Free hosting is always a contentious issue as this post will clearly illustrate. Recent experiences with a free hosting company clearly illustrate why there are so many tales of why you should think very carefully before considering it as one of your options. In this post I am dealing with only one free hosting company and am not inferring that they are all the same. However, I strongly recommend that you avoid 000WebHost.com like the plague. 000Webhosting.com are not to be trusted with your websites and are not worth your time as an affiliate. This is free hosting that you will pay a high price for.
Sometimes I get things wrong and this post has come about for that exact reason. Free web hosting with 000.Webhost.com can very possibly cause you nothing but problems, particularly if you complain or refuse to upgrade to a paid hosting account.
A short while ago I wrote a post entitled “Free Hosting With MySQL PHP Cpanel and Fantastico” where I explained how you could set up a WordPress blog on a free hosting service, either with your own domain or a subdomain provided by 000Webhosting.com. (The post is still live but all links to the company have been removed).
I expressed the view that this would be a far better option than using the free WordPress.com service, largely because you would have far greater control over what you could display on your site. WordPress.com does not allow any kind of affiliate marketing content, nor do they permit things like javascript (for security reasons) and it was my contention (and still is) that this is too restrictive for anyone trying to monetize a WordPress blog.
However, having put my “money” where my mouth is I now admit to having made a rather horrible recommendation. As part of the example I set up a WP blog on the free host and was reasonably impressed with what you got for your free membership. However, time has proved that all in the free hosting garden (certainly in this particular one) is very far from rosy.
I set up monitoring of the site with a free service and very soon noticed rather frequent emails in my inbox notifying me that the site was on error. Sometimes the notification that the site was back up came quite quickly, but others, the downtime was quite extended (hours or even days rather than minutes). Having returned home to Cayman, I decided to do a little more work on the blog as it seemed a shame to waste it. I had even secured the first advertising revenue on the site so I figured that I should pursue its development.
At around the same time the monthly downtime report landed in my inbox. Horror of horrors, 116 hours of it at the tail end of February. Sure enough, I was unable to connect to wp-admin and when I tried to view the site all I got was timeouts, except on one occasion when I got the header and sidebar but no content. As I had made no changes to the blog for about 2 months I was puzzled.
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I decided to put the support desk to the test at this point and explained the problem. My conversations with them have been documented through email and screenshots, because here is where things get a little nasty. In their favor, they responded very quickly, but the positives ended there.
The first response was that they could access my site fine and suggested clearing cache, restarting my internet connection (!!) and if that didn’t work, to try connecting through a proxy server. Not very helpful, particularly to the non technical who probably wouldn’t even know what a proxy is. I did try proxies in both the US and Europe to no avail and without too much surprise.
They then suggested that I use the “fix file permissions” in my cpanel. OK, I tried it, even though the problem was obviously with the server and not my site. It made no difference. The other piece of advice was to use the “cancel/delete account function and recreate the same account again”!! What???
By now I realized I was just getting stock emails from a menu of stock emails being punted out by a non tech support person. The next one was a killer, advising me that they could not help me with setting up my website and stating “we focus on getting our servers up and running”. Erm, yeah, right. To add insult to injury they then try to upsell me on a paid hosting account. Great marketing tactic (not).
I am sarcastic when I reply, I admit it. I point out that the problem is with their server, not with my site. I tell them that a monitoring service confirms this and that I am not asking for help with my website which was fine and has had no changes made to it in weeks in any case.
In response I am told that they cannot give me a resolution to my ticket as it would take too much administration time. Yep, that’s what they said before trying to sell me a paid hosting plan again. This last mail was badly written by someone for whom English was certainly not a first language. They apologized and thanked me for my understanding. WTF?
I shot back a rather heated email saying that I didn’t understand at all and suggesting that the free service was nothing more than a loss leader (one that they couldn’t even run properly at that) as a prelude to selling someone a hosting plan. Who in their right mind would pay after seeing these clowns in action I wondered aloud. They respond…
“The server is working fine, there is problem with your site only. I’m afraid but we do not provide any assistance building website”
Nice. Irrelevant, but really nice. I put it to them that they had said there was no problem with my site and yet now, in a complete reversal they say that there is! I’m laughing now because these people are clueless and obviously assume that their customers, free or otherwise, are clueless too.
