Hosting for PW sites?

[Gazley]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to take a PW site live in a few weeks time and wonder whether there are any recommendations around hosting providers?

I currently develop/maintain the old site being replaced by the new PW version and I host that on a Linode VPS using Gentoo/Nginx. It's fast and I have control but I wonder whether there are alternatives where I wouldn't have to do as much (in terms of LAMP configuration and maintenance), yet still enjoy control and performance?

For the PW site, I'm going to stick to a traditional LAMP stack and may introduce Nginx "down the line". The Pagodabox/PHPFog offerings look quite interesting but I don't know that much about them. Any opinions would be very welcome!

BTW, the site is UK based.

Cheers!

[diogo]

Did the same question some time ago here http://processwire.com/talk/topic/523-good-hosting-for-processwire/page__hl__hosting

I went by Apeisa's suggestion, and I'm very happy with my Linode server

[Pete]

I can happily recommend ServInt - the company ryan uses. I've got a VPS in their Amsterdam datacentre and the service is great, sites load quickly and it's cheaper and better managed than UK VPS hosting (I've found that a lot with the better US hosting).

The only drawback thus far is only being able to pay in US Dollars, but if you're fine with the conversion rate being in our favour for the past however many years then you can overlook the fact that pricing therefore fluctuates a little due to the exchange rate.

It's all a small price to pay for better service and more cost-effective hosting I think.

[Gazley]

Thanks guys! I already have a Linode and have had zero problems with it. On saying that, if I had have, I would have been pretty much on my own with server related issues so the backup described from servint may be worth paying for.

[ryan]

I agree with Pete about ServInt. I've used their service for longer than I can remember. They are the real deal. Unlike something like Linode, they are considered "managed", which I think most non-sysadmins like me need. This site (processwire.com) runs from their McLean, VA data center. Their Amsterdam data center is relatively new, but they've had a great reputation here in the US for more than a decade and sounds like they are upholding that reputation in Amsterdam too. Given that most of our traffic is from Europe, maybe I should move to the Amsterdam data center, but I'm a little nostalgic for McLean, VA (I grew up there). Most of my client sites run from ServInt as well, and they've been the only company I deal with that I never have to worry about.

At the other end of the spectrum is Media Temple -- a real ball and chain, to put it mildly.

As for super-budget hosting (which I sometimes need), I've had decent experiences with both HostGator and BlueHost. But I'd never put something I really cared about on this type of hosting.

[Pete]

For US sites StormOnDemand if you need the power, or lower down the ladder from the same parent company, LiquidWeb's offerings are great too.

For me it's all about managed hosting and hardware/software faults being fixed whilst I sleep in about 2 minutes on the rare occasion they occur, as opposed to my experience with UK hosts which is you don't know all your sites have been down for 8 hours until you get out of bed.

LiquidWeb and ServInt are just so far ahead of the game in terms of looking after customers that all the awful hosts I've use in the past should be ashamed.

[Adam Kiss]

Given that most of our traffic is from Europe, maybe I should move to the Amsterdam data center, but I'm a little nostalgic for McLean, VA (I grew up there). Most of my client sites run from ServInt as well, and they've been the only company I deal with that I never have to worry about.

Little OT: don't they provide some kind of geo load balancing?

[alan]

At the other end of the spectrum is Media Temple -- a real ball and chain, to put it mildly.

I know your comment will be fully backed up with good reasons Ryan and indeed I had a big problem with (mt) when I was a customer of their gs product. However I have been using their dv product for nearly two years and have found both hosting and support to be excellent. Real people to call or ticket, fast hosting, a good knowledgebase to augment the support when doing one's own research. I am guessing I am paying more perhaps for an (mt) dv than a lot of other solutions and I know I got hurt when I used their entry level gs service, but right now I am so happy with the service and product I don't feel inclined to move for a cost saving. Maybe I've had a lucky two years; but it doesn't feel that way, it feels like it's simply a good product with good support now I am at the dv level.

As always, "your (my) mileage may vary"

PS: And I find pingdom.com to be great for site monitoring.

[yellowled]

Just an idea: As long as it doesn't clash with the ServInt ad on it, maybe processwire.com could feature a list of hosting providers suited/recommended for PW? This could be sorted/sortable by countries. I'm sure we have PW users in at least the bigger countries all over the world now who could come up with recommendations for hosting.

(I know I could name one from Germany which people should not use, but we probably do not want those listed on processwire.com.)

[Pete]

@yellowled - it would end up being a long list of those that we don't recommend. I've had the misfortune to work with about a dozen such companies over the years

[ryan]

Alan that's good to hear you've had a good experience with MT. My only experience with them is from the (gs) plan, via multiple clients, and it's been the most problematic hosting situation I've dealt with, though it's not all bad all the time. But it's good to hear their plans above that are in a different class.

Just an idea: As long as it doesn't clash with the ServInt ad on it, maybe processwire.com could feature a list of hosting providers suited/recommended for PW? This could be sorted/sortable by countries. I'm sure we have PW users in at least the bigger countries all over the world now who could come up with recommendations for hosting.

I'm good with this too. Though also think that there isn't anything specific about ProcessWire that makes it require hosting any different from say WordPress, Modx or Drupal. So ultimately it would just be a list of services that members here have had a good experience with. Longer term I think we should have a listing of this sort, but shorter term we'll probably want to keep it to the forum until some other projects are out of the way.

[alan]

My only experience with them is from the (gs) plan

Oh that's good to know too, thanks Ryan for confirming what I found with their gs offering.

[Remi]

For my needs suffice shared hosting, because right now I don't have more than 4700 views per day. And it's done on Glossword which is much slower than PW.

[yellowled]

it would end up being a long list of those that we don't recommend. I've had the misfortune to work with about a dozen such companies over the years

Oh well, haven't we all? I know, and people in our line of work also tend to prefer criticism over praise for whatever reasons. The list would have to be discussed and curated in some way. To make that clear: I could just as well name two or three German hosting companies which do a very good job and would be suitable for PW hosting, although I have only installed PW on webspace provided by one of them.

[Marty Walker]

Even though I'm in Australia I have a VPS with KnownHost in the US (VPS hosting in Australia is a compete rip off). They're support is excellent.

Regards

Marty

[JeffS]

I used to build and run data centers and have pretty high expectations. Liquid Web and their StormOnDemand offering exceeds my requirements and their support is excellent. (US Based)