One of the most vital requirements for a successful, profitable and high-traffic website is to have the least amount of downtime possible. For websites that deal in goods, depend on AdSense revenue, or simply want their website to be available as much as possible, having your page down for hours or days at a time can cost you a lot of money and frustration.
You’ll notice that Bluehost makes no uptime claims on their website; this can be either a good sign or a bad sign. It’s a good sign if you don’t like seeing companies lie about their 99.9999999% uptime, but it’s a bad sign because they don’t even have enough faith in themselves to give a number.
While no hosting company can provide 100% uptime, most have ways of minimizing your downtime to a very small percent. In our experience, Bluehost sucks in this regard. They cost us more money than any other hosting provider we’ve ever dealt with and our research has shown that we’re not the only ones tired of unexplained downtime.
Post your experiences with Bluehost’s downtime here. While it may be too late for us, there are others out there who might find it helpful.
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Bluehost down yesterday (05/04/2011) and down today (06/04/2011). I usually like bluehost but over the last few months bluehost has been totally down.
Regarding previous post, I meant that bluehost has been down several times over the last few months!
Couldn’t agree more. It’s down right ridiculous these days.
Your not lying about them being down more than they should be. Its unfortunate that my company and I have had to endure such problems. We’ve experienced over the last year (May 2010-April–2011) of our paid hosting, with Bluehost of approx 65 down times, that we are appalled that this has continued to happen. My customers have been complaining and I don’t blame them. I’m now in the process of looking for a new reliable hosting company that is still affordable.
And it is down again today- right now- nothing – not even a base webpage on a backup server (the whole point of having a secondary/backup dns server!)
Been with them for over a year- this just started happening (to me!)
Yes, you are right, in terms of afford-ability, Bluehost may not help you as well.
I think Hostgator is good in some ways if you have a long list of domains to host,m in terms of afford-ability and security it is also good.
I’ve had bluehost for about two months and am ready to leave for a new provider. When I check my website during weekday business hours I repeatedly find that it won’t load or shows as unavailable. In just two months I’ve had THREE cases of the system being offline, and in all three cases I was calmly informed by Bluehost that it was routine maintenence, security procedures, etc. Frankly I don’t care what it is. The result is that my website simply isn’t reliably up during business hours. I had no idea about this before signing on. It’s completely ridiculous. The host I left behind was a 2 guy outfit operating on a shoestring where I paid half the money. And I can count on one hand the number of times over A DECADE that they went down for sustained periods during business hours. What gives, bluehost???
Going to sign up with Bluehost get used to this:
06/17/2011 04:53am: Our technician is currently investigating a server problem. The source of this problem is unknown at this time. The duration of assessing this is approximately 15 to 45 minutes.
Couldnt agree more – been with bluehost for 2 weeks, just launched my site yesterday, told facebook fans and sent out emails – and wouldnt you know it, the SQL database goes offline. What a crock of a company. Please everyone, keep commenting on how they really suck so we can shut them down. People read these things – sadly I should have done more research, I trusted Wordpress.org for their recommendation, now I am pissed I did that.
Matt. i can’t agree more with you and guess what? i trusted wordpress.org’s recommendation too. slow down and down time is as often as we breathe. unbelievable. really. it’s been a year since i am with them and i am prepared to ditch them for good. pass the words around, and not let others fall into the same trap.
They did suck!!!
I just can not stand it anymore but true. it is too late!!
Chat Content:
Daniel H.: [9:38:41 AM] Welcome to our real-time sales chat. My name is Daniel. How may I help you today?
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:39:14 AM] please fix the problem for our website
[9:39:17 AM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[9:39:31 AM] in 3 days, i found 4 downs
Daniel H.: [9:40:25 AM] One moment I will transfer you to tech support for assistance, please wait.
——————————————————————————–
Josh N: [9:40:44 AM] Welcome to our real-time technical support chat. How can I help you today? Please be patient, as I am assisting several customers at once.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:41:25 AM] ..: [9:39:14 AM] please fix the problem for our website
[9:39:17 AM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[9:39:31 AM] in 3 days, i found 4 downs
[9:41:37 AM] Duke Nickolas: [5:15:53 PM] Welcome to our real-time support chat FIRST TIME SALE… Please be aware that I am most likely on multiple chats so I may not answer right away. Go ahead and ask your question and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:16:12 PM] please check out website
[5:15:16 PM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[5:15:24 PM] it can not be loaded
Duke Nickolas: [5:16:47 PM] It looks like our administrators are currently investigating performance issues with this server. Unfortunately I do not have a time estimate for when this will be resolved, though it should be resolved very shortly. I apologize for any inconvenience this may be cause you. Thank you for your patience while we get this matter resolved.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:17:25 PM] this happens so often. why. let me show you something
[5:17:55 PM] R. Clayton: [1:58:07 PM] Good day. Thanks for coming into live chat. Please feel free to ask me any questions you need; note that I am chatting with several other customers as well, so my responses may be delayed. I will be with you as soon as possible.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [1:58:22 PM] hi
[1:58:27 PM] our website is down
[9:41:46 AM] [1:58:35 PM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[1:58:48 PM] please fix the problem
R. Clayton: [1:59:09 PM] Hey thanks for coming into live chat. One moment while I look into this for you.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [2:00:32 PM] whats wrong?