I Googled the subdomain in question and sure enough, could not connect to a single site. I told them this and accused them of incompetence if not downright lying. It was, I pointed out, hardly the way to do business or win hearts and minds. I get another totally useless response – “we have opened your site and it shows a blank page, have you tried connecting via proxy?” I want to suggest where they put their fixation with proxies but restrain myself. I’ve had my “fun” but am hugely relieved I don’t rely on 000Webhost.com to provide my real hosting.
Finally they tell me that their data center is blocking access from some countries and that they are looking into it! Blocking access from Nigeria I could understand, but the U.S. and UK? Hardly a believable excuse methinks. Then, they close the ticket, just like that. I’m amazed and no, the site is still not accessible even after another 48 hours. I can’t access my admin area, so I can’t even begin to try and figure out what they screwed up.
I asked my followers in twitter to try and access the site yesterday – unsurprisingly everyone who tried came up empty. The server was down and connecting to the site from any ISP in any country was impossible.
This morning I received a notification that the site has come off error after over 159 hours of downtime!! Unfortunately the reason for this soon became apparent when I tried to visit my site – redirected to a page saying that the site does not exist. I try to log in to my cpanel to receive the message that “this account has been closed. Please read our terms and conditions”. Now I’m pretty p****d because I failed to notice the section in those terms that specified “do not complain, or, if you do, pay us some money and all will be OK. If we fail to resolve your problem and you continue to request any kind of service we will close your account and delete all your files without having to give any reason whatsoever”. Silly me.
So, I log into my affiliate account and sure enough it is marked as “canceled_abuse”. I have seen many of these inside my affiliate area so here is the next warning to would be affiliates for 000webhosting.com. Don’t bother. You are extremely unlikely to make enough sales to reach their $100 minimum payout because the bottom line is that they really are not interested in providing free hosting and, it would seem, will find reasons to cancel accounts if they cannot convert free customers to paying ones but I concede that could just be me taking a cynical view. Having said that, reports of sharp business practices are scattered all over the web from disgruntled affiliates if you care to look.
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By supporting and promoting their services I feel cheated in a multitude of ways. If you are doing the same, or are thinking about participating in their affiliate program, I would urge you to think again. Tarnishing your reputation obviously does not concern them and tarnishing it is a very real possibility. I am deeply apologetic to those I have referred to the services of 000Webhosting.com because it was a bad recommendation. Luckily my site was really only an experiment just to put the service to the test and initially things looked hopeful. Imagine, however ,if it was your site and something you were serious about. You could lose hours and hours, days, of your valuable time, lose money and damage your online reputation by dealing with such a company. It does not matter what kind of site you are running, 000Webhosting.com have clearly demonstrated in this case that they do not offer reliability, service or customer care in any meaningful way.
So, take this as a lesson. Do not rely on 000WebHost.com to provide any kind of reliable service or support. In short, they suck and, in my opinion, the free service is nothing more than a lure to convert users into paying customers by any means necessary. Anyone who gives these people money in the face of such overwhelming evidence of their incompetence would be very foolish indeed, in my humble opinion. Take a look at their terms where they basically say “we can cancel your account at any time for ANY reason”. This should have been a big red flag at the outset and I admit to not paying it the attention I should have.
As one commenter on the original post said, never entrust anything remotely mission critical to a free hosting provider. I made the same recommendation but now, after such a fiasco, I wouldn’t recommend you host anything but a kid’s party with them (the clowns are entertaining). Even a personal website or blog would be hard pushed to survive such terrible uptime and lack of knowledgeable support. It’s a lesson learned and I apologize again to anyone who signed up to the service through my recommendation.
My recommendation to anyone using their services is to back up all your files and find a reliable hosting company to transfer your site to as soon as possible. That’s how strongly I feel about this kind of thing.
Below are the screenshots of my dealings with 000Webhost.com “support”. You can judge for yourself. Click on an image to view full size.
Needless to say I have cancelled my affiliate account and forfeited all earned commissions earned to date. All links to the company will now be redirected or removed from this domain.
Do not be fooled by stories of how great the service is. This review offers genuine proof of what you can expect and is backed with hard evidence. Incidentally, the site in question was a blog on the very innocuous subject of the Cayman Islands and any suggestion that it fell foul of their usage policies in any way shape or form would be false.
The web is becoming littered with disgruntled users and affiliates regarding 000Webhosting, so don’t just take my word for it. As time passes, I guarantee that these will outnumber those talking the company up.
Luckily, my experiment was purely that, but hopefully this will prevent some potential customers from making what could be a costly mistake.
