Hi everyone
I run about a dozen sites using Drupal 6. I am using Hostgator shared hosting. I get around 70,000 visitors a month, and 300,000 page views. Until recently I have had good performance from Hostgator, and have been pleased with the package.
However, this week I am getting performance issues. They have suspended the main Drupal 6 index.php file as it was hogging server resources. I then installed the Boost module, which has helped speed up anonymous users greatly, and taken some load off the server. However there are times when performance is sow. I have always used Caching, normal setting.
I suggested to the Hostgator support staff than I get a VPS. They said unless I got one of their level 6 VPS packages my performance would be slower than shared hosting. They recommended a dedicated server.
I am tech savvy (am a developer/programmer) and am happy to use a VPS or dedicated server. However a dedicated server is a little too expensive right now.
I am expecting my traffic to double by the summer, and I want stable hosting in place before then.
What would you guys recommend? Should I go for a VPS? I understand that Hostgator are new to VPS, and would probably use one with another company.
Am I pushing the limits of shared hosting with my visitor numbers?
Will using a VPS give me better performance or am I likely to have the same problems?
Thanks
Comments
vps
Sounds like they hostgator will start gently pushing you towards a vps if your visitor numbers double - so you may not have a choice. A VPS theoretically should give you a performance from shared hosting, but that will depend on how overloaded the server where your shared account was and the type of VPS package that you will buy.
The answer to how much should I spend on hosting will generally be - as much as you can afford. Performance will start becoming important to google so I would take it seriously. Boost is definetly the right answer to reduce server load, but it will only take you so far and its no good for authenticated users.