You might have probably not heard about Endurance International Group. But, it is highly likely that you must’ve heard about EIG. EIG is the acronym of Endurance International Group. So, who are they? They are a publicly traded company who buys out hosting companies and ruins them. Bluehost, HostGator, iPage are some of the popular hosting companies owned by them.
So, what’s the issue? the more hosting companies under one company is good…right? WRONG! Here’s why you should avoid them at any cost:
EIG will do anything to cut costs and increase profits. This includes from overcrowding servers and in many cases – downgrading servers just to save a few bucks to laying off employees. One classic example of this is HostGator. Before they were bought by EIG, they were a legit good hosting company. But, post buyout, they have joined the same league as the other EIG companies. In fact, none of the EIG owned companies have a score more than 2.5/5 on TrustPilot.
1) EIG Owned Companies List
Here is the list of companies owned by EIG. In addition to hosting companies, they also own Constant Contact and MojoMarketplace.
- 2slick.com
- AccountSupport
- A Small Orange
- AptHost
- Arvixe
- Athenix
- BigRock
- BizLand
- BlueDomino
- BlueFur
- Bluehost
- Cloud by IX
- Directi
- Dollar2Host
- Domain.com
- DomainHost
- Dot5Hosting
- Dotster
- easyCGI
- EntryHost
- Escalate Internet
- FastDomain
- FatCow
- FreeYellow
- Glob@t
- Homestead
- HostADay
- HostCentric
- HostClear
- Host Excellence
- HostGator
- HostMonster
- HostNine
- HostYourSite.com
- HyperMart
- IMOutdoors
- Impress.ly
- Intuit Websites
- iPage
- IPOWER/iPowerWebIX Web Hosting
- JustCloud
- JustHost
- LogicBoxes
- MyDomain
- MyResellerHome
- NamesDirect
- NameZero
- NetFirms
- Networks Web Hosting
- Nexx
- PowWeb
- PureHost
- ReadyHosting
- ResellerClub
- SEO Hosting
- Site5
- SiteBuilder.com
- Sitelio
- Sitey
- Southeast Web
- Spry
- StartLogic
- SuperGreen Hosting
- TightHost
- TypePad
- USANetHosting
- Verio
- VirtualAvenue
- VPSLink
- Web2010
- WebDevHosting
- WebHost4Life
- WebHosting.info
- WebsiteBuilder.com
- Webstrike Solutions
- Webzai
- World Wide Web Hosting
- Xeran
- YourWebHosting
2) For Honest Reviews, Check TrustPilot
TrustPilot is a good place to get legit – unbiased reviews (exception – Hostinger). Luckily, EIG companies don’t write fake reviews about themselves.
Endurance International Group Reviews ( trustpilot.com )
Bluehost Reviews (trustpilot.com)
Hostgator Reviews (trustpilot.com)
iPage Reviews (trustpilot.com)
3) Pricing Structure traps you for 2-3 years
The advertised prices of EIG’s companies are applicable only if you sign up for 3 years. Most customers realise too late about the poor quality of service. By that time, their refund period has already ended and as they have purchased the plan for 2-3 yrs, they have no choice other than to stick with them for the remainder of the plan (or lose all of the money paid to them if the customer decides to move to another host before the current plan ends)
4) Only Affiliate Bloggers Promote them
WPBeginner is one good example of this. He mostly promotes HostGator and Bluehost because all EIG companies pay a lot in commission (around $150/sale). This is the reason due to which almost every affiliate blog will recommend EIG hosts. Even “How to start a blog” articles will recommend them because they are cheap (conditions apply) and these bloggers know that beginners won’t research more than what they have written in a blog about hosting. In reality, almost no EIG affiliate blogger uses their hosting.
5) Overcrowded Servers result in Slow TTFB
EIG’s main way of cutting costs is by packing as many customers as possible on a single server. Sometimes, after they buy a company, they DEGRADE that company’s servers to save maintenance and parts cost.
6) Reduced Support to Cut Costs
One of the main strategies of cost cutting by EIG is to reduce support staff. You can visit TrustPilot and check the reviews. Many of them are about lack of customer support.
For all of the EIG companies, there is only one support team. This is not an issue for them as they can help any customer of any EIG owned companies. Support is slow and will take hours to reply and these days you won’t even find a live chat option.
7) Outages are Common
EIG has no concrete plans in place to prevent outages. Even a simple power outage can take thousands of sites offline (Recent Service Disruption — Our Apologies | Bluehost Blog). Again, you can find these types of complains in TrustPilot and Facebook groups.
Verdict
Whenever you hear the name of any EIG owned company, JUST RUN and if anyone is planning to purchase any hosting plan from them, show them this post.
If you want some great web hosting, I recommend you check out Kinsta and WPEngine Review (if you have more budget) or Lightsail (if you have less budget). By no means Lightsail is a slouch. In fact, if you configure it right, you can have a great WordPress site which can even beat the most expensive plans of Kinsta and WPEngine.
If you have any queries or suggestions, let me know in the comments down below.