TCH
Oddly enough, I've been hosting on and off with them for over a year now and have had no significant troubles with lag or downtime. Then again, I'm using my own domain (.tk). And I've never done the affiliate thing, so I don't know about that. I'm photoblogging daily on one account (server 13, which I've only seen tell me once that it was Busy, and once had ~3 minutes of downtime. A reload solved this. Whereas the other account on server 34 has had no problems whatsoever, except for slow response at one point for about an hour a few months back). The only issue I find with them is that their auto-installer has been broken for a year, or maybe more. But that's not a big deal, considering I somewhat know what I'm doing so installing wordpress by myself was not an issue.. but it would be for someone with no tech ability. Compared to my last free host, this is nothing. You've probably never tried x10hosting. They are the WORST free host that I've came across. Whenever I try to access my account, in the last three years that I've had accounts with them, 23 out of 24 times it loads a blank page or tells me "Server is too busy". Their support says "well, it's free hosting. If you don't like it, there's the door". A great marketing scheme, eh? Considering they also do paid hosting... It gets worse, but I'm not going to go into detail here. Your experience with 000 is nothing compared to what I went through with them... They may offer a lot, but they're an avoid factor. :| Maybe in the two years since you reviewed 000, their services have become better? Anyways, just saying, I've had no problems with 000. *crosses fingers* lets hope that the future keeps bringing more good hosting with them...
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LikeDerek, You would appear to be an exception and your domain is indeed pointed at their nameservers (apparently according to whoishostingthis through someone called Blazen Web Hosting whoever they are). Regardless of your experience, if you do a little research, it is not so much the service with which I have the biggest problems - try looking up "honeypot" online for a start, if you know what the term relates to in relation to cybercrime you will already be hearing alarm bells, and do some research on the Lithuanian owner of your hosting company - I'm not posting his name here and once you dig a little deeper you will start to appreciate why. I really don't have the time to go into it all again but I'll repeat all my earlier warnings about the people behind it - they are about as far from good news as you can get, based on what I have learned. Even if their service was first class, I would stay well away based on that knowledge because the word "free" in this instance appears to be little more than a potential trap for the unwary. Improvement or no improvement - stay away remains my sincerest advice.
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LikeI wonder how this host become a best web host ??? its horror experience i set up an account with them to test it its a free web hosting account. But my account verification still not complied. Registration 2011-03-19 09:00 Account Status Verification in progress its created on 19 th and still not complied today is 25th . One can imagine what will be their support
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LikeBest according to whom Nirmali? Most so called reviews on them are fake and posted by themselves and their own shills under countless different domains. They spam Google's index using numerous domain names but they all trace back to the same people. I urge people to do their own research on them before believing anything you see posted online - if nothing else it is a well organized and well funded scam.
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Like(I have removed all links to the company that were included in this comment as I think it's obvious who they are by now and I certainly wouldn't link to such a bad neighborhood) Ticket #401284 - Re: New client need HELP! Last Update: 5s Domain: Last Reply By: Customer Status: Open Posted by Customer, on February 22, 2011, 23:04:46 I just sign up with your guys and I changed and confirmed my domain server however Godaddy tells me that your end wont accept the NS transfer and that has to do with your site...Can you help me please? I want to try this out and see if works, if so I may up-grade later but first I want to know how your company works. Thanks. Posted by Staff Member, on February 23, 2011, 01:24:00 Hello, Unfortunately, we do not accept domain transfers at the moment. However, you are welcome to host your domains here by pointing them to our nameservers at any time. Best Wishes, Thorsten Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 02:34:05 I'm sorry but, what do you mean by "pointing them to your server"???? I'm confused...I CHANGE THE NS ALREADY!!! Posted by Staff Member, on February 23, 2011, 02:48:41 Hello, by pointing them i mean changing your NS entries in your GoDaddy domain control panel to our name servers ns01.000webhost.com and ns02.000webhost.com Kind Regards, Thorsten Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 02:50:15 I think you ARE NOT understanding my question! On your site, it says that I have to point your ns01.000webhost.com and ns02.000webhost.com and I CHANGE THOSE ALREADY!!!..Can you now explain?..Do you understand me now?...Thanks. Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 02:55:52 I change them already!! Now, why I can't get my site running with you guys, please explain... Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 03:03:12 I change them 2 days ago and I have confirmation from godaddy that it went successful however your site doesn't have my site running...since 2 days go, they told me that is YOUR server who hasn't accepted the transfer yet....please help me... Posted by Staff Member, on February 23, 2011, 04:20:53 Hello, Unfortunately, we do not accept domain transfers at the moment. However, you are welcome to host your domains here by pointing them to our nameservers at any time. Many Thanks, Lawrence Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 08:58:56 I am trying to host my Domain with your company and I changed the ns01.000webhost.com and ns02.000webhost.com and still you guys haven't got my website running on your site. 3 days ago I did the necessary changes and my website is not running...Can you help me yes or no???? Posted by Staff Member, on February 23, 2011, 10:16:24 Hello, Server #11 is under the DDOS attack (IP Nullrouted) We have just received a HUGE (over 3GB/s incoming traffic) DDoS attack targeting the Server #11. Our CISCO guard firewall was unable to handle such attack, so one of the server IP address - 173.212.215.133 was disabled (all the rest websites on this server are working fine). If your website is using this IP (due to unique IP rotation system only 3% websites are using this IP) it will be unavailable for the next 6 hours. As soon attack will subside, this IP address will be enabled and your website will start working again. We thank you for your patience and understanding. Regards, Chanh Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 23, 2011, 10:21:31 I saw those exact words 3 days ago! You must copied and paste those words! 6 hours WAS the time lapse 3 days ago...! Really, are you guys for real because this is turning into a joke to me...I mean no offence what so ever but your answers are NOT customer satisfaction!!! Seriously.. Posted by Staff Member, on February 23, 2011, 12:34:33 Hello, Unfortunately, the problem with this server still exists. I advise you to re-create your account on another server if you do need this service. Sorry for the inconveniences, but now this is the only solution. Best Wishes, Alexandr Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 24, 2011, 05:56:48 Wait a minute...I just received the email below! Do you see a problem here??? I think so!!! Am I satisfied ?? Come on now guys!!! Read below........... -----Original Message----- From: Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 1:55 AM To: Me Subject: How is your website? Hello, Few days ago you have signup for a free hosting account onwww.000webhost.com Today I am writing to you to ask are you satisfied in our hosting services? Have you already uploaded your website? Is there anything we can help you? If you like our services, can you add a link from your website to (link removed) It would be your biggest support for us! :) Also, did you know that with (link to company removed) you can earn a big money? Check out our affiliate program, it is really worth to signup even if you are not going to use our hosting services: (Affiliate Link Removed) Anyway, good luck with your website :) Daniel, Client Manager (Link removed) Posted by Staff Member, on February 24, 2011, 06:48:59 Hello, unfortunately free host face lot of abuse and attack but you are welcome to cancel your current site and create a new site and it might be on a different server or upgrade to paid host. Many Thanks, Chanh Volunteer Staff Posted by Customer, on February 25, 2011, 10:42:51 I am so unhappy with your customer care and I don't even know the reason I "should" open a paying member account with you guys when you can not even help me on my current account!!! Why should I? Make no sense! I will put all these notes on a blog on Google for future new customers just like myself. The sad part of this is that I was a referral from a friend of mine who "mention" to me that he "heard" you guys were good! Good enough to let the world know that this company is full of poor customer care!!! THANKS for the previous response, it help a LOT!!!!
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LikeThis kind of exchange is all too typical and it seems that many people have now been duped into acting as "volunteer" staff, presumably in exchange for being able to place links to their own sites when dealing with people through the ticket system. If you are one of these people I would urge you to stop as it will hurt your domains and your reputation in the long run and for anyone who has been approached or is considering volunteering please read this thread carefully before becoming involved.
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LikeI'm having a problem with them as well... see image of ticket transcript below! http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2851/000webhost.png WARNING! DO NOT USE THEM! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
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LikeAgain, no real surprise here but most get to this thread too late unfortunately - astounding exchange with the "support" staff - proves all we've been saying when they outright admit they are a Lithuanian company though. Obviously they have managed to get someone for whom English is a first language although for all the difference it makes, you have to laugh. Their ties to unsavory people however, are not in the least bit amusing.
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LikeThanks for posting this! you just explained my situation exactly. also, i dont know i this is bug, or just them trying to get you to upgrade: when i try to use Fantastico, i tells me they are experiencing technical difficulties.
