Karl von Randow and Matthew Buchanan founded Cactuslab back in 2001 and have grown it into one of New Zealand’s most well respected design, development and iOS studios. We spoke to Karl about his experiences with SiteHost over the last few years.
Since CarJam started back in 2007 they have been with us and grown on our platform from a small site on one server to a hugely popular site on many servers. We had Ben have a quick chat with Geoff who is in charge of CarJam's infrastructure about their experience with us over the last eight years.
People saying nice things about us is always great to hear, but when they say it publicly it's even better.
In fact, it’s a real vote of confidence in team @sitehostnz - you guys were chosen, when they could have easily selected the enterprisey end of town. That says a lot.
See on TwitterExcellent NZ based hosting service, great online tools, cost effective ★★★★★
See all our Google ReviewsSiteHost makes managing our domains 100x easier than any other platform we've used.
Just dialled my @sitehostnz vps up some extra disk. Everything worked flawlessly and its so quick, i love living in this utopian future!
<3 @sitehostnz :D
We have multiple sites on SiteHost and have very pleased with both performance and especially those few times when we have needed to query or get an issue sorted. Having dealt with multiple hosting companies both in NZ and all round the world I do very much rate SiteHost and have recommended them to others. ★★★★★
See George's reviewBeing with SiteHost, our medical data is stored on NZ sovereign soil - a sensible government requirement.
Have around 100 domains with SiteHost, and they are all very competitively priced, with very very good customer service always helping with any technical issues or queries we may have. Always easily reachable and local techs who really know their stuff. ★★★★★
See Andrew's reviewWhen we spoke to other providers the barrier to entry was higher. With SiteHost we could be up and running in 10 minutes, that might even be understated, it was probably closer to 5 minutes.
Read the whole storySiteHost are by far the most reliable and competent hosting company we have used. If I had to choose a company for our VPS needs again, this is the company I would choose. ★★★★★
See Andy's reviewWe have used a number of providers over the years and we weren’t always satisfied with the levels of service and we had to do a lot of troubleshooting ourselves. So we looked around and SiteHost really seemed the best in terms of cost-effectiveness and scalability. So we decided to give it a go. And we haven’t been disappointed. You guys are by far the best we’ve worked with. When you say something, you do it. And you always deliver to very high standards.
Read the whole storyAs Silverstripe experts, we have a range of small to large clients and are always looking to add value. Our move to SiteHost has put our Silverstripe websites on fast, reliable infrastructure, with the confidence knowing everything will be kept up to date and secure. Their high-quality support has incredible response times and often go above and beyond.
AlphaOne have been with SiteHost since day one. They managed our production servers except few that we manage it our own. Somehow, one of our servers broke down and I spent almost 4 hours troubleshooting it and I gave up because I have other things to fix. I asked SiteHost help. Not hours later, but minutes later they emailed and boom! Issue fixed! That quick! So glad it's fixed before the sunrise or else my team can't work until our Gitlab server is fixed. Thank you SiteHost. Game changer! ★★★★★
Read Camilo's reviewBeing with SiteHost means consistent and stable infrastructure backed by RADICALLY AWESOME service.
SiteHost make everything easy. Great product, but most importantly for us is the speed of support when we need it. Highly recommended. ★★★★★
Read Kevin's reviewWe can stop stressing when dealing with customer support or pretty much any service, and it's a pleasure to register domains and create emails. Managing emails is super easy & I actually enjoy working with your control panel. Thanks for making my job easier!
In terms of the rapport and experiences that we've had with SiteHost over the last three, four years has been exceptional in terms of a hosting provider. Being local it's super easy to get on the phone and just ask what's going on - or sometimes you call us first, especially from the technical side.
Read the full storyThe SiteHost team are awesome at helping out when they are needed, they are quick friendly and knowledgeable and most importantly based in New Zealand! I've been "in the trade" for 10 years and I've never consistently experienced the same level of support that we get from the SiteHost team. Keep up the great work! ★★★★★
See Bryan's reviewGood service: fast, friendly and helpful. The service is always fast, helpful and professional. Any technical problems or questions are always resolved quickly and efficiently. I'm a happy customer and would recommend them. ★★★★★
Read Sam's 5-star reviewI've found their service really good. The cloud containers are great. They are very responsive and helpful over the phone and email. ★★★★★
See all our Google ReviewsBeing with SiteHost means the best service in New Zealand.
