Ask YC: Shared hosting providers that don't suck?
16 comments
I use WebFaction and am very pleased with them. They support hosting multiple sites on one account, PHP, Rails, and Django while having extremely fast and helpful customer service. The latency is good, although not blazing, and I've had perfect uptime so far since I signed up six months ago. My plan is $9.50/month and allows shell access (the clincher for me), 80 MB RAM, 10 GB HD, and 600 GB bandwidth. I definitely recommend them.
http://www.webfaction.com/?affiliate=pillarofeden
* Disclaimer - this is an affiliate link.
http://www.webfaction.com/?affiliate=pillarofeden
* Disclaimer - this is an affiliate link.
Ironically, webfaction is currently down right now--I can't access my sites.
How do they define application memory? This sounds like a partially managed VPS, or at least is metered similary. Does Apache count as memory use?
I don't think so, I think it's for Rails and Django pretty much. I've never had an issue although I only run Rails.
WebFaction + Django here - very satisfied.
NearlyFreeSpeech has been pretty kickass so far--no downtime that I've noticed. I don't exactly move any traffic, but since you only pay for the bandwidth you use, it's perfect.
I highly recommend LunarPages. Best thing is their low latency and modern systems. They're one of the few with a lot of clients yet almost universally positive reviews.
he.net is wonderful, and has very, very low latency connectivity. No fancy GUI control panel (at least not that I've noticed), just plain ssh access to a good shell and you're on your way. They answer the phone on the second or third ring, a real human, maybe because most of their users are good enough not to need any support. That being said, I'm now looking for a new provider too, because they host only one domain for the cheap accounts.
What type of hosting are you looking for? PHP, ASP.NET, Python, it really depends.
I've had different experiences with each. For plain old php, bluehost seems alright.
However, may I suggest that if this hosting provides your sole source of income you look at a virtual host. I've used http://www.servint.net/ for a ton of wordpress blogs and it's pretty good.
I've also "moved up" from plain jain asp.net hosting to dedicated hosting.
If you're depending on this as a source of income I recommend you get a dedicated host. In the long run it will pay for itself.
Good Luck!
I've had different experiences with each. For plain old php, bluehost seems alright.
However, may I suggest that if this hosting provides your sole source of income you look at a virtual host. I've used http://www.servint.net/ for a ton of wordpress blogs and it's pretty good.
I've also "moved up" from plain jain asp.net hosting to dedicated hosting.
If you're depending on this as a source of income I recommend you get a dedicated host. In the long run it will pay for itself.
Good Luck!
I use Lypha for my PHP/Perl hosting. They have the most featured, spaceous, and bandwidth-plenty service I've ever seen for a price like $4/month, and I haven't seen a downtime in months (not to mention the support is great). Get Dreamhost if you want Python/Ruby. Otherwise, get Lypha.
http://lypha.com/hosting_plans.shtml
http://lypha.com/hosting_plans.shtml
I've been using http://www.websitesource.com for several years now. Uptime is good for a shared host. I would actually recommend hosting your mail elsewhere though. I use the free version of Google Apps which works perfectly.
I've been using hostmonster.com - $6.95/month (2y contract)
They offer "unlimited" hosting and bandwidth now, which means until it's not worth hosting you anymore.
I have about 7 domains with them and they've been pretty reliable.
They offer "unlimited" hosting and bandwidth now, which means until it's not worth hosting you anymore.
I have about 7 domains with them and they've been pretty reliable.
Agree. I was with hostmonster for a year and was pretty satisfied with their support and services.
JaguarPC.com for PHP/MySQL ... been with them for over 7 years
I've been using 1and1.com for a while now and am still happy.
I think http://www.hostgator.com has a reasonable service and good customer service.
you get what you pay for generally. I'm not sure what you mean by "suck". Most hosts I've used had very little downtime, but you aren't going to get a lot of cpu/memory resources for under $10.
I personally would never get a host that doesn't give me shell access, not sure if you care about such things. I can only guess what you mean by "suck".
I personally would never get a host that doesn't give me shell access, not sure if you care about such things. I can only guess what you mean by "suck".
Low latency is what I am looking for mainly, since it seems like most places have acceptable downtime.
I was on Media Temple grid host at one point and it was just slow. I don't want that in a host.
I was on Media Temple grid host at one point and it was just slow. I don't want that in a host.