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LikeThis is really one of worst host I have ever seen. Bugged Cpanel, too many restrictions. They give you nothing. When they need more space or servers, they just delete your account without notice or reason. All data is lost forever. Poor support. You can see php notice and warning errors in cPanel. And now I need to recommend this webhosting? No. Stay away from 000webhostig, save money or nerves if you are using free plan. Their affiliate system is TOTAL SCAM! Go check if you want and have time for it. Now read this scam: When they suspend my account without reason and notice, they wrote that I have to pay to reactivate it. Then I wrote a new ticket where I asked them if they can restore all data if I pay my account. They told me that it is impossible to restore the data because it does not physically exist on the server. Means they tried to fool me to pay, and yet with nothing to get. Of such acts should be prosecuted. Ordinary crooks!
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LikeHi, all, first try to undestand my english, I speak spanish, and affortunately I understand all the comments. I have an account with 000, I began with this free service three years ago, and I have no detected any problems whith my differents subdomains. But more or less four months ago began the problems, slow connections, the webs didnt display completely, and I notice some news in the login screen, that say that one of the servers is under a DDos Attack, and I saw those messages now every day in differents servers..., maybe an campaing to convert free into pay? I dont know, but, now its terrible to wait for connection o to wait for my page. I arrived here because I am looking for a free webhosting with all the services that 000 is providing, but I still looking. After reading all the comments I am very surprised, and now I decide to move my webs to another host. Ok, please pardon me about my english, an if you can recommend me a good free hosting service, I appreciate your comments. Thanks. Bye
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LikeTrue, red flags on a business means it should always be avoided. Hmm, maybe a new idea for a toolbar? Some kind of notification of red flags and ratings. I know they have site verifications and "safe" and "unsafe" marking in search engines from anti-virus/anti-malware tools but something for user red flags and ratings...comments....for all websites! And for those out there that take risks, and want to try things against others recommendations, be prepared and use alternative email accounts and don't give out personal data. Don't worry about John Doe who lives at 123 Park Ave. in Atlanta, GA..... I'm sure he has to use a PO Box by now anyways....he will understand. With all the fraud going on in this day in age, DON'T GIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION!! My views, delightfully shared.
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LikeWise advice indeed Mr Anderson :-) Thanks for your input.
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LikeWell for my experience with 000webhost.com has not been that extensive but concluded to be useful. I was in need of some free hosting sites to use to experiment with and it served it's purpose. Wasn't all too interested in it's "affiliate" program but it didn't seem like the hosting prices were bad. I fully understand when trying to run a business, if your going to talk-the-talk you need to walk-the-walk, sort of thing. I wouldn't want to publish a fully functional site with a free host, which in most cases has too many restrictions to allow full site functionality anyways. All in all, my "limited" use of their services was a positive experience. I was able to test out and build sites with different CMS software. On a side note, the free web host provided by freehostia.com is a much better service (with valid customer service!). Keep in mind though, it does have certain restrictions such as outgoing communications (found out from customer service it's for security reasons). I just loaded a new Joomla! site today, I haven't started on the design yet. It doesn't have backend management like cPanel does but it has a nice alternative that's starting to grow on me and is pretty user friendly. Even has your account stats displayed.
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LikeThanks for your comment MrAnderson and for contributing to the discussion with your own experiences. However, I cannot stress enough that the real concerns with this organization are their alleged links to criminal activity - once you start giving out personal data to such phishing operations you run an extremely high risk of being compromised. Even if the allegations proved to be unfounded, there are so many red flags that discretion (avoidance) would certainly be the better part of valour. Forget the standard of service, the affiliate scam, and just consider very carefully the legitimacy of the people behind it - if you see as many red flags as have been posted all over the web, walk away quickly, and don't hand out your information to anyone with so many question marks hanging over them.
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LikeVery Very Bad Service. I resisted free account 6 month ago to check there services. They still not activate it and always say to register with .... another host. This shows there interest in service providing.
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LikeThe support team of 000Webhost is very rude, unprofessional also do not reply in a timely manner, you do not answer any or most of the question that are asked, you also do not explain in a way for me the “customer” to understand what you are talking about. Out of a sign of respect and professionalism it would be nice to say something if you have left the chat session, instead of not replying. Do not use 000webhost.com, that suck and very dishonest.
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LikeThanks for the warning -- i wanted more space for a famlily website, so i did a google search before i signed up with 000 and this does NOT surprise me. However, let me add that i\'ve had a few free accounts with Netfirms for years and they are wonderful. Of course, we are talking a 25MB limit, and they now require you to register your domain with them ($8-10 per year), but if your requirements are low, they are great. I also manage a couple paid websites for years hosted by them, and have a similarly positive report.
