I know I have asked this question before, and I got great responses about hosting a drupal site.
I have one site, at one domain, at SiteGround, and though there is no phone support, I haven't had any problems ... yet.
The last thread warned us to stay away from Site5, and so I will.
My brother wants a web-site for his small business, and based on his needs: web-hosting, email, bandwidth, etc.
I wanted to find something that would meet his needs, start small and add services as needed.
There's going to be about 4 domain names just sharing the same drupal instance.
Anyway, it's been about a year since I last asked, and has anything changed?
I could go with SiteGround again since I am familiar with them, but ... maybe there's something better already out there.
Last October when I took the Drupal BootCamp at CCTV, there was some discussion on hosting and who is good.
Could Moshe, or Sean, or someone refresh my memory on those and which ones were better than others?
I understand any recommendations don't reflect those of drupal.org.
Thanks!
Tom Holmes
Comments
No shared
If we are talking business, stay away from shared hosting services. It's just not a tier of service that I would recommend anyone doing business on. Instead, I would recommend moving up to the next tier of service, something like a virtual private server (vps).
CCTV uses this service, we couldn't be happier. The plans at most VPS companies start at $45/mo or so. What you lose in pricing you certainly gain in support and accountability, and you have a measured and guaranteed level of service and server resources at your disposal - no more surprise account suspensions on a client meeting day, if you know what I mean.
Do you own research but I can point you to the VPS providers that I have worked with before: servint.net and hostican.com.
Do the $45/month plans
Do the $45/month plans you're talking about include cPanel and WHM? $45/month is more than twice what I'm paying at at Slicehost and Rimuhosting. I'm using the free "community" versions of Webmin and Virtualmin to manage the sites, though, and they definitely lack the vim and polish of cPanel and WHM.
You should contact Servint
You should contact Servint for the actual answer but I believe that their $45 plans include cpanel and WHM.
Confirmed
Just wanted to confirm my answer. Servint's $45/mo VPS does include WHM and cPanel. I saw that you can also opt for Plesk.
Thanks for the followup.
Thanks for the followup.
Good Info
Thanks for the info, and to everyone else who has responded. Getting others peoples honest opinions is good research.
I have also been scouring the Net for reviews, both good and bad, for a number of hosting facilities.
I'm not sure if my brother wants to do $45/month, so I will ask him.
If I can pay by month, or at least for one year, that's a start.
I don't want to go too overboard since his business venture could fail, but I don't want to go too small, and then have the site overwhelmed. This is not an existing, establishd business or company ... it's start-up right now, so I wanted to keep the cost down.
As for VPS vs. Shared Hosting .... I've never used a VPS before ... I have certainly seen the recommended VPS sites that were mentioned like SliceHost and RimuHosting. So .... never using a VPS before, how much damage can I do the slice?
Would I have to install and configure everything ... drupal, mysql, php, postfix????
Or is it much the same as shared hosting, you get the install tools and cPanel ... except that it's a dedicated machine?
Anyway, I might take the advice of VPS if my brother will pay for it ... if not, then I'll consider ANHosting/MidPhase.
I've seen one negative comment about them, and all the rest very positive .... but I don't know if those are planted.
I guess that is the problem with researching .... I really have to look far and wide for real users and real comments.
Thanks Sean and to everyone for the information. I certainly hope this thread helps other people!
I think that for what it
I think that for what it sounds like you are doing, the $20 plan here is what you want (or similar at another host):
http://totalchoicehosting.com/web-hosting-resellers.html
There are many other good ones, but I can only recommend ones I have used, and I have used TCH for 3 years now.
It is shared hosting, but very good shared hosting. No phone support, but I have found online support to be very fast. You can have multiple sites on this plan. Note that before a site goes live, you access if by http://00.000.000.0/~username (insert correct IP address for your plan) as they give you just one IP address. Username is what you used for the site account you set up for the particular site.
