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If you don't value your time, HostCram has the best value KVM VPS. If you do, I recommend CrownCloud
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If you don't value your time, HostCram has the best value KVM VPS. If you do, I recommend CrownCloud

nickcnickc Member
edited April 2022 in Reviews

I created this thread 7 months ago with all sorts of benchmarks showing how HostCram offers extremely good value.

I still stand by that - I think you would be hard-pressed to find better performance for your dollar than with HostCram.

Unfortunately, if you have a KVM plan you don't really have any ability to perform basic VPS functions, like reinstall your OS or create or restore a backup (apparently you can do these things on an LXC plan). To do any of this, you need to submit a ticket, which typically receives a response from a few hours to a full day later. For the price (especially with the promo that I used), I suppose you can't complain at all, but it is extremely perplexing why a VPS service wouldn't have this set up.

After losing entire days of my life waiting for basic operations to be performed, I told Shakib that I would really love to stay with HostCram but couldn't possibly do so if I couldn't at least manage my own backups/snapshots. He was quite accomodative and gave me access to this through the Proxmox panel. However, I was never actually able to restore the backups that I had taken, and he specifically said that he had no idea what the problem was, let alone how to fix it.

The final straw came for me a few months ago when suddenly the 1-day response time turned into 1 week response times - I was sitting on my hands for an entire week with a broken server that I couldn't do anything about. (I broke it myself through fiddling, but that's what backups and reinstallation are for). I received no notification or explanation, and a very pathetic apology despite me saying that I would be forced to write a negative review here if I didn't receive any attention or explanation soon. Then it happened again right away for another week, this time without a word at all when it was resolved. By that time, I had already found a new VPS provider so I just didn't care anymore.

I can only imagine that Shakib was dealing with some serious issues in his personal life - be it health, family or something else. I really do hope everything was and is ok for him. But there's no excuse for

  1. not notifying, explaining or apologizing for an extended inability to provide service, and
  2. having a remote business like this where we are completely dependent on the welfare, availability or inclination of a single person, with no backup plan or recourse.

I'll be the first to admit that I was probably an annoying customer - I'm new to all of this and needed to restore/reinstall my server various times because I'm dumb. But I only stayed because he said that he had set me up with the ability to help myself without bothering him. Why he (or any VPS provider, for that matter) hasn't set up a system that lets users help themselvs with basic tasks (so that both parties can save a huge amount of hassle) is a complete mystery.

Ultimately, I couldn't possibly recommend that anyone use Hostcram unless they won't be doing much at the VPS/server-level and, moreoever, that it is a relatively unimportant application. Even then, not having any recourse if something should happen to the only person who does have access should make it a non-starter for mostly anyone.

Your time (hours or days normally, and weeks in rare events) is worth far more than the few bucks you might save with them.

I would STRONGLY recommend that people check out CrownCloud. Their hardware benchmarks just slightly lower than HostCram in raw performance, and costs slightly more (at least when I last checked). But this is completely justified by what you receive:

  • their CrownPanel control panel lets you do all the basic actions (reinstall OS, take/restore snapshots etc...). This is rare in the low-cost VPS world. It isn't as fast as, say, Vultr, but it is infinitely faster than waiting for support to perform these tasks
  • their support is very rapid and helpful when you aren't able to help yourself
  • they have excellent documentation for mostly anything that you might need to know
  • they're extremely accomodating to custom VPS configurations - allowing you to add CPUs, RAM, storage, snapshots etc... on an ad hoc basis.

p.s. I have saved PDFs of all support HostCram "correspondance" that backs up what I've said here. I'd really hope I won't need to share any of it here though.

Thanked by 1drunkendog

Comments

  • HxxxHxxx Member

    Subscribed, possibility of drama 65%.

  • NekkiNekki Veteran

    @nickc said: The final straw came for me a few months ago when suddenly the 1-day response time turned into 1 week response times - I was sitting on my hands for an entire week with a broken server that I couldn't do anything about.

