Crashes and backups and restores… oh my!

What a Monday I had this week. And not in a good way. (Cue the Bangles music...)

Ever have one of those days? That was yesterday. I broke my web site. All I’m going say is: thank goodness I’m hosted with IceStorm, because things could have gone a lot worse. Let me tell you why: I had a major web-site disaster yesterday. I tried to install a funky new plugin that was supposed to do cool things to make my site better. It was supposed to be an easy install, and I did not back up my shop before attempting this install.

So, of course, bad, bad things happened. I tried to fix it by deleting what I installed, and that made even worse bad things happen, and I could no longer access the admin functions for my store; in fact, I could not even access the login page for my store because it was gone. (See? Bad, bad things!) I figured this was probably goint to require a restore from the web hosting company’s backup to fix.

This was me on Monday. Panicked!

I’ll admit there was a moment of panic, crossed with the “how could I be so stupid as to install something like that without doing a backup first?!?!?” and “Oh no! I’m probably going to lose an entire week of updates, additions and changes that I’ll have to do all over again!”

But the panic didn’t last long because Icestorm, my web host, rocks. And I knew they’d be able to fix my mess up for me, because they’ve rescued me before (though never from something this awful!) I had no idea just how well they’d fix things for me though: after the restore, which was done within a few hours, I found out that I had only lost a few images, and some minor coding ammendments that had to be redone. That was it — everything else was fine!

I don’t know why that surprised me though — IceStorm support is just awesome that way and has been since the day I signed up with them, years ago. So I have decided to write a blog post all about their awesomeness, an Icestorm.com review, if you will, because I think other people should know about them, too.

About IceStorm.com

Icestorm.com is a California-based web hosting company that’s been in the business since 1997. They have hosted thousands of web sites for individuals and companies all around the world, and in the time that I’ve been hosting with them, I have never once considered switching back to my previous host or over to another company. The main reason for this is that they have consistently provided me with reliable hosting services and fantastic technical and customer support. Fifteen years is a long time in the web services industry, and even though they’ve been growing fast over the last few years, they have never dropped their customer service levels, and have even added more value to their account packages.

These guys are awesome.  They really are.

10 Reasons Why I Love IceStorm.com

So, here is my Icestorm.com review — my top ten reasons why I love them, and why you should consider them if you are looking for a web host for your own project:

IceStorm.com hosts web sites for individuals and companies all over the world.

1. 24/7 US-based support. Icestorm has telephone and ticket, US-based, help desk support available to clients all day, every day. And their support people seriously ROCK. They are awesome. And they’re fast — when I submit a ticket, it’s usually answered in less than an hour (even faster for high priority or urgent issues)!
2. Great prices. You can get unlimited storage space and unlimited traffic starting at $8.95 a month. That price goes down to only $6.95 a month if you pre-pay for one year, and $5.95 per month if you pre-pay for two years.
3. Free cPanel access with all accounts. This is awesome because cPanel puts everything you need right at your fingertips, in one handy location.
4. Over 250 free apps with all accounts. Softaculous and Fantastico apps collections are included with all hosting accounts; there are tons of goodies in these collections that you can use on your site… well over 250 that you can choose from (including blog software, a number of different shopping carts and eCommerce systems, online forum software, etc.; you name it, they probably have it).
5. Easy install of popular applications. I was able to install WordPress, and my online store eCommerce system with a click of a button. I don’t do heavy technical stuff, so this is a major deal for me; the ease of the installs for these applications was just awesome.
6. Longevity. IceStorm has been around since 1997, which is a long time in the web hosting industry. They know what they’re doing, and they do it exceptionally well.
7. Proven reliability. They guarantee 99.9% network uptime.
8. Money-back guarantee. IceStorm has a 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee.
9. Reseller accounts. If you happen to run multiple web sites, or are considering doing so, they offer reseller accounts to maximize your expenditures. More bang for your buck!
10. Domain name registration. IceStorm is also a domain name registrar, so you can buy your domain names through them, too!

Thanks, IceStorm... again!

So there you go. All the reasons why I love Icestorm.com, my super-cool web host. Oh, that and the guy who runs things over there is really nice, which always helps! (Hi Adrian!)

And I’ll bet you didn’t even notice that anything was wrong with my site yesterday, did you? That’s because the IceStorm.com support desk people are that good, and that fast – thanks again guys!

Full disclosure: Please note that all the opinions expressed in this post are mine alone and have not, in any way, been solicited by IceStorm.com. However, because I really do love this company so much, I have joined their affiliate program and the links in this post are affiliate links. That means that if you purchase a hosting package through them, I will get a commission. Buying through an affiliate link does not cost you anything extra, and if you’re considering buying anyway, it does help me out.  Hey, I guess that would be reason #11 — they have an affiliate program, and affiliate programs are cool!