Hosting¿?

[Joan Minguet]

Hello ,

I'm going to start a new project which involves a website/blog in spanish. I really don't know how much traffic it's going to generate, though I don't expect it to be anything of relevance for the first months.

It's not my first try with such a project, but it's the first time I plan to work on it really seriously and for the first time too, I've decided to go for a paid hosting.
I've done my homework and I've got a general idea of what I can find about paid hosting, but seeing how many people here are more experienced than I in this matter, I'd like to know your experiences and your choices for a paid hosting and what "plan" you would recommend me.


P.S. Please, consider that, for this project I may need about 400MB of HD (I plan to upload some files too) and that, even though my main efforts are going to be aimed for that project, I've got some other things I'd like to host/test on the server.


Thanks ,

Joan

[kthdsn]

I have a VPS, on which I host a few small sites for myself and a few friends. I like it because it gives me the freedom to choose everything from the operating system and software to who has access to what, without having to pay for a whole great server or be limited by the available software on a hosting plan.

I could get by with much less space and power than I have available to me, but it's nice to know that it's there in case I have a traffic spike for any reason. It's also good for storing files on temporarily or testing out random stuff.

I get mine from here: ServerForce Ltd

[TechnoGuyRob]

EDIT: kthdsn's link is very useful if you want to have a hosting service where you have full, absolute control over everything that happens over the server. The one (EDIT2:s)he provided is pretty much like having a server physically in your room (just about). It's significantly more expensive, but if you need a sophisticated testing environment, that might sound nice.

My all-time favorite host (I've been using them for 4 years now) is Lypha. Their shared hosting plan (more detailed version) is not only unrivaled, it is at least order-of-magnitude superior to everything else I have seen for the same price. For $166.80, you can get 28 months of service. They have 150GB of space and 3TB of bandwidth per month. They have everything, meaning unlimited everything you can think of, and every possible web service you could ever need. Here is a screen shot of my control panel (where it says "/ 999" means unlimited, not 999 max; the Cpanel software just doesn't handle numbers bigger than 3 digits).



And if you're wondering what that "Unlimited" is doing near "Disk space available", they messed up something on my web server 2 years ago and gave me unlimited bandwidth and disk space. :P They're quite excellent about service.

Hope that helps!

[kthdsn]

Sorry to be picky, but I'm a she

[Henry]

I use DreamHost personally but they're all pretty much the same these days.

Also, kthdsn is a she (I think).

[Joan Minguet]

Thanks, all of you .

kthdsn your proposal looks interesting to me, because I'd be able to control everything which actually happened in the server and test whatever I wanted. However, I think it's considerably more expensive than what I was thinking about and though I want to test some other projects, I don't think I need so much control by now. (Off: like your site )

TechnoGuyRob: Lypha, your recommendation, is by far the best over those I found quality/costs talking. I'll give the thread two days before making up my mind, but yours seems my first option now.

Henry: Thanks too. I'd already read about dreamhost, it's just that TechnoGuyRob's recommendation looks much better now :tongue:

Thanks ,
Joan

[TechnoGuyRob]

Originally Posted by kthdsn

Sorry to be picky, but I'm a she

I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have made assumptions like that.

From now on, I shall just resort to using the pronouns "hir" and "hirs".

EDIT: Henry, that's right, Dreamhost. They're quite good as well. Both of those those are excellent hosting options.

[Kristoffer]

I use BLUEHOST and is happy about them. Lots of functions all easy accessible on a control panel that you log in to.

[andrew]

I use (mt) Media Temple - Limitlessly scalable web hosting on-demand.

Great customer service and top quality.

[escapee]

I 'm with lunarpages , P4host and vistapages.com on 3 sites (diversify my hosting to avoid the wrath of search engines ) , so far so good .

[Phantompower]

I've been using Hostgator and I am very happy with them. HOSTGATOR WEB HOSTING - cPanel, Reseller, and Dedicated Website Hosting

Dave - Phantompower

[Joan Minguet]

Thanks, all of you . I'm giving a look at all the service providers you commented.

