
Hey Guys,

I've posted here a few times before - usually the posts get deleted because some of the admins seem to think they are 'promotional' posts...

Anyway - I have been involved with Krystal Hosting for around 15 years, and there is a coupon 'OCUK' which has been active since 2010 that will give 50% off any new orders ( a few exclusions apply - such as not on 3 year plans - they are already heavily discounted - and not on dedicated servers ).

The entire reason Krystal exists is to offer better support. You'll find customer reviews ( old ones! ) on http://www.ochostreview.co.uk/ - and newer ones on https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/krystal.co.uk - everything is UK based.

Sent you a message via trust.

Solus · 11 Jul 2017 at 18:57

Finding TSOHOST so frustrating, majority of the time I get sub 1 second load times but i'd say 25% of the time I try to click a wordpress admin panel link i'm waiitng over 10 seconds.

They've moved my database server twice and it's still the same. I've been fobbed off with trying to "optimize" my wordpress installation, even though I've done this myself and have an "A" rating on pingdom.

Performance grade
A 90

Load time
10.29 s

Faster than
13 %
of tested sites

Page size
805.5 kB

Requests
36

Tested from
Stockholm
on Jul 11 at 18:40

See the sort of stuff i'm talking about, all gets fobbed off as "acceptable peak load" on shared servers. Guess they're piling them high now.

andy_mk3 · 11 Jul 2017 at 19:25

I've been with Krystal Hosting for about 18 months now, and really cannot fault them one bit.

Solus · 12 Jul 2017 at 23:37

I've read a mixture of reviews. Do you use WordPress?

Dup · 14 Jul 2017 at 14:33

I have a reseller account whit Krystal. Just moved my personal hosting over to it from Vidahost. Their support team helped me mirror the IMAP mailboxes. Absolutely superb response from them, very easy to deal with. Much preferring the WHM/Cpanel vs Vidahost Cloud hosting too.

So far so good, got 3 customer sites up there now all working fine and some more to transfer from my late fathers old Westhost reseller account and then I'll be with them fully.

I am not a WordPress user however. I don't want my websites getting STDs.

Solus · 15 Jul 2017 at 16:48

Dup said:
I have a reseller account whit Krystal. Just moved my personal hosting over to it from Vidahost. Their support team helped me mirror the IMAP mailboxes. Absolutely superb response from them, very easy to deal with. Much preferring the WHM/Cpanel vs Vidahost Cloud hosting too.

So far so good, got 3 customer sites up there now all working fine and some more to transfer from my late fathers old Westhost reseller account and then I'll be with them fully.

I am not a WordPress user however. I don't want my websites getting STDs.

Do you mind trusting me the urls? Just want to rate on performance

superleeds27 · 21 Jul 2017 at 10:22

Anyone here using CDN's?

Krystal offer three months free, I'm tempted to take the plunge just to see how better my site performs with it.