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LikeHi Marty, Thanks for the feedback on Netfirms, would certainly be a better bet for those on a tight budget than most free options. For readers wanting more information, Netfirms also offer shared plans from as little as $4.95 monthly see http://www.thecaymanhost.com/netfirms
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LikeThank God I found this now. :) I was going to buy Hosting24 "Silver" account but, after reading this, I'm definitely trying another host. >_< Can you suggest me a paid hosting service you trust, caymanhost? I found out one called RewindHost (url: http://rewindhost.com): it's fairly new but looks neat; only thing putting me off are its way-too-cheap prices (and cheap often means crappy). XD Help me, 'cuz I really need a reliable host!!! T_T
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LikeWell, there are literally thousands of choices out there and without knowing exactly what your plans are it's difficult to recommend the perfect host. However, assuming you are looking at a shared plan and in terms of reliability and support, based either on personal experience or recommendations of fellow webmasters who I know and trust I would look at either Knownhost (Prices start at $7 per month) or Liquidweb (prices start at $14.95 per month) and maybe consider Hostgator if either of these are outside your budget (shared plans start as low as $4.95 per month). Hostgator do receive some bad press but bearing in mind the size of the company it's from a minority of users and overall they are a safe place to start. You can find links to all three in our directory. I don't know anything about RewindHost so can't really comment for or against I'm afraid.
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LikeWOW, dude. Thanks for the heads up about this HORRIBLE host! I was looking into free hosting and did a search only to have their name pop up. I was, of course, smart enough to do my homework and found they have a very bad reputation, doing this same sh** to just about everyone, spamming them with emails, and trying to "upgrade" others to pay. Thanks again for taking the time to warn others. You have saved us all lots of headache.
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LikeYou're welcome John and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. You might be interested in reading some of my other posts on free hosting as although they are not all nearly as bad as this lot, it can still be a false economy.
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LikeDO NOT use this webhost. They deleted my account after just a few weeks and gave no warning whatsoever. I spent a lot of money on a template which I re-designed and uploaded. I lost everything, including my domain name too apparently. They never sent any email warning me. I sent them an email which they never answered. I lost all of my hard work. Bad, bad, bad!!! :(
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LikeI can not see any where on their site what they are selling, or for that matter anything about upgradeing. I figured something was for sale as one of their affiliates was trolling my youtube account trying to push their crap. Upon further review I see they pay $5 per referral.
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LikeHi Benjamin, Actually they CLAIM to pay $5 per referral - BIG difference. The affiliate program is a scam which you will soon see if you search around. Trouble is, most people do not bother to check anything when they think easy money is on offer and so the promotion of this scam and honeypot continues unabated.
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LikeI fully agree to the points about 000webhost. I developed a e commerce site. At the time of development they blocked my site for about a day. They said, they are reviewing it. But the ultimate disgrace was that when my site was about to be launched they stopped it saying I had too many mysql table under one database. That, in no way, was the violation of ToS of that company but they stopped it. When I asked they said it was stopped automatically by their set rules. Alas! what a free service.
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LikeDo NOT use this webhost. First, you will have lots of trouble with phpbb3, SMF and other scripts and their mods. Second, my account was canceled without breaking any ToS, and w/o notice. Just terminated (probably they need free space or more paid accounts). This is worst HOST ever. Your data can be lost in a minute without notice. If you ask me, choose byet host as free.
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LikeHi Sherry Ann, Thank you for stopping by and for leaving such a detailed comment. Whilst I understand your anger and frustration as well as your qualifications, please be cautious when dealing with these people who seem to be well funded, have a very wide reach, operating out of Eastern Europe and are alleged to be involved in some large scale well organized cyber crime. I use the word "alleged" advisedly. It has been rumored that a federal investigation was pending but how much truth there is in that I am unsure, much as I would love to believe it is happening. In terms of documentation, pretty much all I have is here on this post. I do know of one individual who is pretty well informed about them and might be able to give you some more detailed background information but I only have his Twitter address which I will email to you. You might be interested in these links too: http://www.malwareurl.com/listing.php?as=AS26277&active=on (Note the listings in the Registrant column) http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=164484 (Note third comment from Catmedia) Beyond that I would not feel comfortable giving out your email to anyone unless I knew exactly who they were. (I note you do not have a contact form on your site, something that might be worth considering) Having said that, if anyone wants to contact you or respond I am happy for them to do so via these comments and perhaps you can work something out between yourselves. .-= caymanhost´s last blog ..Page.ly Review | Wordpress Hosting Service =-.