R. Clayton: [2:01:43 PM] Hey thanks for coming into live chat. One moment while I look into this for you.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [2:04:03 PM] what happens?
R. Clayton: [2:05:12 PM] We are rebooting for a security upgrade. You should see everything back online in about 10-15 minutes time
FIRST TIME SALE..: [2:06:31 PM] i can not remember how many times it is like this.
R. Clayton: [2:07:52 PM] At least twice today. You should not experience this issue any further after these upgrades. I am very sorry for the delay
FIRST TIME SALE..: [2:09:23 PM] you mean in future, there will be no often-down?
R. Clayton: [2:10:31 PM] Correct
[9:42:03 AM] 5:18:06 PM] the day before yesterday, you said this will not happen
Duke Nickolas: [5:18:44 PM] He said in the future there will not be as often downtimes. That doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:19:28 PM] if you can check, you can check how many times this happened and how long it happens
[5:19:50 PM] i requested many times to move our website to some other server but you never do that for us
Duke Nickolas: [5:20:19 PM] I do apologize, but I would suggest sending an email to feedback@bluehost.com to voice your concerns.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:21:23 PM] i am a human and can not online 24 hours a day but i found so many times and so often
[5:21:30 PM] thats crazy for a website
Duke Nickolas: [5:21:55 PM] I do apologize for the inconvenience.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:23:05 PM] apologize makes no sense and what i want is the website should be online 95% time and i am not wanting 100% time
Duke Nickolas: [5:24:11 PM] Anything else we can do for you?
Josh N: [9:42:51 AM] I’m sorry, how can I help you today?
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:43:28 AM] you do not see my messages?
Josh N: [9:43:53 AM] I’m not sure what you need further. Do you have additional questions?
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:44:10 AM] please fix the problem for our website
[9:39:17 AM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[9:39:31 AM] in 3 days, i found 4 downs
[9:44:40 AM] now it is down again
[9:44:47 AM] whats wrong??
Josh N: [9:45:22 AM] I’m just checking the notes.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:45:23 AM] i wrote to your feedback, no answer!!!
Josh N: [9:46:56 AM] I do see several downtime notes from the past few days. I apologize for the inconvenience.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:47:21 AM] FIRST TIME SALE..: [5:23:05 PM] apologize makes no sense and what i want is the website should be online 95% time and i am not wanting 100% time
[9:47:50 AM] see the first guy said?
[9:47:59 AM] after that, it will be less downtime
[9:48:05 AM] but the fact is more down time
Josh N: [9:48:28 AM] I am sorry sir. Our top priority is server uptime. You can be assured that our system administrators are working to resolve this issue as fast as they can.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:49:27 AM] can not you make it online 95% uptime?
Josh N: [9:51:21 AM] We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:52:33 AM] which email is working which i can send request to change the server place for me?
Josh N: [9:53:53 AM] You can submit a ticket at https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help
FIRST TIME SALE..: [9:56:50 AM] lllllllllll
[9:58:49 AM] how long will you take to fix the problem this time??
Josh N: [10:01:09 AM] Generally problems like this are resolved within 45 minutes.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:05:09 AM] 30m passed, i guess
[10:08:47 AM] why your own website is not down?
Josh N: [10:09:16 AM] All of the websites that we host are not on the same server.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:10:00 AM] so i keep reqesting moving our website to some place but never get a reply?
Josh N: [10:10:12 AM] Have you tried submitting a ticket?
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:10:37 AM] emailed as you request
[10:11:00 AM] also i mentioned hundreds of times here
[10:11:13 AM] so complicated?
Josh N: [10:11:19 AM] But did you submit a ticket at https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help
[10:11:20 AM] ?
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:11:36 AM] why?
Josh N: [10:12:36 AM] Because that is the technical support ticket queue. If you want something like moving servers to be done you will need to submit the request there.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:14:57 AM] why still not back?
Josh N: [10:16:07 AM] I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean.
