Heads up folks: EIG was recently rebranded and now goes by the name Newfold Digital (2021)
If you’re new to tbwhs.com, you have probably heard the words EIG and notice that a lot of webmasters, including myself, don’t speak very highly of them. EIG (Endurance International Group) is a web hosting company that owns dozens and dozens of different web hosting companies. A lot of webmasters would be shocked to learn that once they have had problems with one host, and then migrate to another, they might still be under the EIG umbrella.
What is the problem with EIG though? It’s simple they are a 2.24 billion dollar company that owns some different web hosting companies. They are the biggest competitor in the web hosting industry. I don’t support them because they are monopolizing the industry by buying up different hosting companies changing their corporate infrastructure and ultimately “controlling” an entire industry.
Here is a list of the companies that are owned by EIG:
2slick (2010)
AccountSupport (2010)
ApolloHosting (2010)
A Small Orange (2010)
Arvixe (2014)
Berry Information Systems L.L.C. (2010)
BigRock (2010)
BizLand (1996)
BlueDomino (2010)
BlueHost (2010)
BuyDomains (2014)
Directi (2014)
Dollar2Host (2010)
Domain.com (2011)
DomainHost (2010)
Dot5Hosting (2010)
Dotster (2011)
EasyCGI (2009)
ehost (2010)
EntryHost (2010)
Escalate Internet (2010)
FastDomain (2006)
FatCow (2007)
FreeYellow (2007)
Globat (2010)
Homestead (2010)
HostADay (2010)
HostCentric (2010)
HostClear (2011)
HostGator (2012)
HostMonster (2011)
HostNine (2012)
HostYourSite.com (2010)
HyperMart (2007)
IMOutdoorsHosting (2010)
iPage (2010)
iPower (2007)
IX Web Hosting (2016)
JustCloud (2014)
JustHost (2010)
LogicBoxes
MailEIG (2011)
MyDomain
MyResellerHome (2010)
NamesDirect (2011)
NameZero (2011)
NetFirms (2011)
NetworksHosting (2010)
Nexx (2012)
PowWeb (2007)
PureHost (2007)
ReadyHosting (2010)
ResellerClub (2014)
Saba-Pro (2010)
SEO Hosting (seohosting.com)
Site5 (2015)
SouthEastWeb (2010)
Sprly (2010)
StartLogic (2010)
TightHost (2010)
TypePad
Unified Layer (2013)
UsaNetHosting (2010)
Verio (2015)
VirtualAve (2007)
VPSLink (2010)
WebHost4Life.com (2010)
WebstrikeSolutions (2010)
Xeran (2010)
YourWebHosting (2010)
If you click on most of the EIG companies I have reviews for you will find they don’t get the best feedback from a lot of webmasters.
Better Business Bureau
EIG is accredited with the BBB. They do have an A+. At the time of writing this, they do have 325 complaints. 32 complaints are advertising/sales issues, 74 are billing/collections issues, ten delivery issues, 7 are guarantee or warranty issues, and 202 complaints are problems with their products or services.
Brands That Are Not Owned By EIG:
If you’re completely ready to migrate away from EIG here is a list of companies that are not owned by them (you can read my reviews on them by clicking on their links:
I guess it’s up to you to decide on whether or not you want to host with an EIG owned company. For many other webmasters and me, I try to avoid them if I can help it. Please leave your feedback down below.
This is absolutely horrible that EIG is even allowed to do this. I thought monopolies were illegal. I really thing that any host that is owned by them should state on their site in big red letters that they are owned by EIG. I have personally used a number of their brands and been let down over they years. Hostgator, BlueHost, Netfirms, etc. are all garbage in my book.
I have started warning others about all the unethical practices that EIG does. Surely something is going to be done about this. I’m glad you published all the information you found on EIG, though.
I agree it’s not right what they are doing. I know a ton of webmasters that are completely fed up with EIG owned companies. I am one of them!
Wow, this is interesting. I guess these kind of buy-ups must happen in most industries, but with the web being such a powerful medium that every business is now almost entirely dependant upon, this kind of monopoly could start pushing costs up across the board. Let’s hope the other mainstream guys keep their aggressive pricing and keep it fair for everyone.
