Who do you like for hosting and why
Here is our situation. We have a small site on Burton Hosting. We have had trouble with their customer service and we need to move the completed drupal site to another hosting company. The whole site right now is only 600 mb. We don't expect alot of users. The community we serve is less than 1000. We are looking for a host that has a cpanel (that can be easily accessed without having to log on to your hosting account like godaddy) and great customer service. We tried godaddy and trying to upload the sql database was unsuccessful due to it's size and the limitations of the host. We have heard good things about hotdrupal, dreamhost, hostgator, bluehost... but we would like to hear your experiences to make a good decision about where to move our site. Thank you so much! Nicole Bluto
Ical feed
some hosts...
I would see if HotDrupal may have better packages for your Drupal sites. Check them out, they're a DrupalCamp LA 2008 site sponsor.
Also, there's the good old solid large companies like The Planet (~$100/mo.), Voxel.net (CDN+), and I mention these not because they're large, but they're support/service has been awesome, which is paid for. MediaTemple is liked by many for some support reasons, and I have dealt with each one on at least a few months basis and I will say Voxel was #1, The Planet #2, and MediaTemple I'd say #3... and I'm not counting the HotDrupal company so make sure to check them out as they're cool and they're support is great, but I know the others for at least a year or more and HotDrupal has been with LA Drupal since before the camp this year and has been very stable.
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I like Media Temple and their support but the Grid Server(GS), their shared hosting product isn't that great for Drupal sites. It was too slow for me. The Dedicated Virtual(DV) is what we have and I really like it. It is affordable and scalable. Probably not the way to go though if you only had one site you wanted to host.
I can also confirm the
I can also confirm the slowness of the MediaTemple GS service for Drupal installs, (even D 6.x). But for the cost and the ability to have it all setup and running without any work, its not a bad deal. I would encourage people to check out hotdrupal before media temple because hotdrupal is hosting drupal specific applications so their services are tuned for it. I have heard from clients that Media Temple support is great though as well. For those who are serious about any website you run, spend a few extra dollars a month and get good service. (maybe even sign up for an account at two or three places for one month to test them all out and see what you like best).
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I think the slowness of the GS is the database stuff. If you had a lot of static content and/or used a module like boost, it would probably be fine.
Have you tried adding one of
Have you tried adding one of their MySQL containers to your account? I think it's basically just a VPS tuned for MySQL and it's an additional $20 a month.
Seems like this should be more than enough to make up for the regular shared MySQL deficiencies.
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I did try that before switching to the (dv). I didn't see a difference.
Slicehost
I was asking about hosting with Drupal developers at Denver Open Media last week and the Civic Pixel guys said that they were very happy with http://slicehost.com
Does anyone here have any experience with Slicehost VPS Hosting?
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Markus Sandy
http://apperceive.com
http://ourmedia.org
I currently have my
I currently have my applications hosted at SliceHost and I definitely recommend them. They recently got bought and are now a wholly owned subsidiary of RackSpace hosting (http://www.slicehost.com/rackspace). Their VPS solutions are not for beginners. Your account gives you full root access to a bare bones installation of many distros including Ubuntu. Their control panel is great (they even offer full automated image backups of your server that you can use to rebuild your slice with or even build a new slice with) and they have a lot of articles that help walk you through installing apache/php/mysql/nginx/ruby on rails/mail server, etc.
Dollar for dollar, you get a great deal. It gives you the freedom to install and tune the server to your exact needs (memcache or apache solr search anyone?). Just keep in mind, you must setup EVERYTHING, server log rotation, keeping the OS up to date, setting up firewalls, etc. For those who have the experience or want to learn, why are you waiting?
As an aside, Christefano, Lee and Scott Nelson's new project (Digital Dollhouse) is setup on Slicehost and they said they too have been very pleased with their experience and the cost effectiveness of slicehost as a solution.
we're definitely happy with Slicehost
Thanks for the mention, Blake. We're definitely happy with Slicehost.
In a comment below I mention Webmin and Virtualmin, which have an install script that takes all the pain out of setting up a server environment.
I've been very pleased with
I've been very pleased with Slicehost and their service. I like being able to shell in and 'own' the 'box.' Do I want to do ffmpeg video encoding along with apache and php? No problem, just set it up. Do I need Rails apps, or memcache, or eaccelarator, or imagick, or python, or a special vhost setup? No problem, just set it up.
Keep in mind if you are having a configuration issue, or your server crashes, you're pretty much on your own.
With all that said, I'm switching some of my personal stuff over to Linode at the moment, as their relative pricing seems to be slightly better than Slicehost for comparable store/memory combinations. I haven't been with them long enough to get a good feel for their support or performance/reliability, but so far, the extra 240MB of memory has made world of difference for big Drupal sites, with running rails apps on the same instance.
Another vote for Slicehost.
Another vote for Slicehost. Have been very happy with their services. I have several the lowest account with them and am running several sites on one VPS, though the sites have VERY low traffic.
-p
Just started using slicehost
Hi, just an update to say that I recently started using slicehost and I am very pleased with the service so far. Simple and straight forward admin UI (even has an api, but I have not checked that out yet). The rest is up to you and the underlying LAMP stack you setup, of course.
