I have been on Dreamhost for 6 months now. Unlike what others say, I have had no problems whatsoever with Dreamhost. TechZilo (this blog) has endured 2 medium-sized Diggs, 4 Del.icio.us home appearances and 4 massive Stumbles. In all of that flood of traffic, this blog never went down. From my experience, I understand that a well-optimized blog with clean design and code can withstand any amount of traffic on any half-decent server.
But there are times, when new challenges appear, and the old just cannot even hold a torch to the stunning new. I believe that this blog has been on an el-cheapo webhost for long enough. After growing in terms of traffic and being successful on social media sites, I believe that the time is right to chose a new web host. The hosting industry is quite competitive, and there are hundreds of providers.
What I am looking for is a host which offers:
- 1 GB storage
- 10-20 GB bandwidth
- at least 10 databases and 10 domains
- easy purchase of extra bandwidth in case of a Digg/Stumble
Of course, most hosting companies oversell, and do so massively, resulting in claims like 5000 GB bandwidth per month and 400 GB storage (those are Dreamhost’s claims). So, the above figure may seem dismal. However, I intend to utilize the above-mentioned resources completely, and thus, oversellers who cannot provide what they promise is a big no-no. I have a few obvious choices in mind, but I am looking for more choices before making a decision.
Hosts that I am considering are Media Temple, Slice Host, Zone.net, Project H, Bluehost, A Small Orange and Doreo.
So, what are your recommendations for the ideal host for me? Is it one of the above? Or is it something different? Tell me your experience of the host, their service, the quality of their servers etc. If the host has multiple plans, do not forget to tell me which plan you are on. You can list multiple web hosters, and include your affiliate URls – I do not mind if you make an extra buck. If I chose to go with a host that you mention, I will sign up with the person who commented with the affiliate URl/ID first – so hurry and tell me your recommendations.
May the best recommendation, commenter and host win! Your comments and recommendations here.
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Go for Blue Host. They’re very affordable and even very reliable AFAIK.
I can’t be of much help here – I am still with Dreamhost. Glad that your server survived the Digg/SU onslaught – I would not have to worry about that if I got digged.
@Shankar: Thanks for the recommendation – I am considering Bluehost too, and Nirmal and Arpit Jacob recommends it.
@Binny: Yes, you can be assured of survival – just make sure to use a lightweight theme and install WP Super Cache plugin.
We host our PTA web site on Doreo. Uptime has been very good, speed has been good. Because it’s a PTA web site it does not get a lot of traffic but we have never had any issues. Support is friendly and helpful (but I don’t need much either).
Sumesh,
I would recommend Bluehost and since you have a good optimized design, I dont see you having any problems. Although I have not been dugg on Bluehost, I had enough of Stumble.
I would tell you http://www.xtremewebhosts.com but I would be biased since I own it. However, I don’t charge setup fees or charge for premium telephone support (or for any forum/ticket support). I still sell accounts the way I did 10 years ago…you buy the disk space and the bandwidth, you use it however you want. If you can fit 10,000 email addresses or 500 databases in your disk space…so be it. However, most of the sites we host have a couple db’s at most, usually one for testing and one for production.
@PitaBread: Thanks for your suggestion.
@Nirmal: Thanks for the recommendation – that’ two votes for Bluehost now.
@Ed Wiget: No bias problems about Xtreme Host – its the quality of service that matters. And yes, I’ll need just 5 databases in total, so that’s not a problem.
Dreamhost or bluehost… I have never had big time issue with Dreamhost. Little bit of downtime is feature of all shared hosting
Stick with Dreamhost!!!
I’m with dreamhost. I really don’t know why you are considering a switch. To be honest this has been my second host and I totally love it. They are the best in terms of interacting and informing customers well in advance of any problems. If you are wary that your shared hosting plan won’t keep up in future consider dreamhost PS. It comes with dedicated CPU and RAM for about $15 a month.
Incase you still wanna switch I suggest Bluehost. Mediatemple is tempting but heard Grid Server is still getting problems now and then. Anyways keep us posted on your decision.
1and1.com is really awesome, they have plenty of tools, I use them for a long time they work great.
MediaTemple has generous limits
@Dilip: DH has downtimes, and more importantly, they recently messed up my WP install resulting in 12 hours of my site being offline. That alone is enough. MT’s (gs) has serious problems, and is already out of contention for me.
@Chris: 1and1 is pretty much like DH – el cheapo.
@Ayush: MediaTemple has generous limits and generous price too
My vote also would be for Dreamhost ! I am still on the first year of subscription and managed to get the 97$ discount while signing up.. You can also check on yahoo hosting..
@Venu: Thanks for the opinion. But as I said, I’m looking for suggestions to move out of Dreamhost, not into it
You can go for BlueHost or Media Temple. MT may be expensive but they offer VPS hosting at around 200$ a year.
@Madhur: BlueHost is probably the way. In $20 per month plan, (mt) seems to have problems.
Sumesh,
Oh so you have faced some problem. Ok in that case you should check out http://slicehost.com
and its only $20
The plan they offer is fantastic… I’m just waiting for my subscription to get over for the switch. Its a developers dream plan