Hi Everyone,
I recently made a development server using WAMP and Drupal 6. All this local development is to help me get more confidence using drupal. Sooner or later I'll need to move to a live environment but I don't intend on getting all the bells and whistles in a host/ hosting plan so I'm aiming for value and relatively low but justifiable cost. That's where I'll need some suggestions from experienced users such as yourselves in regards to hosts.
Which host will suit my needs??
Sites will be basic with the one off having video, blogs, galleries from time to time. Nothing too crazy I would imagine.
The appeal of drupal to me was that its very flexible and can scale to most projects that I encounter now and down the road when I get more comfortable with the framework. Also I didn't like performing all the changes that a client would request long after the site was launched. I'd rather teach them how to use drupal's interface in hopes they'll get into drupal themselves.
I've spent a fair amount of time on the forums on this but it was hard to not find a response that was "sketchy" (someone who works for a hosting company). I appreciate anyone willing to help with some advice on the matter. A good honest reply is all I ask :)
a fellow drupal user
Comments
Oh I forgot to add that
Oh I forgot to add that budget wise I'm looking at no more than 10(absolute limit) I've seen some for 3.99(don't know if that's USD or CAD?) but is it worth it? I generally get the impression that anything lower than that your shooting yourself in the foot but who knows there might be a legit host offering such value.
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anything with video isn't "minimal"
also of note, more often than not, the amount of traffic determines whether or not a site will survive on shared hosting. If your site is busy your users will likely not have a very good experience and your site will likely be shut down by the host for exceeding their RUP.
ok let's say I'm posting
ok let's say I'm posting video only. not my users. my clients are generally small and frequent so that's a starting point. I don't think traffic will be huge it's more of a "what can the host provide with the price at hand?"
also, and bare with me on this...what's RUP? does it regard resources being used?
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RUP is Resource Usage Policy and you should read the RUP for any shared hosting plan. Also of note is that RUP's can be changed at any time without notification.
Even if you are the only user posting videos, video uses bandwidth. Drupal is database driven and bandwidth itself likely won't be the issue it will be how many queries can be used per hour, per day ... so on so forth.
How many users on the server you are being put on. A busy site on a shared server even if it isn't your site that is busy, can make your site slow.
The problem with "what host should I use?" questions is this. I can tell you who my host is and they could be great. My site could be super fast and I have had no issues for months, even years. Then out of nowhere headaches galore. There is no guarantee that you end up on the same server as me so my experience won't necessairly be your experience.
Ensure you chose a host with an opt out plan. some offer 60 days. If you find you don't like the host, ask them to move to a different server. In the end though, you will likely find what many of us find. Shared servers will only take you so far with database driven sites. VPS is the way to go at minimum. Shared is good for building and testing and even an initial deploy that isn't expecting much traffic. I won't use a host that won't allow me to switch to VPS if my site starts to get busy, or starts to get sluggish for reasons I can't control. Beyond that with VPS and DEDs you can use caching mechanisms that you can't use on shared hosts.
I know it's difficult and frustrating.
Keep in mind this tidbit, Many who offer you a link to a host in fourms such as this are doing so for their own reasons. Usually affiliated with those hosts and some?, don't even use that host. They offer up the host with the best affliate percentage of that month. Most if not all review sites are geared the same way.
Wow. Thank you very much
Wow. Thank you very much "verymisunderstood" :D
Although my attempt to do my homework on the matter was enough to burn my retinas, experience shows much more.
That opt out option or guarantee is key! Most of the time I guess it's a cross fingers and hope for the best situation.
It'll be interesting to see what pans out when I finally decide on one I just hope when I do visit/contact these potential hosts I'm given the correct information.
A lot of the web hosting
A lot of the web hosting companies that are out there would be suitable for your needs. All the big hosts are actively working on making the servers handle dynamic web sites. Truth be told however, if you're getting lots of traffic, you may outgrow a shared environment and need to move up the ladder, vps, dedicated, etc.
Best of luck
Find the best Drupal hosting providers on the Internet.
Usually, a shared hosting
Usually, a shared hosting works well if you daily IP less than 200, if that's the case for you, bluehost, anhosting, or hostgator are all great choice for you.
But if you foresee your traffic go up 200 quickly, I would like recommend you check out hostgator, as they will provide you a more powerful hosting environment, working with the same hosting vendor will make the upgrade easier.
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