    Did you sit on your hands for a week so they went numb so you could have a wank and it would feel like someone else is doing it?

  • @nickc said: Unfortunately, you don't really have any ability to perform basic VPS functions, like reinstall your OS

    So the Rebuild icon where you select an OS template doesn't work or .... ?

  • nickcnickc Member
    edited April 2022

    @skorous said:

    @nickc said: Unfortunately, you don't really have any ability to perform basic VPS functions, like reinstall your OS

    So the Rebuild icon where you select an OS template doesn't work or .... ?

    By default you can access the Proxmox panel, but don't have any access/permissions to really do much of anything. Reinstalls, backups etc... are all done via tickets.

    As mentioned, he was kind and accomodative to give me special access to make my own snapshots - which did actually work - but restoring backups never worked. The thought was that I could have a backup with a fresh Ubuntu OS install, which I could restore rather than ask to reinstall the OS.

    Again, its a mystery to me why anyone would set up a business like this and not give users the ability to do all the small (but often quite crucial) things themselves. Proxmox seems to be a pretty widely-used panel, so surely it must actually have these capabilities. Therefore, his inability to configure it is not encouraging.

    To be fair, HostCram is not alone in this regard (providing users with basic VPS management capabilities - particularly making/restoring snapshots), which is why I ended up with CrownCloud - it seems to be one of very few that has a good user control panel with snapshots etc... And the performance, support etc... was a bonus.

  • So you're telling me I didn't just reinstall my OS?

  • Which is strange because I was running Debian and now it's Centos .... it sure looks like I did.

  • nickcnickc Member
    edited April 2022

    @skorous said:
    So you're telling me I didn't just reinstall my OS?

    I dont understand. Do you have HostCram and are able to reinstall your OS yourself? If so, KVM or LXC? I had KVM.

    I specifically asked if this was something I could do and he said no. We wouldn't have gone through the whole special snapshot permissions stuff if it was.

  • Ah, ok. This is LXC.

    Thanked by 1nickc
  • nickcnickc Member

    Ok. I will edit my review to make it clear that this is about KVM. I have no desire to be spreading false information.

  • Actually with proxmox backend, user still can manage their vps if providers installed module like proxmox module (incase hostcram using blesta), or put in behind virtualizor.

    @nickc said:
    Unfortunately, you don't really have any ability to perform basic VPS functions, like reinstall your OS or create or restore a backup. To do any of this, you need to submit a ticket, which typically receives a response from a few hours to a full day later.

    and basic vps function is a must.

  • nickcnickc Member

    @ariq01 said:
    Actually with proxmox backend, user still can manage their vps if providers installed module like proxmox module (incase hostcram using blesta), or put in behind virtualizor.

    @nickc said:
    Unfortunately, you don't really have any ability to perform basic VPS functions, like reinstall your OS or create or restore a backup. To do any of this, you need to submit a ticket, which typically receives a response from a few hours to a full day later.

    and basic vps function is a must.

    Yeah, I figured it was all possible with Proxmox. But not with HostCram.

  • @Nekki said:

    @nickc said: The final straw came for me a few months ago when suddenly the 1-day response time turned into 1 week response times - I was sitting on my hands for an entire week with a broken server that I couldn't do anything about.

    Did you sit on your hands for a week so they went numb so you could have a wank and it would feel like someone else is doing it?

    ClownCloud sat on HostCram hands,
    Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're far too kind
    Can I get an encore, do you want more
    I've become so numb, I can't feel you there

  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    Oh might as well.

    @Shakib

  • NekkiNekki Veteran

    @kevertje said:

    @Nekki said:

    @nickc said: The final straw came for me a few months ago when suddenly the 1-day response time turned into 1 week response times - I was sitting on my hands for an entire week with a broken server that I couldn't do anything about.

    Did you sit on your hands for a week so they went numb so you could have a wank and it would feel like someone else is doing it?

