Hosting Reccomendations

In you opinion, what is the best webhost for the lowest cost?

The webhost must be able to run MODx fast (less than 0.2 pagegen times) and have mod_rewrite installed.

A LAMP environment is preferred.

I have tried Globat but their performance is abysmal.

Any recommendations?

Check out Fluid Hosting (http://www.fluidhosting.com/). I’ve been using them for a little over a year now. Very solid and stable...and speed is pretty good too! Full LAMP-like environment...they actually use FreeBSD for their OS. The control-panel is H-Sphere which allows for plenty of control over your sites.

Try DreamHost.com

I used them and quite satisfied with their service plans. The only concern is that they don’t have any phone support or contact, which makes it more like a private small company. Anyway, as long as I get what I wanted, then I’m cool.

Btw, the processing time average is about 0.15 - 0.27 to output uncached page for MODx. It will drop to less than 0.2, after you open the first page, average about 0.16.

Sounds too statistical, hope that gives you enough picture about the performance.

All the best in looking for the right hosting company!


Regards,
Wendy Novianto

Anybody else?

What about Ipower or Vizaweb?

Quote from: wendy at Nov 21, 2005, 12:06 AM

Try DreamHost.com

I tried DreamHost before going with Fluid Hosting. Only problem about DreamHost is the fact that PHP is ran as a CGI executable. This adds quite a bit of quirks to the development of certain applications...including MODx! I prefer a host that has PHP configured as a module since it greatly simplifies things and allows you to run things more efficiently.

Quote from: Bravado at Nov 21, 2005, 12:24 AM

Quote from: wendy at Nov 21, 2005, 12:06 AM

Try DreamHost.com

I tried DreamHost before going with Fluid Hosting. Only problem about DreamHost is the fact that PHP is ran as a CGI executable. This adds quite a bit of quirks to the development of certain applications...including MODx! I prefer a host that has PHP configured as a module since it greatly simplifies things and allows you to run things more efficiently.

Yes it’s true, I did tried installing MediaWiki on the server while it’s running as CGI, and it runs really slow. But I found the solution, we can set the domain either to run as CGI or not, which is it improves the performance of MediaWiki. Do you found that option at that time, or it’s just being added after I was hosted by dreamhost?

Quote from: Mark at Nov 21, 2005, 12:08 AM

Anybody else?

What about Ipower or Vizaweb?

I judge alot of hosting companies by their own websites. To be honest, IPower and Vizaweb look like your typical run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter, cheap-ass hosting companies...not what I would call the most professional ones. The problem with companies like this is that most of them don’t actually run their own servers but rather lease them from a large datastorage company like The Planet or something. What this means is that you’re not actually getting a hosted environment for which the company you’re paying has a whole lot of control over.

I prefer a hosting company that legitimately runs their own servers. I already mentioned Fluid Hosting and they do indeed run their own servers, offer quite a few options, and are relatively cheap by comparison to the big boys. Other companies you can look at to compare with are Hostway (http://www.hostway.com/), Pair Networks (http://www.pair.com/), DreamHost (http://www.dreamhost.com), CI Host (http://www.cihost.com/), and Verio (http://www.verio.com). All of these are professional companies that run their own servers. Here’s how I rated them:

Hostway - Offers what looks to be pretty decent packages...but from what I’ve read, their support isn’t so great.
Pair Networks - I almost went with these guys! But Fluid Hosting was offering a better deal at the time.
DreamHost - Their servers run PHP as a CGI executable. As such, it was a pain in the ass to get some of my applications to run right.
CI Host - Looks like a good company...but the control panel for the Linux/Unix hosting looks horendous!! Avoid them!
Verio - Avoid this company like the plague! For such a big company, their servers are slow and the control panel completely sucks!

The big companies like CI Host, Verio, and Hostway leave something to be desired. Sometimes its the mid-sized hosting companies that offer the bigger bang for the buck. I would stay away from the cheapies altogether....they are a waste of your time! Take a look at what Pair Networks and Fluid Hosting have to offer! Fluid Hosting was a no brainer for me...all I had to do was read up on what others had to say in their forum...which is a rare thing for alot of hosting companies to offer. If you go with Fluid Hosting, let me know...I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about them.

Quote from: wendy at Nov 21, 2005, 12:46 AM

Yes it’s true, I did tried installing MediaWiki on the server while it’s running as CGI, and it runs really slow. But I found the solution, we can set the domain either to run as CGI or not, which is it improves the performance of MediaWiki. Do you found that option at that time, or it’s just being added after I was hosted by dreamhost?

I noticed on their site that they added that capability...but by default, all sites are set to use CGI instead of a module. I tried them out a little over a year ago and, granted, some things might have changed with them. But from my experience with them, there were just too many little quirks that made doing things with their servers a little too difficult for me. Fluid Hosting just seems so much easier to mess with and get a site up and running in no time.

That’s true as well...

I think you have a better judgement in terms of the hosting server, because you has already used this two different hosting company.

I just remember another big company calld aplus.net, you might wanna see it. I never use them, but I heard they provide a pretty good price and support.

So my word of advice, keep on searching, and remember nobody’s perfect, so you need to settle down on one of the company that you have looked into.

All the best again!

I’m very satisfied with my new (italian) hosting company, Aruba (http://hosting.aruba.it/?lang=EN). Good performance, good email support, very small price (check it out!).

I’ve not tried to use mod_rewrite yet, but it should work.

The only concern is that they don’t backup your webspace, you should backup it by yourself! (but note that the server has a RAID 5 system)