Unprecedented level of personalised service
I've been with Boom Host (shared hosting) for almost a year so I reckon it's about time to leave a review.
I don't think I've ever written a review for anything or anyone on the web before. It feels so pointless... I'm so sick and tired of all the fake reviews, lies, false advertising, etc., my level of trust with pretty much anything I see on the world wide web is really low. The reason why I'm actually taking time out of my extremely busy life (kids, building a house, work, etc) to write about Boom Host is because I really feel indebted to them, they really deserve a good review. I think I have a keen sense of justice running through my veins – I'm almost embarrassed at how little I pay for what I receive from them, it almost makes me cringe every time I write to their excellent customer services because deep inside I feel the amount of money I pay isn't enough to warrant the level of service I receive.
Considering my low confidence with people, companies and services in general, when someone actually comes through and does what they promise (and more, in the case of Boom Host), well, that triggers a strong feeling of loyalty in me. So, this is a genuine review, no one asked me to write these words, and it's been written with joy to spread the love. (And to prove it I'm not even going to include the urls of my sites.)
I'm a completely ordinary guy, no web-wiz whatsoever, but I suppose I have above average computing skills and an ability to learn quickly. I was running a few non-commercial free wordpress.com websites but about a year ago I decided to take the step up into shared hosting, a new world to me. I found webhostingtalk.com and spent weeks reading. I learned which hosts NOT to choose but still it seemed like such a bewildering labyrinth of information. Many hosts offer unbelievably good offers - “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” was one of the mantras I kept reading. Boom Host was indeed one of those, offering something ridiculous like, I don't remember exactly, “unlimited everything” (except server space), with a perhaps 40% discount for life for new customers. On paper they just seemed to tick all the boxes... free SSL, unlimited domains & bandwidth, free transfers, etc. Also nice that they're in Canada in these challenging geopolitical times. But what caught my attention was Boom Host's Kumar and his personal attention to all questions on webhostingtalk. So I thought “if the company is anything like him, then they're right for me”.
And Kumar's way isn't just some fake gloss to bring in customers, Boom Host really is like that. I've had personal attention thrown at me from Kumar and the whole team from day one. I wasn't sure which hosting package to go for, so they offered me a personalised up/downgrade path to give me peace of mind! (Perhaps I shouldn't have said so, they might not be able to do the same for everyone...?) I think I chose the “Power” plan.
The sign-up process was difficult, not because of Boom Host, but because I live in a remote mountainous part of Mexico with a dodgy internet connection. I wasn't able to maintain a connection with the Boom Host server because of my erratically changing IP address. After some testing I found out that it's the same with probably all hosts, because of a high level of server security. I fixed it with a free proxy connection, thanks to Windscribe, now I have no problems to stay connected.
After that, setup was pretty much a breeze. Like most hosts, Boom Host offer free cPanel to cPanel transfers... but I wanted to move my personal site from wordpress.com, which really falls outside of their area of responsibility. Even so, they did everything they could to help, holding my hand step by step until my site was transferred almost perfectly, all I had to do was to update some links.
I set up a Wordpress multisite installation with, for now, about 4-5 domains... my personal site, a small record label (running Woocommerce perfectly), a site for a collection of artwork, and I'm working on a networking site for the indigenous villages in my neck of the woods. Mostly stuff with community value.
Every question I have ever asked the Boom Host technical support has been answered promptly and thoroughly, even when related to Wordpress, which, as I said, is not their problem. Any issue has always been solved. As would be expected, some technicians have greater knowledge and experience than others, but on several occasions a more experienced technician has “butted in” to the conversation to give additional information on a certain issue. So it seems like they have a great system of oversight and control in their customer services department.
I can't really comment on uptime or server speed as I haven't done anything to measure it, basically because I've never had a reason to - everything always seems to be running smoothly!
Some automatic emails from my Wordpress system to followers have ended up in their spam folders. With shared hosting / no dedicated IP I assume it's quite normal for this to happen so I try not to depend on the included unlimited Boom Host email, which is no problem. But I can't make a big judgement on this point as I haven't really made use of it, it might be working perfectly well for all I know. Email was never part of my plan - if it were I would just get a dedicated IP.
At the end of the day I can't speak highly enough of Boom Host's service and servers. Best of all, I've always been treated like a human being and I have always received the personalised service that is right for me at my skill level. I'm a beginner - the people at Boom Host know that and respond to my needs accordingly.
I'm not reading hosting ads anymore because I ain't going nowhere...
A big thanks to Kumar, Sreenath and everyone else over at Boom Host. Keep up the good work.
Martin Voll
March 10, 2019
Unprompted review
