Updated: 01 Jun 2024 (this post was originally published in 2012)
Vodien Hosting was a local company that specialises in providing domain names and web hosting services. I was recommended by quite a few of my Business Associates to use them for my websites because of their security and support. Recently (back in 2012) I have some very bad experiences with another hosting company in U.S. and I learn a lesson that it is always good to have your host in Singapore so that you can contact them direct when you need help.
No More Free SSL (Updated)
I am surprised to get to know recently that Vodien no longer provides free SSL for their shared hosting plan customers.. This means if you choose Vodien, you need to invest additional money to purchase SSL certificates.
Pricing That I Have Never Expected
To my surprise, actually Vodien has a very competitive pricing as compared to even hosting companies in U.S! For example, you only need to invest S$11 per month for web hosting if you pay two years in advance (WebValue plan, 15GB Disk space and unmetered Bandwidth). And it gives you 5 addon domain names (this means you can host 5 different websites under a single hosting account).
How Is Their Support? (Updated)
I value support more than anything else. I would pay more if I can get a support that is both professional and responsive. Vodien support team is very responsive, for every email requests I send to them, they reply within two hours! I never thought this is possible with such pricing. You can also call their hotline listed on their website.
Another thing I like about the support is that they are also professional in what they do. There is no need to correspond a few times before the issue is resolved. They put themselves in their customers’ shoes to handle every requests.
Since after Dreamscape acquired Vodien in 2017, Vodien’s customer support has been quite disappointing…
In the past, whenever I have issues with my websites, Vodien team will help me fix the issues quickly. That was one of the main reasons why I almost always recommend Vodien to my friends. But now Vodien team will just tell you what is the issue (most of the time) and you are expected to fix it. This is still not so bad as I know some web hosting companies don’t even know what causes your website errors..
Honestly, Vodien web hosting is still not that bad (especially when it comes to their server security, reliability etc) in my opinion. What turns me off is their mediocre / below-average customer support when compared to other options out there.
An Alternative To Vodien
If you are looking for a web hosting company to host your websites especially if website speed is your concern, then check out A2 hosting.
I personally have tried A2 hosting servers for a while now and I’m glad to recommend them to anyone I know who is looking for web hosting. A2 hosting wins over Vodien in terms of the following:
- Support – I find A2 Hosting support team is more ‘caring’ than Vodien’s. When I have issues with my websites, I will open a ticket and my ticket will be replied very soon and most of the time, A2 Hosting support will help me resolve the issues.
- Prices – A2 Hosting is more affordable compared to Vodien and their hosting plan comes with unlimited addon domain names (Drive plan and above) – which means you can add as many websites to one single hosting plan as you want.
- Server location – You can choose either Asia-based servers or United States based servers when purchasing a hosting plan with A2 Hosting.
- Server speed – A2 hosting servers are faster than Vodien’s servers (comparing their shared hosting tiers).
You can click here to check if A2 hosting is running any sales promotions. If so, sometimes it only costs US$3 per month for hosting!
I used to be a Pachosting client before being sold to Vodien. I have been using Outlook for my emails and have been very happy with it. However, Vodien migrated the email hosting to Titan Mail in June 2024. During the migration period, we encountered numerous technical problems. Despite sending many emails to Vodien asking for help, we received no responses at all.
Worse still, when it came time for contract renewal in July 2024, Vodien’s customer service confirmed multiple times that I could continue using Outlook Mail under webElite because I did not want to switch to Titan Mail as it was more expensive and i also paid for the hosting website. It was not until early September 2024, when I could not receive any incoming emails, that we followed up with Vodien. They then informed me that we could not use Outlook Mail under webElite due to a technical issue.
Vodien misled us into entering a contract and failed to deliver the required services, and even worse, they did not inform us of these issues. It turned out that I had to pay extra to upgrade to Titan Mail. I thought all the issues had been resolved until one day I found that I could not access my website. When I called customer service, they told me that the extra money I had paid was only for Titan Mail and did not cover the web hosting plan, which was clearly outlined in the initial contract in July 2024.
Vodien breached the contract not once but twice and misrepresented the terms of the service contract without delivering the services promised. It took me a long time and considerable effort to get customer service to answer my calls; their service was extremely poor. A lack of support, a lack of communication, failure to uphold their service commitments are my final conclusions about this company.
If you are based in any part of this planet and you are reading this – Please Just Don’t Use VODIEN – They just don’t give a damn and they will bleed your money.
Thank you but no thank you I have gone with a local supplier where I get the same hosting at approximately 1/3 of the cost with an Australian based server an Australian based support system, rapid response to Tech requirements and somebody actually rings me back when I asked them to!!!
there’s a few reason why Vodien don’t get my business anymore and why I will go out of my way to discourage others from dealing with you.
1. You charge too much
2. you don’t “get me”
3. you stuffed up my emails
4. you stuffed up my account
5. you stuffed up my website
6. you never offered any assistance in getting things fixed
7. your security was abysmal
8. and somehow it was always my fault
so goodbye and don’t darken my doorway.
PS I am still waiting for a return phone call from a supervisor/ manager, oh snap you don’t give a damn, oh double snap you don’t get my business.
Horrible experience of using Vodien server and hosting!
