My current host has pissed me off… I’ve been using InMotionHosting for quite a while and I used to brag about how great they were because their tech support was awesome. But I think they must have had some major cut-backs or something because their service has gone way downhill recently and now I’m looking for a new host!
What did they do to upset me? There are two things.
- They shut down my service without warning. On Friday, I returned from an all-day retreat to find out that my account had been suspended during the day because RCG had exceeded our acceptable resource use. Luckily Galen was there to get things back up and running for the day, but now, InMotion says they are going to turn my account off at 1PM today unless I upgrade to an account that is 5X as expensive.
- They won’t tell me what resources I’ve exceeded! I’ve asked twice now in emails, and both times, my question has been completely ignored by their technical staff. I’m assuming it is a server-side cpu usage since both my bandwidth and disk-space (the two items they make publicly available and advertise as the constraints on their product page) are at less then 4%. I don’t feel comfortable trading in one service (with unknown resource constraints) for a much more expensive service (with unknown resource constraints). Maybe they can’t even tell me the CPU usage of RCG… At this point, I was really just looking for an explanation, which they are apparently unwilling to give!
All this leads me to search for a new host!
I don’t need to much from them other than the knowledge that they will be able to host a WP blog and that their technical support will be able to answer some pretty basic questions on an infrequent basis. And if you get a bonus for recommending me, all the better!
(and if RCG goes down later today, you can be pretty sure that it is because I haven’t had the time to switch over hosts just yet… But rest assured that we’ll be back up as soon as possible!)
Godaddy.com. All but one of our domains — dozens.
Thanks Greg!
I’m pretty sure that is what Galen is going to recommend as well…
I use Yahoo! Web Hosting. It’s not the cheapest, but supports PHP, WP, and all sorts of other stuff. WP software can be installed with a few clicks of the mouse, or manually. They also give you the option to set up an “overdraft” account concerning bandwidth. You get dinged for going over, but the account does not shut down. They have some other cool features like being able to edit the html of your site through a web interface with a similar ftp tool. This is great if you are occasioanly working from a public commputer without FTP software.
I’ve been with them for 4 years now, wihout any outages on their part. It’s difficult to speak with a human, but their online support is very comprehensive.
I’ve used GoDaddy for domains, SSL certs, and I’ve had no problems with them. I actually spoke to a human when I had trouble getting my SSL cert working, and they have ultra-competitve prices, so I’d give them a try for hosting. They seem like a good company and the CEO blogs.
I currently co-locate my server at Isomedia now, so I suspect my monthly hosting bill is much more than your willing to pay. Still, if you ever hit the big leagues and come back to Seattle, I’d give them a recommendation.
No recommendation for GoDaddy from me – their hosting options (at least a year ago) are almost as much of a mess as their website. We (ShackPrices) have a dedicated server, which was pretty inexpensive and our monthly hosting costs are the same as your upgrade.
I’ve used Dreamhost in the past and they’re great in every way except reliability. Their virtual private servers are pretty pricy too (and are from their partner, hosting.com). Good luck!
Galen, do you host your own dedicated server, or do you have someone else host it?
I have been happy with bluehost for about a year and a half now … their tech support has always been fast, able and willing (now, I must wait for my site to crash and them not answer the phone in 1, 2, 3 …)
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp?se=%2B&ci=260
The Deluxe Linux plan is 100GB storage, 1,000GB/mo bandwidth for$135 for two years. If you have low-bandwidth domains, you can gang them in to one Deluxe plan. PHP, PERL, Python, Ruby on Rails, MySQL. Galen is right that everything on the Godaddy site is confusing, but the value for the money is incomparable. Month after month of no downtime, plentiful clean nuclear-powered electricity in a no-earthquake desert. Bob Parsons is an insufferable bastard, but he may be the net’s best small-account host.
On a related note, anybody have any managed DNS service provider recommendations? I want to be able to swap the IP addresses for my domains to a hot backup server, if the primary server ever suffers a hardware failure.
