Good Hosting Companies?

[Slycee]

Does anyone have recommendations for quality hosting providers (decent service) that offer Miva?

Also, I've come across some host companies that say there's no need for a gateway - just a merchant account. Is this possible? I've been under the impression a gateway is necessary. Could these companies just bundle in their own gateway??


Thanks.

[CybrHost]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

Some people refer to a Merchant Accounts as: "an account that is setup for a business to take credit-card orders." (from the web).

So you may both be referring to the same thing with a different name.

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - [email protected]
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[d_host]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

You need a merchant account and a gateway. Some companies bundle the two together and offer it as a bundle package, so you need to get only "one" account with one company, rather than two separate accounts. Examples of those are PayQuake and Cardservices LinkPoint.

For Miva Merchant hosting, look no further than the sig below. <shameless plug>

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

There are times when you would not need a gateway and just need a merchant account; if your volume were low and you didn't mind cutting and pasting the card info into their virtual terminal, or if you have a physical terminal at your location, but if you want your store to be able to authorize and/or charge people as they check out, you need a gateway.

[Biffy]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

I can recommend Hostasaurus and dotcomhost as Miva hosts. Both are excellent and require no contracts. Both are Miva hosting experts with outstanding service.

I'm not sure what's going on at WolfPaw these days. They used to be pretty good but their top Miva guy (Vic) is no longer there. Maybe someone else can bring us all up to date on these folks.

Cybrhost has a history of specification "errors" on their website, and also require contracts, so be careful with them. You may not get the features they advertise and they'll hold you to the contract anyway.

DreamHost has a multi-year history of a shocking amount of downtime. Really nice folks but technically incompetent.

WestHost. If you like Miva Misery then this the place to get it. Imagine yourself as James Caan in the movie Misery and WestHost is Kathy Bates...

[chmatt]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

We have seen some confusion from new customers as to whether a merchant account is needed.

There are alternatives available, such as PayPal, that can be used in addition to, or instead of, a merchant account. We also have customers who simply use "Pay by Check", although that will obviously impact your sales.

However, you will definitely need some method of taking money from your customers, and that is generally not offered "by default" with hosting packages. I generally recommend shopping around for merchant account providers to find the best deal that works for you.

As far as choosing a provider, always look for what is most important to you for your needs. If you expect a lot of traffic, make sure to choose a provider and package to match. If you need special features such as a specific version of PHP, uncompiled Miva code, or other specific features, always ask to make sure the package you are choosing works for you.

CybrHost has a 3 month commitment on any Miva Merchant package. This is to re-coup the up-front costs we pay for our Merchant licenses. However, we offer a no questions asked 30-day money back guarantee as well to ensure our customers are completely satisfied. Every provider has a Terms of Service that you must agree to during the checkout process, so be sure to review them carefully.

Most importantly, ask questions! All of the bigger Miva Merchant hosts will always take time to help you determine which package is best for you.

- Matt

[gsam]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

I've been with Hostasaurus for at least the last 4 years, probably longer, time flies when your having fun. I would highly recommend them. They know Miva and they provide an excellent quality shared server service.

Gary

[BruceHolbrook]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

WestHost. If you like Miva Misery then this the place to get it. Imagine yourself as James Caan in the movie Misery and WestHost is Kathy Bates...

Interesting, why do you say that? We manage quite a few Miva sites on Westhost, and haven't run into any problems.

[Biffy]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

Interesting, why do you say that? We manage quite a few Miva sites on Westhost, and haven't run into any problems.

The specific problems I've had with them are you need special permission to write htaccess scripts for SEO Links and domain name resolution issues, they use some aliases in their pathnames that make it quite difficult, even impossible, to write pathnames at the server level, and the few sites I've actually gotten to run there are just plain sluggish.

Server level tasks that normally take me 2-3 minutes to do have taken several days and gobs of emails to accomplish at WestHost. I recently had one that took 17 days to get a simple pathname. Even their tech people couldn't figure out what was going on with all the aliases and redirects.

Seems like I recall some reports here in the Forums where WestHost would not allow FTP access to Miva flat files or FTP image uploads. Maybe it was Aplus I'm thinking of here.

As long as you don't use server scripts or custom integrations or FTP and don't mind a slow site, you can indeed host a Miva store there.

[quipdigital]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

I'll just throw in that I've been using DotCom Host for quite a few years (back when they used to be dotcom designers) and they really are awesome. I guess the most important part for me is their technical support. They've never failed me and have always been very fast to respond.

I think picking a hosting company is difficult because you don't know how good they are until something goes wrong.

Either way, that's my recommendation.

[topher]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

If you go with Hostasaurus, you will not be disappointed.

[Nstarleather]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

Recently had problems with Westhost- addressing PCI vunerabilities- I sent them the MacAffee reports- explained the problems- but they've refused to do anything without the CVE Numbers- MacAffee only gave me the number for one of them...
That's why I'm switching hosts...in spite of the 2 year contract I already have.
Plus with my site PCI scanning would run $579/yr- There are hosts that include it- and the total hosting package doesn't cost that much.

[Jeff - Wolfpaw Hosting]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

Biffy - Wolfpaw Hosting continues to provide excellent Miva Merchant hosting and 24 hour telephone support. Vic has been gone for over two years. Our customers are happy and we continue to grow. We're also in the small group of hosts that continue to participate in the Miva Conference and Forum.

[classiccutlery]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

I will put in my 2 cents and recommend Hostasaurus.com. They moved my store from my previous host with no problems. The answer all technical questions, no matter how minor, quickly and effectively. I'm a newbie and the tech support team at Hostasaurus has been awesome. They answer most questions within minutes and don't use a lot of technical jargon. I'm really pleased with the service I've received and our site is running soooooooo much faster now.

[Strat1979]

Re: Good Hosting Companies?

Hostasaurus. Period!