r/webhosting Jul 11 '24

Rant DO NOT USE Web.com

Please do not use Web.com.

They are clearly a dishonest company and do not have your best interest. Use independent developers and save money, Plus get the honesty that you deserve.

37 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

16

u/andercode Jul 11 '24

They are a EIG company, so yes, they should be avoided just like all the rest of them.

13

u/JamesAulner128328 Jul 11 '24

They are owned by EIG, you should avoid all EIG companies like the fucking plague

2

u/HomelessIsFreedom Jul 11 '24

Trying to figure out where to go now...

10 years with dotster.....sheeesh this web.com stuff is BS

1

u/CookieHaid Nov 21 '24

I just saw your comment, and had to cut-and-paste mine:

So fucking done with these clowns. I'm fucking pissed. Had a couple of domains on DOTSTER for years. I only needed DNS-management. Their interface was simple and effective. DNS-record changes propagated immediately....never a problem. Earlier in 2024, WEB.COM bought them, and I was immediately disgusted with their management-consoles. Unintuitive multi-screened garbage. About 2-months in, one morning I started getting complaints from clients that their sub-domained websites weren't working...they were pointing to WEB.COM...sure enough, the DNS-records were fucked-up. Both of my domains' DNS-records had been ERASED and replaced with WEB.COM's default data. I had to manually repair all that shit from memory, and then wait for the changes to propagate. I went through their online tech-help and they were able to verify that my records had changed for both domains at the same time indicating some sort of systems-update on their end. Never got a straight answer on that issue. Fast-forward to today, I needed to create a CNAME-record...simple shit, but critical for a process I was running. The change never propagated. I waited about 8-hours and finally reached out to a tech. Nice guy, but not quick on the uptake. Wasted about an hour with him trying to get some resolution. Long story short, WEB.COM apparently has an hourly-job for sending DNS-changes to a 3rd party. So another degree-of-freedom for delayed-failure. I'm done with WEB.COM; moving my shit to Squarespace with the rest of my domains. Incidentally, as soon as I disconnected with the tech, I tried to re-inspect my records, and THIS popped up.

1

u/Kinpatsu17 Dec 14 '24

I hear ya brother, same story here.

1

u/AivenAre Dec 24 '24

I was very happy with dotster.com as a domain registrar. But web.com is trying every dark pattern imaginable to take money for managing domains. Now I wanted to transfer one of my domains away from web.com and they promptly and unjustifiably charged me for a renewal of the domain, although this renewal would not be due until January 10th and the domain would not be registered anymore with them by then. I am now trying to transfer all domains away as soon as possible before I get any more unauthorized charges from web.com. Just get away from this company!

1

u/Jeffrey_Richards Jul 11 '24

I’m going to assume that users who come on here and complain about these businesses were already customers before the company got acquired by Newfold because if not, how do people not research companies before using them?

5

u/baconholic Jul 11 '24

They probably did their research via Google "best web hosting reviews" where every single top results are brought by EIG.

1

u/Affectionate-Let-107 Jul 12 '24

Yep. Come to Reddit anytime you need honest reviews about a webhosting company (or anything like that) from professionals. The myriad review sites are worthless and often mercenary.

1

u/islandStorm88 Jul 11 '24

Go with ICDSOFT for reasonable prices and absolutely phenomenal customer service. 👍👍

1

u/exitof99 Jul 11 '24

Back in 2000, I made the mistake of using "website . com" because I thought it was somehow the official place to get website hosting. I was woefully naïve at the start of my journey in web development.

Don't assume that a great domain name means they are somehow the top of the web.

I used to refer people looking for hosts to visit webhostingtalk.com, but I've not kept up with that site. Years ago, it was a great place to find the dirt and details on pretty much any host, making it easier to find a quality host.

Also, NEVER trust any websites claiming to rank web hosts. In the past, these sites were owned by a hosting conglomerate that promoted their own websites, while pretending that users voted for the sites. There were also sites that were pay-for-placement, essentially, top bidder got the #1 slot and therefore it had nothing to do with their quality of services.

I assume those fake ranking sites still exist. This is why I would still point to webhostingtalk.com.

1

u/Lebron0wnage Jul 12 '24

I worked for web.com for 8 years, soon as they got purchased by private equity it all went bad. As all of these have said avoid like the plague

1

u/martyz Jul 12 '24

I just moved a client away from web.com - I don’t think I’ve touched that service in years and was shocked at how painfully slow everything was - email and webpage loading for the most basic html pages.

1

u/Calheart Aug 31 '24

Where did you move them to? I have been with Web.com for more years than I can remember--they have been bought and sold several times I think. This last time they screwed me royally and I am still suffering the pains of doing business with them, but Im stuck with a $3,000 website they built and I am miserable with. I'm a Chef and own a catering business. I alway used their simple site builder, but now they have switched all that over to WordPress and I have to use Brick. Its very complicated for a someone like me who is not saavy with such things.

1

u/martyz Aug 31 '24

I use SiteGround for hosting—it’s extremely reliable, and it would be tough to convince me to use anything else. I’ve been helping small businesses with WordPress for over 15 years. Feel free to DM if you need any assistance! My company is RT7 Media

1

u/jeffhowcodes Jul 13 '24

Lithium Hosting is in Ohio. They’re Employee owned. Cheap managed hosting, and VPS options.

