Thread

For over a year now I have been playing around with various type of hosting trying to figure out what was most conducive to my needs without costing an arm and a leg to own. I have used everything from Godaddy shared hosting, to unmanaged Virtual Dedicated Servers and dedicated servers (full disclosure: I tried enginehosting but prefer more control). But for the life of me I cannot seem to find the right combo. I like shared hosting because I am a *nix newbie and hate terminal services and managing servers using cryptic commands. I get paid to build websites not manage servers. But I find that I like the idea of a managed server because of the flexibility. will my lack of server skills will drive me insane. I know how to use google so I am confident that I could do it but is it worth it? So I ask the question here… Among the hacks and geeks 😉  (of which I am one) what do you use and why? And while I realize that everyone’s hosting experience is different even if it is with the same company tell me why you like your company. What control panel do you prefer and why. Educate me and the others that will read this discussion…

M>

I like shared hosting because I am a *nix newbie and hate terminal services and managing servers using cryptic commands.

Well, no dedicated server (virtual or otherwise) for you, then. I am not quite sure what you mean by “wanting more control” than Enginehosting offers: It’s precisely their rock stable, no-nonsense, just-let-us-know-what-you-want minimalist approach that I find appealing. It just works, and I don’t need to fuzz with it.

What control panel do you prefer and why.

None, actually. I want Apache + PHP + MySQL + (s)FTP access, SSH if I can get; that’s it.

I use a dedicated managed server, and have tried many. I like the control, and also don’t care for ssh access. My host has a control panel much like cpanel called siteworx, and an additional server control panel for adding new accounts and domains if I want.
With 2TB bandwidth and cost around 900/year I’m all set. Actually is more than I need, even having video, but no downtime and complete control is worth it.

EE hosting I have heard a lot of good reports on, but I have been with mine for over 5 years and their support is fast and outstanding so I stay. Most I have seen, support is very slow.

As someone who owns a business that use to sell dedicated, virtual and VPS hosting I can safely tell you that Ingmar is correct. You should not be even considering a dedicated or VPS environment for a customer base. You’re doing them a disservice because you don’t even understand the system you’re hosting them on.

leave that to the pros, get a reseller account at a hosting company and be done with it. There’s no further control you need than that. Unless you’ve got something special you’re looking for or doing.

Perhaps if you can tell us precisely what bits of control you do want to have, and which you want hidden from view?  I have to blow EngineHosting’s horn here, as there’s a recent, real example that just blows my mind.  A user was having problems with performance on a $7-800/month dedicated account at an extremely popular host.  They tried everything, both working with us for optimization and working with the host for tuning and troubleshooting.  In the end, the user moved to EngineHosting’s S3 (3rd tier shared hosting) plan - $40/month.  The site is blazing.

Nevin and crew know what they’re doing and have the infrastructure to back that encyclopedic knowledge and years of experience.  Not just with ExpressionEngine, mind you - they’re experience pays off for any dynamically driven web site.

I relate this because I do understand that some people want a few things that the gang at EH doesn’t offer - ssh access for example.  I guess my question is: how much are you willing to pay for that, both in up-front dollars and in long-term satisfaction?  Long before I began working for EllisLab, I had decided that I had found my home for hosting.

I am so not trying to slam the team at EngineHosting it is just not what I need. I deal with a lot of local small business sites that get maybe 2-3 hits a day. If I could I would stick them all in a shared hosting account at 5 dollars a month and be done with it I would. But something inside of me thinks that would be suicide if someone ever got hit. Initially upon reading your posts I felt bad. Your posts were not harsh or anything but I guess there is something inside of me that thinks I am not legit until I have a server of some sort.. I will have to get over that.You are all right. I have no business trying to manage a server. I am currently looking for something like Gatorhost’s reseller accounts. For the type of sites that I manage it sounds like it would work. Anyone have any experience with them or with another type set-up?