Our company has been using Vodien server and hosting services for many years, and have very disappointed experience of their incompetent technical support and business development team. They can anyhow suspend all our accounts without any notification and explanation.
Read my new case just happened yesterday, on 06 sept 2023 5pm they suddenly suspended all our accounts without any notification, NO call NO email notification, all accounts are suddenly suspended.
we called their technical support, using vodien live chat support, they just transfer call from one technical support to another technical support. Then told us we have outstanding payment, but we login our vodien account, there is no outstanding invoice and in fact our vodien account still has available credit and our company has multiple credit cards are linked with vodein account.
The technical support told us they cannot activate back our account until the business development specialist is available then can talk to us at 6am or 7am on 07 sept 2023. There is no person in charge we can talk with. No choice, we have to repeat the same story with their technical support staff again and again.
No one from Vodien is going to solve the issue until we clear the payment, but there is NO outstanding invoice in my account for us to pay at all! (refer to my account screenshot below) Where is the outstanding invoice?!
Thanks to vodien’s super messy internal structure and unprofessional ways of operation, all of us and our clients are suffering from disruption of our services, and our operations are badly affected. We have to keep explaining to our clients that the service disruptions is due to Vodien suddenly suspended all our account.
Do you know how I get my services back? I have to travel to vodien Singapore headoffice at Vodien Internet Solutions Pte Ltd 3 Irving Road #09-01 Tai Seng Centre Singapore 369522, below is their Singapore office,
Then I was told that their boss, director, and managers are all work from home, no one at office at all, except one reception girl here.
Can you imagine that all of us putting our data at their server, but their office is totally empty, except one reception girl?!
Do you think we can trust such company? Do you think we can use their services which you do not know when the services will be cut off and suspended without any notification? You cannot migrate all your data out until they activate your account for you to login.
a rating of 0 is too high. Their incompetence has caused my website to be down for a few days now. and I was promised a call back, or an email back immediately. Every time I contact them I get some soothing comments like “I understand how much you wanted to received an update from our team”. But i never get any updates and i continue to lose money as my website is down due to their incompetence.
I am finding another domain registrar. Its the same owner as Crazy Domains, and the service is just as bad with Crazy Domains.
I requested a domian transfer on 11th June. Recieved an email citing that it will be transferred on the 16th June. Spoke to a customer service & confirmed that it takes 7 days….
Having a webinar on the 25th June with a registration link on this domain BUT yesterday, received an email from Vodien saying transfer will be done on 25th June. Spoke wth customer service & they also unable to give a clear explanation & only say “try & initiate again after 60 days”. WTF!!!! I have paid $1800 to the studio & equipment rental & now Vodien screw up on this & no clear explanation. I give them a PERFECT 10 for being the NUMBER 1 SCREW UP HOSTING SITE.
My company is original with Webvisions. After it switched to Vodien, the service quality went down all the way. Currently switch to Oryon.net and it is so much better.
Stay away from this company. Compare their pricing and services with other service providers before you sign up. Bad customer service, unreasonable pricing, and do not reply to email. Our company having 2 years of bad experience with Vodien.
Our hosting was taken over by them. Our hosting has been hosted by the previous company for almost 8 years without issues.
Takes 3 days to reply emails. Business development deny what his earlier email reply. His way is just to ignore you email.
Stay away from them.
We have been them for more than 3 years already. They forever ask us to pay for additional services and upgrade but nothing works. When you go to our website it will say => Not Secure
We endure it for so long as we were lazy to do the switch.
Hi Amanda,
I didn’t buy any upsells from them. As for your website showing not secured, you can get your developer to configure (your developer may incur some charges thou) and use the free SSL that Vodien provides. This website is using the free SSL provided by Vodien.
Yes. Nothing works with them. My website has been down. And when I emailed them to fix the issue, all they care about is asking for money.
Even when paid, the service is still not done. Sent them multiple emails asking for updates and they just ignore you.
Really the worst.
Vodien has a drastic drop in service over last year after being acquired by Australian company. Suddenly all the technical support looks like they came from Philippines and not interested to help at all!
Yes ,the philipino support n web Desigm team are terrible ,after you have paid the fee 2700the design team will ask you to do their job for them like file size changing or fitting,the vodien design team just simply push all their task to me,I have to resize file for them,I don’t even know vodien web measurement!!
Vodien customer n vodien internal email communication is very problematic,they couldn’t receive my email reply and all the email I sent to them via email were not received !!
Is a total mess!!!!!?
4 mths after I paid $2700sg the simple 5 page website is not done yet,not even close to anything I expect.
I do not want to continue the website hosting with vodien anymore,I will be filing police report n demand full refund !! Do not do web hosting with vodien!!
Thanks KC for your review. I am now more confident to open my account with Vodien. I like the price and more important, their responsiveness – my technical enquiry emails were promptly replied to by their pre-sale support even though i am not their existing customer.
You are welcome, Alex! I enjoy their promptness in replying my emails always =)
Dear KC,
You are right! Vodien.com rocks! I just subcribed to their hosting plan over the weekend and I am already impressed by their 24/7 support and live chat assistance.
Regards,
Faris Foo.
Hi Faris,
I’m glad you enjoy it! Thank you for letting me know.