Hostwinds Reviews 724

Just don't go near them. They lie about everything. They will steal from you. They will lie again. They will deny recieving cancellation requests, lie again and try to steal from you again. And I expect they will resond to this review with more lies.

I bought a server and spoke to support. If the port was 25 open, they told me yes, it was open. I bought a server and 10 IPs. I discovered that they were in a black list. I spoke to support. They told me we would replace the IP. We added three days and I waited to no avail. I spoke to support. I could get my money back. Tell me it was possible to get my money back. But I can replace the server. I replaced the server and discovered that it is on a black list. I also spoke with support to get my money back. They told me that I cannot get my money back. Beware of this scam company 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I recently purchased a yearly VPS plan from Hostwinds, believing it would be sufficient to run 4-5 simple WordPress sites with zero traffic. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Despite these websites being very basic (which any shared hosting could handle), I immediately encountered memory issues.

When I reached out for help, Sofia Barret from support told me to "hire a developer" instead of investigating the issue themselves. This response was disappointing, as I expected support to assist in diagnosing the problem. Upgrading to a higher-tier plan was suggested, but that’s not financially feasible for me right now.

I requested a refund because the service clearly wasn’t meeting my needs, but Hostwinds refused, stating I was outside the 72-hour refund window by just a few hours. This is particularly frustrating since I feel I was misled into purchasing a full year of service. Now I’m stuck with a service that doesn’t work and no option for a refund, even though I was just slightly over their time limit.

They also mentioned I could cancel the service, but I can’t do that without losing access to the server, which I need to migrate my websites elsewhere. Hostwinds left me with no real solution—just more frustration. I would have appreciated more transparency and support that actually helps resolve issues.

I cannot recommend Hostwinds based on my experience.

This service is the most scammy service i ever encountered. on 2 point during my own customer experience.

1) First their operator on the live tchat told me that they had a 3 days trial plan, otherwise i wouldn't have added funds in the balance especially with prices like this, i spoke with him several times before purchasing and doing their trial, to be sure of what i would put my money in, still he didn't specify about their refund policies and what would make my payment non eligable for refund, leading me in purchasing for overall 50dollars for nothing just to fast try their VPS.

2) the first 2 times i had to top up my balance to create a server, it required me to manually do it, and it was specified that i had to pay, but when i went to create my third VPS, it didn't tell me to pay anything or that i was going to pay for something, it resulted in me paying 25 more dollars without agreeing for it.

After talking a long time with support and explaning them the problem all along trying to make them understand my situation, no matter what i would say and explain they didn't want to refund me, when they obviously can, they are not a service a recommand at all, they don't care about customers and are not ready to help you, they just want to take your money and don't care, if you do any mistakes you will pay for it, now i have 50 dollars there i will never be able to use ever, its lost. Let me resume again, i payed 50 dollars i will never recover for a 3 days trial they proposed me, and didn't want to help on any level to refund me at least a part of it. Scammer is the least i can think of them. Be carefull

EDIT (to answer the comment they made below this post) :

So basically they try to defends themselves by saying i was informed and that i am dumb to resume without too many words, well its a lie, i had this conv with them about it and they clearly didn't inform me at all, as many services their policies are not simple to understand without further informations from support, and it took me 2 days of conversations with them to try and make sure i was informed before purchasing, but the way they communicated was missleading to push to you purchase and can't be able to be refunded, its a classic tactic they used to make me pay, when they tried to summon the same argument while we were talking i brang screenshots of the conversations where they said that they "informed me" and the screenshot clearly showed that it wasn't the case at all and obviously they dodged the topic right after i show them the screenshots, i suggest you don't listen to them as they are a bunch of liars and that they will obviously try to defend themselves on trustpilot.

The tech support is incredibly inadequate. Their tech team decided to run a check disk today without any approval or notice. This took down our web service. The only reason they knew about it was because we told them. Now we have to decide from my team what we need to do because if we tell them what to do, there is no guarantee they are going to listen because you can't talk to anyone. We are talking about major decisions about our company's data and they won't get on a meeting to scope out a fix. The communication with HostWinds is not just lacking, it is impossible to have a complex conversation over a ticket. I mean there is a good chance there is nothing wrong with our drive and it is a controller. The reason why I know this is because there are multi-disk issues in batches. But the tech that has the ability to look into the errors isn't really trying to find a solution just get the ticket completed.