It will help you to prioritize what you want to do in your business and compare that list to what brings in money.

I’ve run my own servers, which I loved for the control—expense, time, and aggravation be damned. My obsessive compulsive streak loved the tinkering, tweaking, power, and flexibility of running my own boxes. It took me awhile to figure out that my clients didn’t care. It was a bullet point on the resume and not much more. Though I knew that most of my revenue came from building sites, managing sites, developing content, I found I enjoyed playing sys admin. It’s power. It’s control. It’s pride. I enjoyed the nearly 99.99% uptime, despite the effort required to get it there, keep it there.

After many very, very busy months balancing all those responsibilities, it struck me that much of my time was devoted to what I call non-paying “operational chores” (sys admin) and not as much time as I wanted was devoted to billable hours; building sites, managing sites, developing content.

Hmmmmm. What to do?

I ditched both my co-lo servers and started spreading sites around to shared hosts who managed their services well. That nearly eliminated my sys admin responsibilities, which I can maintain partially with MAMP, increased my billable hours dramatically, and, remarkably, let me sleep better at night, take time off more frequently, and still get the praise and adulation of my clients (remember, they didn’t care that I was a ‘sys admin’).

Through the years I’ve used many different shared host services, from GoDaddy (horrible) to Site5 (passable) to EngineHosting (great service) to Pair (dependable), and found that unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, unlimited domains, and 871 bells and whistles for $4.99 a month is, remarkably, not as important as stability and dependability.

I’ve settled plenty of mid-range accounts on PairLite which limits databases, limits storage, limits domains, limits features, but gives me enough control to manage the sites quickly and easily, yet doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, yet their stability and dependability is nothing short of remarkable.

On one hand, from the back of the head my OCD says “buy a couple of Xserves and enjoy the feeling,” while my brain says, “Do the math, bozo.”

These days I do the math and tinker on MAMP.

I totally agree which is why I have come to the same conclusion. Thanks for everyone’s help. I think I just need to step away from the cliff….

M.

It will help you to prioritize what you want to do in your business and compare that list to what brings in money.

I’ve run my own servers, which I loved for the control—expense, time, and aggravation be damned. My obsessive compulsive streak loved the tinkering, tweaking, power, and flexibility of running my own boxes. It took me awhile to figure out that my clients didn’t care. It was a bullet point on the resume and not much more. Though I knew that most of my revenue came from building sites, managing sites, developing content, I found I enjoyed playing sys admin. It’s power. It’s control. It’s pride. I enjoyed the nearly 99.99% uptime, despite the effort required to get it there, keep it there.

After many very, very busy months balancing all those responsibilities, it struck me that much of my time was devoted to what I call non-paying “operational chores” (sys admin) and not as much time as I wanted was devoted to billable hours; building sites, managing sites, developing content.

Hmmmmm. What to do?

I ditched both my co-lo servers and started spreading sites around to shared hosts who managed their services well. That nearly eliminated my sys admin responsibilities, which I can maintain partially with MAMP, increased my billable hours dramatically, and, remarkably, let me sleep better at night, take time off more frequently, and still get the praise and adulation of my clients (remember, they didn’t care that I was a ‘sys admin’).

Through the years I’ve used many different shared host services, from GoDaddy (horrible) to Site5 (passable) to EngineHosting (great service) to Pair (dependable), and found that unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, unlimited domains, and 871 bells and whistles for $4.99 a month is, remarkably, not as important as stability and dependability.

I’ve settled plenty of mid-range accounts on PairLite which limits databases, limits storage, limits domains, limits features, but gives me enough control to manage the sites quickly and easily, yet doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, yet their stability and dependability is nothing short of remarkable.

On one hand, from the back of the head my OCD says “buy a couple of Xserves and enjoy the feeling,” while my brain says, “Do the math, bozo.”

These days I do the math and tinker on MAMP.

This is a very wise post. I think a LOT of people could find the same answer if they’d really look.