Guys, just wondering who’s your hosting provider, what kind of hosting plan do you use and how are you liking it?
I’m on Site5 right now, switching to VPS, but I’m looking to alternatives for my WP-based website.
1 Like
I’ve been on Linode since 2009, and Slicehost before that, but have switched completely over to Linode after Slicehost was acquired (I was planning to switch completely to Linode already, after a particular upsetting customer service incident, the acquisition just made me overcome the inertial). Linode’s products are good at a decent price and support has been prompt, so I have had no reason to switch. I have recommended them to people I worked with, over the years.
Another vote for Linode. I guess there are cheaper things out there, but they do compete - lowering prices from time to time, unlike Slicehost post acquisition. Linode also has had really good service whenever I’ve needed it. I think Amazon’s offerings are good to stay away from for most bootstrappers who do not need the ability to rapidly scale and unscale horizontally. If you’re just using one server, EC2 is not competitive.
For PHP-based stuff, I’ve (personally) never had any problem with throwing stuff at Dreamhost.
For the Ruby/Rails stuff, which I’m more on top of hosting-wise it takes a lot to get me off Heroku. Git-based deployment (meaning zero system administration) and if something goes down (which is does rarely) 20 people much smarter than me get a call to sort it out!
In the UK I use WizzVPS for unmanaged VPS, and RapidSwitch for dedicated servers - I’ve been with them for years, and they’ve both been reliable and have excellent support.
On a related topic, if anyone is looking for UK-based hosting, I’ve found that a good place to ask for quotes is http://www.webhostchat.co.uk/ - most of the regulars own or work at well-established UK-based hosting companies (everything from shared to colocation), and they’re also pretty helpful if you have hosting-related questions.
I recently switched to WebFaction shared hosting and I love it. It’s been really easy to setup multiple websites, and even run nodejs apps.
I’ve used their support a few times and it’s been super fast and effective.
We have everything on http://www.arcustech.com however, for our Wordpress stuff we use http://wpengine.com I’d only use something like that. Hosting Wordpress yourself sounds like a nightmare.
1 Like
I also use Linode and I really like it. Quick support turnarounds and I like the control panel.
I also have some stuff on Digital Ocean. Very cheap with SSDs. However, to have more than 5 VPSes, you need to actually email support. Then they email you for your “business reasons” for more droplets. Kind of a turn-off since I don’t want to jump through hoops to give people money.
I’ve used Webfaction. Good support, pretty easy to use. As I recall, it’s inexpensive/easy Django hosting.
As a tangential data point, I was setting up SSL for a client who was already on GoDaddy’s shared hosting. The cheapest cert was $70/year, which you had to buy from GoDaddy.
For cheap, non-business websites I use Dreamhost. Been with them for many years and no major complaints (although their speed is not great). For my business I use a dedicated Hetzner server that is awesome and very affordable (around $90/mo for a very powerful machine), I highly recommend them.
After years of coding PHP web sites from scratch, I started using SquareSpace and couldn’t be happier. I can prototype a great looking web site in minutes & be ready to accept payment. I develop desktop & mobile apps, so PHP and/or scripting is not required.
I use hetzner.de for dedicated servers. Heroku for some rails experiments and recently for my day job I’ve been experimenting a lot with AWS and I love it. It might be a bit expensive for bootstrapping a product though.
Thanks guys, pretty interesting to read your perspective.
I’m going to try WPEngine (thanks Ian for pointing that out). I had a chat with them and their customer support looks fabulous (though Site5’s is amazing too), as well as their features.
A big +1 for WPEngine. Like most great services, they are only expensive if you don’t value your time.
We are actually moving all of our content out of our main app (rails) and into Wordpress. Before WPEngine we would have never considered this path, but they have been so great with our blogs it is a no brainer.
You can also save some money by paying for a year in advance.
Huge +1 for WP Engine. Shameless affiliate link (mods/anybody: if this isn’t kosher, by all means tell me and I’ll remove): http://brightagency.net/wpengine
They really are fantastic. Blazing fast, and great support, especially if you ping their support account on twitter: https://twitter.com/wpesupport
I do WP development for clients, and at this point I require all of my clients to have their site hosted there, whether on their own plan or on our large one. It’s that much of a time and headache saver that I won’t take someone’s money unless they’re willing to move there.
I agree with xecretcode re Squarespace if you want to do a marketing or e-commerce site (it’s not the platform for a bespoke web app).
I put my wife’s business site on there about a year ago (http://stitchbystitch.eu/) just using an out of the box template, and I can thoroughly recommend it. Support is really good, the stock templates are responsive and pretty easy to customise if you need to.
E-commerce support is good as they have Stripe integration, shopping cart and inventory management etc. I haven’t yet moved her product pages (still using paypal button for the moment), but otherwise it’s been great.
You’re going to cash some $$ - I’ll sign up following your affiliate link
I’m on KickAssVPS, and haven’t had any issues. Their support was very helpful in getting me set up.
I’ve been thinking of switching, though. I was looking at WPEngine for my Wordpress stuff, Heroku for my meteorjs apps.
Another big +1 for WP Engine here. Used them for the past 2 years. They are the most stable , problem free host I’ve used in general but their WP hosting rocks. Automatic version upgrades. Security scans. Fast caching of your site without adding plugins or config. CDN integration. Amazing support. If you need WP hosting, this is all you will ever need.
That’s what I wanted to hear.
I’ve got my WP sites on my VPS at KickAssVPS, and I have a subscription to ManageWP.
The only reason I have the ManageWP is to provide (A) one easy place to log in and manage all of my WP installs, (B) automate updating of the WP instances and their plugins across all my installs, and © ManageWP does security scans with Sucuri.
From what you’re saying, I could move to WPEngine, and get rid of both my VPS host and ManageWP, WPEngine would take care of WP version upgrades (I would still need to do plugins), and they manage security scans for me. Noice.
Yep. I place my bet on WPEngine + Cloudflare + MaxCDN (free with WPEngine Pro).
Nice to learn about ManageWP though.