We had a server set up and asked for a RAID that was set up wrong. So they did the RAID again and still didn't get it right. I fell for any company that does not have an IT team because they would have no choice but to listen to what they say. They can't be trusted because they will not research or do what is asked of them.
I don't like to put company business out there, but it seems that the executive team doesn't want to be reached (too much of a burden I guess). The fact that the support prompt on their IVR tells you about tickets and hangs up is a really good indicator that customer service is not a priority.
I don't expect that this going to get me a meeting to discuss options but I don't have any other action with HostWinds.
I would highly recommend that if you are looking for a server company make sure that you have some way to back up your data outside of HostWinds because there is a good chance you are going to need to restore your data.

Peter and Dustin have been in contact with us.

I was working with their affiliate marketing program, promoting their products. Each time a sale was made, I received a notification that I had earned $65 as a commission for the sale, which was in a pending status until it was approved so I could withdraw it. However, the approval never happened; it remained in the pending status for a month or two, then disappeared. The same thing happened repeatedly over two years, during which I brought them over 10 sales but couldn't withdraw any of the commissions. Strangely, even if they didn't approve it for some reason, it should not disappear from the account without any explanation. when I asked for the reason, I didn't get an answer. In summary, this fraudulent company stole my time, effort, and money. I do not recommend them at all.

The best, most responsive small-scale cloud hoster.

This is a very bad platform. After I ran the server for a few days, it was deactivated without any notification. Then I was asked to submit verification documents, which failed even after I submitted them.

I would never recommend using Hostwinds. They spout absolute rubbish.
I purchase a VPS and change the hostname, set up nothing on the VPS but after 1 day I am added to an Abuse List, they cant tell me why! I know why, I was assigned an IP by them that was already on 6 blacklist monitors. They accuse me of spamming, I have never spammed anyone in my life.
They then ask me for a picture of my ID and Credit card, not sure the storage of these images is legal, in this context, but it is so they can charge you $250 per hour at their own discretion.
There whole system and attitude is as though I have done something wrong, they break their own T&C's treating customers like criminals.
An absolute joke - use Racknerds or Contabo, at least they treat you with respect!!!!

Been using Hostwinds hosting for nearly two years and no issues. They have a very great customer service and tech team.

I upgraded to 12GB 4 core VPS charging £111 per month and it wouldn't even run 5 instances of MT4. The techs gaslit me telling me everything was fine and its not their problem if MT4 doesnt work. I couldn't click on any of them or update anything. I restarted, rebooted and did everything asked then asked for refund within 3 days notice. Their billing REFUSED to refund me despite my consumer rights! This is a truly terrible company that gaslights you when you have an issue then refuses to refund you even when you ask for a partial refund. Stay away if using for Forex! 100% not worth it and their techs admit it themselves they have no clue about MT4 and claim that even buying more memory and processors with them, doesnt mean it should work. I have everything in writing to prove their ridiculous claims and refusal to refund. Forget these guys!

SUBSCRIPTION FRAUD !!!!

DESPITE CANCELLING MY SUBSCRPTION ABOUT 4-5 MONTHS AGO, THEY KEPT CHARGING ME CONSTANTLY MONTHS AFTER MONTHS

THOUGH I DELETED THE INSTANCE 4-5 MONTHS AGO AND AS MUCH AS I CAN REMEBER I WAS HAVING ISSUES SOMEWHERE. HENCE I OPENED SUPPORT TICKET AND ASKED TO DELETE EVERYTHING. AND BEING A ONE MAN PERSON IN MY BUSINESS I TEMPORARILY MOVED ON TO OTHER THINGS WHILE HOPING THAT TEAM WILL TAKE CARE OF IT PROVIDED THAT I'VE BEEN GIVING THEM MY EXCLUSIVE CONSENT.

THE NEXT MONTH I SEE A REMINDER DIRECTLY ON MY BANK STATEMENT AS A FINAL CHARGE. NO EMAIL REMINDERS, NO NOTIFICATIONS OF THE COMING SUBSCRIPTION, DIRECTLY A CHARGE. SO I WROTE AN EMAIL BACK TO TEAM TO KINDLY TAKE ACTION AND STOP THESE CHARGES, TO WHICH THEY CREATED TICKET AND STILL DIDN'T DELETED WHOLE THING( DESPITE ME ASKING THIS WHOLE TIME ON LIVE CHAT AS WLL AS TICKETS) BUT RATHER LEFT A FEW MICRO SERVICES LIKE SNAPSHOTS ETC TO BE DELETED MANUALLY BY MYSELF (WHICH IS WHERE I WAS HAVING ISSUES).AND FOR THE LEFT OF THE MONTHS I'VE BEEN ASKING TO DO IT FOR ME.

