FatCow reviews – Page 2

Tarrible performance, support is a joke.

Last year I signed with FatCow.com for web hosting. I paid for one year and now switching only after 10 month. Main reason is very bad performance and customer service. My very small Joomla site with only 3 users was very slow or absolutely dead. All support requests came back about 12 hours later with "We do not see any issues" message. Couple of days later I have same problem with same response from "support" next day.

Upload/download speed for FTP is limited and very slow. I had much faster speed for upload and download on FTP

I had enough. Couple of days ago switched to inmotionhosting - what a difference in performance! Same site (backup and restore) is flying. It is responding to all clicks withing a second.
I had little issues with subdomains being directed to old hosting and asked about it. Inmotion support replied less then 2 hours later (at 2am). The issue was with nameserver propagation on my ISP. All looks great now.

Yes, it is a bit more money per month, but I'm willing to pay for something that works a little more then pay anything for something that can't be used.

Biggest Pro: None that I can think about
Biggest Con: Performance, connection speed, support

DON"T USE THIS WEB HOSTING SERVICE!!!!

DON"T USE THIS WEB HOSTING SERVICE!!!! The worst I ever dealt with. They do not give you unlimited space like they claim. They actually cap you at 25GB which is nothing these days. If you don't renew your web hosting plan for another year, they'll take down your entire site and databbses 2 weeks prior to when your current plan is expired. And worst customer service ever!!! And I've used GoDaddy, BlueHost, inMotion and they are light years ahead in customer service and support! DO NOT BE FOOLED BY A FATCOW!!!

Biggest Pro: N/A
Biggest Con: Everything

Pushy sales person

Called Fatcow today to signup our company for Webhosting. Talked to Chris in Sales and he had to call me back b/c his computer crashed. I should have taken that as a sign. Then, he called me back & as we were sealing the deal he kept trying to add features to the base price and I told him NO several times. Finally, I said if you are going to be pushy then I want to cancel my business with this company.He did not apologize and said that he would transfer me to billing dept to cancel. WOW, i guess they don't want the business.

You get what you pay for.

Used FatCow for a little over one year now. My biggest problem with Fat Cow is their technical support. When you place a request for support whether its via phone, chat or whatever you will be placed in touch with a 1st level support rep. Generally you are put in touch with someone quite fast ....usually. After that, good luck. The lack of technical knowledge and general feeling you get that the person on the other end does not care one bit for you ( a paying customer ) is quite frustrating. I had a couple instances where an issue arose and required more troubleshooting and knowledge than what the 1st level tech could provide. I was moved over to a tier two technician. On both occasions I was told that the issue was not their ( FatCow's ) problem and I was on my own. One of the two mentioned issues was a result of FatCow updating my website to address a security vulnerability. This update broke a significant portion of one of my two sites. Again, on my own. I rated up-time and reliability a 9 as my site was always available. Server connection and speed was given a 5 ...both of my sites (both WordPress) were generally slow. Using a shared server that is to be somewhat expected. I gave technical support and knowledge a 2 for the reasons mentioned above (pathetic). Customer service and billing was given a 5 because once they have your money they don't seem to care as much about you as they did before the sale. Finally, price value for money I gave a 7. The reasons are for the price of the service, which is very competitive and the tools you are given are extensive. Averaging the scores (dropping the highest and lowest score to prevent skewing) I came up with a 5.6 which I think is VERY nice considering their pathetic support and slow connection speeds. I would highly recommend seeking other hosting services.

Biggest Pro: Up Time and price
Biggest Con: Technical Support

Easy and powerful host

I've been with Fatcow for at least 5 years. They have hosted our community theatre website and my school website. The school page is visited by parents and students on a daily basis and it hosts large amounts of dynamic content. There has been almost no downtime and all file transfers occur quickly. The admin interface gives you ultimate control and I've used many of Fatcows online tools. I enjoy running a php based chat board, setting up user forms and databases with ultimate ease. On occasion I've used some Fatcows mass mailing /newsletter tools that were pretty cool. From it's Mail Central area I manage numerous accounts with multiple forwards and redirects. In terms of customer service I couldn't say enough positive things. Typically I need to contact them 2 or 3 times a year for minor things. I always get through to a real person quickly and they know their stuff. I also love the fact that there are Mac people there who know their way around your OS. Starting up new sites and features happens quickly and I don't think I've ever had to wait for Monday for something to take effect - it's always super fast. Refresh and you’ll see your request acted upon. I also appreciate that they don't clog my inbox with spam about their promotions and services. Fatcow touches base now and then, but not to the point where I want to block them. They send helpful reminders when my domain renewal and bill are coming due. I think the price is very reasonable for what you get. Several of my friends have used freebie sites and were subject to malware, junk and had a nightmare trying to reach people to get out. You get what you pay for.