One thing not mentioned yet is whether or not the server is "managed" (by the host company) or not. All shared hosting is managed by the host company. VPS and dedicated servers can be managed (very expensive), semi-managed, or not managed (managed by you). (Note: VPS is really just like dedicated, except it is not a separate dedicated computer).
Yes of course you have to install Drupal on all of above, but no you don't install Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc. (LAMP) - however, on a non-managed server, you will have to do your own upgrades (of PHP for example) as needed, and deal with firewall settings and all that stuff. I have to do that to some extent on my PowerVPS plan (semi-managed). On a VPS or dedicated server you can install anything you want, but sounds like you just need the basics, so VPS is more complicated than what you need.
cPanel and WHM makes anything you do have to do (create MySQL databases, mailboxes, etc) very easy - and backup - backup often!
Finally, you will kill yourself if you try to figure out the very best host - there is no such thing. And if you read all about it, you will find that some hosts that were very good 3 years ago, now are terrible - that kind of thing goes on. You have to just try one that many people have recommended. Just make sure it has cPanel, then it will be quite easy to move to another cPanel host down the road if you need to.
A VPS account is typically
A VPS account is typically supported by the company and certainly monitored and maintained by staff like any shared hosting account. Lots of these VPS companies will custom configure your account to your specs when you buy in, and have a phone support and/or ticketing system for issues just like your usual shared host (except their stuff works better and they always have time to answer the phone). When I paid for the new VPS account, I referred them to the Drupal requirements handbook page and asked them to configure the account to meet those specs. They offered to install Drupal for me.
A call to a VPS sales or customer support line would be very educational, even if you decided to go with a different VPS company.
Every company has a different payment plan. With Servint, we pay quarterly.
Thanks to Everyone, I picked a host
I did a lot of research and looked into all the companies mentioned and compared prices/features.
The one I picked was HostIcan.com as recommended by Sean.
My brother is starting a company, and I started out with the basic hosting for two years.
It only cost about $132 after the labor day discount.
I didn't go with the VPS at this time, but in the future, if my brothers business takes off, then we can think of upgrading.
In the meantime, I might move my personal domain name (and email) from Register.com to HostIcan.
Then I can setup my own drupal site for myself.
Thanks again to everyone for their input. I hope this message helps out someone else in the future.
Feet first
Tom,
I was pointing to Hostican's VPS service, not necessarily their shared service. Here are some pitfalls with Hostican's shared hosting to know as you start to develop your site (and especially with Drupal).
Like many shared hosts, Hostican places a cap on the number of mysql queries allowed per hour so its important to use as much caching technique as you can.
Also, Hostican will automatically switch off domains that send out more than 100 emails per hour via PHP. If you plan to use a mass emailer module or otherwise, set it up on a cron to stay well under that limit. Switching the site back on is a lengthy process with their support department.
For a new, low traffic site with good caching then these won't be big problems.
Since this company is new to you, don't move all of your domains there yet. Stick it out for a month or two and see that you are satisfied with the service first. Mark your calendar with the 30-day money back deadline, just in case.
Shared and VPS
I use Total Choice Hosting for my small sites; reseller account:
http://totalchoicehosting.com/web-hosting-resellers.html
and have been very happy. Though I agree with 'seaneffel' and use PowerVPS for my larger sites:
http://www.powervps.com
and have also been very happy with them.
Slicehost and Rimuhosting
This is part of my post from a similar thread at http://drupal.org/node/145781
These days I use and recommend Slicehost and Rimuhosting. Slicehost is a little cheaper and has an active IRC channel, but what I love about Rimu is that their support is simply outstanding. It's so good that I can't tell the difference between their technical support and customer support. Every question is answered within minutes and always has the details (and often a list of the shell commands) I need. Also, I'm a night person and it's nice that they're awake when I am.
Another hosting company I'm looking at is Gandi. I don't have any experience with them as a webhost (their hosting offerings were just recently announced), but as a registrar I like them more than anyone else -- especially since their interview with CNET.