A few days now, my website has been in Maintenace Mode while I resolve many problems with a migration.
Time for a new webhost that isn’t greedy and shady to put it lightly, as the original tactics have sadly changed with Bluehost.
Many horror stories regarding Bluehost are all over the /r/webhosting subreddit. Many have had their domains being ‘released’, plans being altered without their consent, and other changes that many would consider shady.
What really got me to change was the fact they decided to completely remove their online chat support. On multiple occasions I’ve had to use their chat support as there was problems that I could not fix without SSH – The online chat was a great way to resolve a small problem that didn’t require me to be on hold until it was resolved.
There was no notice sent to their customers about this change in their support, it was just suddenly one day not accessible. Buttons, and links are still listed within their support pages but are blank Hyperlink Anchors that appear to do nothing when clicked, not a great look – I don’t see the problem in just removing the buttons completely at that point.
After a bit of research, the company appears to have been outsourced to India and ran by an umbrella company that runs multiple hosts. Bluehost is no longer a recommendation across web developers and owners alike and is steering into the direction of “hire a pro” to fix problems that they originally cause.
Luckily my website is all about a hobby and nothing more, I don’t make any money from it and if I did, I’d probably seek legal advice.
So I’m done, I’ve migrated and moved my domain and data to another host. Already seeing the benefits too.