We switched to using SiteHost about two years ago and can honestly say they are the best hosting company I have used in the past 10 years. Their support is prompt and pro-active. The best part is their servers are based in New Zealand so no latency and super fast access for our cloud based aps and for our customers. ★★★★★
See the Trustpilot reviewI changed from a different provider who sold out to a large corporate and their service was non-existent to flat out wrong. SiteHost have been very helpful. They have people in NZ I can talk to and they do what they say they will.
Read Hugh's reviewThe entire team at SiteHost are extremely professional, highly responsive, and very friendly and helpful. A big shout out to and a big thank you to all their wonderful engineers – Srivats, Luka, Andre, Justin, Fred, Kane, Francis and everyone else on the production team, as well as to our fantastic, bubbly and calm account manager, Te and to all the front office staff who always pick up the phone. Well done, guys & gals, and keep up the good work! ★★★★★
See all our Google ReviewsIf there is a problem with the hardware or environment I don’t need to wake up to deal with it. This used to be a significant point of stress for me and made it hard to go away on trips. So I would say peace of mind is one of the biggest factors.
Read the whole storySiteHost have consistently provided a high standard of service and excellent availability. On the rare occasions I have needed to contact them the help has been exemplary. I would not hesitate to recommend them. ★★★★★
Read the 5-star reviewWe want to be part of taking Silverstripe to the next level and help a bunch of exciting New Zealand companies shine on the web....I think Cloud Containers are out of the box perfection, and could save people a lot of time and money. I hope more people see SiteHost as on par or better than the big international players like Amazon.
Read the full storyOver the decade (and more) that I've been using SiteHost, they've not only provided consistently good service, they've also made it a primary focus, even while growing their business, technology base, and services. I've not only received fast and friendly service every time I've contacted them but they are one of the very few technology companies I deal with who provide knowledgeable staff who can actually help. ★★★★★
Read the reviewExcellent service, very helpful and friendly. Rate highly. ★★★★★
See all our Google ReviewsOur experience with SiteHost has been outstanding. We have tried working with a number of different providers locally and offshore, and in the past we have had a number of support and scalability issues. That’s when we decided to look for a hosting company that focused on its customers, and eventually chose SiteHost as our new home. But as you know better than anyone, shifting hosting providers can be a major project, and I really have to say that the way you helped us shift, not only with the migration itself, but also with creating a migration plan, was such a huge help!
Read the whole storyGreat company to deal with. Very professional and responsive. Highly recommended ★★★★★
See all our Google Reviews@sitehostnz knocking it out of the park today as always, just saved me a bunch of frustration and potential keyboard damage, churrrrrr team!
See on TwitterThis is by far the best hosting company in terms of accessibility to resources and their support. In fact the communication from staff in all departments is unmatched. Highly recommended. ★★★★★
Read Uli's review@andychilton I think highly of @sitehostnz in all regards; their DNS admin UI is one of the best. (Don't tolerate a crap UI for infrequent, critical tasks IMO.)
See on TwitterAmazing hosting, SiteHost's team are always professional and provide excellent technical support without the hassle of going through call centres. The uptime is astounding and we've always trusted SiteHost to use reliable stable data centres that are physically secure as well as virtually. ★★★★★
Our company has been a client of SiteHost for over 6 years now - DNS and domain registration, email, and server services. As a website development and managed website hosting provider, our success depends on our upstream providers. This very much includes the "in-house" technical knowledge of those providers as well as high-quality products and services. SiteHost is a key upstream provider that enables our business to provide a high-level service to our clients. Our expectations are therefore very high and SiteHost has always exceeded our expectations. I highly recommend SiteHost. ★★★★★
Read Mark's reviewTotal reliability - this is tempting fate but in the time I've had servers with you I have never needed to contact you for support around the usual issues that seem to plague other providers: lost packets, downtime from broken routers etc. That peace of mind and improved productivity (time to focus on valuable work instead of resolving problems) has been great.
Your stuff just works and the couple of times I've needed support your team have been great.
