

Ask HN: Best web hosting provider? - lewispb

Looking to host a low traffic site with PHP and MySQL database. SSH and Git is a must. UK based servers preferred. Any tips much appreciated.
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jfaucett
I'd say linode, I've had great experience with them, you get your own machine,
so you can stack it however you want, pricing is reasonable, service and
documentation is great. Heres a link to uk based servers:
<http://www.linode.com/avail/>

~~~
redegg
With every recommendation of Linode, lets not forget their lack of
transparency towards customers.

Little is known of the specifics in the Bitcoin-related Linode security
incident. This was all that was released:
[http://status.linode.com/2012/03/manager-security-
incident.h...](http://status.linode.com/2012/03/manager-security-
incident.html)

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LukeHoersten
<http://prgmr.com> is my favorite. It's just straight-up simple hosting by a
team of people who know what they're doing. Ubuntu is so simple that it
doesn't make sense to have your hosting provider also install software for
you.

~~~
csense
> <http://prgmr.com> is my favorite

This. (Disclaimer: I'm not connected to prgmr.com, other than being a
satisfied customer for years.)

You can get VPS's small as you need, with pricing to match. Great for
bootstrapping on a shoestring.

You can use whatever distro you want -- Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS. You can use
whatever version of that distro you want -- you can do an OS upgrade or
downgrade whenever you want.

The tech support is friendly and competent. The owner's willing to personally
talk to customers.

If you're knowledgeable, the tools to do almost anything you need are
included. If you know how to fix something, the out-of-band console will let
you handle almost any issue remotely. For example you can reboot in single-
user mode or even initramfs. In contrast, many other hosts use half-baked web
UI's and/or require filing a support ticket, with hours or days of turnaround,
for even simple issues.

It's really flexible. You can use Ubuntu or Debian if you want to get up and
running quickly. You can use LVM to make backups easy. You can install BSD.
You can even install a custom kernel -- just about anything with Xen guest
patches will work.

The only downside (based on your stated preferences) is that it's US-based.

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harwoodr
These guys have a good reputation:

<http://www.gandi.net/hosting/>

They're not in the UK, but in France... Git is "being implemented, and will be
released in the next version of the website."

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ohashi
My startup tracks web hosting providers and what people have said about them
publicly. It's mostly US focused though. I would look at the VPS section,
companies like Linode (already recommended) are rated quite highly. No host is
perfect, someone is going to have a bad experience with every single company.
Our goal is to try and get enough data to be able to compare the average
opinion of a provider.

<http://reviewsignal.com>

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TylerE
What's your budget?

If you have any real technical ability a VPS is an excellent option.

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lewispb
$20/month would be fine. I have a linode vps which works great, but I'm
looking for something managed for a client.

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sheraz
Rackspace cloud has servers in the UK.

<http://www.rackspace.co.uk/cloud-hosting/>

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orangethirty
Webfaction by far. They are just awesome.

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lewispb
Thanks they look good. I'm going to check them out.

