Updated on June 14, 2022
As of this past weekend, Anthony’s Notes has a new home. I’ve moved the site to a new web host, Stablehost. Stablehost has received positive online reviews, and is cheaper than my previous host, A Small Orange, where my blog had resided since 2012. For those counting, this marks web host number three for my site (the first was Fused), not counting the pre-“Notes” blog I had on Blogspot.
As for why I moved? For one, I wanted to save a few dollars on hosting fees without sacrificing too many features, particularly server space. At this time of year, there’s usually deals for new web hosting plans as part of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Stablehost didn’t really have such a deal, but seemed competitive in pricing.
The other reason for moving? While A Small Orange has been an OK host, I’d been reading about how they’re owned by a company called Endurance Insurance Group (EIG). EIG is a company that’s come to dominate the web hosting landscape by buying out various web host companies. At current count, they own over 50(!) separate web host companies, ranging from small sized ones to big ones like HostGator, Bluehost, and Site5… as well as, since 2010, A Small Orange. While ASO hasn’t been too adversely affected so far, EIG tends to run their web hosting companies in a lackluster fashion, based on quite a few online reviews and complaints. EIG also tends to keep quiet about many of their acquisitions, with little indication on their various companies’ sites who really owns them, or their dozens of sibling companies. Thus, one could get annoyed with, say, HostGator, and switch to Bluehost/A Small Orange/Site5/etc., not knowing they’re owned by the same company.
The websites Research as a Hobby and ReviewHell contain full lists of the different web hosting companies EIG owns.
Not only do I find owning that many separate web hosting companies ludicrous and excessive, I also think all but hiding that they’re part of the same conglomerate like that is dishonest and shady. As such, I thought I’d try giving a different non-EIG-owned web host a try. Other non-EIG-owned web hosts I’d considered (or could consider in the future if things change): MDD Hosting, Dreamhost, Linode, and Digital Ocean.
If you run a self-hosted website, who do you use as a web host?
