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Date Submitted :
May 6th, 2011
Length of time hosted by this company :
More than 3 years
Overall Rating :
5 out of 5
Reliability :
5 out of 5
Support :
5 out of 5
Pricing :
5 out of 5
Verdict :
I have been using CrystalTech for about 8 years. It's a shared hosting account with a lightly used web site, so take account of that. However, I have rarely ever needed support, and on the few occasions that I have, it's been prompt and efficient.
I have never been aware of any unplanned outages, except, ironically, yesterday. Even then I was able to self-support by rolling back the site to the previous day. This is an awesome piece of functionality!
My experience has been so good that I've never once been concerned about availability and up-time.
Pricing seems about what the market is doing, perhaps slightly more expensive than others. But then I don't get to waste time and money calling support. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
I have used them since 2001 and cannot find any error with them. I have been through several server upgrades, even drive structure changes (that was a bit painful). However, as a developer, I know these things are necessary. What is nice is that CT gives you plenty of warning that something is coming and they are detailed in the changes that will occur. From that information, you make your changes if needed. If your site goes down, they will assist you with finding the info you need (if you know what you are doing) or help fix the issue if you don't. Grade A, Top Notch. I refuse to go anywhere else. In fact, I can get the type of hosting I need for FREE, but because of CT's loyalty to me over the years, I stay and pay.
Feb 2010: The CrystalTech support team are friendly people. Unfortunately, much of their hosting technology is very old.
Examples:
(1) I have a dedicated server with a database on a shared SQL server. I often receive SQL timeouts and, since I have a few tables which are very small (less than 5,000 records), I am certain it's 100% caused by their hosting OVER 400 databases on the same shared server! How do I know? SQL Management Studio 2008 (SMS2008) shows you the counter. They claim it's monitored but, each time I report an issue, the support team (including level-2 server administrators) state they have no way of knowing which customer is abusing the system (due to poor code and/or database design). This is the stupidest excuse I've ever heard; SQL has built-in tools for capturing such info for latter analysis.
(2) I often receive nonsensical advice from their so-called expert support staff. I was recently told by them to export my database to my local machine to make data-level changes, and then make a .BAK file and upload that via FTP to our web server and then use their Web Control Center to restore that .BAK file thereby REPLACING my SQL database .... which happens to be continually updated by my website's visitors. What kind of bonehead offers such a suggestion without first asking if my data is static?
(3) This one is the MOST DANGEROUS for all CrystalTech customer who have a SQL database on one of their Shared SQL servers: Your "Recovery Mode" is set to "Simple". They only backup your database once per day. In the event of a storage failure, you will LOSE all data changes that took place since the last backup. The solution? Have then change your database's Recovery Mode to "Full". However, this creates another issue ONLY for CrystalTech: Data-changes are then stored in a Database Log file. As that log grows, database performance will suffer. The only way to get the log to "shrink" is to backup the Log File (in addition to the database itself). Guess what? CrystalTech refuses to do that for you on a Shared SQL server. Why? who the heck knows but it's PURE STUPIDITY at either setting they offer as described above.
I have used Crystaltech for nearly 3 years, I am based in the UK and am small time web developer. I found they offer a brilliant service, they are on a different time zone thus when you want support you get these persons in the support that usually reply within a minute of a phone call and not only are they super polite but they give full clued up and competent support, I have used them for near 90 sites so far and would not consider moving. The control panel they offer is simple and non intimidating, little change of you clicking something and find out later you have been charged for it. I have had very bad experience with a few of the main uk hosing companies due to charges and support. The only thing that lets Crystaltech down is that I cannot transfer .co.uk names to them, I would like to have all my sites and domain names in one place. but I have my .co.uk and .coms in separate companies. any way Crystaltech deserves a good look as I am really please with there service and that can give me confidence in the work place.
I have been with crystaltech for about 5 years. Until recently I would have given them 5 stars across the board. I was a developer and had many sites hosted by crystaltech. Recently my entire account became inaccessible to me. Crystaltech told me I had to get a hold of the administrator in order to access the account. I was no longer the administrator and mysteriously it was another customer of crystaltech (a former client that had been transfered to a friend as a developer several years ago). I was told I could not access nor pay for my site as my credit card had been stolen. I am sure it was a simple mistake but it makes me nervous that my account could be given to another without my permission and could then access all my information. I moved my site to another host. Perhaps an over reaction but while they were not rude they never seemed to do much to take care of the problem on their end.
Oh-my-goodness I love those people at Crystaltech! Always way beyond helpful. Always pleasant. They always take as much time with my calls as needed, and entertain my truly dumb and/or complex questions. All this, and very reasonable cost too! I had no idea - before Crystaltech - that a web host would be so much fun and so pleasurable to work with! I had put Web Hosts in the category of cable providers and telephone companies. These folks are way, way better than that. RCM in Ohio
Crystal Tech was a wonderful web hoster UNTIL October of this year. At that time they upgraded and left customers behind. They did not include all of their current templates in the upgrade and the user (me) could no longer maintain it. Crystal Tech did try to 're-create' the site but it was not near the quality of my old site and even had spelling errors.
