My Review of WHB (budget and reseller)

[squinky86]

I have been a WebHostingBuzz client for about a year now, and have had multiple accounts and experiences. As such, I have decided to write a review of the budget and reseller accounts hosted on the shared servers. People who know me will vouch that I am fair and honest, and will dish out the good and bad. Please keep in mind that these ratings are based off of ONE PERSON'S EXPERIENCES. Your mileage with WHB will vary. Fortunately for WHB, the bad is not nearly as consequential as the good.

Value
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
Prices at WHB can't be beat. You get more than you pay for when compared to other services.

Reliability
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
The hardware WHB uses is very solid. Rarely are there service interruptions. On average, the server(s) I'm on are rebooted once every 33 days. The issues with reliability come when using PHP or a database that is already overloaded when other users are abusing the system. These software issues (and potential fixes) are described in more detail to follow. For static content, reliability ratings are much higher. For dynamic content, you will encounter error 500 messages when other users are abusing the system, even on scripts as simple as <?php echo "test"; ?>, especially when an overloaded database is involved. If your sites are solid html files, you will barely (if ever) notice reliability issues.
For today, I noticed CPU queue usage went as high as 21.37, staying at 10.01 for a few minutes during peak internet usage, and averaging about 4 through the high-usage hours. For the powerful system, 10.01 is not great, but acceptable. 21.37 was too much, and is regularly seen every few days. Usually, it will drop back down in a minute or two and cause no service interruptions. 4 is average and good. During low usage times, the server load is usually between 0.97 and 2.5, which is great!
EDIT 1/15/09: Note that the pricing model for new clients has changed, and WHB has removed many of the abusive clients. As such, the reliability has been greatly improving. Moved from 2 to 3 stars!
EDIT 2/19/09: Two months of solid uptime- way to go! Moved from 3 to 4 stars!

Honesty/ethics
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
WHB is an incredibly ethical and honest organization. They admit first and foremost that they are in business to make money (which is a good thing for longevity and financial security). When something goes wrong with a server, you can check right here on the forums to see EXACTLY what's going on (so add transparency to the list of positives), and maybe even get an ETA for when things will be right again. The only areas where WHB falls short on integrity are on its server uptime statistics. A server that gets rebooted and is down with a raid error can't possibly have 100% uptime, but is regularly reported as having such (see rs17 for month of November for example). This is more an issue with software than with WHB's people. Better reporting software would be key for WHB to improve in this area. When talking to a representative (ie, Matt or Svetlana), they will tell you what is really going on and what you need to hear in a kind, understanding manner. Again, the staff can't be beat at WHB.

Speed
Rating: *** (3/5 stars)
Even the simplest PHP scripts can take forever to begin execution. No matter what time of day, if suphp hasn't been run under your account for a while, it can take an average of 20 seconds to begin executing your site on WHB's servers. Once it does, though, your site is generally fast enough to navigate through and use.
EDIT 1/15/09: Now that the pricing model has changed, and WHB is monitoring abusive clients more, the speed has been improving. Is it as fast as their competitors? Not really. Faster competitors, however, limit the bandwidth and CPU usage in window. If you've used all your resources in a given amount of time, your account becomes temporarily disabled. WHB does not do that. If you have a small spike in traffic and resources, WHB handles it gracefully. WHB seems to have chosen not to do what some other competitors are doing which sacrifices a bit of speed for a bit of reliability. Moved from 1 to 3 stars, since the abusive users are now much more rare.

Technical Support
Rating: ***** (5/5 stars)
This is where WHB really shines! Support requests and issues are almost always dealt with timely and proficiently. Simple requests are handled usually within an hour or two. More complex issues can take as long as 48 hours. WHB staff is the kindest, most helpful staff of any web service I have used. I was not expecting this when I signed up, and I would feel bad if I didn't congratulate the support system for controlling their tempers, never assigning blame, and always offering positive solutions for the clients. Yes, they will always try and goad you toward a more expensive hosting option for more complex issues, but that is acceptable advertisement, and they don't require you to upgrade. They always work with you using the services you have purchased. Bravo!

Affiliate Program
Rating: (0/5 stars)
For inexplicable reasons, it seems that affiliate and financial issues will get a topic locked immediately. My experience with the affiliate program (using Commission Junction) has been only negative. On Nov 26, 2008, an email sent using CJ's email support system (regarding a reversed commission) to WHB was never answered. Ticket support was ignored until I made a plea here on the forums, which was locked after I received the standard "contact us through CJ" message. It's now been more than a month since originally contacting them through CJ, and I am no closer to finding out why my commission was reversed.
EDIT 2/5/09: My issues have been resolved

Features
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
WHB is feature-packed! Anything you you need is provided. The only things other services may provide that the lower WHB services don't are things like ruby-on-rails. I know, ruby on rails is available for business, vps, and platinum resellers, but we're not reviewing those services yet! mod_mono would be a nice addition that would set WHB apart from any other service.

Conclusion
As you can see, WHB excels where it counts in becoming your value web host. They have earned a repeated customer who is satisfied with the value he is getting!

Where can WHB Improve?
Oh, I'm so glad I asked ! There are two key areas where WHB falls short: software speed and the affiliate program. To avoid getting this topic locked, I will not discuss the affiliate program in detail- look at the locked threads under "support" to see that there have been issues since switching to CJ, and understand that mine have never been responded to adequately. We'll leave it at that, and the improvements for that program should be obvious.
On the software side of things, suphp is a beast. It slows down the servers (especially during peak usage and heavy database utilization), but is necessary to avoid hackers and security issues. The solution? Use fastcgi. Fastcgi supports implementing a wrapper script that can setuid() to the appropriate user. It's faster, and just as secure. It appears that WHB may be phasing this in, starting with the platinum reseller account. I would love to see this in all of WHB's servers. It is unacceptable for the simplest of scripts to receive 500 errors. While the errors are rare, the 20-second-wait-before-executing issues are commonplace. FastCGI will help that.

