Web Hosting

dizzy

Hello,

Since it's been over 3 years since the last post in WH, I thought I'd pop this questions here.

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to deciding on webhosting, so what I need is the following:

1. Who in your opinion is the best in terms of customer service, stability etc...?

2. How do I choose a package?*

3. The USA seems to offer more than the Irish Hosting companies, what are the advantages and disadvantages of hosting from the USA. What would you choose?

*If I have 30k unique visitors a month with mainly images and text on the site.

Any other hints or tips would be much appreciated.

D

ChicoMendez

who u with now ?

forbairt

My Usual response ...

blacknight / hosting365 ... testing out another irish hosting provider at the moment as well ..

Advantages to irish hosting ...

Speed of the response
Support ...
Downtime in the states = our uptime here a lot of the time

There are LOTS and LOTS of bargain basement hosting crowds in the US ... but I can't recommend them after various experiences with them ...

I guess it all depends what you really need ...

30000 hits a month = database hits .. page hits ... actual visitors ? ... I'd guess most shared hosting systems could handle this easily enough ...

Depending on image size and bandwidth usual though ...

dizzy

Hi,

We're just starting out, so the 30k will be our intended monthly audience:p BlackKnight were first on my list after an awful experience with a rude person in Digiweb. So basically I am stuck on what package I choose?

Say for instance we have
30k unique visitors
4million page impressions (Gosh I'm confident!:D )

If I choose a package is it easy enough to upgrade at any time?

Thanks again

D

forbairt

upgrading shouldn't be a problem with any hosting provider ...

30k people x 10 pages per person x .2 mb per page (rough rough figures)
30000 * 10 = 300,000 * .2 = 60,000mbs

So you're looking at needing about 60gbs of bandwidth a month ...

I'd say ... start small .. and if you need the extra upgrade as you need it ...

(my sums could be completely off my head is screwed up with a cold at the moment)

forbairt

BTW is your intended target audience irish or US .. if its US then go with US hosting ... if its european ... go with irish ...

AARRRGH

dizzy wrote:

1. Who in your opinion is the best in terms of customer service, stability etc...?

There are loads of great hosts out there.

I'm with Hosting 365. Good uptime and stability, customer service could be improved. I'm happy enough with them though.

Blacknight.ie have a good rep.

Letshost.ie seem like nice guys.

Search on www.webhostingtalk.com too for more hosts.

dizzy wrote:

2. How do I choose a package?*

People generally don't need massive amounts of bandwidth and disk space. A "regular" hosting package (few gigs data transfer per month and a gig of disk space, etc.) would probably be more than enough.

dizzy wrote:

3. The USA seems to offer more than the Irish Hosting companies, what are the advantages and disadvantages of hosting from the USA. What would you choose?

Dedicated servers are defo cheaper in the US. Shared hosting (which is what you need) is about the same. Personally I like having my websites "close to home" as they are important to me.

For example: if the US host closed down and disappeared, what realistically could you do? At least in Ireland you would have more protection (e.g. you could call around to their offices or whatever.)

dizzy wrote:

Any other hints or tips would be much appreciated.

There's no harm e-mailing each companies sales / accounts / etc. departments with questions to see if they answer your queries.

Also, supporting Irish business is better than supporting US business

forbairt

dublindude wrote:

Also, supporting Irish business is better than supporting US business

I seem to recall .. the name and shame of the irish politicians who had their sites hosted in the US ... as an example of why its good to have Irish hosting

smcelhinney

Using a US hosting provider myself, but they have a datacenter in London which Im moving my hosting to.

Also, depends on how much control you want over your server/hosting solution. The company I use are called rimuhosting, and they give complete control over the VPS, they have a webmin interface for the more gui-oriented people out there, but personally, I love the oul ssh in and mess around with RPM's.

Depends on what you're looking for, and what your technical capability is. Rimu charge $29 a month for a very good VPS solution.

dizzy

Thanks for all your help. We'll be sticking with an Irish Company then.:D

CoNfOuNd

There are lots of excellent web hosting companies in Ireland who compete with American pricing. I'd advise anyone to shop around, compare packages, support options (pre-sales and after-sales!), give the company a call and go from there. You don't necessarily have to go with the hosting giants to get a good deal!

steve-hosting36

Also good to try the support function - a few Irish providers (cough) provide 24/7 live chat - just click the buttons on the site to chat to the support team at any time and get a feel both for the availability and quality of support.