Posted by dhcp on October 25, 2010 at 1:49pm
I'm looking to put up a very basic site that will be quick and easy to help someone else get going. I'm looking for a hosting company that will assist with all aspects of getting the domain name, setting up e-mail functionality, allowing drupal installation....
The list on drupal.org is overwhelming, so does anyone have any affordable recommendations?
(http://drupal.org/hosting)
Any help is appreciated.
Comments
Drupal Gardens
Have you considered Drupal Gardens? http://drupalgardens.com
DG has limitations, but for some organizations it's a good choice.
I prefer to keep the Domain registration separate from the hosting company. I use Godaddy for this, but not for hosting.
I have been very happy with http://hotdrupal.com for regular Drupal hosting.
NameCheap.com
I would just add that unless you're a big fan of sexist ads and poor customer service (GoDaddy), to check out Namecheap.com as a registrar. They also have very inexpensive SSL certs if you eve need them.
JCL
If you're going with that I
If you're going with that I would also check out http://buzzr.com
Ryan Price
DrupalEasy Podcast
HostGator
I would strongly recommend HostGator (HostGator.com).
Host Gator part Deux
I use Hostgator as well. In fact, I manage a lot of my clients websites and provide hosting for them through Host Gator. Their servers are stable and they have outstanding customer service.
RackSpace
We use RackSpace Cloud Servers (dedicated VPS), if you want shared they have CloudSites which gives FTP access and a web console for domain, backup and database admin. If you need performance you should look in to Pantheon (http://getpantheon.com/) which is deployed on RackSpace by Chapter Three.
TMD Hosting?
I just went through this for a non-profit group. I ended up getting them space at http://www.tmdhosting.com/ I don't know if they are still doing it, but registering the domain was free. Not bad, not great (it has the usual limitations of a shared hosting service), but the customer service is very responsive.
oh -yeah, price
I think it was around $40 for one year.
VPS Hosting
As far as hosting goes, VPS hosting scales better. It requires some basic Linux knowledge to get going up front, but VPS hosting companies like Rackspace and Linode have great customer support to help newbies out. VPS hosting plans start from as little as $20/month.
-Hector
Anyone Use Acquia Hosting?
I'm curious to know whether anyone has used Acquia Hosting (or is this the same thing as Drupal Gardens)?
I've been using GoDaddy.com for at least a dozen clients, and while I hear their support isn't great, I personally haven't had any problems with them. Their servers are very reliable and work well with Drupal.
I'm running two clients on VPS servers using Crucial Paradigm. I heard great things about them, and decided to give them a try. However, I've had nothing but disappointment. The support is poor (they're based in Australia, but I believe they have servers in Washington and Dallas), and I've had outages. The learning curve for VPS servers (using WHM - Web Hosting Manager - is not difficult, but there is certainly a learning curve there - and if you do not configure your sites properly, you can have all kinds of problems).
I'm starting to use Acquia Drupal now, and I really like it. I have a multi-site setup using the Acquia DAMP stack and their Acquia Drupal Control Panel. However, I'm still a bit confused about how best to go from localhost to production. I'm wondering if Acquia Hosting makes this simpler, how their support is, and if anyone has any personal experience with them.
--
Stephen Parker
321-473-6070
sparker888@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/sparker888
Bring Your Site to Life! sm
We have a client who signed
We have a client who signed up for Acquia Hosting - I don't know if all their levels are the same, but it's not for the faint of heart:
* All your deployment is done through SVN
* If you're not comfortable with command line tools, this is not for you
At the same time, I bet it is much easier than setting up your own Amazon EC2 environment, and it is 100% tailored towards Drupal use cases. Also, the support is pretty darn good. There is never a condescending tone, and lots of common things you come across have a nice tutorial written up somewhere in the knowledge base.
Ryan Price
DrupalEasy Podcast
Thanks!
Thanks for the info liberatr! Have you used the Drupal Acquia Stack (locally) with your client hosting with Acquia (for production/live)? I can handle command line tools, but I'm just getting up to speed on SVN. Are there any advantages to using Acquia hosting with regard to using the multi-site DAMP stack and moving from dev to production? Or do you have to do the same things you would do with any other host?
--
Stephen Parker
321-473-6070
sparker888@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/sparker888
Bring Your Site to Life! sm
Dev > Stage > Host is the $1B
Dev > Stage > Host is the $1B question in the Drupal world. There are some good solutions out there, but nobody has the secret sauce yet. The coolest thing I've seen so far is a combination of:
*a special database dump that moves non-content tables and
* the Deploy module
Together these two methods can rule the world. If you can get your workflow bent to features, there are some neat things there, but you still need to use Deploy or some other method to move content around.
I have also heard of people using Domain Access to host the Stage and Production on the same machine, but different subdomains, like a stage.example.com > www.example.com and the "push" is just done with checking a box when editing the node. You can restrict certain users to only be able to write content for one domain, so your "authors" have access to stage, and the editors to both.
Ryan Price
DrupalEasy Podcast
Acquia Webinar
There is a Webinar on this topic - Thursday, October 28 at 1pm - Drupal Staging and Deployment Best Practices
https://acquiawebinars.webex.com/mw0306lb/mywebex/default.do;jsessionid=k9YMMGfQH5c2hP3pBQRHqYs1QKyt2qVNxG3x3p8D4ShSVpj5p4tz!-913684652?nomenu=true&siteurl=acquiawebinars&service=6&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Facquiawebinars.webex.com%2Fec0605lb%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26confViewID%3D279168021%26siteurl%3Dacquiawebinars%26%26%26&mtcCampaign=-1&mtcEmail=37029869
(Sorry, but URL shortners are blocked where I work)
-Hector
move the domain later
Usually when I'm creating a new Drupal site, one of two things is true:
(1) There is no site
(2) We're switching servers
I like to put up the new Drupal site and develop it right there on the server. Not quite as zippy as having it hosted on my laptop (which I've also done), but no migration headaches later.
