Looking for a Better Host
May 26th, 2007 Filed in: News & Updates Jump to commentsI’m looking for a better hosting company to host my sites. Do you have any good ones to recommend? This site and Best Web Gallery are hosting at Media Temple, 512mb dedicated-virtual server. Lately, my sites have been down almost every day. I’m getting very frustrated with Media Temple and I want to move out. I’m tired of restarting my server (VPS) everyday.
Their tech supports told me that my WordPress sites use too much SQL and CPU resources and I should upgrade to higher hosting plan. But I already upgraded three times since hosting with them: from SS (shared hosting) to GS (Grid-Service), then GS to 256mb DV, and now 512mb DV plan. My site has proved that they can’t handle the Digg Effect. Recently I got dugg twice and my site was down immediately as soon it made popular to Digg front page. So, I don’t think upgrading will make any difference. I think it is time to move and find a better host.
Host Requirements
I’m looking for any fast performance host that can support:
- WordPress
- multi-sites hosting
- 500,000+ visitors/month
- 2+ million pageviews/month
- 500GB+ bandwidth/month
What have I found?
I’ve been doing a lot of research and found some highly recommend hosts.
1. Slicehost
Collis at FreelanceSwitch recommends Slicehost to me. They seem to handle WordPress and Digg effect very well. FreelanceSwitch got dugg several times and able to survive without any downtime. However, the waiting list to sign up at Slicehost is between 2 to 12 weeks.
2. Mosso
Uneasysilence switched from Media Temple to Mosso and it has been very stable. Mosso uses their "clustering technology routes each site request to not just one server, but through an army of load balanced IIS and Apache webservers." Everything sounds too good for just $100/month. Has anyone tried their services?
3. Servint
I found Servint through some hosting forums. I have very little information about Servint and would like to hear your inputs.
Have you experienced with any of these hosts? What do you think about them? Or you have better ones to recommend to me. Please post your comments.
May 31st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I am planning on switching to Dreamhost, from what I have seen on the web, a lot of professional web designers use dreamhost. Wilson Miner is one of them.
And on another note, django is a nice python web framework if anyone is into that stuff.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Nick, i believe its time for a dedicated server. :)
I believe you definitely need one considering this site is an regular destination for ‘digg effect’ and you already have alexa rank of 7,000.
I think you should stick to MediaTemple (so as to avoid all mess of changing host) and get a dedi box!! :)
Romit Gadhiya
May 31st, 2007 at 12:08 pm
futurequest.net They are the best. I haven’t had one moment of down time, they are the best at answering questions, have a great friendly community, and a great forum http://www.aota.net/forums/
They don’t offer you the world for 9.95, but charge a reasonable rate for top rate service.
May 31st, 2007 at 5:43 am
I use servage.net
Who have been every good to me. Even answered lots of my newbie questions about how SSL works :)
May 31st, 2007 at 2:46 am
For control panel, have you checked Webmin? That is an free alternative to cPanel and Plesk. Slicehost is also planning on launch a 2048slice product this summer. Maybe that will fill your needs better.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:10 am
I have been very happy with Cirtex Hosting. Their packages have steadily been declining in price and increasing in value over the last couple of years. They have no phone support, but their online support through the ticket system has always been very responsive. They have several shared hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited URLs and subdomains, etc. You can either manage all your websites from one cPanel, or get a reseller account and through WHM access give any or each of your sites its own cPanel.
www.cirtexhosting.com
May 30th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
I hat to mention this company cause I’ve heard of their dirty tricks with domain names, but GoDaddy offers virtual deticated and deticated servers. I can’t vouch for the this service or even their shared service though.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Thanks everyone for your input. I’m still researching and considering. Bluehost, Dreamhost, Hostgator, or any other shared servers are not what I’m looking for. I need at least virtual dedicated server (VPS).
So far, slicehost is highly recommended. However, only issue with slicehost is the waiting list and they don’t have cpanel or plesk admin panel.
Also, thanks for those who emailed me advices and offered me hosting sponsorship.
May 30th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
+1 for Slicehost, best deal around. We have 4 Slices running app servers and databases.
May 30th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Wow, that is unheard of that media temple being down like that. Good luck on finding a host, I think much of the good host had been mention on this blog.