    ClownCloud sat on HostCram hands,
    Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're far too kind
    Can I get an encore, do you want more
    I've become so numb, I can't feel you there

    RIP Chester Bennington.

  • If he's giving Proxmox permissions on demand, wouldn't it be the most easy to give permissions to mount an iso yourself to perform tasks like a reinstallation yourself?

  • I had a similar review in the works actually; the performance is unbeatable on paper, but it's really not a usable service. It took 5 days for my service (LXC) to provision, and I got faulty Proxmox account details. I asked for a password reset about a month ago to try and fix that, and I still haven't heard back; it's pretty disappointing when support can't even fix a broken provisioning, and Hostcram definitely isn't production ready as a result.

  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran
    edited April 2022

    Ok, point taken. To sum-up, @Shakib need to add some more automation in its service, otherwise he got nice price to performance ratio.

    Anything else ?

  • lentrolentro Member, Host Rep

    @ariq01 said: proxmox backend

    With Proxmox only, there's no way to reinstall an OS. It's not misconfiguration, that's just how Proxmox works. Though, as you mentioned, there are addons that cost extra from 3rd-party vendors that make the reinstallation of an OS automated.

    Thanked by 2ariq01 Shakib
  • ShakibShakib Member, Patron Provider
    edited April 2022

    Buddy, I took everyone's KVM OS reinstall problem seriously and just completed the full KVM automation system.

    Currently we have CentOS 7, CentOS 8 Stream, Debian 10, Debian 11, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, AlmaLinux 8.5, RockyLinux 8.5 cloud-init templates and our system takes only one minute to reinstall OS.

    I have already sent out a note with our 15 April maintenance email stating that full LXC & KVM automation is upcoming.

    I apologize for being unavailable when you needed me the most. I'd like to invite you to test out our cloud portal's KVM automation if you have the time and interested to know what we cooked up.

  • ShakibShakib Member, Patron Provider
    edited April 2022

    Nick, it looks like you have already cancelled your service with us, therefore, I have no way of migrating you to our new automated system.

    We have provided 7 months of service to you for $33 USD.

    You have opened 13 support tickets and I responded to most of them within minutes. I have made at least 50 response to you and always tried to help you out even when our system was limiting and your service with us was unmanaged.

    I was in a dark time during mid-February and it's not something I would like to share or talk about with anyone.

    I hope being late to response 1 support ticket out of 13 wouldn't define me & HostCram. I will make sure to put "Limited Support" quote on our every special offer plans in future as we will be giving out control panel access with self OS rebuild function for both LXC & KVM VPS starting 15 April 2022.

    I apologize once again for the inconvenience.

  • @Nekki said:

    @nickc said: The final straw came for me a few months ago when suddenly the 1-day response time turned into 1 week response times - I was sitting on my hands for an entire week with a broken server that I couldn't do anything about.

    Did you sit on your hands for a week so they went numb so you could have a wank and it would feel like someone else is doing it?

    He turned one of those hands sideways and kept himself entertained.

  • @Shakib said:
    Nick, it looks like you have already cancelled your service with us, therefore, I have no way of migrating you to our new automated system.

    We have provided 7 months of service to you for $33 USD.

    You have opened 13 support tickets and I responded to most of them within minutes. I have made at least 50 response to you and always tried to help you out even when our system was limiting

    This won't have the intended effect you thought it was.

  • @Shakib said:
    Buddy, I took everyone's KVM OS reinstall problem seriously and just completed the full KVM automation system.

    Currently we have CentOS 7, CentOS 8 Stream, Debian 10, Debian 11, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, AlmaLinux 8.5, RockyLinux 8.5 cloud-init templates and our system takes only one minute to reinstall OS.

    I have already sent out a note with our 15 April maintenance email stating that full LXC & KVM automation is upcoming.

    I apologize for being unavailable when you needed me the most. I'd like to invite you to test out our cloud portal's KVM automation if you have the time and interested to know what we cooked up.

    this, is a proper reply. respect.

    Thanked by 2Shakib fluffernutter
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