I asked for a 2 month credit since my site was not displaying correctly after the upgrade and they could not correct it - showing weird characters in odd places.
This is the reply I received from Crystal Tech:
**********************************************************************
Hello XXXXXXX
After reviewing the ticket for the new SiteCenter that was installed several months back. I am sorry to say that I can not approve the request for 2 months credit. The issue is that with the company that it self does not support the old templates with the new SiteCenter, we do not have anyone to turn to ourselves to resolve the issue. We have talked with Interspire to see if we can get the old templates converted with no success. Please understand that you are not the only one affected by these changes. We have weighted the changes with in the new SiteCenter and found them much more beneficial for our customers than some of the issues that have arisen. We have also tried to assist you in converting the site to one of the new templates for you to use.
Please accept my sincerest apology as we can no longer support the older version of SiteCenter.
Regards,
David Thompson
Technical Support Supervisor
CrystalTech Web Hosting, Inc.
A Newtek Business Services Company
Toll Free1-877-323-4678 Opt. x12740
Phone: 602-263-0300 Opt x12740
DavidThompson@Crystaltech.com
Fax: 602-263-0600
URL: www.crystaltech.com
**********************************************************************
After receiving the above email I asked that they shutdown my site as it looked unprofessional with the odd characters. They did - it can not be viewed to this day BUT I just received a 'Billing email' from they where they automatically charged me for the next months service.
I would not recommend this company to anyone as you can see from the email that Crystal Tech themselves sent me - they knowingly have done this and are not going to try to correct the problems it has caused and they admitt that I am not the only user having these problems - basically been left behing by Crystal Tech.
Crystaltech was a very reliable web hosting company, and their customer support is very fast and kind until now.
But web site connection that is the most important thing is getting worse rapidly.
I could not connect our website 4 times for 22 days from December 1 to December 22, 2008.
According to crystaltech.com they host more than 100,000 domains.
I think they host too many web sites. And it may cause many connection problems.
I have been with CrystalTech for 8 years now and have to say that they are an excellent providor of services.
I run several scripts and image mapping which CT have helped me with, they even installed a DLL I required on my shared server.
There are plenty other hosts out there who are cheaper, but I would not move my main business site away from them.
My only gripe is that you can only have one free MySql db, when it would cost them almost nothing to allow their cutomers unlimited (within reason) dbs.
Support is excellent, any time I have a problem or question, I email them (Phone is poss) and have a response and solution within minutes.
CrystalTech is a top notch host where reliability and customerservice are their strong points. When we first started out our site, we bounced around other hosts for a while before finally settling on CT. We have been with them over 7 years now and have not had a reason to look elsewhere.
I am not able to find anything bad to say about them at this time. I have seen some hosts who are offering more web space and a few other features at more competitive prices. I am however hesitant to move as I tell myself you get what you pay for.
I have been with CrystalTech for 2 1/2 years and have had excellent experiences with them. I have several sites hosted with them, and their customer service is very good. If you want reliability with good customer service. This is the host to choose.
I first tried Crystaltech 2 years ago and I've never needed anyone else. Sure you can find "better deals" out there from a strictly monthly monetary perspective, but no one (and I've tried many many hosts) comes close to Crystaltech professionality, customer service, and top of the line business orientation -- I'll never need to look for another host again...
I had one site hosted with them and one with Ipowerweb. when it was time to resubscribe with ipowerweb i moved site to crystal - support better, control center much better, and stats much better.
Man I love these guys! My sites are all coldfusion and these guys have been doing it from the start.
I can get someone on the phone with me a 3 AM no problem and they go above and beyond to help out. If someone deosn't know something then they get you someone who does.
These guys are good! I have maybe 25-30 domains over the course of 3+ years doing business with them. Their customer support is top notch and has a tendency to step into the gret area and solve things that I would really consider to be "not their problem". Excellent forum, good knowledge base ( content is great - nav could be a little better ).
I finally ran into a few little issues, mainly having to do with email delivery because we are on a shared server and SMTP auth. wasn't enabled. Blacklisted on quite a few, they try and manage it and kick off the spammers, so it is dealt with. Now requiring smtp auth on all mail accounts in a few weeks and about to implement the sender policy framework so that should take care of most of these ( very few ) issues I had with them. Took 3 years to find a weakness in their services.
Of course, this is pretty standard when your on a shared hosting environment, so they handled themselves pretty well.
Excellent integrations with 3rd party vendors, backend control panel & webmail application.
