What hosting provider are you using for your startup ?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18363

by sajid • 19 years ago

19 37 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

sajid8• 19 years ago

I'm looking for a hosting provider who offers a full server package with root access. The server should run Fedora or Red Hat Linux with at least 1Gb ram.

Any suggestions ?

The cheapest provider I can find offers the above for about $120 per month (with unlimited bandwidth).

dpapathanasiou2• 19 years ago

We use Server Beach -- http://serverbeach.com/ -- and have had few problems.

They have a wide range of options, with several servers under $100 per month, but they limit bandwidth to 2,000 gb of transfer per month.

We find the 2,000 is a lot, though, (we've come close, but yet to go over), and you can control it further by using AWS.

sajid8• 19 years ago

Thanks, that's great :-)

Theye're very good value for maoney and the bandwidth limits are reasonable too.

jey• 19 years ago

The value servers from aplus.net are pretty good. They're last-gen hardware for cheap. I have a 2.5 GHz P4 with 512 MB RAM and a 120GB HDD for $50/mo.

sajid8• 19 years ago

Interesting ... they're very cheap and the standard servers are not bad either.

robertgaal• 19 years ago

Are you looking for a Rails host or...?

sajid8• 19 years ago

Unfortunately not, I'm using PHP ...

sajid8• 19 years ago

Do TextDrive do Lamp ?

SwellJoe• 19 years ago

Yes. They do it better than most.

walesmd• 19 years ago

You have some pretty strict requirements there - I am curious as to why. Is your app really that complex where you require these services or are you planning ahead for scaling issues?

Personally, I go with Dreamhost. The price is right, their service is awesome, and customer support is willing to help you with whatever you need. If scaling becomes an issue - then go looking for a dedicated host.

For 90% of the startups that launch, scaling will never become an issue.

sajid8• 19 years ago

It's not a scaling issue, I just prefer to be in control of the server.

sabat3• 19 years ago

Virtual hosting is always an option, then -- cheaper than having to pay for a physical server (or its rental).

And eventually we'll have Amazon E2 ... eventually ... and with that, you can control the (virtual) server and deal with scaling issues.

petercooper• 19 years ago

I use SoftLayer http://www.softlayer.com/ .. I used to use EV1 but since they merged with The Planet they've not been as good. SoftLayer is made up of many of the "old" The Planet guys and offer some amazing stuff like free private LAN between your servers.

Of course you're going to start at no less than $150 per month, and I spend almost $1000 a month, but.. this is business and you have to pay to get the goods. People who run their businesses on naff shared hosting are crazy unless they think the odd hour of downtime here or there is acceptable.

Of course, shared hosting or a VPS (my personal recommendation if your budget is small) is a good way to start, but once you make revenue, it's time to upgrade :)

sajid8• 19 years ago

Ouch ! They're expensive ... but as you say, maybe when it's time to upgrade.

scaz3• 19 years ago

SoftLayer is indeed very good. The virtual LAN is awesome - you can even setup a PPTP VPN connection and access your virtual LAN from it.

VPN in your gateway box at home and it is almost like having the servers in the other room. They don't charge you anything for data that goes over the VPN, so you can upload/download from your server without using your bandwidth quota - it is a great for pulling off site backups.

plusbryan• 19 years ago

likebetter.com's on softlayer and we're happy

kogir• 19 years ago

Why not just co-locate a box of your own?

What I did:

Assemble random crap box from parts (Athlon 2100+, 512 MB RAM, 80GB HDD) This was free for me, and should be cheap or free for you. It was also two years ago, so you can probably find better hardware now.

Leave box at parents' house using cable modem for 2 months (free, but slow)

Co-locate box at Sprocket Data in Dallas for 6 months ($60/mo for 100 GB traffic, 100 mbps burst)

Then things changed a lot, but my startup has always owned all the equipment.

I like being able to fix problems myself when needed.

sabat3• 19 years ago

"Why not just co-locate a box of your own?" "Co-locate box at Sprocket Data in Dallas for 6 months ($60/mo for 100 GB traffic, 100 mbps burst)"

Because it's too expensive when you're just starting out. I could afford $60/mo, for instance (because I'm older and have lots of kizzash) but I'm hosted for $8/mo with 1.5TB of throughput.

If your site gets much traffic, you'll be over 60GB before you know it. :-o

spiralhead• 19 years ago

problem with the $8/mo-type services is that you're limited as to what sort of tech you can use

sbraford2• 19 years ago

I did this a few years ago.

Grew a site to 10k+ daily uniques while it was running over a DSL connection at my parents house!

arete• 19 years ago

Try a Xen VPS, you get full control of your own OS image with no hardware to worry about. Amazon EC2 is Xen-based but you can find much better prices. I recommend serveraxis.com where you can get a VPS with 1GB of RAM and unlimited bandwidth @ 10mbit/s for $130/m (or $45 for 200GB/m).

sajid8• 19 years ago

Another interesting option and cheap too, thanks.

gustaf• 19 years ago

Primarily Serverbeach. Have one server with Layered Tech and one with Linode for internal

juwo• 19 years ago

Glorb. Great Value, Great Service

http://glorb.com

npk• 19 years ago

I just found http://www.linode.com and it looks like a winner. $20/month you get a virtual server (so w/ root access.)

256mb ram, 8Gib disk, 100Gib/month $20

1gb ram, 32 gib disk, 400gib/month $80

dawie• 19 years ago

I went with MediaTemple. They are cheap and seem to offer scaling possibilities. Some people have warned me about them here on YC. I haven't launched yet, so I can't really give you feeback on them

phuson• 19 years ago

Just wondering...what's wrong with MediaTemple?

PStamatiou• 19 years ago

I'm on a (dv) 3.0 rage and it's great. With plesk and root ssh I can do anything, even install another OS. default is RHEL.

mattculbreth2• 19 years ago

Future Hosting at http://futurehosting.biz

scaz3• 19 years ago

I have to advise against these guys. Hate to do it, because the support is good, they seem like nice guys, and they are reselling SoftLayer servers, so the network is amazing.

But I've had VPS's on three different physical servers with them and they were all starved for disk IO. They take quad core servers with 16-32GB of RAM but only put two 7200 RPM IDE drives in them. A 7200 RPM IDE drive is good for about 120 I/Os per second, so if the server has 20 users you get a whopping 6 I/Os per second.

Check it out:

$ time ls -l /etc /dev/null

real 0m12.530s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.046s

12.5 seconds to list a directory with ~150 files. This is from a VPS account I have with them with nothing running on it.

To be fair, most VPS hosting probably sucks just as bad.

mattculbreth2• 19 years ago

Hmm, never noticed poor disk performance. I'm not doing much with the server besides web and SVN right now, but it's something to keep in mind. Thanks.

Good guys though.

sbraford2• 19 years ago

LayeredTech.com. You get a big bang for your buck.

Service? It's ok.

Totally unmanaged, so don't expect much on that front.

What hosting provider are you using for your startup ?

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