I’ve personally only ever used Godaddy, or Webcity..which aren’t on the list, both have been good.
That is really sad to hear. I did’t know that most of them are owned by EIG. Now that make sense why the brand FastDomain wasn’t that satisfying. I have only tried this brand but not the others. Next time, I would use the brands you mentioned that are not owned by EIG. I hope they wouldn’t be taken over by EIG in the future. Its good that you mention them.
Hi Garen,
It is a pleasure to be back on your website!
I have seen your helpful reviews before, so that’s why I am here now.
To be honest, I didn’t know about EIG and I definitely didn’t know that they own so many hosting companies.
Since I recently decided to become an online entrepreneur, this review was absolutely useful to me! You provided a full list of hosting companies owned by this EIG, so I will stay away of those. After all, if so many webmasters are unhappy with them, then it should be noted by me.
What hosting company do you suggest, Garen?
I want to make my online business right, and I will listen to your advice.
Thanks for sharing this information with us!
Omg, I did not know any of this.
EIG shouldn’t be allowed to do what they are doing, I’ve been with Bluehost for a few years now and I have noticed over time that they have been going down hill. Perhaps this is why!
I’ve stayed with them mainly because it’s just easier to renew than to swap everything to a new host. But I think I might have to change that now I know this.
I will be sure to check out your recommendations of the companies not owned by EIG.
Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, BlueHost is alright in my book, but a LOT of their brands are not so good.
Hi Garen
Until now I hadn’t even heard of EIG before! I wasn’t aware that all those companies are hosting companies are all owned by EIG. I agree with you totally on not liking monopolies, we have that quite a lot in our country. Telkom has a monopoly on landline telephones, Eskom has a monopoly on electricity… and it is really not working well for us at all.
Why not let everyone have a little piece of the pie instead of trying to completely take over and control everything?
InMotion is my top host. I have been using them for 7+ years now. If EIG ever bought them out, I would have to move to another company, though!
Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. People are greedy, and I guess that is what happens when they want the mighty dollar.
Wow, I never know so many host were owned by EIG. You would think they would be proud to state this on their brands, but they don’t say anything about it. Instead you have to learn about their brands on articles like this. I really wonder how many respectable brands will sell out once EIG offers them enough money for their company.
My biggest problem with EIG owned companies is they throttle your bandwidth, RAM, CPU usage, etc. They are so quick to suspend you and a lot of their brands outsource their customer support.
Yeah, it’s one of the biggest problems I have seen with a lot of EIG owned companies. They like to throttle everything and are very quick to suspend your account.
I actually wrote this article on what to do if your web hosting account gets suspended:
https://tbwhs.com/blog/what-to-do-if-hosting-account-gets-suspended/
Please check your facts. Yes, EIG has bought many brands out there, but they hardly have a monopoly. They support small businesses, which is a lot more than can be said for AWS/Google cloud, etc who only focus on the large customers. Each brand is still run almost completely autonomously (I am an insider, I actually have facts…). The only overlap is in accounting / hr etc.
Though some brands struggle today, some are still as excellent as ever. Once EIG does unify all the brands, they will have a truly great platform that will help millions of people succeed. As you pointed out, they have the user base and capital to make an excellent platform.
I have never stated anything as a fact. Instead, this is just my opinion of EIG. Sure they maybe operate autonomously, but I have tried and collected lots of feedback from other webmasters that have used their brands and a lot of the times they gripe about different problems/issues.
What another brand in the hosting industry owns over 70 hosts? I can’t think of one? Sure, it works for them, but a lot of people have asked me for hosting that is not under EIG; hence why I wrote this.
Found this article because my Hostgator account was hacked and all I got from support was a sales pitch.
I deleted all my website files because I wanted to start fresh. One of the files I deleted was an empty folder I used for a project. I go back in a couple days later and the folder is back. So I deleted it again plus emptied trash. Couple days later, its back. None of the other website files reappeared, just this one folder.
