Hi, I am launching a small local community site consisting mainly of user forums and occasional content in the way of stories, articles. We are located in Ontario, Canada and expect between 50 to 100 users a day.
I would appreciate any advice on hosting you may have. We are a small non-profit group and would like something affordable but reliable.
I have already purchased hosting from AN Hosting but they have been a great disappointment with the server dropping out way too often and ftp access even more often. What makes it worse is that I have been the only user on the site as I have been building it! Customer service is very friendly and apologetic but that's not what I paid for. In any event, I am looking to move on and willing to lose my prepaid year (for which sales never did get back to me on the issue of a discount I was due - but that's another story!) The lesson to be learned here is: know what you're getting into before you 'go' with an affiliate's review.
I have recently been made aware of Hot Drupal and was very impressed with the information provided on their site - http://www.hotdrupal.com/
I like the idea that my site will be hosted on zippy (15,000rpm) enterprise grade scsi drives and the flexible plans they offer look fair.
Do you think I will see a noticeable improvement in going with this level of service/speed over a traditional shared environment?
Is anyone using Hot Drupal and able to offer feedback on their experiences?
Any other advice? Directions?
Thanks,
Eduardo
Comments
Yep, I would bet you will be
Yep, I would bet you will be happier at the new host you mentioned (just based on a quick glance there, I haven't used them myself as I have a dedicated server). I'd recommend contacting them to see at what price the number of sites on the VPS goes down. 50-100 logged in users spread over the course of the day won't be too bad, though if many arrive at once, you will likely want at least one of the mid-level plans (depending on how few sites run on those).
So far as price... I never recommend prepaying for hosting with a new host that hasn't yet proven themselves to you, unless they have a fair refund policy if you decide to cancel.
-- David
davidnewkerk.com | absolutecross.com
View my Drupal lessons & guides
Thanks David. I learned my
Thanks David. I learned my lesson about prepaying the hard way :-(
BTW,
I clicked through your Drupal lessons & guides link and lo and behold was impressed with your film music. The site I am working on is in fact a local networking hub for filmmakers, writers, composers and actors looking to connect and collaborate.
I will certainly be looking into your tutorials when I get a chance.
.
I was on Site5 and my community site was horribly slow. That sort of site eats modules like candy. :) I moved to HotDrupal and the improvement was dramatic. Steve is very nice to work with, too. If I ever have a problem, it gets resolved quickly. Much nicer than having to go thru random tech support people who may or may not have a clue on Site5.
So count me in as a satisfied customer. :)
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
...
I've seen a lot of webhosts mentioned in these forums over the years and I usually have two responses after I read about them.
1. I want to tear my hair out after reading post and post and comment after comment of their spamming their site.
or
2. You can tell that they're utter crap.
But HotDrupal seems different. They actually seem to be consistently good and I can't recall many complaints about them. (And Drupal users do complain if their is a problem! Remember that other drupal host :) ).
I don't host with them (I do like my current host) but if I needed to change, I'd definitely look at them.
~silverwing - plus, they don't spam these forums, which is nice. Word of mouth (or keyboard) goes a lot farther than spam
_____________________________________________
MisguidedThoughts
Yeah
Yeah, Steve doesn't spam. He only rarely posts on here and only when it's waranted. And I don't have any financial interest in the company; I'm just a happy user and I'll say so if I see someone asking about them.
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
15k RPM SCSI/SAS drives are
15k RPM SCSI/SAS drives are definitely sweet drives ;)
Clustered Drupal Hosting powered by Uptimehost's Cloud.
Thanks!
Okay, so I'm a bit of a newb. That much may be obvious, especially here. I never actually thought to search the phrase 'hotdrupal' - I'm glad I eventually did. The rest is history. With the positive feedback here and elsewhere on drupal.org I have decided to give them some of my money.
If I'm half as happy with the service others have gotten then it will have been worth my while.
Thanks for the feedback.
According to your traffic
According to your traffic (50-100) per day, I would like recommend hostmonster, with $4.95/month and they are good enough for you to start.
Webfaction
I can recommend a hosting company called webfaction.
The control panel is good, they offer full access to their server via ssh (as standard, from their most basic shared account) and have 1-click installers for a Drupal, wordpress and a whole host of other CMSs and webapps. The support is superb. At times I've needed to install various unsupported GIS applications, and I've been helped every step of the way. It's great to be able to have flexibility from a shared account.
I can't say how well they would perform with a very high-traffic site, but my experience so far tells me that they'd be very capable of working through any problems which might be encountered along the way. Maybe someone else uses them to host a large site / webapp and can comment?
It's nice to know that there are companies out there who genuinely seem to care about their customer base.
No Webfactions!
Im using the now, moving all my domains off of them. I have a couple sites that get decent traffic and one that aggregates about 10 RSS feeds hourly. I can tell you how often the site goes down ( gateway error). Their resolution was to just move me to a less crowded box ( i have to move everything myself) . That helped for a while but im still having issues...
I must admit, if I didn't
I must admit, if I didn't have a bit of experience with the *nix shell and systems administration I might be less happy. I've found that their shared account offers the kind of customisation possibilities that you'd normally only get with a server or VPS; and for me as a developer this is great.
I can't stress enough how good the support has been, but then I suppose everyone's experience might be different.
HotDrupal so far...
Just thought I'd report back here to let everyone know that I did in fact register with HotDrupal and have been very happy so far. Good customer service and fast reliable service.
Recommended!
SSH
Hey Eduardo,
Do you get SSH access with Hotdrupal. I, as a developer, can't live without it. ;-)
It doesn't say anywhere on their site and they haven't got back to me with my email inquiry.
Thanks,
Edwin-
Yes
You might have to ask for it but it is available.
Michelle
They do provide SSH Access, but ...
They do provide SSH Access, but it is starting with their Standard Package, not their Starter Package. It's still totally worth it, though. Standard Package is $9.99/month and so far really fast. Excellent feature set and price point to start with for a VPS! Also, tech support so far is top notch.
Be becareful when you choose
Be careful when you choose your host. Just keep in your mind, what are your needs and what is your budget. Try some reliable hosting first if you're gonna run Drupal for a company website
Hot Drupal has been nothing
Hot Drupal has been nothing short of reliable AND fast. The customer service can't ne beat either.