We primarily use Cloud Containers and Dockerisation. Being able to run different versions of PHP for example, or different container setups, is a really great advantage for us. There are other providers who have similar options, but they are based overseas and won’t be able to give us the required performance you provide. Honestly, I don’t think that anyone is doing the Containers like you guys do, especially not in New Zealand.
Read the whole storyAs a website development company, we've used a number of hosting and domain management companies over the last 20 years and SiteHost is without a doubt the best we've ever encountered. ★★★★★
Read the reviewSiteHost has been outstanding. We tried a number of different providers locally and offshore, and had a number of support and scalability issues. That’s when we decided to look for a hosting company that focused on its customers, and chose SiteHost as our new home. Shifting hosting providers can be a major project, and I the way you helped us shift, not only with the migration itself, but also with creating a migration plan, was such a huge help!
Read the whole storyThe portal is easy to use, the billing is easy, fast communication when issues arise, and being a NZ based company is awesome.
As we grew we were self-hosting some services which are now hosted by you (and others). Having someone else feeding and watering the servers is one less maintenance task we no longer need worry about.
Our client wished to determine if someone could disrupt their service through a Denial of Service attack. We called our good friends at SiteHost who, at short notice, were able to provide us with servers that could generate an appropriate volume of traffic. I don’t know of many other companies that could have provided that. You have the networking knowledge and skills, and expertise in the team to facilitate it. You were interested in understanding what we were trying to achieve, too. There are only a few providers in New Zealand that I’d trust to do that.
Read the whole storyReliability from SiteHost enables us all to get on with our own work without worrying if our infrastructure is failing.
Always there to help, I am not at all good at tech stuff and they answer all my questions and don't make me feel bad about asking like I have had in the past from other places. I have been with them for years and will be for many more. Thank you. ★★★★★
Read Maree's reviewSince moving to SiteHost from another provider, I couldn't be happier with the service I've received. Right from the first enquiry to actually making my services go live, SiteHost understood what I wanted to achieve, gave me options I could decide on, kept me informed at every step and did what they said they would do in terms of implementation and cost. I would highly recommend SiteHost as a professional, competent, knowledgeable and reliable IT service provider. ★★★★★
Read Emma's reviewSiteHost support is incredible and their systems are super-robust. For the best premium-quality hosting at a fair price, look no further. ★★★★★
Read the 5-star reviewI like to recommend SiteHost as a local provider who can support their service... getting high quality domestically located support is harder than it should be and SiteHost seem to be one of the last bastions for this that I'm confident about endorsing.
Craft just ticks all the right boxes for the way that New Zealand and Australian agencies work. Once we’d decided to go with Craft CMS, I found SiteHost, and it made my life literally about 20% easier.
Read the full storySiteHost added to their support capabilities based on my feedback and proactively fixed an issue I did not know we had. Excellent support! ★★★★★
See Neil's reviewWe like having full control of Cloud Containers and direct access to code. Ultimately we have more control over what we have on SiteHost compared to other hosting providers. You guys actually listen to feedback, too. We talked about how CWP had live monitoring of disc space and memory usage, and pretty soon afterwards SiteHost had that as well.
Read the full storyRunning Craft CMS websites on SiteHost's solid managed containerised platform allows us to concentrate on building without having to worry about managing backups, server upgrades and software upgrades. It’s reliable, secure and cost effective.
Read the full storyWhen we're hunting around for hosting one of our primary things is support. That's always been key. I've hosted with a lot of American companies, and their support is either next to none, non-existent, or handed off to a call centre that's really not well connected to the company at all. So from my point of view, it's peace of mind.
Read the full storyWe prefer to have all our domains registered with one company and SiteHost gives us all the help and access we need so we can easily manage things ourselves. Thanks!
You are doing a great job. Best provider I've been with in 25 years for domains and email.
SiteHost has knowledgeable staff, who resolve things precisely + quickly and can explain issues in a clear, insightful way that empowers my business to resolve issues at my end and trust any issues at their end will be resolved quickly. But mostly the service is so good, once set up a service, I rarely have any issue at all.
SiteHost allowed us to focus a lot less on hosting and more on design & dev which means we can offer more to our clients in return. We love your Cloud Containers!
To me as a business owner, we’ve built our company on people as much as technology. SiteHost people turn up and meet us, so we know your faces and names. There are people behind the company, and it feels like it's a relationship and a partnership.