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LikeHello; I came across your blog in my online investigation into this company after my own personal experience I have had with them the past week. I am a police officer by profession and currently in training in Forensic Science Investigation. So I know when I am being lied to, put off and when they are not providing the service they are suppose to be providing under the law whether it is a free or paid service they are providing. I made the mistake of trying their paid hosting. I have 2 accounts with them. One website is still up and the other has not been up for days and after sending in support tickets and talking to their reps I see a problem with this company. At best they have horrible customer service. At worst they are breaking the law and conducting fraudulent transactions. I wish I had found some of the sites like yours when I first checked into them online when I decided to try their hosting. I would not have done business with them if I had found this then. I'm glad that you put this up. I will be passing on the links to all the sites that customers have left complaints against them. It would be great if you could pass my email address onto others who have posted on this blog that may have done business with them and have complaint. I would like to get a statement from them and any supporting documentation they may have to assist me in my investigation. I just do not want to post my email address here for obvious reasons. I will forward all that along with my own documentation to all the appropriate authorities. After what I have found thus far I WILL NOT give up until this company is properly investigated either. I would also be happy to talk to you since you do have documentation. You can email me and I would be happy to call you. Thank You .-= Sherry Ann Oakes´s last blog ..Premium Headers Pack =-.
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LikeHere is the email They never answer my question. Check the grammar! =============================================== Few days ago you have signup for a free hosting account on 000webhost.com Today I am writing to you to ask are you satisfied in our hosting services? Have you already uploaded your website? Is there anything we can help you? If you like our services, can you add a link from your website to (link removed) It would be your biggest support for us! :) Also, did you know that with 000webhost.com you can earn a big money? Check out our affiliate program, it is really worth to signup even if you are not going to use our hosting services: (link removed) Anyway, good luck with your website :) Daniel, Client Manager
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LikeArturo, I've removed the offending links which I'm sure you'll understand. The poor English is typical of their communications and you will notice that most positive reviews are written in the same halting and poor fashion - probably because most are submitted by them in a crude attempt to make themselves appear legit. As for the affiliate program, it's a scam pure and simple. Nobody ever gets paid full stop. I repeat my warnings to potential victims of this "service" to stay well away.
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LikeI still have a page hosted by them but gets locked up everyday, after a few hours editing it, adding or deleting stuff suddenly it stops, can't load anymore! after 24 hrs I'm back again. I have received an email by them asking me to put a 000Webhost logo on my page, I answered by asking them why my page locks up everyday, still waiting for an answer. Regards
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LikeHi, 000webhost deleted my websiite without warning because they say it was making high use of the mysql. However my site didnt have more than 20 viewers per day... They lied!
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LikeSorry to say it again but - no surprise there then.
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LikeI must agree with yours and others comments on the poor free hosting services of 000webhost. I had a web site there a while back and my site kept going down and data kept disappearing. I finally got tired, looked around and tried a few other free web hosts with poor results. I eventually found http://www.myownfreeweb.com and have been using their free web hosting service for a couple of years now with no trouble at all.
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LikeThanks for the suggested alternative - it would have been nice if you could have linked to a site you have hosted there - your comment and linking strategy suggests that you are perhaps the webmaster/operator of this service?
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LikeHi all, first time on the site after looking at a yahoo answer and saw your link. I would like to say a couple of things both for and against 000webhost, yes they are this bad on their free service and yet their paid service is not much better. I have used the free service and ran into few road blocks, techy side was pathetic and i just figured the rest out myself. The paid service i thought would be better but after a month a quite and moved on. TRUST ME WHEN I SAY DONT BOTHER! Although, please DO NOT CONFUSE 000webhost with another one very similar i think it is 000space who are quite good, although paid not free as the free envolves some questionaire every month to keep your account i dont knwo why stupid if you ask me! But thanks for this review/re-traction as it shows you are willing to be genuine to you followers, which you do not see much on the internet these days. Thanks for looking! Vril
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LikeHi Vril, Thanks for your feedback. As I keep stressing here, the problems with the site are a lot more serious than just a totally useless free hosting plan. The site is linked to some very shady operations and whilst the allegations are just that, they must remain a cause for concern for anybody thinking about providing information to them online. As for the other free service you mention, and I am not familiar with them, the comment you make regarding the monthly questionnaire is probably a simple one to answer. My guess would be that each questionnaire is a CPA offer and that they get paid each time someone completes it - it would be one way for them to generate some money to help them go on providing a free service. Just my best guess.