I use slicehost. I haven't payed attention to the latency, but I've never noticed my site loading slowly.
GeekIsp has been very solid for me. Reasonably priced, communicative, and modern.
asmallorange.com
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Asmallorange is also extremely good, I used to use them but I couldn't find a way to host multiple sites, which was crucial for me.
You must have been with them a long time ago. http://asmallorange.com/services/hosting/features.php
Webfaction.com
Dreamhost seems popular and cheap, but people also like complaining about them.
On DreamHost right now. Went down a few times, but not a big deal - uptime for my server has been crystal the past few months.
You'll hear that "DreamHost sucks" all the time. Keep in mind that they host around 700,000 domains, and operate thousands of servers, so there will be an inevidably huge amount of people complaining. (Of course, people don't usually rant about how great the service is, so that gets lost in the noise.)
The fact that they're a lot more transparent (http://www.dreamhoststatus.com) than a lot of providers is good, but only makes people complain more (The thinking is: 'It went down! I must complain about the service being terrible.' rather than with traditional hosting providers, where you probably weren't aware of the downtime, unless if you personally experienced it.)
My suggestion: if it's not mission-critical, DreamHost is a good, very reasonably priced choice.
You'll hear that "DreamHost sucks" all the time. Keep in mind that they host around 700,000 domains, and operate thousands of servers, so there will be an inevidably huge amount of people complaining. (Of course, people don't usually rant about how great the service is, so that gets lost in the noise.)
The fact that they're a lot more transparent (http://www.dreamhoststatus.com) than a lot of providers is good, but only makes people complain more (The thinking is: 'It went down! I must complain about the service being terrible.' rather than with traditional hosting providers, where you probably weren't aware of the downtime, unless if you personally experienced it.)
My suggestion: if it's not mission-critical, DreamHost is a good, very reasonably priced choice.
A recent gem from http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2008/05/21/blingy-problems/al...
Holy crap, that's been over a week. I pity the fool who put something mission-critical on there.
Been using them for years now, no major complaints. They stay on top of Rails tech, which is really cool. I wouldn't risk a business site with them, but for fun piddly sites, I dig 'em.
Seconded. Dreamhost seem to get quite a bit of flak due to their size, but I have an account with them for "secondary" stuff and it works excellently for that. I'd only use my own dedicated servers for the proper stuff though :)
I also use Dreamhost for my secondary stuff. It's great as a staging server although you don't have full control over the server. If anybody wants $50 off the first year (that makes it reeeeeeallllyyy cheap per month), you can use the promo code LIFEHACKER.
For virtual dedicated, I use Slicehost (http://www.slicehost.com) to host The Photo Stream (http://www.thephotostream.com) and they have been excellent for the past two months.
For virtual dedicated, I use Slicehost (http://www.slicehost.com) to host The Photo Stream (http://www.thephotostream.com) and they have been excellent for the past two months.
Or use "WPDH2" as a promo code and get some additional storage and bandwidth (http://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress.html)
I've been using Dreamhost for a while now (to host my blog) and it has been pretty much okay but I wouldn't host any critical stuff on it.
WebFaction (http://www.webfaction.com) and Slicehost (http://www.slicehost.com) are pretty popular lately (although not _that_ cheap). I would probably go with webfaction for a django app.
I've been using Dreamhost for a while now (to host my blog) and it has been pretty much okay but I wouldn't host any critical stuff on it.
WebFaction (http://www.webfaction.com) and Slicehost (http://www.slicehost.com) are pretty popular lately (although not _that_ cheap). I would probably go with webfaction for a django app.
Dreamhost has their problems, but like someone else commented they are very open about everything. Whenever I have had a problem their tech support has responded pretty quickly and fixed whatever was going wrong. I'm pretty happy with them overall. I only use it for my blog, and as a test bed for some stuff. I'm not sure I would run anything important there.
DH is crap. Them being open does not detract from the fact that their servers keel over every time your site gets a bit more traffic. I left them and never looked back.
Also stay away from Joyent.
Depending on your needs, Media Temple might work. And a friend swears by Royalty Hosting although I haven't tried them.
I'm playing with Mosso at the moment and they seem good.
Also stay away from Joyent.
Depending on your needs, Media Temple might work. And a friend swears by Royalty Hosting although I haven't tried them.
I'm playing with Mosso at the moment and they seem good.
Can this get me shared hosting with decent latency and reasonable uptime?