

Ask HN: Recommendation for web hosting - jun

Any suggestions for a good and reliable web host for a website which will be used for experimenting with web programming &#38; database management? Found a plethora of web hosting services out there but there seems to be negative comments for even the higher-ranked services as well.<p>Anything else that I should look out for?
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mdolon
This has been asked many times before - <http://searchyc.com/hosting>

My favorite has always been (and continues to be) <http://www.linode.com/> for
their value, simplicity, control panel and support.

I've always wanted to try <http://www.webfaction.com/> too, might give that a
shot next for a small project.

~~~
jun
Noted, thanks for the search link and suggestions.

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keefe
You want a virtual private server. Like another poster said, linode has a
consistently good performance/cost. I'd highly recommend you host your own DNS
(I use dyndns).

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lsc
With all VPS services, you are expected to be a SysAdmin. If this is
impossible, stop. Do not buy a VPS. find a shared hosting provider that can
meet your needs, something like google appengine or hiroku or engineyard,
depending on what language you need.

~~~
keefe
You really only need basic linux shell skills to start. If this is impossible
for you, database management and web dev is going to be... challenging...

~~~
lsc
I'm just saying, there is a big niche for shared hosting providers.

Setting up many modern webapp frameworks requires more than 'basic linux shell
skills' and it requires sitting on several security mailing lists to watch for
holes in the framework, etc...

~~~
keefe
I dunno, I can't comment much outside of my basic skillset, which is java on
the back and jquery or as3 in the front... Security is a whole different
animal, one that imho has to be added from the beginning.

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oomkiller
Use Linode. Also, don't miss out on their library of HOWTOs, they are quite
good.

~~~
jun
Has anyone used both Linode and EC2 before? Any comments on the 2 services?

Did a prelim computation for the EC2 fee equivalent of Linode 360 with 16GB
storage and 200GB transfer. Assuming these limits are maxed out, it seems EC2
is more expensive by 10 bucks.

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rradu
There will be negative comments for every hosting service you find, and
unfortunately it's difficult to tell by reviews alone if the host is good.

Look for one with an uptime guarantee and good customer service. Most have a
30-60 day money back guarantee as well, so you may need to use that if what
you get isn't what you expected.

~~~
lsc
Uptime guarantees are rarely worth the paper they are printed on. (and usually
they aren't even printed on paper.)

Slicehost has no money back guarantee. Linode refunds your 'lost time' (which
is fairly standard in this industry.)

Were I you, I would completely ignore SLAs and uptime guarantees. the
inconvenience downtime causes you will hurt you far more than any reasonable
refund can make up for, and the reputation damage hurts us (the provider) far
more than any reasonable refund would as well, so really, for a 'getting
started' plan, the SLA should be about the last thing you look at.

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Murkin
I, and quite a few other people, went for <http://www.webfaction.com/>

Excellent support, intuitive management-console and lots of install scripts
for various dev platforms.

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jokull
I'd dive into EC2 if you're going to be experimenting. For my purposes it's
great to be billed only for your exact usage. Transfers to and from S3 are
fast and cheap too.

~~~
keefe
EC2 is significantly more expensive (expressed as percent change) than VPS
when you total up bandwidth etc.

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lsc
If you pay by the year, especially if you don't use much bandwidth (and you
won't, if you are just figuring things out) ec2 is quite competitive on price,
if you don't mind the problem.

the problem with the basic 'small' instances is that if there are system
problems, you lose your storage. Sure, you can get around this by paying extra
for EBS, but it's another problem you need to deal with (and pay for) that is
largely taken care of on most VPSs. (which isn't to say you will never have
data loss on a VPS, but all the major providers mirror disk, so it should be
fairly rare.)

~~~
jun
EC2 + S3 sounds great! Unfortunately server self-management is rather over my
head at the moment but perhaps I could start out with S3 + shared hosting
first, then switch to EC2 when I'm confident.

~~~
keefe
You're better off with EC2+EBS because EBS allows you to attach permanent
storage to your device just as you are accustomed to. S3 is more for backups
etc.