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LikeHi Adam, Thanks for the comment and the useful tips. If anyone wants to know more about installing and using Xampp, you can read watch the instructional video at the following link: http://www.thecaymanhost.com/wordpress-videos/installing-wordpress-on-your-pc-using-xampp
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Like000's backup service is yet another scam. It crashes in the middle of a backup. Here's the alternative: - Log into phpMyAdmin from their cPanel for your MySQL databases and click the Export tab and download it as a .sql.gz file to your pc. If you cant read the file you will need to download something like WinRAR. - Use an ftp client such as FileZilla (try not to use Windows Explorer or Finder, they seem to stop downloads half way) to download your site to your computer. Also, if you are just using 000webhost to test PHP and MySQL functions, etc. you might as well just install XAMPP on your computer and do your testing on your computer where your web host cant shut you down (because you are your own host when you use XAMPP!) http://xampp.sorceforge.net if that link does not work just google "xampp".
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LikeHi Kyle, They did actually "offer" Cpanel and Fantastico for a short time but have since stopped for whatever reason. Presumably it was just one more carrot to drag in more unsuspecting victims. As for lying, yes, the whole scam is just one big lie - they don't provide anything other than a honey pot for their own nefarious agenda.
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Likethey dont really offer cpanel, or fantastico, or anything like that, just something similar, anyone who has used the real cpael before will notice a big diffirence betwen the two, if they offered real cpanel hosting this is what the url would be to acess 000webhost.com:2082 but instead it is members.000webhost.com, and trust me, you people who think that you cant get real cpanel hosting, your rong, i am on free cpanel and whm hosting, 000webhost lies about everything that they give
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LikeHi Roger, The quicker you get away and change any personal details you gave to them the better! Sorry I had to strip out your link, but your domain is still pointing at their servers and I don't want anything linking back to their domain from my pages.
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LikeOH yes you have had the same trouble that I have had I had trouble saving html code to there system. ITS MY FAULT LOL. I got the same UPSELL spill you did moving out of that trap once and for all
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LikeI have seen these guys recently and came across your post. Thanks for the heads up I will warn other people about this so called service
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Like@arvixehosting Thank you for coming back and setting the record straight. There is a fine line between what appears to be comment spam and what isn't so if I misjudged your initial contribution I apologize. Having said that, I honestly think you should reconsider your involvement with 000Webhost - if the warnings in this thread do not concern you they should. It is unfortunate that we lost the comment from a web security expert regarding their operations which was quite specific in its allegations of cyber crime but there are still too many red flags here - ignore them at your own risk is all I will say.
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Likethis was my honest review of my experience with 000webhost. I still use them (for small crappy sites) and I use the $4/mo paid hosting for more serious projects. As for 000 speed compared to others I tried aokhost and 110mb and they were like dialup. As for spamming, that would be submitting something like "great post, here's my link" instead of writing few paragraphs about my experience with the very subject of your article, wouldn't it be?
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LikeI fail to see how you can come here and post a comment in any way suggesting that people should consider using these fraudsters for anything at all - not if you have read any of the discussion thread at all. There are far more serious risks involved than having a bad hosting experience - there are suspicions and allegations of phishing, malware and compromised personal information being discussed around the web. As for speed of service I think you must be confusing them with someone else!!! Please do not try to spam my comments section for the sake of free advertising - you do not need to post multiple links to your site - you would have had a link had you used a proper name as opposed to keywords and URL's in the comment field. If you want to advertise on my pages my rates are very reasonable :-) .-= caymanhost´s last blog ..Globat Hosting Affiliate Program Scam =-.
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LikeHere's my experience with 000webhost: 1) their affiliate program is a scam 2) their hosting is much faster then any other free hosting I tried, so you can use them AS LONG AS you don't need database (MYSQL). Having 2 sites with mysql with them I was receiving "your sql query to slow, please optimize your query" email notifications from them about simplest queries like "select count(*) from mytable" whenever there SQL server was hosed. Then after few warnings they canceled it "for abuse of resources". 3) downtime largely depend on what server you are (they have about 20). So deleting and recreating account (hopefully on another server) may be not such a bad idea 4) Don't push them by complaining too much if the service is down - this way is to get you account canceled (with no trace of data just as described by other posters - so backup, backup, backup) For anything more reliable, my suggestion is to go with paid hosting. At $4/month on a 2 year plan my own host is really affordable, has guaranteed uptime, and does not have any hassles of free hosting.
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