Joan

[birger]

Originally Posted by TechnoGuyRob

And if you're wondering what that "Unlimited" is doing near "Disk space available", they messed up something on my web server 2 years ago and gave me unlimited bandwidth and disk space. :P They're quite excellent about service.

Just remember that there's no such thing as unlimited. Providers that are bragging about unlimited something, are either just lying, overselling or has some clausul about it in their terms and agreements. You may get a generous amount of disk space and bandwith, but most shared hosting providers will have some strict rules about memory and CPU usage (since all customers on the server should get roughly the same performance). And it's likely that you'll hit this limit way before the disk space or bandwidth limit (dependending on what you are hosting of course).

Don't be too concerned about disk space/bandwith, you can always upgrade later. If you have a account with 500GB bandwidth and 5 GB diskspace, and you're only using 10 GB + 100 MB the first few months, it's just a waste anyways.
With so many hosting providers out there, disk space/bandwith and price is not really what separates them, but service and customer relationships, IMHO. Choose a honest service provider which posts all their details (hosting location et.c.) on their websites. Also consider sending them an email first (or even better, call them) and check their response time.

I recommend reading WHReviews.com - Overselling hosting for more information about overselling. You can find many other good articles about hosting at the same site as well.

I'm currently renting a dedicated server from Server4you and have been quite happy with them.

[garg]

I use A Small Orange - Web Hosting, Software and more!

Everything is great

[dcldnl]

I can give you cheap hosting, with less then 100 € I guess you can have what you want for a year.
I don't want to post here my link because is not correct using forum for advices, however you can contact me if you are interested.

[Caveman Joe]

I can do your hosting starting off at £1 (about $1.80) a month.
I make no claims about being the best - most folks view me as a good start for the inexperienced. You will want to relocate eventually, but hostingforaquid.co.uk is a good place to look if you bear in mind that it's designed more as a starting point for those who are testing the waters, so to speak.
Having said that, we're an ethical company and don't make any "Unlimited!" claims or other dodgy stuff.
Link's in my signature.

[Joan Minguet]

Really grateful. I'll just give this thread about 24 hours more and post my choice, new recommendations still "allowed" till then . Thanks another time

[Lil Chris]

(mt) Media Temple - Limitlessly scalable web hosting on-demand.

Along with Outstanding customer service and grid server technology.
# 100 GBs of premium storage
# 1 TB of short-path bandwidth
# Host up to 100 individual sites
# 1000 email accounts
# 64 MB Ruby/Mongrel container
@ 20.00 a month

[julien]

You should stay away from "too cheap" web hosting plans. Remember that you get what you pay for.

[Mike]

I also use dreamhost and touch wood it performs fairly well for me. You can host unlimited domains and you can install WP at the touch of a button.

[Calculusaurus]

I use bluehost and have been happy with them. It might be worth noting that bluhost is the #1 recommended hosting service by wordpress.org. (WordPress › PHP / MySQL Web Hosting)

[wilsonng]

I use several. the ones I like is:

bluehost (bluehost.com)for linux base hosting, and

webhost4life (webhost4life.com) for windows server based hosting.

[Joan Minguet]

Thanks for all your posts

About dreamhost and Lypha; do they have ruby installed or allow you to install it?

[TechnoGuyRob]

Joan Minguet: I know DreamHost has Ruby-on-Rails. I'll ask Lypha if they have Ruby.

EDIT: Nope, apparently not. Here is the e-mail they sent me back:

Hello Robert,

Thank you for writing in.

Please be informed that we do not support Ruby Fuctionality on our servers.
Since we are using a shared server, we cannot install Ruby for your account only.


Please feel free to get back to us if you need further assistance on this issue.

With Regards,
Shantanu
Tech Support

Note that I received it half an hour after I sent my question. I love their response time!