FIRST TIME SALE..: [10:17:02 AM] our website is still unavailable
[10:17:06 AM] http://www.babikenshop.com
[10:17:09 AM] what is wrong?
[10:17:51 AM] you did not know my problem from the beginning?
Josh N: [10:20:43 AM] I did, but we have been talking about submitting a request to change servers and other things.
Josh N is typing… duration 41:23
BlueHost doesn’t seem to go down for very long, but even 5 minutes is an eternity when you’re in the middle of an editing session and you lose your work. The problem is that the downtime is too frequent and it’s during prime time. Fortunately, most of my domains are on DreamHost which has a MUCH BETTER up-time.
You are an idiot that should be disregarded. Dreamhost is the same company… but I suspect you are fully aware of that and are just wanting to cheat the same guy twice with two different names
So MarginalizedActionDinosaur says that “BlueHost has a good downtime rating”. If that means that BlueHost has a lot of downtime, then I wholeheartedly agree.
BlueHost has crashed on me 6 days right around 9:45 AM Central time over 2 weeks in July and August, 2011.
I am in the process of moving to a new hosting service.
If uptime is not important to you, then knock your socks off – it’s a cheap provider with plenty of great features. If you need your site to be up during prime time, avoid BlueHost like the plague.
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The site was running fine on Friday.
Saturday and Sunday it took long minutes for the home page to open, and long minutes to go from one page to the next.
Monday morning, back to normal speed.
I checked server status as soon as I noticed the problem, and there were no reported issues. But the fact that everything slowed to a crawl only on the weekend suggests to me that, indeed SOMETHING was going on. And either they were completely asleep at the switch–maybe they were at the beach–or it was maybe them tinkering at a time when they assumed traffic would be lightest and just keeping mum about it.
Bluehost was a good company but now they are a shit hosting company that doesn’t care about their costumers. My site is getting offline all the time and they do nothing. Almost 10h in a month offline.
Ditto
We have a few sites on Bluehost. We’re working on an eCommerce site and at least once a day, our Bluehost’s server is down for unknown reasons. I’m afraid this is far off from their promise of 99.9% uptime guarantee..
The reasons may be unknown to you but I assure you that the rats than run bluehost, hostmoster, and dreamhost, among others, are laughing, with your money, all the way to the bank. Don’t be a sapp, switch to a reputable hosting co befor bluehost really hurts your business.
All my dev website are down, AGAIN! 10/03/11
3rd time in the past 8 days! Really bad experience for someone who has just switched to BlueHost!
Any suggestion for affordable host for drupal 7?
I switched to lunarpages from bluehost. My experience with lunarpages has been very very good. Of course, you are going to think that I’m a shill for lunarpages so please check them out on forums and other sources.
My site is down right now. I just started with BH for my WP site. I have been with them for two weeks and this is already the second time it has gone down. Anybody have a better recommendation for a host?
I’ve had bluehost for since june, 2011 and on November 20 at 6:42AM bluehost.com and my website are inaccessible. Prior to bluehost I had Yahoo small business hosting and never NEVER was the site itself or my own site down. This is ridiculous. They should send an notification of planned maintenance or outages. Or like any good IT dept indicate planned maintenance blocks so people can plan accordingly.
Bluehost is the worst host i have ever came across. I plead with everyone who is reading this. NEVER i repeat NEVER go with Bluehost. For the past 1 month my site is down everyday for at least 2 hrs. When i tried to called their customer care support, the guy always has a fixed response “your site is ok from my side. problem may be from your side”. Except his side my website is not visible to anyone else. I wonder why. I wasted my money and time with Bluehost.
Lo. Just now i got a message when accessing my web site
“The website you are visiting is currently offline due to system maintenance.
In order to give the best filesystem performance possible, and to ensure the integrity of data, a diagnostic process is being performed, and any inconsistencies will be repaired. This process may take approximately 30 to 60 minutes.”
System maintenance without any prior notice, without any intimation and that too on a working day.
My advice to anybody who uses Bluehost is to sign up for an external up-time monitoring service. (Pingdom.com, etc.) This way you get the real story on how often your site is down and for how long.
My external monitoring service sends email to me when my site is down, and gives me monthly summaries. This is how I know that my Bluehost site is down for a spell every morning, and that my my Bluehost site was down for TWELVE HOURS last month. Outrageous!
So of course I’m in the process of moving to a different hosting company. Bluehost has been a huge problem for me.
It’s amazing, I got their service 2 days ago and it is already down. It went just when i was doing some work on it. They should at least send an email in advance letting us users know when they plan to do maintenance (if that’s what it is about). But if you have a commercial website, or something else that should be up all the time, that is disastrous. I will probably send them an email with a link to this site.
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