Posted by rotnme on January 31, 2011 at 4:35am
Looking for a new hosting provider that is drupal friendly. Currently using Go Daddy and am fed up and can't wait to dump them. Any suggestions, and how easy would it be to migrate everything to a new provider? Thanks in advance.
Comments
hosting provider
I have a client using bluehost.com and they seem to be a lot more friendly than GD when it comes to a Drupal install.
HotDrupal
Based in Asheville, NC, HotDrupal does an excellent job. I highly recommend them. http://www.hotdrupal.com/
Definitely go with Hot
Definitely go with Hot Drupal. They have excellent support.
Hot Drupal
I second that.
HotDrupal.com
any updates on Hot Drupal? I reached out to them late last week to ask some questions about their hosting plans and got the feeling that Steve was annoyed that he had to spend time with someone who is only going to sign up for a $10-15 plan.
I guess I was a little surprised by his reaction based on all the good things I've read here...
+1 hotdrupal
Yea, Steve is terse, I've been rattled by it, but he has NEVER failed to help me; going way beyond what the typical web host provides.
If a belly rub is your top priority, then hotdrupal isn't your vendor ;) If you want killer performance, great uptime, drupal version specific environments, then deal with Steve's abruptness; you'll be happy you did. Yea, I use there commodity site offerings, too, and glad I did.
thanks
Thanks for the confirmation, Kyle. Guess I'll give them a shot.
dedicated or "hybrid" VPS?
Curious which plans you guys have experience with. Kyle, it sounds like you may be doing the "Hybrid VPS" plans -- any limitations you wish weren't there? Anyone have experience with the Dedicated VPS (they seem to be sold out lately) and what pushed you into that plan with hotdrupal specifically?
Thanks!
Well
I'm exclusively Hybrid VPS with hotdrupal. Since I have access to a co-op/blade server, and know what I'm missing, sure there's things I'd like to have, but obviously nothing major. Inversely, I also love not having to do sysadmin stuff for reliability over time. I haven't "hit my head" against any missing services.
I had the same experience
I had the same experience more or less.
If you want something like
If you want something like GoDaddy, without the GoDaddy, try Hostmonster. Great customer support, nice cPanel, inexpensive.
I also have an account with DreamHost. The cPanel takes a bit to get used to, but I really like their service. And they have a support wiki that is extremely helpful!
I hear Slicehost is a good VPS option.
I just moved from GoDaddy to
I just moved from GoDaddy to HostGator after quite a bit of evaluation. I wrote an migration article: http://networkingguide.toddzebert.com/blog/todd-zebert/migrating-drupal-...
I have been using BlueHost
I have been using BlueHost for about two years, no complaints
BlueHost
I'm also utilizing BlueHost for my sites. Haven't had to interact with them much, but they are Drupal friendly and were helpful when I needed to adjust memory settings on the server.
Knownhost
I've been using a VPS at knownhost.com - 1024 MB RAM, 60 GB Disk Space, 2500 GB Bandwidth, $45/mo. Not especially knowledgeable about Drupal, it depends on who responds to your question. The tough questions I've had to reply 3-4 times before they finally escalate it to a Drupal knowledgeable person, but every question eventually was answered. Fairly fast and a managed VPS.
Fluffiness is overrated
You have to ask yourself, who do you want to deal with when there's a problem? A typical commodity host uses underpaid (and underskilled) helpdesk staff that may or may not have customer service skills. HotDrupal has some scary high octane unix guys who also happen to be heavy into Drupal. So what's more valuable to you? Competence or personality? Personally, when I'm shopping for a systems administrator I want the kind of guy that used to hang out in alt.sysadmin.recovery back in the day and if his personality strips paint, even better, that means there's less PR nonsense I have to wade through when on the phone trying to work through an issue with my site. YMMV.
Well...
OK, I have had a few somewhat "fluffy" conversations with Steve. He's a nice guy, really. But, as Allan writes, he's the person you want for optimal and reliable performance. Over time I've seen where his focus is and it's not putting up "endorsements" from lightly-clad female celebrities or those annoying "How'd we do?" post-support surveys.
The other reason I beat this drum is I know how difficult it is to find a reputable vendor. Shopping for a reputable web host is like finding a reputable car dealer, new or used. Consequently, I've purchased a Pingdom account to check the performance and uptime of my sites. Only two vendors offers better performance than hotdrupal, and that's rackspace. The other is a server co-op out of CA and, no offense, but I'm not sharing on that webhost goodness. If you can afford Rackspace, then you can save yourself a good deal time. Otherwise...
The one pitfall to hotdrupal is they actively discourage using their servers for email, a good decision on their part. They recommend Google Apps, which is fine for 10 or less email accounts. If you need email +11 accounts, then hostmonster might better suit you.
Any problems in using Google
Any problems in using Google Apps with Drupal? Just the usual contact, admin, etc stuff?