I tried to submit a ticket and the ticket link would disappear before my eyes – I was forced to use Chat. Chat guy gets on, asks a few questions, tells me the reappearing folder is a symptom of malware and launches into a sales pitch!! I told him I didn’t want sitelock – I just wanted to check if there was any reason besides malware a deleted folder would be restored. He didn’t even respond to my question, just kept pushing sitelock so I bailed.
I found this article and now I wonder if Hostgator restored my folder on purpose so it could scam me into sitelock. I’m looking for a new host and appreciate this article.
WEB SERVERS TO AVOID RUN BY Endurance International Group (EIG)
EIG own these web servers; BlueHost, Domain.com,DomainHost, HostGator
HostMonster,Site5, World Wide Web Hosting and 100 more. They do not disclose what they own as it is an attempted market monopoly and breach of antitrust laws. The full list of EIG web servers. https://www.reviewhell.com/blog/endurance-international-group-eig-hosting/#comment-685 Another list of bastard companies EIG has, https://ohsheblogs.com/bluehost-sucks/
The names of the CEO and a few directors are available for EIG staff as it is legally required of a listed stock market company that sells shares in itself. CEO of EIG is Jeff Fox, David Bryson is Chief Legal Officer and Allan Chaves is Chief technical officer. You cannot email them, you cannot email any individual in any EIG owned company.
EIG WORKERS HIDE THEIR NAMES IN SHAME
EIG orders that in every other small web server that it acquires, that staff only give a forename and an initial. Emails are classed by a Number similar to these [#FTZ-405-91369] and [#ABQ-685-16519] and then allocated to a staff member. No staff have a dedicated email address any client can access. Andrew M. is one Customer manager at site5. Many different server admin staff contradict each other and Andrew M. Not a single staff member will give their last name or an email address. They may be trying to hide the fact that they only have one helpdesk for over 100 companies and it is not in the USA.
All the small great quality web servers taken over by EIG like my former web server IX web Hosting are reduced to shit, USA expert IT apache web server administration jobs go offshore to idiot call centres. EIG do not care about quality at all. I am unsure where their helpdesk is located, but the forenames give a clue that It might be India. Ewen P. is the only name that sounds vaguely English and he is promoting sales of unneeded software by false malware claims. EIG used the company Site5 to takeover my site that belonged to IX web hosting.
SITE5 CALL CENTRE. IDIOTS and THIEVES
Udaykumar G. is one Site5 Web Administrator who is contradicted by many other Web Admins such as; Mel A. Sushmitha D. Web Advisor, then Aasawari H. Web Administrator and Rahul S. Web Administrator, Udaykumar G. Web Administrator and many others such as Ewen P. Web Administrator. You have to deal individually with all these O/S people and more. They do not appreciate your local server conditions, they follow the orders of EIG to reduce services and appropriate dedicated domain IPs. No one in Site5 takes any responsibility. They never check their work or read each others reports, if any are even made? They each send emails saying what was done which contradicts other Web Admins and the work they claim to have done is never done at all. You need to check it and send them back screenshots of what is still wrong and you have to do this many many times to every so called Web Administrator, yet nothing is ever actually done, they just try and wear the client down with lies by attacking the client with many emails from many web administrators.
WEB SERVER LOGS DENIED TO CLIENTS
Web server logs enable the webmaster too see who has accessed their website. It is essential for security to check server logs. I have done this for over a decade, yet with the Site5 EIG takeover of my web server I have no sever logs and Site5 staff lie and that error logs are the same thing. They are not. Every webmaster should scrutinise web server logs for security threats every day, without this capability it is not a web server it is rubbish waiting to be hacked.
EIG STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE is DISHONESTY
THE Standard Operating Procedure of this company EIG is intimidation, obscuration and fraud. As soon as Site5 starts they demand that you click a box to agree to a new contract to access your website. A unilateral demand without any informed consent. My site “migration” was not even close after one month when Web Administrator Ewen P. from site5.com sent me this false claim below. But it was not a “Free” Dedicated IP, I paid for it in advance until 8th feb 2020 and they only conceded this when I had screenshots and evidence of a long standing dedicated IP. Without evidence they would have completely ignored me, but even with evidence I did not manage to retain my decade old dedicated IP and still a month later I have no dedicated IP.
