

Advice for hosting services - endlessvoid94

I'm interested in continuing a small web startup, and my server now only supports PHP.  Does anyone have recommendations on good hosting companies that offer good packages with lots of feature support that doesn't cost <i>too</i> much?
======
SwellJoe
Joyent Accelerators ( <http://www.joyent.com> ) are flexible, and they're the
"official" Ruby on Rails host. They also happen to offer the best control
panel (Virtualmin, of course). The only negative might be that Accelerators
are Solaris systems--I don't have any complaints about that, but if you're
accustomed to Linux, it might be a bit of a learning curve.

Slicehost ( <http://www.slicehost.com> ) has a good reputation. Their Xen
systems are not over-subscribed and they know their business.

Media Temple (<http://www.mediatemple.com> ) had a good reputation until
recently...but I'm sure it was a temporary setback. They're technically savvy.
They're using a kind of quirky virtualization layer (Virtuozzo) which, when
over-subscribed even a little bit (and sometimes even when not), exhibits
serious memory issues.

Gridzones ( <http://www.gridzones.com> ) is another Solaris zones based host,
and they have some reasonable plans. It's a smaller shop, so probably gives
more personal service. Tell Phil that Joe from Virtualmin sent you (I dunno if
it'll get you a discount, but he'll be happy to hear from you). They start at
$15, which is hard to beat (you probably want more space than that,
though...). They're also Virtualmin friendly, when appropriate (i.e. when you
have enough space/memory for full service hosting).

If you're wanting to spend a little more, The Planet and Server Beach both
offer dedicated boxes starting at around $69, I think. I've used both for
years with very few complaints.

~~~
jamesbritt
> Joyent Accelerators ( <http://www.joyent.com> ) are flexible, and they're
> the "official" Ruby on Rails host.

WTF? "Official" Ruby on Rails host?

~~~
SwellJoe
From RubyOnRails.org, at the bottom of the front page:

"If you need hosting, Joyent is the official Ruby on Rails host, offering
fantastic plans with a knowledgeable staff. Whether you need shared or
dedicated hosting, these guys are experts in Ruby on Rails. For alternatives,
see the wiki for a full list of Rails web hosts."

Not sure how much more obvious, or less of a WTF, that could possibly be.

~~~
jamesbritt
Wow. Well, TextDrive sure had a short reign.

Thanks for the pointer.

But the idea of an "official" Rails host still deserves a WTF.

~~~
SwellJoe
TextDrive == Joyent. They were acquired a couple of years ago (or more). The
founders of TextDrive are still involved, as far as I know (we still deal with
the same folks we always have, though there's a new tech or two that we talk
to).

------
DaniFong
I'm going to plug for <http://www.faradic.net/>

It's a small company, but it's run by a Princeton PhD student who happens to
be an industry expert in security. And he's very nice. Just ask him for what
you need. Say Dani directed you.

(Yes, he's a cofounder =) )

------
rob
I'm not affiliated with them (I do have a $10/month account there), but
<http://www.medialayer.com/> has been excellent and _incredibly_ fast for
shared hosting. They run the Litespeed web server with PHP5, eAccelerator, and
Zend Optimizer. The only downside is the price: you don't get much bandwidth,
but this can be had as a good thing since it means they don't oversell. My
blog (<http://robgabaree.com/>) is running on it, but it's new so there's not
many posts. SliceHost is great if you know how to manage a server -- $20 a
month with full access.

------
endlessvoid94
I don't know how much is too much.

I'd like to be able to use what languages I want without changing hosting
plans. My plan now is just PHP. I want access to python in particular, but
also to keep my options open for possibly ruby or lisp in the future.

MySQL installation is essential.

I basically want to be able to experiment alot and use many different
technologies (not anything .NET though).

------
patrickg-zill
How much do you want to spend? If you have $69 a month or so, get your own
dedicated server (try to find one that is not solely using bandwidth from
Cogent). If you want to pay less, go to webhostingtalk.com and look over the
VPS Offers section.

------
rms
<http://www.slicehost.com> is just about the best you can do for $20/month,
except they have a waiting list now. You get your own slice of Unix to do
whatever you want.

------
jyot_singh
If you are looking for Java hosting then www.kgbinternet.com is excellent. I
used to pay close to $15 before the CAD (Canadian dollar) got stronger. Still,
they are much cheaper and better than other hosting services.

------
ryanpc
What, to you, is "too much"? And what features do you want supported?

Additionally information will help us make an infinitely more precise
recommendation :)

------
prakash
peer1, rackspace, serverpath, ev1, dreamhost, joyent, amazon s3/ec2 -- hosting
comes in various flavors and at various prices.

check out the forums at webhosting talk: <http://www.webhostingtalk.com/>

My recommendation would be to start with the cheapest & most flexible option
that fits your requirements, get your feet wet and then move up the chain.

------
shahper
hostingPride Networks, <http://www.hostingPride.net> \- is also a good shared
webhosting company. They support both php4 & php5. They are new in the market,
but their management is quite dedicated to their job.

------
davidw
site:news.ycombinator.com hosting

It's been discussed before. I've been happy with Layered Tech.

------
inklesspen
linode.com