Overall
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
WHB can't be beat for value or features, provides good reliability for its value, and provides below-average speed. If content, value, and support are what you need, you have found your web host! If speed is your concern, you need to look somewhere else (or at a business/vps solution from WHB). I believe WHB is working on it, but until they implement some better software solutions, their servers will remain overloaded when trying to process your request.
EDIT 2/19/09: I believe WHB has done enough to warrant moving them to 4/5 stars!

EDIT: I'm not familiar enough with fastcgi and suphp to recommend definitely switching, but something needs to be changed for the php execution speeds.

-Jon

[omniuni]

That actually looks pretty thorough, but if you're getting 500 errors, perhaps you should try a different server? That's rather unusual, I believe.

[Saf M]

Hi

Thank you very much for indeed a very comprehensive and detailed review. We HIGHLY appreciate it.

Can you please email me personally at sm@webhostingbuzz.com with you CJ account user name so that I can look into your case and apply the appropriate credits so that you can be paid through a check by Commission Junction.

We get lots of fraud sign ups from CJ and sometimes legitimate orders can go into failed category too however I personally try my level best to keep things in order.

Thank you once again!

[808services]

Affiliate Program
Rating: (0/5 stars)
For inexplicable reasons, it seems that affiliate and financial issues will get a topic locked immediately. My experience with the affiliate program (using Commission Junction) has been only negative. On Nov 26, 2008, an email sent using CJ's email support system (regarding a reversed commission) to WHB was never answered. Ticket support was ignored until I made a plea here on the forums, which was locked after I received the standard "contact us through CJ" message. It's now been more than a month since originally contacting them through CJ, and I am no closer to finding out why my commission was reversed.

This is 100% accurate, I have also been trying to get my earnings for my referral since November 08 and my tickets are ignored or I am sent a "brush off" reply.
All postings in the forum about this are quickly locked and closed and we are told "this is not the place to discuss this."

But where is the place? Since all support tickets are ignored and live support says they don't handle it.

Safvan sent me an email said he would look into it personally....but then nothing after that...then I kept submitting tickets and contacted live support....and Safvan emailed me saying that the system was switched over to Commision Junction and I would have to talk to them...but I was never notified of any switch, and it still does not solve the problem that no earnings are showing in my account for my referral.

I checked with Commision Junction, and WHB is indeed an advertiser with them, so I emailed WHB affiliate support again telling them that I will sign up for a CJ account and can they please adjust my earnings with CJ to reflect my referral (because CJ customer support said that this was possible) but.....no reply from WHB affiliate support.

Its ridiculous.

This company has agreed in a contract with partners that they will pay 20% for referrals and it seems obvious that they are blatantly breaking that contract and trying to hush it up.

TO ALL POTENTIAL AFFILIATES, DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THE WHB AFFILIATE PROGRAM, YOU WON'T GET PAID.

I have made complaints to some third party organizations online including the BBB (WHB already has other complaints listed with the BBB).

It's just not right the way this is being handled, and its not good business.

As a conclusion to this post, I would just like to say that their actual product, the hosting accounts, and the tech support for the hosting accounts, is excellent.

I wish they can get their affiliate act cleaned up so I can continue to refer associates, but I will not refer anybody else until this issue is straightened out.

Please -- if you are also waiting to receive your earnings, email me at 808services@gmail.com
As a group, there is a better shot at resolving this than as individuals.

Safvan-- if you read this, you can't avoid this issue anymore, please address it, fix it, and PAY YOUR PARTNERS so we can once again have confidence in your company, you are doing damage to yourself and WHB Networks with this issue.

Thanks.

[Saf M]

808Services,

Our internal system [NOT CJ] automatically sends out funds under paypal mass payment feature. In order to receive payments clients must maintain a paypal account.

I see in the records that your $30 were issued for payment a long time ago however the system could not send it out to you because of the lack of the paypal email address. Having a paypal account was a *must* before the affiliates could even sign up for our internal program. I am not sure how it let you sign up with out one or if you removed it later on from your control panel.

Our internal system would only pay those that have a valid paypal address. Having said this the delay in payments can be due to many factors which may include the following

Due to the high frequency of credit card fraud and cancellation rates, webhostingbuzz reserves the right to hold commissions for up to 60 days for verification. webhostingbuzz also reserves the right to cancel commission in the event that webhostingbuzz is unable to collect funds, the order is fraudulent, the customer cancels and is refunded.

Webhostingbuzz reserves the right to hold a reserve on payments in the event that webhostingbuzz identifies financial risk, chargeback risk, or an inability of the affiliate to reimburse webhostingbuzz for future chargeback costs. The reserve amount will be determined based on previous commissions and signup rates, risk analysis, and other factors. webhostingbuzz reserves the right to hold the reserve amount for up to 12 months and no longer.

The sign up rates and risk analysis done manually on the account determine how long the funds are held up for. Please note that we do this for our own financial security. Please read the terms of service incase you have any confusions regarding this policy.

Also your particular case was a mix of quotes mentioned above and lack of a proper paypal email. Please pm me your paypal address on this forum and I will issue you the $30 payment *manually*.

Thank you for your understanding.

[squinky86]

I want to assure everyone that WHB did resolve my issues with the affiliate system.

[808services]

Hi,

Thank you so much for taking the time to finally address this.
And I would also like to post here that WHB has also resolved
my issues with the affiliate system today as well.

Thanks!
808 Services

[squinky86]

Hey guys: I updated my review a bit. Two solid months of pure uptime is outstanding! Way to go, WHB!