AFTER 3-4 MONTHS AND MORE CHARGES ACCUMULATED, SOMEONE FINALLY CREATED SUPPORT TICKET AND ASSURED ME OF MY REFUND FOR ALL THESE SHADY CHARGES. I REPLIED TO THE TICKET AND MOVED ON TO WORK BEING BUSY. MEANWHILE SOMEONE ELSE FROM BILLING REPLIED IN THE TICKET ASKING FOR CONSENT AGAIN( TO WHICH I MISSED REPLYING SINCE I ALREADY REPLIED) SURPRISINGLY THEY CLOSED TICKET WITHOUT REFUND.

AND TILL YESTERDAY I HAD STOPPED A FEW GHOST SERVICES AGAIN AND ASKED FOR REFUND. THEY REFUNDING NOW ONLY ONE MONTH CHARGE AND ENFORCING THEIR POLICY.

I'VE EVIDENCE OF ME ASKING THEM TO DELETE/STOP EVERYTHING ON EVERY INTERACTION.. RATHER THAN TAKING CARE OF EVERYTHING ON ONE SINGLE TICKET THEY KEPT ME THROWING HERE AND THERE YET THEY KEPT ME IN LOOP FOR THIS LONG AND KEPT CHARGING ME NOT REFUNDING AND ENFORCING THEIR POLICY IS A TYPICAL "SUBSCRIPTION FRAUD" RUNNING ALONGSIDE LEGIT BUSINESS TO YEILD THE CHERRY ON TOP.

HOSTWIND IS SUBSCRIPTION FRAUD.

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Edit : what makes you a SUBSCRIPTION FRAUD IS THAT SINCE SEPTEMBER I'VE BEEN OPENING TICKETS, WRITING ON CHATS, WRITING EMAILS TO CANCEL EVERYTHING AND STOP THESE STUPID CHARGES. YET YOU'VE BEEN IGNORANT ENFORCING YOUR POLICY SO YOU CAN YEILD EXTRA PROFIT.

YOU DID MENTIONED IN YOUR REPLY THAT YOU SEE A TICKET RAISED FOR CANCELLATION IN SEPTEMBER... WELL, SINCE THEN I'VE BEEN ASKING YOU TO CANCEL EVERYTHING. EVERYWHERE... BUT YOU SCAMMERS HAVE ONLY CONTINUOUSLY CHARGING ME EVER SINCE THEN.

HOW CAN I MAKE MY INTENTIONS MORE CLEAR TO CANCEL THESE USELESSS CRAPPY SERVICES THAN WHAT I JUST ALREADY DID,,, COMPOSED TICKETS, EMAILS, CHAT SUPPORT. I'VE BEEN WRITING YOU ON EVERY AVAILABLE CHANNEL WHEREVER,WHENEVER POSSIBLE TO CANCEL EVERYTHING AND STOP CHARGES.

I'VE WORKED WITH VERY LESS TO NOT KNOWN COMPANIES( ie snel.com, OVH.com) AS WELL AS SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR ONES. IE IONOS,GODADDY,NAMECHEAP, HOSTINGER.COM,VULTR and several others IN MY ENTIRE 13 YEARS OF IT EXPERIENCE)

HOSTWINDS IS HANDS DOWN THE WORST HOSTING AND WEB SERVICE PROVIDER AMONG EVERYTHING I EVER CAME ACROSS.
REGRETS.

In order to use the latest php version you'll have to upgrade to one of their VPS plans instead. Also, if you choose the Basic plan and want a full backup on your data from their server, then you'll have to open up a support ticket, 'cos they have removed the Backup option in cPanel, so you can't do it yourself.

This is not OK for me so I'll change web host instead. Problem solved.

HostWinds customer support is excellent. I never imagined I would care about customer support for a website but when I'm trying to keep my website up without working on it, it's so nice to be able to tell them to complete the technical part and the site gets going little or no time input on my part. Also, their techs are available all the time, so I don't waste time getting through AI to get to a human being.

Great service, affordable, userfriendly system. Everything is working great.

Best hosting company I ever had. They are hiperfast in answering and solving any problem. Even now that I unsuscribed they helped me quickly so if I will ever open another website I will use this service, the servers are also very speedy. Great Job and super assistence

Quick support. Helpful agents

Everything was very fast and it was even in the weekend possible to get the VPS live in less than an hour which is great.