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Enginehosting… seriously.  I know I’m loosely affiliated with them, and you need to take that for what its worth, but you won’t regret it.

Enginehosting… seriously.  I know I’m loosely affiliated with them, and you need to take that for what its worth, but you won’t regret it.

Hi Derek, I’ll bite. Because I’m really interested.

I’m sick of dealing with hosting when it comes to my clients. You can end up with dirt on your face. They can be without a skip 364 days a year ... then that 1 day and they call me saying “that company you recommended ...”. My clients understand, but it never looks good. So, I need to a do a better job explaining what $20 a month hosting really gets you and to ignore the marketing hype from other companies ... because for the most part, the hardware is the same ... it’s the support and security you pay for.

So ... in an event to make things better, I get a VPS ... only to realize that yes, this is cool ... I love it for “my projects”, but it’s work that I can’t charge for most of it. I’m not a security nazi and not a high level linux admin. Sure, I can get by ... but it’s not what I spend the day doing, nor want to. You can’t be the master of everything ... as a web developer you need the graphic skills, programming skills and server skills ... but you can’t be the master of all 3 (and be a balanced person). When it comes to hosting ... you really need the high level skill set.

So, back to engine hosting ... there are no reseller plans/affiliate programs, correct? WHY???

For the most part ... the short money per month I’d charge my client for hosting normally is really not that much ... but it does add up to something. I’m not making such a killing developing that I would toss money into the trash (However, there is the time).

So do I simply tell new clients ... go with engine hosting and see you later? It seems to me ... if engine hosting is as good as people say, and I believe that, I would like to send my clients there. But what about the business I will be bringing to Ellislab? I’ll be the unpaid salesman.

Does engine hosting have customers reselling the services on their own? Seems to me ... if I bring you a client ... and that client turns into someone that will be there a while, I deserve a monthly kickback for it.

Here’s why ... and many of you will sympathize with this ...

One morning, my client can’t get their email ... do they contact the hosting company? No ... never. They contact me, just about always. Sure, I can tell the client “I can’t help you, contact your hosting company” ... but being the 1 stop shop for clients is what keeps my phone ringing. It’s part of the value my services bring.

If I got a kickback for the life of the customer ... I would move every client over as soon as I could see that engine hosting is as good as what everyone says.

I love Ellislab ... CodeIgniter has changed my work life and has made me better at what I do, the community is excellent, the members of the Ellislab team all seem great ... I’d love to move people over.

Help me do that!

I thought DreamHost was horrible. Their user interface is too newbie-friendly and I found it really limiting.

I know this is out of your price range, but mediatemple is really awesome. They have fantastic customer support (edit: i submitted a support ticket five minutes ago, and it was completed just as i made this post), great uptime, all that jazz. I know it’s another $10 a month, but shared hosting really sucks balls.

I wish engine hosting had a data center in the UK.  :down:

skattabrain, you’ve raised some interesting points.  Let me just say this, EngineHosting is not in the business of mass reselling, and budget hosting.  I don’t believe they offer a reseller deal, or kickbacks.  So unfortunately, if the goal is to make an extra five bucks a month off clients, then I don’t think they are the best choice. 

What EH is in the business of doing is providing stable, reliable, and mostly secure hosting.  They don’t run away from database driven websites… they don’t put any silly “cpu cycle” caps on you (oh noes… are servers can’t handle 8 queries at the same time).  I’ve never met folks like those guys and girls.  They run Apache differently then budget hosts, (you run your account as a user, not as “anonymous”, effectively eliminating privilege escalation attacks), they back up everything (everything, not just database), they don’t run your database, web server and email server on the same system, they load balance, and mostly lock things down to the point of paranoia. 

The hosting is reliable and secure, and the service is personal, professional and quick.  There is definitely a role for Dreamhost and the like in the web market - if you have a brochure-ware site, static site, or a site with very little traffic, they are certainly a good option.  Also, they can be good in other specific instances, perhaps massive amounts of bandwidth needed, but very little server power.  These are all factors in any decision of course, and yes, so is price.

I chose EH for DerekAllard.com because as a web professional, I don’t want my site hacked because some nitwit on the same box as me has a 6 year old version of PHPBB running.  I chose EH because I want my site to withstand Digg and Slashdot. But mostly, I chose EH because I respect them, and I respect what they do.

For the most part ... the short money per month I’d charge my client for hosting normally is really not that much ... but it does add up to something. I’m not making such a killing developing that I would toss money into the trash (However, there is the time).

So do I simply tell new clients ... go with engine hosting and see you later? It seems to me ... if engine hosting is as good as people say, and I believe that, I would like to send my clients there. But what about the business I will be bringing to Ellislab? I’ll be the unpaid salesman.