********* /Start Email from Site5 Web Administrator Ewen P./*********
support@site5.com
[#AVQ-685-86814]: Free Dedicated IP address.
Thursday May 3rd at 10.57 Pm
“As per the latest scan on hereticpress.com, the following are the malware files found for the domain:
modlogan/mla-full-web_robot_seachstrings-201706.html: SL-PHP-EVAL_REQUEST-awem.UNOFFICIAL FOUND
modlogan/mla-full-web_robot_searchengine-201711.html: APEXDEF.Generic.base64.Googlebot.UNOFFICIAL FOUND
modlogan/mla-full-web_user_referer-201711.html: APEXDEF.Generic.base64.Googlebot.UNOFFICIAL FOUND
modlogan/mla-full-web_robot_searchengine-201706.html: SL-PHP-EVAL_REQUEST-awem.UNOFFICIAL FOUND”
“If you don’t feel comfortable removing the infected files yourself, we recommend contacting a third party professional who can assist with removing malware, such as SiteLock.”
Etc. Etc.
Regards,
Ewen P.
Web Administrator
Site5 | http://www.site5.com
********* End Email from Site5 Web Administrator Ewen P. *********
It is important to note EIG also own sitelock. Web Administrator Ewen P. is just another Site5 EIG liar, but this time a blackmailing one. Of course any “newbie” starting a website will find it very difficult removing these files as, they do not exist. This is outright fraud to try and sell former IX web clients software to delete non existent files, a blackmail attempt to force clients through fear to buy software called SiteLock that is not needed at all. Ewen P. is also the one who will tell lies to sell other things. When Site5 and EIG takeover your web server he will say “you need to upgrade to a vps or a hostpro + turbo plan” to retain what you had under the old company. Ewan P. is just another liar and blackmailing thief working for Site5 and EIG.
AGGRESSIVE EIG BUYOUTS
If you hear that your web server is being taken over by any company, especially one owned by EIG, get your documents ready; payments and contracts and also take time-and-date stamped screenshots of everything that is a part of the service you paid for. You will need this as evidence when EIG owned companies steal your dedicated IP and reduce your service to rubbish. This is their standard operating procedure to steal dedicated IP addresses. How arrogant, how long did they think they could get away with; breaches of contracts, common theft and identity theft?
Recently over the last few years and very aggressively now in 2018,this company Eudurance International Group (EIG) has been snapping up every web server company they can using different names, hardly ever using their real name EIG. Many of the sites they take over have good reputations and a good rating with the Better Business Bureau, but EIG wrecks them within a month, not only does service plummet to useless, but they actually steal what you paid the previous company to supply, a dedicated IP.
The full list of EIG owned sites to be avoided at all costs. Thanks to Review Hell in Web Hosting for this more complete list of EIG web server companies to Mar 20, 2018
https://www.reviewhell.com/blog/endurance-international-group-eig-hosting/#comment-685
EIG Site5 and SITE MIGRATIONS
In April 2018, the company EIG controls called Site5 took-over my long standing web server IX web hosting. I had a Linux apache expert plan with a dedicated IP with IX. EIG brought IX and their dedicated Ip ranges, but ignored that IX had already sold many of their allocated IP addresses. The EIG ”migration” company Site5 then denied every dedicated IX client their unique IP, no matter how long ago it was paid up for. My hosting and IP was paid up until Feb 2020. Site5 in April 2018 on acquiring IX deleted my IP address, they deleted everyone’s dedicated IP. Protests were futile.
I took and am still taking legal action, but so far only civil and contractual, this matter is not sub judicae yet, unless police tell me they are making criminal charges against EIG. Make complaints of theft to local police of the takeover company like Site5 or the parent company EIG is in Burlington, Massachusetts. When suing for damages also hire local lawyers in Burlington, Massachusetts for EIG as this makes the service of legal documents cheaper and easier and gives you local experts with knowledge of state laws.
Site5 and EIG STEAL DEDICATED IPS FROM CLIENTS
Many webmasters promote their sites by IP address which is the backbone of the internet, computers use what was long ago called a dotted quad number, allowing over 4 Billion unique addresses from 000.000.000.000 to 255.255.255.255.
