SiteGround Alternative recommendations for J4

[pondball]

The last couple of years have been a hair pulling experience with support at Siteground. I just spent another hour trying to reach support and maintain a link with them. I no longer have access to my main SG account their email and phone posts to me both failed. Now I'm locked out. Every time I start a chat with them (twice in the last hour) I am disconnected. It used to be soooo much better.

I am now looking at moving my site to a more Joomla friendly host with the following:
• completely J4 compatible
• has Joomla Staging with ease of use
• has online support that works
• that is more reasonable than SG - costs rose while features dipped in last few years.

Suggestions/links please:
• online searches show little other than every host boasting that they are the best
• looking for recommendations here based on actual use

Thanks in advance, and I hope I posted this in the right spot - if not, mods please change.

[herb200mph]

We are currently moving a large number of J! sites from GoDaddy to HostGator. We are using WHM/cPanel and NaviCat to transfer the databases [easier than cPanel], and either FTP or cPanel Home Directory B/U to move the site contents. Then, of course, the NS IP addresses need to be changed. The cost differential is 50% of what we are paying at GD, which was a substantial amount for the same, identical dedicated server configuration. HG's phone support is very good - located in the Philippines. GD has gotten too expensive and they upsell, upsell and, did we mention, upsell? It took days and days to unlock all of our domains so we could transfer them and make changes to the NS's. Anyway, that is our experience.

[Webdongle]

Try https://www.ionos.com/

[pondball]

We are currently moving a large number of J! sites from GoDaddy to HostGator. We are using WHM/cPanel and NaviCat to transfer the databases [easier than cPanel], and either FTP or cPanel Home Directory B/U to move the site contents. Then, of course, the NS IP addresses need to be changed. The cost differential is 50% of what we are paying at GD, which was a substantial amount for the same, identical dedicated server configuration. HG's phone support is very good - located in the Philippines. GD has gotten too expensive and they upsell, upsell and, did we mention, upsell? It took days and days to unlock all of our domains so we could transfer them and make changes to the NS's. Anyway, that is our experience.

Thanks for sharing your experience. In fact about 8 years or so ago we moved from GD to SG - on the recommendation of many Joomla developers, and at the time it was a sensible move as SG was a very good Joomla host. Not so anymore. They don't even list Joomla hosting plans anymore - everything is WP WP WP WP - and it makes you feel like dirt. And yup, unlock domains at GD was not quick, they definitely oversold to the point we had speed issues then, and we had issues with security at the time too. To top it off they knew little about Joomla!
Will take a look at HostGator. Off the top of your head, do you know if they have Joomla Staging, and if so how seamless is the integration to live site. Due to hissed limitations of my own I was doing most of my development offsite here using MAMP, but with my HS improving somewhat (good for rural but horrible when compared to real HS) I'm hoping to develop on a staging enviro that is on the same host as my live site.

[herb200mph]

Just did a quick check on HG.
They have an installer and it is showing version 4.1.4 as the one being installed, so it is current.

[Webdongle]

Best not use the Host's quick install. Use the Joomla full package.

[LovesMtns]

I've had less than satisfactory experiences with hosts that have been purchased by the 800 lb gorilla, EIG (Endurance International Group). For example, I was on HostGator when it was originally started, but after a dozen years or so, the founder sold it off to EIG for a fortune (so he could retire, good for him), but HostGator under EIG began to go down hill. EIG has been renamed "Newfold Digital", more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfold_Digital. Basically, they buy a host that is doing a good job, relocate the hosting services to India, and it's downhill from there. So personally, I try to avoid Newfold Digital like the plague. I will say, Siteground seems to be immune to Newfold Digital so far. We'll see.