MediaTemple (http://www.mediatemple.net/). Hands down the best hosting company out there. You can host up to 5 sites on their basic account, 20 on their deluxe plan.
Somebody else hosts it – it’s easier and more reliable that way.
Dustin, I would be worried about “over using the server” on any cheap shared plan (GoDaddy, Dreamhost, etc). They can charge so little because they pack you on there with dozens (hundreds?) of other people. Dreamhost claims to have eliminated their limit: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/V8.05_May_2006 , but you might still “cause problems.” At the very least they’ll let you know before they shut you down!
Galen,
Who are you using? Would you recommend that I use them for RCG as well?
I’ve been using Dreamhost for over two and a half years and they are great from their pricing down to their support. Their url is http://www.dreamhost.com
We use adtaq (adtaq.com). I 100% recommend them. It’s BYOS (bring your own server), but you can get a decent 1U server for $600 or so at tigerdirect.
Dustin,
I agree w/ Galen. The only way to completely avoid the “over using the server
Dustin,
My brother-in-law works for Parcom Internet Services (www.parcom.net). They are a local company located in Renton and have been around for approximately 10 years. Very willing to work with their customers to get them the right plan at an affordable price.
Greg
I just wanted to add, that before I co-located, I hosted w/ Parcom and they were an excellent shared web hosting company to deal with. If you’re doing a ASP.net based web site, I’d highly recommend them. The only thing I didn’t like about them is they put my MS SQL DB behind a firewall, so I couldn’t use the database tools on my machine against my hosted DB. (Dunno if they still do that or not)
Dustin,
I dunno how well they’d host WordPress (but they do offer PHP/MySQL on Win 2003).
Before you make a decision, check out http://www.ev1servers.net – We have a completely co-located server there that my wife has used for over 5 years without any downtime. Incredible bandwidth, awesome service. $99 a month, you can’t beat it.
Dustin,
As others have indicated, you want to ensure that you aren’t getting into an oversold server. I co-own a web hosting service and that is something we do NOT do.
If you’re over some nebulous resource usage quota, you might also look at how you’re caching your WP pages (if at all). Having the whole lot served dynamically is BRUTAL. We are currently working with a newly launched site that has been simultaneously DuGG and gizmodo’ed and we kept it going.
Also note the communication with the host — are you dealing with someone who can make allowances for traffic spikes? If your host is overselling, even a 4% usage of bandwidth can put you into the ‘cost us money’ category for your host.
Robbie, it’s a steal for a 1U ($50?). I’m sure they charge a little more for a tower. Give them a call and ask (and tell them I sent you) – the owner is exceedingly nice and helpful.
I second the motion for http://www.mediatemple.net.
Robust, good tech support…
Thank you to everyone for your great advice!
As lame as it sounds, I’ve decided to simply upgrade with InMotion for the time being. I finally talked with someone from their tech support and he was extremely helpful in explaining the situation (much better than the woman who was originally handling my account!). I’m definitely bummed that they don’t advertise the “acceptable” resource (CPU) usage, but that seems to be pretty standard in the industry.
At this point, I’ve decided to upgrade mainly because it doesn’t require me to reset EVERYTHING. When I think of all the steps and troubleshooting that would be involved in moving to a new host (emails, blogs, wikis, etc), I caved. With that said, I’m glad to know about all these other resources and I will definitely keep this information in my back pocket to be potentially used at a later date!
Thanks again to everyone!
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Dustin
We just went through the whole process and it is rough, but we had a host that just was miserable. The worst part is it was not hard to get through to tech support, but impossible to get through to anyone who could support us, if you get my drift.
We went to a dedicated server for our sites, and even though there was a good deal of pain, it is now worth it to have a tight server that we can keep humming.
If you need a referral at a later time, don’t hesitate to call.
Tom
You could use http://www.webhosting.am/ services, use them myself.