Ask HN: What web hosting do you use?

[tpyo]

I'm considering getting hosting for something like a blog, so I'm wondering: what do you use?

I want to pay in GBP, but it doesn't really matter.

Edit: I won't be able to reap the comments till tomorrow; that is, the 10th of February, 2010.

[carbocation]

I started off with HostGator's shared service. I started going over their limits years ago (mostly CPU, IO, memory, and execution time). The execution time was a real kicker for me - they have reapers that go around looking for processes that have been running for more than 120 seconds, and kill them. So if you have a large MySQL database that you're trying to back up, good luck... At any rate, I'm not saying their policy was unreasonable - it was just a dealbreaker for me.

At that point, I looked around for another host. I was impressed with MediaTemple's managed VPS offerings, as they had 3 levels of 'scaling' (for $50/100/150). Over the past 8 months, I've had major IO issues. Oddly, my IO issues have little correlation with my traffic patterns, so I suspect that I'm on a heavily loaded server - though they state that they see nothing but normal disk/CPU/etc utilization. That may be true, but I'm moving on.

In the end, I decided that Linode offers a level of granularity that was not matched by MediaTemple. At Linode, they expect that you may well want to separate your production server from your MySQL server from your dev server, and their backend is built with multi-server management in mind. I've set up separate MySQL and PHP servers so far, and things have been going very well. This will allow me to scale each in proportion to its needs, instead of having to scale a monolithic server instance.

For just a blog, do you want to mess around with the shell? If so, Linode or similar (SliceHost?) might be good for you. They start off small ($20/month for the cheapest), and they allow you to upgrade in small chunks.

If you don't want to deal with shell, I find HostGator to be quite reasonable, and they are extremely cheap. I still host a bunch of personal sites with them.

[sil3ntmac]

Hostgator shared accounts actually do have shell access, you just have to ask for it. Go into the live chat and ask a rep and they'll activate it for ya. They also have cheap dedicated servers called "unmanaged servers", they're kind of an unpublicized deal, its $75/mo for your own box, which I think has a 2.4 P4 and 1gb RAM, 5 IPs.

[carbocation]

I do have shell access at HostGator, but when I got it there was a $5 charge (perhaps they waive that now?). I was imprecise in my wording; when I said "shell," I really was thinking "root." Certainly, if there are things you want to do for your blog using shell, HostGator is an option.

Their $75/mo single-core DediKiddies seemed less desirable to me than an arbitrarily resizable VPS with 4 virtual cores (which MT and Linode have).

Also, it's too late for me to edit my original comment, but HostGator did not have VPS when I left them.

[aarongough]

HostGator offer VPS services now too, they were introduced only a few months ago. I haven't had any issues with the service so far! Everything has been ticking over nicely!

I've commented about Hostgator's great service a few times now, I don't want to sound like a shill. I have no affiliation with them but I have been very, very, happy with their service and support.

[csomar]

I have around 1 year with Lace Host (lacehost.com), the website/user interface are crappy but it doesn't matter since you have Cpanel and FTP.

They are cheap (around $22 for 1.5 GB hosting / year). You have got unlimited Mysql DataBases, Very large bandwidth and an always (almost) online customer service (it's the owner, he'll reply to your questions even if it's not hosting related).

Overall experience: Positive. I'm running 4 websites (on 4 domains). 3 blogs, 1 personal website and a bunch of auto-scripts that runs via Cron Jobs. I get around 250 hits daily.

+ I got around 1,100 hit from Stumble Upon (i got a fav from a popular member) and the host seemed to be fine with that traffic.

Currently, I'm keeping with them, for scaling, the admin told me that they can move me from shared to private server in no down time.

My advice will be: Go for it! You can also Google for reviews about it.

[sil3ntmac]

  $ traceroute lacehost.com

  traceroute to lacehost.com (67.225.243.15), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
  ...
  16  209.59.157.44 (209.59.157.44)  43.978 ms  46.390 ms  43.979 ms
  17  lw-dc2-sec2-dist4-po1.rtr.liquidweb.com (209.59.157.234)  45.439 ms  46.016 ms  50.775 ms
  18  dc2-vps1-302.liquidweb.com (67.225.247.217)  43.915 ms  49.835 ms  46.735 ms

He probably just has a WHMap account setup on one of liquidweb.com's dedicated servers. That'll work fine, but hopefully he really is able to move you over to a private server without any snags.

[ishan]

Hello, I am the owner or LaceHost. We host our company website offsite on a vps with Liquidweb. Our shared hosting servers, power distribution units and network switches are completely owned by us and located in our private cabinet at the Uberbandwidth datacenter in NC, USA. We also have 3 support operators and 8 technicians working round the clock. Also, we use WHMCS and not WHMAP :)

Thank you, Ishan

[csomar]

So why don't you use your own server to host your site?

I think he's doing that to mislead websites that track hosts uptime, like that his main site never run down.

[alttab]

I've had great success and ease-of-use with Bluehost (bluehost.com) and its subsidiary Hostmonster (hostmonster.com). They are an affordable shared host that do all the domain stuff as well. Their support is great and they have the latest version of CPanel. If you wanted to make LAMP or Rails applications they have support for that as well. Overall with domain, connersc.com was $120 for two years.

Sometimes when the shared server is getting pounded, remote-ssh development can be a little laggy but if you are running Wordpress (which is in CPanel as a turnkey installation), you should be fine.

There are probably other hosts out there, but as far as service and price its been working for me so far. I even put clients on it (before moving the others to rackspace).

[aarongough]

I use HostGator... I've noticed several other commenters have said they left Hostgator when they needed root access, or more resources. I had the same issues, but instead of leaving I switched to their VPS service.

The service has always been great, I didn't have any problem installing Passenger and the VPS is still going strong!

[albertsun]

I like WebFaction a lot. It's shared hosting and you don't get root access, but their servers are set up such that you can basically install anything you want. They are also a UK company.

[DanielStraight]

I used HostGator until I wanted root access, then switched to Linode. Both are excellent.

[aarongough]

Hostgator offer VPSes with root access now.

I don't want to come across like s shill for them (I have no affiliation) but I can't overstate how happy I've been with their level of service and support in general!

[cb33]

Mediatemple is great.