Does engine hosting have customers reselling the services on their own? Seems to me ... if I bring you a client ... and that client turns into someone that will be there a while, I deserve a monthly kickback for it.

Here’s why ... and many of you will sympathize with this ...

One morning, my client can’t get their email ... do they contact the hosting company? No ... never. They contact me, just about always. Sure, I can tell the client “I can’t help you, contact your hosting company” ... but being the 1 stop shop for clients is what keeps my phone ringing. It’s part of the value my services bring.

If I got a kickback for the life of the customer ... I would move every client over as soon as I could see that engine hosting is as good as what everyone says.

I usually set my clients up with hosting and either have them pay directly to the provider, or simply invoice them the monthly cost with NO premium attached.  However, I do charge administration fees, so in the case of any installation/maintenance, I invoice my clients at an hourly rate.  My business isn’t hosting, but my clients rely on me to handle that aspect of their business for them.  I like to keep things transparent and fair for all parties involved.

In my humble opinion 110mb.com is 110 times better then a shared hosting service that charges 5 dollars a month. The best thing about 110mb is the price 25 dollars for a lifetime account. Who needs another monthly fee when you can have 110mb for free.

If you have clients that you want to host sites for why do you want to do shared hosting?

1. You probably need at least a few clients before doing this
2. Lease Dedicated Server
3. Put clients sites on it
4. Use money you charge clients for hosting to pay for said dedicated server
5. That’s it.

Seems simple enough to me…

If you have clients that you want to host sites for why do you want to do shared hosting?

1. You probably need at least a few clients before doing this
2. Lease Dedicated Server
3. Put clients sites on it
4. Use money you charge clients for hosting to pay for said dedicated server
5. That’s it.

Seems simple enough to me…

easy if you are a linux admin/security nut. i think i jsut might write off hosting ... it’s too much grief and i think i rather charge per hour for my time if they need me to be involved. like thurting said.

Ive got hosting for sale. Let me know your requirements that you are looking for.

I don’t oversell (Its impossible with the way my account is setup), ill give you a phone number to contact me at as well as email etc…

Send me a pm.

Basically Ive got some free space that ill sell for cheap. I have no use for it so might as well make something off it.

My Company is 421entertainment (http://www.421entertainment.com)
My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Our website is not setup yet but we are working on it. (Just started the company a few weeks back.)

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I have a reseller account through a company called Web Once, http://www.webonce.com if you are interested. I can give you all the features they offer there since mine is hosted there as well.

However I cant give you a reseller account…

There hosting is not oversold. I actually talk with the owner almost on a daily basis (just normal chit chat nothing bad).

The owners are cool guys, there’s plenty of support and they have contact numbers that work as well as a nice system setup!

If you have any questions let me know ill be glad to answer them.

http://www.mosso.com

It’s a spinoff of rackspace, and is a cloud environment dedicated to web developers/designers.

Their control panel includes automated invoicing of your clients.

It’s sort of pricey at $100/month, but if you are the kind of person who has several client site which yuo maintain, it might be worth a look.

if you have enough clients (say 5 and charge $20 a month) you should look at http://www.mosso.com

$100 a month and they have a client management tool that lets you invoice clients through them and they take out like 4 percent or whatever it is…

they are operated by rackspace (the huge awesome dedicated server host) but your on the “CLOUD” but not the shitty acid-rain filled cloud that mediatemple has over their headquarters but an actual good cloud with awesome support and hardware. best part is (since im no linux guru either) they will set it up and help you manage it

I’d like to add that since mosso.com operates in the cloud, there is something VERY cool which you can do. You can run both ASP and PHP (and RoR if desired) on the same site seamlessly. Imagine taking a .NET web application and adding a CI extension to it simply by dropping it into the root. Pretty cool.

And one other thing. They have live 24/7 customer support by chat, and they have never failed to help me.

I’d like to add that since mosso.com operates in the cloud, there is something VERY cool which you can do. You can run both ASP and PHP (and RoR if desired) on the same site seamlessly. Imagine taking a .NET web application and adding a CI extension to it simply by dropping it into the root. Pretty cool.

And one other thing. They have live 24/7 customer support by chat, and they have never failed to help me.

They also have NO SSH.  How can you administer a site without access?  Do they even allow you to configure the web server or the database?  Mosso is just shared hosting on a cluster.  Nothing ‘cloud’ about it.  $100/month?  There are much better services for the money.  The OP would not benefit from this service.

for someone who said hes not a linux guru. i dont think he would care too much about SSH access.