Compare customer support
Listed below are comparisons of the many ways web hosts deliver customer support.
- Live chat: this is increasingly the support option of choice for web hosts, however responsiveness and helpfulness varies markedly between hosts; some web hosts, e.g. Heart Internet, Fasthosts, etc., only appear to make live chat available at certain times;
- Ticketing: many web hosts, e.g. GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, etc., no longer allow customers to submit support tickets;
- Phone: in some cases, this appears to be the primary, preferred or only support option for certain webs hosts e.g. 1&1.
- Remember: organizations dedicate resources accordingly. The resources dedicated to sales chat are unlikely to be equivalent to the resources dedicated to support chat;
Live chat support?
The table below identifies which hosts provide live chat as a form of customer support.N/A = Not applicable NS = Not specified RBNS = Restricted but not specified
Click on a host to read the full review.
Web host | Live chat support? | Visit |
---|---|---|
GoDaddy | Limited | Visit |
Heart Internet | Yes | Visit |
1&1 | No | Visit |
Namecheap | Yes | Visit |
Hostinger | Yes | Visit |
FatCow | Yes | Visit |
Just Host | Yes | Visit |
GreenGeeks | Yes | Visit |
Fasthosts | Yes | Visit |
A2 Hosting | Yes | Visit |
Dreamhost | Yes | Visit |
HostGator | Yes | Visit |
InMotion Hosting | Yes | Visit |
iPage | Yes | Visit |
Host Papa | Yes | Visit |
Bluehost | Yes | Visit |
Siteground | Yes | Visit |
Some analysis:
- GoDaddy discontinued ticketing support in 2014 after likening its status as a method of support to the “cassette tape”. We disagree and so do, we suspect, the people across the world who collectively account for sending 269 billion emails every day;
- We experienced disproportionately high live chat wait times across most Endurance International Group hosts (e.g. Bluehost, HostGator, Just Host, etc.). We also suspect their live chat funnels into one place – one Just Host chat operator ended our chat by stating “thank you for contacting Bluehost”.
- Some live chat operators, particularly EIG hosts, are guilty of what we refer to as “chat buffering,” or the process of typing meaningless platitudes into a chat to, we suspect, make it easier to balance incoming enquiries;
- We’ve waited over 10 minutes to receive a response from Hostinger’s live chat operatives (we gave up at this point);
- Siteground is probably the best host we’ve reviewed for customer support – they dealt with our support tickets in less than eight minutes and their live chat is very responsive.
- 1&1 doesn’t appear to offer ticketing or live chat for support (they provide the latter for sales). Rather, they emphasize their phone number at every opportunity.
Phone support?
The table below identifies which hosts offer phone as a form of customer support.N/A = Not applicable NS = Not specified RBNS = Restricted but not specified
Click on a host to read the full review.
Web host | Phone support? | Visit |
---|---|---|
GoDaddy | Yes | Visit |
Heart Internet | No | Visit |
1&1 | Yes | Visit |
Namecheap | No | Visit |
Hostinger | No | Visit |
FatCow | No | Visit |
Just Host | Yes | Visit |
GreenGeeks | Yes | Visit |
Fasthosts | Yes | Visit |
A2 Hosting | Yes | Visit |
Dreamhost | No | Visit |
HostGator | Yes | Visit |
InMotion Hosting | Yes | Visit |
iPage | No | Visit |
Host Papa | No | Visit |
Bluehost | No | Visit |
Siteground | Yes | Visit |
Ticket/email support?
The table below outlines which hosts provide ticketing or email as a form of customer support.N/A = Not applicable NS = Not specified RBNS = Restricted but not specified
Click on a host to read the full review.
Web host | Ticket/email support? | Visit |
---|---|---|
GoDaddy | No | Visit |
Heart Internet | Yes | Visit |
1&1 | Yes | Visit |
Namecheap | Yes | Visit |
Hostinger | Yes | Visit |
FatCow | No | Visit |
Just Host | Yes | Visit |
GreenGeeks | Yes | Visit |
Fasthosts | Yes | Visit |
A2 Hosting | Yes | Visit |
Dreamhost | Yes | Visit |
HostGator | Yes | Visit |
InMotion Hosting | Yes | Visit |
iPage | No | Visit |
Host Papa | Yes | Visit |
Bluehost | Yes | Visit |
Siteground | Yes | Visit |