Hello Manuel,

When you mean "slow", how are you defining "slow"? Is it the speed of the site, speed of the connectivity, speed of the web server, speed of the database server?

Manuel,

For years I was using the same webhosting company in Canada. I went from cheap shared hosting, to a 10 package hosting plan, and finally to a high priced per month VPS plan @44.95 a month. In my experience going this route saw less speed, more hassles. After 15 years, I made the decision to go with a Hosting Provider that understands Joomla, and supports their customers. I made the switch to SiteGround after careful reviews of all possible choices.

They have 3 plans:

I decided for my needs to go with the GoGeek Plan at $14.95 a month and add in the paid Cloudflare plan - and private DNS. I am paying much less than my old VPS, and the support is excellent. Even before site optimization, the PageSpeed test for my two new sites are almost double my previous speed on the slow VPS server.

1. StartUp
Crafted for a Great Web Start
Special Price: $3.95/mo.
60% OFF the regular $9.95/mo.

2. GrowBig
Crafted for Your Web Growth
Special Price: $7.95/mo.
50% OFF the regular $14.95/mo.

3. GoGeek
Crafted for Real Web Geeks
Special Price: $14.95/mo.
50% OFF the regular $29.95/mo.

Link to plans to view options: http://www.siteground.com/web-hosting.htm

NOTE! I have no affiliate plan with Siteground to post recommendations, even though Siteground offers one to loyal customers. I am posting this here for one reason only. It's the best Hosting I have found in many years for my Joomla based site needs.

Randall

If you are going to check out site ground, remember to use our affiliation page http://stackideas.com/siteground-hosting

I'm also with Hostgator and am willing to switch to increase performance once I launch my site. I was willing to go the dedicated server route to get better performance but since Randall is recommending them I'll trust his judgement and switch to them. Also Stackideas has an affiliation with them so that's double assurance, thanks guys you just saved me a nice amount of money!!!!! By the way are there no more notifications now? I can't tell when someone responds to my questions or comments in a thread I'm subscribed to.

Antonio Simmons wrote:

I'm also with Hostgator and am willing to switch to increase performance once I launch my site. I was willing to go the dedicated server route to get better performance but since Randall is recommending them I'll trust his judgement and switch to them. Also Stackideas has an affiliation with them so that's double assurance, thanks guys you just saved me a nice amount of money!!!!! By the way are there no more notifications now? I can't tell when someone responds to my questions or comments in a thread I'm subscribed to.

Here is my transactions history with SiteGround which resulted in a costs savings for a superior Hosting Plan to the VPS I was using for years.

Last Transactions:
Paid Jan 09, 2014 CloudFlare Plus 143.40 USD - one year plan - I chose to Upgrade to the paid version of the free CDN that comes with the one year plan
Paid Jan 06, 2014 Dedicated IP 30.00 USD - one year plan - I chose to have my own dedicated IP address rather than the shared IP
Paid Jan 05, 2014 1 year GoGeek Hosting 191.40 USD - one year plan - in 4 months @ $44.95 a month for old VPS plan I knew I would pay for the whole year or 12 x @ $14.95 a month, Huge savings. Better speed, Better plan.

Make sure to credit StackIdeas by using their SiteGround affiliate link below:
As Mark added above: If you are going to check out site ground Siteground, remember to use the StackIdeas Affiliation Page http://stackideas.com/siteground-hosting

If you are undecided and want to learn more about what SiteGround offers, check this out:

I received a notification email today about a Google Hangout for April 29, 2014 @ 12:00 PM EDT

INTRODUCING SITEGROUND'S NEW TOOLS THAT MAKE WORDPRESS & JOOMLA ADMINISTRATION EASIER
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014 at 12:00 PM EDT (Convert To Your Time Zone) http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

Link to join the Hangout on April 29, 2014 @ 12:00 PM EDT : https://plus.google.com/events/cjuselg6oih58c7rr9f9i6b4edk

We have developed a special set of tools, which make the administration of WordPress and Joomla websites more convenient and easy. Our tools give you 1-click way to resetting admin password and site’s permissions, configuring an SSL, and moving your installation to different folders. Join our Hangout with Hristo Pandjarov (Web Apps Guru at Siteground) and learn how to make your life easier with our Joomla and WordPress admin tools!

Randall

I sure will use the link but what about the notifications?

Hi Antonio,

May i know which notification are you referring? Do you mean the notification from our website when someone add replies to your thread or thread you subscribed? Please advise.

Hi Sam, Yes that's exactly what I'm referring to.

Hello Antonio,

Ah, we have actually turned off the notifications as we are not using a "toolbar" currently. We might add them in the future on the side bar

@Manuel/Antonio,

I may be a bit late if you have already joined SiteGround, but if not, take this as another firm recommendation from someone who moved over from Hostgator last year after their whole system crashed for a day.

Hostgator have not been the same since the takeover and moving of customers onto 'new' (slower) servers and I have no regrets with the move.

I also upgraded to GoGeek after starting at the lowest option as this package is perfect for ecommerce and the support is just like Stackideas, pure quality. I added JCH Optimize and after working through any issues on GTMetrix the page speed is 90+ so absolutely no complaints on server speed from SiteGround.

Every site is different, but the SiteGround support will handle any questions promptly and efficiently.

@Antonio

I posted a possible solution to your problem in the Group Category thread, can you confirm there if it works for you? Mark cannot add any new features until at least v1.3 (which is fine), but you probably want to be sure it is what you are looking for.

Thanks for sharing Richard

Hi Richard, I remember that day Hostgator crashed and it just recently happened again:( so I'm definitely switching over to SiteGround thanks for the recommendation;) I'm going to the Group Category thread now and check out your solution.