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Markus Sandy
http://apperceive.com
http://ourmedia.org
http://runesofgallidon.com
Dreamhost and Bluehost
I have used Drupal on both Dreamhost and Bluehost non-vps accounts. Great for demos and small projects, but generally rather slow. My apperceive.com site is a DreamHost site with a fairly plain D6 install. Personally, I think it's kind of slow. Most simple optimizations are set, but database access is not super fast with this kind of hosting. Support is ok from both given the price. Bluehost is using cpanel 11. Not sure what Dreamhost panel is based on
On the other side of the coin I have a client who is using Rackspace and they are very responsive, cadillac service for big $$$. very easy to work with. they will set up just about any os and control panel you like.
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Markus Sandy
http://apperceive.com
http://ourmedia.org
Dreamhost panel is custom
Dreamhost has a super-custom panel they have been massaging for almost a decade. Some love it, some hate it. I'm more past the middle, leaning towards dislike some days. I mean, is MySQL and HTACCESS stuff really something to have listed under "Goodies".
But, for tiny clients they've been totally fine... just don't expect to call or email for support, they only do ticket-based support, otherwise you can pay for them to call you.
:P
The only thing DreamHost does
The only thing DreamHost does well, in my opinion, is have a successful referral policy. Earlier this year, I wrote about how DreamHost overcharged some of their customers to the tune of $8 million and I've all but made it a personal campaign of mine to help friends and clients switch to better alternatives.
Angie also wrote about DreamHost alternatives for Drupal developers in the Lullabot weblog last year.
Spry for VPS and Hostgator for Shared
nbluto - I've used Bluehost for a couple of years but some of their servers are down more than up. On the shared hosting side I prefer Hostgator. I've never had a problem. You can login directly to your cpanel -> http://yoursitename.com/cpanel
I am about to migrate to Spry for VPS hosting. I was not happy with my last provider. I was recommended to Spry by the secruity developer with Joomla. They offer cpanel vps hosting -> http://www.spry.com/vps-hosting/. Spry also offers low cost VPS at $7 per month but it is unmanaged and does not include cpanel (as I've been told).
FYI - I am not an affiliate of either of these companies.
Good luck
"Life is a fast strange trip, good thing we all have seats" (author unknown)
I recommend Hot Drupal
I recommend HotDrupal, Steve over there is really awesome and my multi-sites run pretty fast.
Thank you so much ** ;-)**
We decided to go with Hotdrupal. They are actually going to transfer the site for us and do some other things we need done. They were very responsive. The team's only reservation with them is that they are a new and small company and we are hoping that they will stick around. I am excited that we chose them. Thanks so much everyone! :-)
Nicole
HotDrupal has been excellent for me, as well
Can't beat the service you get from Steve at HotDrupal. They are definitely smaller than someplace like SliceHost, but that may be an advantage for getting high level, personal service when needed, and help in moving things around when that has to be done. I've just gone through a two week process with HostingZoom for a client, and although the Indian help desk was good, what I had to do would have taken a day, possibly two, with HotDrupal.
Steve Carter
Host w/ LA's Inhost.com : drupalcampla sponsor : 10 years in biz
I own two 10 year old web hosting companies and am happy to help Drupal members personally. I'll even give you a free 60 days to check it out. You will love our web hosting service.
Any questions let me know: daniel@inhost.com.
DrupalCampLA was also going to have the after-party at my loft downtown but I was getting ready for a trip to Brazil (I'm in Rio now until Dec. 1)
I also started a drupal blog site for the base camp city of my trip to Brazil: www.salvadorbahia.net.
We are trusted by huge companies like Virgin Mobile. We do Internet for geezers like DEVO and thousands of artists, musicians and businesses around the world.
Let me know if I can be of assistance. Our network is stable and FAST!!!!
Daniel Banales
President
Inhost.com
Inhost.com works great for Drupal
I am helping Daniel with the setup of www.salvadorbahia.net and can attest that Inhost.com's setup works great for Drupal. Very good performance and virtually no lag when your shared account is paged back in after a period of inactivity (I've seen very different on overcrowded servers...). Having used beefy, dedicated servers only in my previous life I am pleasantly surprised by how responsive a shared server can be. Give them a try!
Christoph Weber
www.dialogconsulting.biz
I recommend Slicehost and RimuHosting
Please see my comments at http://drupal.org/node/145781#comment-960383
Here are a few excerpts:
Yahoo Small Biz hosting not a good choice for Drupal
I just found out Yahoo Small Biz hosting is not a good choice for Drupal. They don't allow .htaccess files to be uploaded, so clean-URLs is not available.
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/att/smallbusiness/glossary/glossary-08.html
I like dreamhost so far with
I like dreamhost so far with my personal sites. They're much faster than my previous shared host, a barebones drupal install would crawl with my previous provider. For my company I use a Dotster VPS, but I'm going to switch soon. Don't waste your time with Dotster, the customer service is horrible (not to mention expensive) and I've been noticing slowdowns and outages the last couple of months. I'm thinking of switching to slicehost.
I've been with ServInt for my VPS for over 4 years ...
... and can absolutely with confidence recommend them. Smallest plan is 512 MB guaranteed ram, 15 GB storage, and 500 GB (really) bandwidth, and 4 IPs, 24/7 phone support and really outstanding customer service.
I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but over 4 contented years with one provider is a remarkable achievement.
http://servint.net