HostwindsReviews of hostwinds.com

It is unfortunate I can not give them half a star

As far as it goes, the technical side has worked fine, though I doubt it's any better than a gazillion competitors. On the absolutely inexcusable side, they won't let me cancel my current plan as of the next annual billing. Instead demanding that cancelations have to be done effective immediately. The reason is obvious: they want to lock people in against their will, hoping they'll forget to cancel. Well Hostwinds, you intentionally decided to be malicious shitheads, so enjoy this 1 star you so clearly deserve.

hard to install and servers always down!

I wanted to cancel my server as per the next billing cycle. I still had 2.5 months left of my billing cycle. Before cancelling, I asked the helpdesk whether my server would remain active until the end of my billing cycle. The answer was first Yes. So I cancelled, but then they came back to me saying: 'oh sorry, that was wrong, it will be deleted within 5 minutes'. So my server was deleted without warning! I still had open (negative) trades, which I then had to close manually with a loss. I asked for a refund of my last invoice as a minimum. Initially they refused and wanted to give me credit worth one quarter. Which was obviously useless to me as I wanted to cancel my server. After some escalation within the helpdesk, they admitted they messed up and agreed to refund the period I lost due to the pre-mature cancelling. So I increased my rating from 1-star to 3-stars (I still believe this is a big botch-up). See below transcript of the chat: Me What is not clear to me: if I cancel today, will I still have the server until the next due date? 11:10 AM Tony Yes, if you cancel today, your server will remain active until the end of the current billing period on 10/29/2026. You can continue using it until then. 11:10 AM Evan has joined this conversation Evan Hello, please note that cancellation is immediate and will result in server deletion within 5-10 minutes of the 'request cancellation' button being clicked. 11:12 AM I apologize for any confusion, please let me know if you have any questions 11:14 AM Me Oh can you please undo the cancellation then!!! 11:14 AM This is very unprofessional 11:14 AM Evan Unfortunately no, I'm sorry to say. Once cancellation is requested it's immediate (as indicated on the cancellation page). I've raised the issue with Tony's manager and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. 11:15 AM Me Man this is really really really messed up.....

I closed my account with them months ago but they kept charging me about $55 a month for extra storage. When I approached them for refund all they offer me was to cancel the storage for extra fee!!! It for real-Unbelievable!

I've been testing their cloud portal for a small technical project. The network speed and uptime are quite decent for the price. However, the management interface feels a bit over-engineered and complicated for daily use compared to other cloud providers. Also, the documentation lacks depth on advanced networking configurations. It's an okay hosting provider, but there's a learning curve.

Title: BEWARE: Crypto Payments Held Hostage! Terrible Support & Deceptive Practices ​Review: If you are planning to pay with Cryptocurrency, DO NOT use Hostwinds. They will take your money, fail to deliver the service, and hold your funds hostage. ​Here is exactly what happened to me: I attempted to purchase a hosting service using Crypto (USDC ERC20) through their Stripe payment gateway. The blockchain transaction was fully successful and confirmed on my end. However, due to a delay/issue with their own payment processor (Stripe), Hostwinds canceled my order, claiming the payment took too long. ​Instead of automatically refunding my money for a service they COMPLETELY FAILED to deliver, they kept it. ​The support experience was a complete nightmare. First, their frontline agent (Dominic) explicitly opened a ticket for a "Crypto Refund," acknowledging the situation. But then, their Director of Operations, Dustin Waggoner, stepped in and refused to send the money back to my crypto wallet. He hid behind a generic "crypto is non-refundable" Terms of Service clause. ​Keep in mind, I wasn't asking for a refund on a used service—I was asking for my money back because THEY failed to activate my order! ​Instead of a real refund, Dustin forced an $88.88 "account credit" onto my Hostwinds profile, essentially trapping my money on their platform. When I went to Live Chat to escalate this and demand a manual blockchain withdrawal, agents like Evan and Ryan acted like literal bots. They copy-pasted generic scripts and flat-out refused to transfer the chat to a manager, telling me to "wait for an email." ​They blame Stripe for the gateway failure, but they are the ones punishing the customer by refusing a manual withdrawal. They are happy to acknowledge the funds by giving you "store credit," but will fight tooth and nail to prevent you from actually getting your money back. ​Save yourself the headache, the lost time, and the stolen money. Take your business to a reliable hosting company that actually takes responsibility for its own broken billing systems. Avoid Hostwinds at all costs!

Don't waste your time and money. This is by far the worst hosting. Their VPS servers are just too slow