Biggest Pro: admin control panel is very user friendly
Biggest Con: none

Excellent Hosting

FatCow is the best hosting site I've found yet. As a web developer, I need quality features, reliable uptime, good pricing, and easy access to support. FatCow has exceeded my expectations for all of these things. They offer easy scripts for installation, live chat support and full control over every aspect of hosting. They give me the control that I need at my fingertips. On top of that, the price is great, they offer a lot of useful deals, and they give a referral credit for each domain that gets added. I'm so impressed with FatCow that I'm trying to get all my clients to migrate to their servers. It's worth the effort and in the end will be a huge benefit that I can offer to my clients.

Biggest Pro: Great price

Fat Cow feels good

I'm relatively new to the world of websites and blogging, but I was recommended to host with Fat Cow by a professional web designer, so I jumped. It feels great to know that they're 100% wind-powered, first of all, and their whole interface is based on cartoons, which makes everything a little bit more fun.

On serious matters, I have found their interface very easy to learn as a new user of hosting, and the few times I've had to contact them for support, I've received a very thorough return email in an hour or less. Uptime seems to be great--only once have I seen the site down, and it's been back up in under an hour.

I've got several sites that I plan on building, and I'll use Fat Cow for all of them.

flaky about money

A friend designed my website and suggested using FatCow because she had heard they were good. There were only minor difficulties setting it up, and it's worked find for a year.
When it came time to renew, the price was more than double the initial fee. I was not told at the beginning that this was an introductory rate. After many phone calls I was able to negotiate a lightly lower renewal rate. When my credit card bill came, I saw that they billed me twice, for the negotiated rate, and then a few days later for the higher rate. I received an email to confirm the first, no notification about the second billing until I received the credit card bill. When I called to question this, they agreed to refund the charge, but at first refused to notify the credit card company. After more phone time, I spoke to a supervisor who will hopefully do this.
I'm disappointed that it takes so much time to get finances straight with them. As an inexperienced person with regards to websites, I truly don't know how to assess this company's performance other than the hassles I've had with them about billing. I would have switched to a less expensive company, but now that my website is with them, it's difficult for me to know how to move a website.

Biggest Pro: it works
Biggest Con: higher price, incorrect billing

Reliable, full-featured hosting - and Mac-friendly!

I have been using FatCow hosting for more than 5 years, and it has been nice to watch them keep adding features. I originally signed up with FatCow because they advertised in a Mac-specific magazine (and I was looking for a hosting service that would work well with the Macintosh platform).

Over the years, I have kept my eyes open for other hosting servers. At times I was tempted to switch because they offered more storage, more email accounts, or whatever. But since I did not need those particular benefits just yet, I decided to wait until it became an issue. On both occasions that I was seriously looking for an upgrade, FatCow upgraded their offerings across the board (with no extra fees). They do a good job of keeping up with the industry's offerings while keeping the costs very reasonable.

FatCow has basically gone to an "unlimited everything" model for a very low monthly price. The last time I renewed, they gave me an even better deal for a multi-year contract.

On a couple of occasions, when through my own clumsiness or neglect, the web site became corrupt, the support staff was very helpful in getting me back up to speed. Once, when our church site was under attack by hackers, FatCow's technical staff was very helpful getting better security in place.

Their behind-the-scenes support is very easy to use. Control Panel is clear and straightforward. Simple Scripts (installing and upgrading applications such as WordPress, Moodle, forums, etc.) is foolproof. They even have an online login to access the file system, eliminating or supplementing the need for FTP, that I use when all I have is an iPhone.

A portion of my site got hacked once, but that was after leaving it dormant for a couple of years, and it had an extremely weak password, so I guess that should be no surprise.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the service I have received from FatCow, including the price/features ration, the technical help, and the courteous staff.

Works for me

Since I didn't know very much about creating a site I thought the tools on FatCow made it very easy for me. I occasionally have time to review the tutorials and just recently found out how to publish an application form on my site that my association members can fill out. These forms are automatically emailed to me. This saves my members and me some time and postage.

My site is a non profit community association. I also belong to other clubs and associations that have websites. Very often the responsibility to maintain the sites are give to people like me with little web design knowledge. Since we don't make any money we don't hire people to do this for us. I found this site cost and service adequate for my needs.

Biggest Pro: easy for a novice