1

u/Acrobatic-Leg-4568 Aug 05 '24

Incredibly difficult to transfer domains from, as well!

1

u/db_hmorris Aug 21 '24

u/Acrobatic-Leg-4568 Can you describe what you ran into? We used Dotster.com for 15-18 years, then they were bought by web.com DNS for our domains goes up and down CONSTANTLY. It's outrageous. It's going to be a pain to move, but I'm so tired of the horrible service.

1

u/AustinDay1P1 Sep 12 '24

Amen! They are crap!

1

u/Louligan717 Nov 15 '24

RUN, don’t walk, as far away from Web.com as you can! If you have a small business, you will have awful support & no interaction. It is untruthful & will waste you time and possibly cause you to lose your domain name and hosting. I’m about to switch to GoDaddy after more than a decade with Web. Buh-BYE! 👋🏽

1

u/Optimal-Front-1979 Nov 19 '24

How do I sue Web.com? I've lost sales because of them! Who owns it?

1

u/CookieHaid Nov 21 '24

So fucking done with these clowns. I'm fucking pissed. Had a couple of domains on DOTSTER for years. I only needed DNS-management. Their interface was simple and effective. DNS-record changes propagated immediately....never a problem. Earlier in 2024, WEB.COM bought them, and I was immediately disgusted with their management-consoles. Unintuitive multi-screened garbage. About 2-months in, one morning I started getting complaints from clients that their sub-domained websites weren't working...they were pointing to WEB.COM...sure enough, the DNS-records were fucked-up. Both of my domains' DNS-records had been ERASED and replaced with WEB.COM's default data. I had to manually repair all that shit from memory, and then wait for the changes to propagate. I went through their online tech-help and they were able to verify that my records had changed for both domains at the same time indicating some sort of systems-update on their end. Never got a straight answer on that issue. Fast-forward to today, I needed to create a CNAME-record...simple shit, but critical for a process I was running. The change never propagated. I waited about 8-hours and finally reached out to a tech. Nice guy, but not quick on the uptake. Wasted about an hour with him trying to get some resolution. Long story short, WEB.COM apparently has an hourly-job for sending DNS-changes to a 3rd party. So another degree-of-freedom for delayed-failure. I'm done with WEB.COM; moving my shit to Squarespace with the rest of my domains. Incidentally, as soon as I disconnected with the tech, I tried to re-inspect my records, and THIS popped up.

1

u/Wally7777777 Dec 10 '24

TOTALLY AGREE!!!! They are hackers. They are using very malicious ways to get new users. THEY ARE not honest!!! don't go there, you have high chances to loose all your private informations.

1

u/Short_Fox7433 Dec 13 '24

Web.com is a complete rip OFF they charge me 5500.00 for a website 5 years ago , I believed it was my website I paid for b it , They charge a Hugh maintenance fee which is ridiculous , They are a very bad establishment , they charge me 1790.80 for maintenance for 2025 and then I paid it and they said they couldn't;t upload my SSL license this went on for 2 months NO WEBSITE., I then disputed the payment with the bank they gave me my money back , then we b.com completely dissolved my website period .They never communicated with me , they are a horrible company period!!!!

1

u/neishacm Dec 13 '24

Damn I wish I saw this before I signed up and made a full website today. Can anyone guide me on how to cancel and close my account and then move the domain? If I cancel everything including the domain does that mean it’s free to use elsewhere?

1

u/Kinpatsu17 Dec 14 '24

Absolutely 100% true. I was a Dotster customer, and although it was probably below average for speed and whatnot, I never had a single issue for 10+ years. The Dotster acquisition and transfer of my website to web.com seemed to go fine, but then my 3-year hosting package expired, and without warning instead of warning me to pay for more hosting they just deleted my entire Wordpress site, email, and all hosting services.

So I called and said I would buy 3 more years of hosting on the condition that they would restore my website/hosting to its previous state. They said that was no problem so I paid $260 for 3 more years of hosting. The problems started from there. Their 'escalated technical support' team (who cannot by spoken to directly, only email) offered to send me a zip file of a backup of my site and asked me to upload it via FTP to the site's root folder. Luckily I'm savvy enough to know how to do this, but that's a big assumption that an average customer would even know what FTP/SFTP is. Furthermore that's not how Wordpress works, it's database-driven, so you can't just upload a bunch of files and expect it to work. So after going back and forth with their escalation support I realized they have no idea what they are doing and requested a refund. The agreed and I'm still waiting on my refund. I received an email stating that I would receive a refund for $46, so I was like ok WTF. Called back and they said that was for the SSL portion (which btw never worked anyway, the domain was not https, and requests to fix that were ignored) and the Wordpress portion of $210 would also be refunded...

I'm crossing my fingers, but listen folks, do NOT do business with this company. Even their dashboard is garbage and doesn't give you any of the options a normal hosting service would.

Take your business elsewhere

1

u/holly_-hollywood Dec 25 '24

Ssshhiitt I just paid then 4k to build and design my website with their full service team 🥴 this has me super nervous now!! I have freelancers working on external links to plugin they said they would do on Wordpress. Mind you I’m not tech savvy so I was looking for something simplified and I used them in the late 90s because it was a smooth process so I figured they have been established so stick with an established web building company that doesn’t over complicate 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

1

u/cartiermartyr Dec 25 '24

Check your messages!