What is the best host? favorite provider

I transferred 2 modx sites to Media Temple and happy so far. pages are loading much faster than before. feels like I have a newegg server now but you pay double than the cheap hosting...

Mt did get a lot of stick about the grid service, but seems like they have fixed all those gremlins now, I have 3 sites with them and they run quicker than any vps I have ever had.

I’m still using HostDime and MediaTemple for reseller accounts. I had a lot of issues with clients not being able to email certain people (like anyone with an AOL email address) on HostDime, and a lot of problems on MediaTemple with the Plesk configuration since they make you setup & support everything yourself.

I did find some good reviews of hosts here: http://hostjury.com/reviews/

So I took a good look at the top 5 and I decided to work with Fused Network (#1). The reviews were great, but what sold me is David’s response time to issues/emails (he’s proven this to me already), and the fact they will transfer everything (website/database/emails) for you when migrating to their servers.

Quote from: ER at Apr 13, 2008, 07:37 AM

I’m still using HostDime and MediaTemple for reseller accounts. I had a lot of issues with clients not being able to email certain people (like anyone with an AOL email address) on HostDime, and a lot of problems on MediaTemple with the Plesk configuration since they make you setup & support everything yourself.

I did find some good reviews of hosts here: http://hostjury.com/reviews/

So I took a good look at the top 5 and I decided to work with Fused Network (#1). The reviews were great, but what sold me is David’s response time to issues/emails (he’s proven this to me already), and the fact they will transfer everything (website/database/emails) for you when migrating to their servers.

what’s weird about this hostjury site is the complete inconsistency with user reviews on webhostingunleashed.com. for instance, if you were to go by hostjury alone, you would think that lunarpages is the worst host ever. whu.com has them ranked as the #1 (which i personally can vouch for myself). very strange.

I can also vouch for Lunarpages although they’re a little slow about rolling out updates and putting Php5 on all their servers. I was recently told I’d have to change servers to get Php5 for one site.

I’ve been a little more impressed with Bluehost which now has SimpleScripts (with Modx 0.9.6) and also this nifty cPanel control with checkboxes and a submit button:

___ PHP4

All files with the extension .php will be handled by the PHP4 engine.
This version of PHP will be deprecated soon, and it is suggested to only use it until you can safely migrate your scripts to PHP5. Here is a migration guide to help you upgrade to PHP5:
# Migration Guide

___ PHP5

All files with the extension .php will be handled by the PHP5 engine.
Current, most reliable and best performing version of PHP

___ PHP5 (FastCGI)

All files with the extension .php will be handled by PHP5 FastCGI processes.
FastCGI for PHP makes all your PHP applications run through mod_fastcgi instead of mod_suphp. This eliminates the overhead of loading the PHP interpretor on every hit. Since it is always in memory ready for the next hit, the responses will be generated faster.

NO MODIFICATIONS to your existing PHP applications will be performed so you can easily enable and disable it at will.
# Questions? click question for more info What are the benefits of using FastCGI for PHP with your hosting account?
# What are the potential problems with FastCGI and why I might want to disable it for PHP?

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate for both Bluehost and Lunarpages so users can support the site in my sig when they sign up for hosting at either place though my site.


Bob

I have been hosting with Lunarpages for 5 years and wouldn’t think of switching. Lunarpages has been around for a very long time. I see there has been a slew of new hosting providers crop up since Lunarpages started up over 5 years ago.

Lunarpages offer shared hostin in both windowss and linux platform, as well as VPS and dedicated plans in both platforms.

They have 2 datacenters, one in LA and one in LV. Tech support is just awsome, which is a no brainer to figure out why. They have been around longer then most, and their turnover rate for techs are very low, so there are a lot of veteren techs at lunarpages.

I saw a post that stated that the server the customer was on did not have php 5, and he needed to be moved to a supporting server, and that they should have all servers updated. Well, the thing about that is most of the servers do support php 5 and mysql 5, but there are still some servers that support only php 4.x and mysql 4.x due to customers that are afraid of change, but the percentage of php 4 servers are very low.

Lunarpages bends over backwards to keep all customers happy. I know that is impossible....lol, but I have had nothing but great experience with lunarpages. They are always upgrading storage, add-on domains, bandwidth...etc.

It appears that they are runnin some specials as well - http://www.lunarpages.com

Try them, they have a 30 day money back guarntee, so you have nothing to lose.

Quote from: smashingred at Mar 28, 2008, 07:45 AM

I have heard of ASO and they seem to be on the ball.

I ended up moving to ASO and they’re brilliant. Couldn’t be happier!

just a quick response to share my experience with dreamhost. i’ve had experience hosting a multitude of sites using dreamhost, and over the span of a year i have dealt with customers contacting me with consistent mail server issues. sometimes these problems would occur daily, other times weekly. as we moved away from dreamhost (to a hostgator dedicated server) the calls became fewer and farther in between. the mail issues could be overlooked to some extent, but the biggest problem i’ve experienced with dreamhost is what appears to be a horrible tendency to oversell. load times were absolutely horrid for every one of the sites we hosted using dreamhost, and at times we saw load averages upwards of 100 (!!!???). for a while it was like a fun game. come in to work 2 hours before anybody in california was awake and check to see if the dreamhost load average was larger than the average american male life span. as far as i know dreamhost was undefeated, but we stopped checking after a while because it was pointless to think things may ever change.

so i guess if there’s one thing i can say about dreamhost it’s that they’re dependable.

I’m extremely pleased with MediaLayer. Excellent performance and uses Direct Admin for a control panel (which I prefer personally). Easiest installs of MODx I’ve ever done.

DreamHost has been all I’ve needed for client hosting. Granted, my sites are not huge or very complicated/demanding.

Customer service is very responsive - it’s rare that I don’t hear back within 15 minutes of an inquiry, and replies address the problem, rather than pointing me to Support archives I’ve already read. Attitude is great, too - they’re there to help, and to make things work. Control panel is easy to use. Emergency Status URL keeps you advised on current issues and resolutions.

And like the little birdy said, Cheep, cheep! (sorry)

My 2c.