We had a good run. I signed up with Enginehosting about a week short of twelve years ago. Things went well for the most part, and I was happy with their service. Until now.

About a month ago, I couldn’t log into the server via SFTP. I contacted support, and with their guidance I found that while I could not log in using MacOS 10.13 High Sierra, I could get in with a virtualized copy of 10.8 Mountain Lion. With Christmas rapidly approaching, I downloaded my backup files with 10.8 and enjoyed the holidays.

Afterward, before I could get back to the SFTP problem, I found that I was unable to update the WordPress plugins or WordPress itself. When I tried, I was prompted for my FTPS hostname, username, and password. That’s never happened before, but I entered the required information and my credentials were not accepted. When I submitted a ticket regarding this latest problem, the answer came as quite a surprise.

Most likely your WordPress install needs to be running on new technology than what is on your Enginehosting account to successfully upgrade. We recommend moving the account to one of our Arcustech plans, as Enginehosting is a dead product line.

I know they started a new ‘brand’ more tailored to enterprise customers. It was difficult to not notice the prices were higher. I thought they’d continue to support their Enginehosting customers indefinitely, but it seems I was wrong. If they wanted to shut down Enginehosting, I expected they would act in a business-like manner and let their remaining customers know with enough notice to make alternate arrangements. They didn’t do this. Rather, they stopped updating the support software on the servers until their clients’ software broke. Not cool.

Given that my renewal date is later this week, I set out examining web hosting services based in Canada. Privacy laws are significantly different in the U.S. so I want to bring things back into the country. I finally settled on Web Hosting Canada. Not only is it significantly cheaper, but my SSL certificate is included. The price I used to pay yearly is now my price for three years. Score!

Now we’ll see how well their service and support performs.

Company logo ©2018 Web Hosting Canada