Arvixe vs. Site5 2020

ackup and support within record time. Saved me from a panic attack. Truly appreciate that! Some cons: a bit slower than my previous BlueHost, but definitely far less expensive. Also uses the latest MySQL on VPS only, not shared hosting.

s really amazing is the service you get through chat. Way over what you would expect for such monthly cost

caching and connection to database even in moments when user count is at it's lowest, it seems like those errors are in the moments when their US based company has the highest user connections. After one such crash I wasn't able to get my backup because they do not make full backups and afterwards suggested me to pay for it extra or do it manually. It seems that business shared plan is as overloaded as they basic shared plans.
And now they just terminated my websites and asked for me to join cloudflare, to point my DNS there so i can reduce the load of my page because they are saying that my page has made a big impact on their servers even though they can't provide me logs with data that could prove that and I haven't received any warnings regarding high load. My website is now offline for 3 days. I have to wait for CloudFlare support because I cannot change DNS myself there. So I have no clue for how long time my sites will be offline. Support doesn't respond to my questions regarding refunds of lost time and they just force me to register at CloudFlare and say that if I don't do that my site will be removed. I think that since Arvixe is a partner of CloudFlare this is just a scam to get more customers to CloudFlare. Because I've been running my script for 8 years on multiple hostings and never had a such problem with high loads.

, I switched my site to a cheaper plan. Site5 refunded the unused portion of my old plan; however, I did not realize until recently that they had never cancelled the billing for the old plan, and it renewed in 2018 for another two-year term even while my new plan for the same domain name was still active. My new plan also auto-renewed in 2019 for two more years. So for my last two two-year terms, I have been double-billed for the same website.
I was told via a site5 chat window that my old account could not be refunded while it is still active and was advised to place a cancellation request for my duplicate account, after which point a credit would be applied to my billing account. So that's what I did. When that request was processed, they cancelled BOTH plans and my web site ceased to function.
The following Monday morning I reopened a ticket and waited for a response. And waited. And waited. Finally, 66 HOURS later, I got a response. I was told that I had cancelled the wrong plan, that I should have cancelled the new plan instead, the one I had just renewed months earlier. Any mention of a refund is quickly met with a link to their refund policy, which essentially states NO refunds beyond the first 45 days for ANY reason. I can attest based on personal experience that "customer satisfaction" and "doing the right thing" aren't valid reasons.
So like many other site5 reviewers, I have noticed a decline in customer service the past few years. Their only support options are a ticket system or via chat window. It once was possible to call site5 and speak to someone local if an issue arose. Now, in their exact words: "As an Inbound Support Center, we do not provide a callback to our customers. I am sorry for it. We have discontinued the phone support."
One thing positive I will say about site5, their uptime is legitimately very good. Unfortunately, that alone isn't worth the slow and underwhelming support. There are too many other options. I switched to Complete Internet Solutions, which is not only cheaper with a price lock guarantee but provides quality customer service as well; my one issue was resolved via phone in less than an hour. I should have switched from site5 years ago.