Site5 stole the identity of thousands of IPs and then tried to sell a different IP back to the client’s whose long standing IPs they misappropriated. Dedicated IPs are not just intellectual property, they are a permanent identity. This theft is by the dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another with an intention to permanently deprive. In Massachusetts and other some other USA states, a dedicated IP is an identity, this common theft of dedicated IPs could also be also be an identity theft. Damages are due for; criminal theft, breach of contract and identity theft!
DEDICATED IP NUMBERS
That is what computers use to find each other on the internet, a bloody domain name is an after-thought concession to people who cannot remember number strings. A dedicated IP is quicker, much faster to load a webpage with no domain name server lookup. IP addresses also gain status with time. Many bad IP addresses that send spam or have malware on their sites are listed by companies like Spamhaus as ones to block and avoid. A dedicated IP is a like a fine bottle of wine if the webmaster is honest and diligent, the IP address matures. The supposed dedicated IP you gave me Andrew M which worked only yesterday now reverts to the same old expired domain name. Is this how you treat critics with a valid complaint? You have not even given hereticpresscom that IP you claimed http://162.215.248.20 It has gone back to wrong IP discussed many emails ago by many staff. Stop mucking me around.
SECURITY RATINGS OF IP ADDRESSES
Site5 took my good reputation IP with search engines and gave me a much worse one back that could see my new IP blocked in many computers, they trashed all my previous work with my IP. My dedicated IP for many years was 71.18.127.215 Here is the report on my IP which has a good rating for “Crawlers”, “Proxy” and is not an “Attack Source”. https://db-ip.com/71.18.127.215 They took what I built up with a good reputation for themselves.
71.18.127.0 to 71.18.127.255 are all owned by Endurance International Group
https://db-ip.com/all/71.18.127
When these arrogant common crooks and intellectual property thieves takeover your server and delete your IP, you can shout me a meal for I am taking many actions to stop this great IP theft and have this rotten company broken up, I have taken them to the BBB, am suing for breach of contract, reported the identity theft to police, requested antitrust investigations among other things. They might be “Enduring” but I am “relentless” in contractual law, criminal law and IT.
MY LOSSES.
1. Breach of my web hosting contract.
2. Common theft of my dedicated IP 71.18.127.215
3. Identity theft of my dedicated IP 71.18.127.215
4. Lost Facebook and media shares from over 10 years.
5. Loss of a reliable mail server.
6. Loss of a reliable FTP server.
7. Loss of all server access logs.
8. Loss of Ten years of my work with 71.18.127.215
9. Loss of Five weeks of my time dealing with many Site5 call centre staff.
Site5 acting for EIG deleted IX purchased dedicated IP addresses, this wiped out a lot of the work of many old school IP based webmasters like me with a dedicated IP. So when your dedicated IP is stolen as it will be if EIG buys your server, among other things some steps you can take are:
ACTIONS TO TAKE AGAINST Site5 and EIG for IP THEFT
1. A Better Business Bureau Complaint. They have old stars pre EIG take-over
2. A fundamental breach of civil contract case for damages from loss of a dedicated IP.
3. Make a criminal police report of identity theft.
4. A general theft report and identity theft report to local police in the state of Burlington, Massachusetts for EIG. While they may use other companies to takeover web servers, EIG have control of all the dedicated IPs they pilfer.
5. Request an anti trust investigation of price fixing and monopolistic behavior.
6. Post information everywhere, inform everyone what companies IEG has and what they are doing.
7. Contact your state congress representative, make it known to the law makers.
8. First Amendment breach complaints
For what it’s worth, I have been an email administrator for a local government in the USA (about 5,000 mailboxes), and the only real problem I have with non-delivery comes from EIG customers. Someone signs up with an EIG subsidiary, tries to send us email, and then we don’t get their email because our anti-spam solution sees the email as coming from known spammers. It isn’t the new customer that’s the known spammer; it’s just that their email is coming from an email server that is shared amongst EIG customers and that email server is blacklisted because EIG (apparently) has no problem selling their services to spammers.