Read the full storyI had been hosting with another company for years until they got taken over by Dreamscape and everything turned to a disaster overnight. So I went on a search to find a truly owned NZ website, domain name and email hosting company. What a relief it was to find Site Host. Really good customer service, timely responses, easy to use, reliable and fast console. Couldn't be happier. ★★★★★
See all our Google ReviewsBeing with SiteHost means good support and a great system to manage DNS and domains.
As a prime reseller of SiteHost services we have been very happy with the relationship.
Yeah, you really want to not be anywhere near the Crazy/Dreamscape/web.com mess if you can avoid it. I recommend @sitehostnz / Sitename wholeheartedly.
See on TwitterBeing with SiteHost means having an awesome secure, fast hosting provider that also provides great customer support when needed. Keep up the good work!
Umbraco is a software engineers’ CMS. We'll make the page look like you want, and we'll build the CMS features to generate the data to make that design work. We've got a couple of VDSs and a couple of VPSs with SiteHost. We used to have our own servers - physical hardware in a data centre - and we were spending a lot of time maintaining them. SiteHost changed my business for the better. While I'm still technically on call to my customers. I'm not on call to the same degree - not for a hosting solution.
Read the whole storyWe've got a couple of VDSs and a couple of VPSs with SiteHost. We used to have our own servers - physical hardware in a data centre - and we were spending a lot of time maintaining them and checking on them when they crashed. I'd say that SiteHost changed my business for the better. While I'm still technically on call to my customers. I'm not on call to the same degree - not for a hosting solution.
Read the whole storyThe first time we worked together, you helped us with an unglamourous and challenging migration. The helpful, responsive and caring nature of how you did that was a critical part in our decision to move the rest of our business to SiteHost.
Read the full storySuper fast response even after hours, happy with the level of service provided, answered my question and provided other options I may want to consider. ★★★★★
See Rob's reviewWe get great support when needed from a New Zealand team that actually understand what we are talking about, keep up the great work!
A great Kiwi company. I moved to SiteHost after my previous webhost sold out to an overseas company and their support went downhill. SiteHost have been consistently amazing, offering great support and great value for money. ★★★★★
Read Jesse's reviewHey @sitehostnz, your support constantly knocks me over. I just got a phonecall checking in as a site had a critical error. Love your work! #HostLocal
See on TwitterI've been "in the trade" for 10 years and I've never consistently experienced the same level of support that we get from the SiteHost team. ★★★★★
Read Bryan's reviewBeing with SiteHost has given us easier management of domains and the ability to take care of subscriptions on behalf of clients.
Most important - Access to the OS. Second, excellent and fast support. Support that actually got involved and took care. Third, from the beginning I was made to feel welcome. You guys rock.
★★★★★ Ten years and counting as a satisfied SiteHost customer. Their customer service response times have been awesome on the few times we've needed to interact. Their communications have always been timely and to the point. The control panel is easy to navigate. No worries! ❤
Over the years you have helped us out of a number of tricky situations where our infrastructure knowledge simply wasn’t advanced enough to solve it ourselves. We know we can rely on you and the way you help us has earned you a lot of loyalty. We speak a similar language in the way we provide services and that alignment is really important for us. We have complete trust in your abilities. When someone from your team says something, we believe it. That trust is critical. All trade is built on trust and you have that.
Read the full storyContainers have been huge! It makes things very easy. Also the support you guys offer is amazing...the best of anywhere.
AWS cost reporting is almost deliberately opaque. Within our first six months, the monthly cost tripled without our workload tripling. After four or five years, I was sick of paying a penalty for growth. The thing about SiteHost for us is the proactive support—they think about it so I don't have to think about it. They take the pain away and everyone on the team is happy, and that's never happened before with any external hosting supplier.
Read Dave's full interviewWe have been with SiteHost for many years and the team are always knowledgeable, helpful and professional in hosting our website. Response rates to enquiries are very quick and we could not be happier. ★★★★★
Read John's reviewIt's simple, we've got our own custom Docker images that we can deploy and get up and running within a couple of minutes. The ease of getting it up on SiteHost is great. Anything that's Silverstripe or that kind of PHP project would be going onto SiteHost Cloud Containers.
Read the full story