What is the best host? favorite provider

Another good hosting provider I’ve used in the past is Fluid Hosting (www.fluidhosting.com). Although they’re rates went up a bit (which is why I switched), they’re quite solid, very reliable, and have some pretty ample packages that will fit your needs quite nicely. In the two years I was there, I rarely had any downtime, and when I did I was notified by e-mail about it. Never had any problems running MODx either. All in all, they’re definitely a host I would consider on your list.

Quote from: jbjones at May 21, 2006, 09:11 AM

...I am currently using 1&1 but I’ve heard some people haven’t had good service from them...

I’ve had a 1&1 account for over two years and not had a single problem with it (as I frantically look around for some wood to knock on). I also have a Dreamhost account (as suggested by Ryan) and it has been very reliable as well. Overall the 1&1 server/connection is faster, but so far I’ve been pleased with both.

I’ve had good luck with Dreamhost.

For rock solid shared hosting, I recommend Pair.com. They are a bit conservative in terms of what you can do with their servers and programming environment compared to some others, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you need to do wacky things at the server level you probably want something more dedicated. Pair has splendid uptime and if something does go wonky they are totally on the ball.

I have had no trouble trying to do anything with MODx on Pair or Dreamhost.

My two pieces of advice on hosting:

• Do not go with cut-rate hosting just to save a few bucks a month. What is your time worth? What is uptime worth? If you cannot get highly competent tech support on the phone or by email within a few minutes, you will be sorry.
• Under no circumstances should you ever pre-pay for hosting. Month to month is the only way to go. If your host goes bad (and hosts go bad) you don’t want to be locked into a contract. It is never worth paying for months or years in advance to save a few bucks.

I second what cyberk said about tying yourself into a longterm contract to get a cheaper price. It’s almost guaranteed that during the term of your contract the sysadmin who handled things so aptly will keel over of a heart attack and things will go south quickly-- and hosting is ONLY as good as the sysadmin who is supervising the server environment. Neither of the hosts I use offer longterm discounts and I would be leery of any who do, since that to me is a tipoff of potential problems. And hosting is very much a buyer’s market these days.

Quote from: cyberk at May 30, 2006, 02:03 PM

For rock solid shared hosting, I recommend Pair.com. They are a bit conservative in terms of what you can do with their servers and programming environment compared to some others, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you need to do wacky things at the server level you probably want something more dedicated. Pair has splendid uptime and if something does go wonky they are totally on the ball.

I looked at Pair.com as well. Their reviews are quite good and they have a good reputation. Only thing that was a big turn-off for me was their policies (http://www.pair.com/policies/). Seems they’re quite strict on what you can and cannot do with your account. The Database Resource Usage policy is perhaps the strangest.

I’ve never run into any problems with Pair’s policies or usage limitations, for what it’s worth. Generally speaking, I think restrictions are good on a shared server to keep any one account from running rampant. If you have heavy usage needs, you probably need to be on a dedicated server.

More importantly, what you DON’T want is a host that is going to shut you down without first contacting you to let you know that your usage is approaching problem status. Or one that will let you run up thousands of dollars in overage costs without giving you a heads up.

Pair is definitely NOT the most cutting edge, liberal or affordable host. It is, however, the host I recommend to my clients when I want something I know is just going to work and when I want to know I can email or call and someone who will help me out fast. If you expect very heavy usage, run wacky CGI software, need to be able to tweak server settings, use Ruby on Rails, etc, Pair is probably not your best choice.

I was wondering whether anybody has some experience yet with http://www.mosso.com/ - sounds to be a pretty good deal if you need to host multiple sites.

I haven’t used them or even heard of them before, but MAN! that looks impressive. I like the idea of billing the client directly and even answering the phone as if under my company name. Quite cool sounding.

I would be interested to know any first hand experience with from dealing with these guys.

At the bottom of the page it says that "Mosso is a venture company of Rackspace Managed Hosting." So if folks have had positive experience with Rackspace it might be worth a shot. I know Rackspace has been around for a long time.

Mosso looks really compelling and is supported by a killer support team (rackspace folks).

When they allow you to set up SSL certificates and have an SSH connection it’ll be a great solution for many small businesses. Until SSH certificates are possible, no really secure apps or ecommerce is possible... but man, what a brochureware site platform!