A couple times I've had to replace an existing site on the same server. For that, I like to create a new subdirectory, develop Drupal there, and when I'm ready to go live I just point the domain at the subdirectory. This can usually be accomplished with minimal headache.
--Koppie
PS: I strongly recommend AGAINST Powweb. They have terrible Drupal support and won't even own up to it.
Ditto
Yep, that is my process too...with one exception. I clone the new (dev) site to make a live site. The original new site becomes the testing site. So...
Create a new web hosting account (public_html). Example: clientsite.com
Create a subdomain: testing.clientsite.com and develop the site there (you can configure your settings.php file to use the host's temporary URL -- no need to point a domain to the development site)
TIP: Be sure to set your robots.txt file to "Disallow:/"
Once the site is ready to launch, I copy everthing from the testing.clientsite.com to the public_html root directory (or a subdirectory live site folder, if you prefer).
A. Change the base domain name (from temp URL)
B. Change the database name
C. Copy over a live-site appropriate robots.txt file
Change the domain DNS to point to the new live site.
Keep the testing.clientsite.com for, er, testing. (Once the domain name has propogated, you can change the base domain from temp URL to testing.clientsite.com, in the settings.php file)
If you use HostGator, they will transfer your entire Control Panel (or just specified parts) from another host to their server...free. Saves you all the download/upload time.
great information
I really appreciate the input so far.
Rackspace Cloud Hosting
We also use Rackspace to host Drupal sites - we are using their CloudSites and have had great results.
The cost is reasonable and their support is excellent - we can always chat with support online or phone if really needed - super quick and responsive on the support end.
We've been with Rackspace for a little over 3 years now and are really happy with them.
--
Jay Rieckmann
FliteHaus Creative Agency
You'll be fine with Hostgator
If you're just starting out and don't expect to have crazy levels of traffic (x00 or low x,000 uniques per day max) then HostGator will be more than sufficient for your needs, as will almost any other commodity hosting service that offers PHP5, MySQL and SSH access (cPanel will be useful too).
A VPS/dedicated server at this point would be overkill, plus you have to manage the security, updates, configuration, etc. yourself. Acquia hosting seems to be aimed at large enterprise teams (and is priced to match). Gardens might be OK if you're building a simple site in place, but if you have the skill to build from scratch you can use (cheap) commodity hosting.
Drupal sites are pretty easy to move around (provided you write your code well and use relative paths), so you can always start out on shared hosting then move up to more capable servers as and when you need them.
Orlando, FL Web Developer | http://www.garethsprice.com/
site5.com, rackspace cloud, and HostGator
I've been with site5.com for almost a decade on a reseller account - no complaints other than a brief period when they merged with The Planet. Their email support is excellent.
But, since Aegir conflicts with cPanel, I now have a Rackspace Cloud account dedicated to Aegir - I find it a little sluggish but I haven't tested fully.
2 years ago we put a client on two dedicated site5.com servers (one for SQL, other for APPS) - but it was not good - very slow and they gave us inadequate admin privileges to optimize for Drupal - so we later migrated them to Rackspace Cloud, which was very good.
I have a client currently on HostGator - his website loads like molasses - he is also complaining about his mail being slow. I have recommended he move to a different host.
Jason Graham
http://www.PolishYourImage.com
Re sluggish shared hosting:
Re sluggish shared hosting: Log in via SSH and check the load time on the server ("uptime" or "top"). If it's very high (double digits), you can usually have HG move the site to a different server with less traffic if you request it.
Orlando, FL Web Developer | http://www.garethsprice.com/
thx for the tip Gareth - will
thx for the tip Gareth - will do! :)
Jason Graham
http://www.PolishYourImage.com
hi jason...
I have been playing with burst.net because its a super vanila VPS system... and I have been trying to use the Omega8 distro of Aegir with baracuda and octupus. But I have been having a lot of trouble with it because its stock versions of umbutu 10.04 and umbutu 9.10 are not really that stock
( yes, I know about the php 5.3 issue on Umbutu 10.04, but Baracuda is suppose to resolve this).
there is also a problem using virtualVM
The Omega 8 guys like linode, which I used before... and it was pretty elegant. I am going to take another try at using this one next week.
Pantheon, Pantheon, Pantheon
http://getpantheon.com. I promise you, you won't regret it. I'm just a developer, but I've been beta testing on them for over a year, and I love them so much I do presentations about them for my local camps and meetings. Git, drush, 5-minute Drupal 6 / 7 Pressflow spin-ups with dev, test and live ready to go, Varnish, Jenkins, memcache, separate Apache Solr servers, migration/import from upload or URL, built on Rackspace servers, amazing support and service, every-level pricing, always FREE for developers, newRelic... The list goes on and on, all built-in, all there at the touch of a button. It's amazing. Truly, the biggest game-changer since Drupal itself. I've moved all my clients to it, and we're all happy.
Give it a try. Free for developers (you pay when you point the custom domain name to the live server URL). You won't be sorry.
Disclosure: I dont work for Pantheon or Chapter 3, and I revive nothing for endorsing them. I just really love Pantheon.
Good luck,
Kelly Bell
Gotham City Drupal
--Kelly Bell
Gotham City Drupal
twitter: @kbell | @gothamdrupal
http://drupal.org/user/293443