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I need a faster web host

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by Sacha Chua

My site’s been slow for a while now – so slow that even I don’t have fun flipping through it. So I’m thinking of switching over to a different site. I checked out webhostingbuzz, but they don’t offer full SSH access. Here’s what I need:

  • Linux webhosting with PHP and Rails
  • Proper SSH access so that I can test and run things from the comfort of a terminal
  • >= 10 GB of transfer per month (who knew I used 8 GB?)
  • >= 5 GB disk space (currently using 1.3 GB)
  • >= 10 domains
  • >= 20 databases (development and stuff)

Anything you’d recommend?

More posts about: help, highlight, hosting // 18 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/4861
  • http://www.countablyinfinite.ca/blog Quinn

    I, of course, am now here to pimp out my webhost of pure awesomeness, Nearly Free Speech. Per gigabyte and per MB storage / month charging. Full SSH and FTP. Here’s a list of their specs: http://example.nfshost.com/versions.php . Forgive me, I don’t know if Ruby is equivalent to Ruby on Rails, heh. *removes honorary geek badge*

    SQL databases are also charged on a per-table basis, something like 1 cent a day. That info is here: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq.php#HowManyMySQL

    The only thing about this host that keeps it from being 100% perfect is that it doesn’t run off green energy and isn’t based in Canada. Other than that, I’ve been happy as a clam.

    • http://thegeekettespeaketh.com Charo

      OOH! Another fellow NFS user! :D

      Yeah, NFS is great. I would have recommended that as well except that there’s not RoR. :)

  • http://diy-clpbi.com/ zay

    check out http://diy-clpbi.com/ I think they have everything you need

  • http://thegeekettespeaketh.com Charo

    Why not get a VPS? I used to have one from Slicehost.com but had to discontinue it since I rarely made any use of it.

    Or you could try BlueHost.com. It’s not a VPS, but it has the stuff you need (SSH, RoR, unlimited stuff).

  • http://fairhaven.typepad.com rjh

    I have been using panix.com for a long time for shell access and been happy with them. Their v-colo might be of interest.

  • Chris

    I second the VPS. Good for geeks: can do whatever you need it to, and scale with your needs. I use http://rimuhosting.com/ – the low end is pretty affordable – so I run my own mail server and web host.

  • http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

    AAAAAAUUUUGH!

    I just found out that Dreamhost has put in a mail quota for sent mail. Which also takes into consideration the e-mail you’ve automatically forwarded from your Dreamhost account to, say, Gmail. And SILENTLY GETS RID OF MAIL. No bounces, nothing but a little warning in your mail file. I am _not_ a happy kitty.

    • http://etherplex.org Rick Dillon

      I’ve used Dreamhost for 3 years, but my site has no traffic compared to this. =) I second the notion that VPS may be the way to go. Re: the mail quota – I just read the wiki page about it and it 1) seems insane and 2) seems you could circumvent it and incur a delay by having GMail pull via POP from your domain account (this is what I do). This would circumvent the SMTP quota. I think Dreamhost also has the ability to leverage Google Apps for email, so you could consider that as well.

  • http://rolandtanglao.com Roland Tanglao

    Hi: Don’t know why you need so much disk space and bandwidth. Store all images and photos on flickr and small videos on flickr and store large videos on blip.tv and you will probably need much less disk space and bandwidth.

    good luck in your webhost quest!

    ….Roland

  • http://www.approachingormal.com Larry Wright

    If you go the vps route (which I recommend, but only if you are comfortable with setting up your own linux box), I can recommend vpslink personally. I’ve also heard good things about slicehost and rimuhosting.

    • http://www.dankind.com Dan CHmielewski

      I second slicehost. I’ve been using them more than a year and they’re a fantastic vps provider.

  • Sebastien
    • Sebastien

      When I was reading on the subject, a couple of months back, I found Fused Network looked pretty good on paper. They are local to you.

      Note that I am not associated in any way with this provider.

  • Gino Ledesma

    Hey, Sacha

    I suppose depending on how much your budget is, it will range from decent cheap webhosting to really great dedicated colo/hosting. Off the top of my head with good experience (and meets your criteria above):

    EV1 Servers
    Speakeasy
    Linode

    Though they all tend to be better at the VPS solution. One of the best places you can drop by for comments (with an excellent community) is WebHostingTalk/.

  • http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

    Thanks for all the recommendations!

    Following Larry’s suggestion, I got myself up and running on Slicehost yesterday, and I’m working out all the kinks now. (256 MB gets used up quickly!)

    If you’re looking for something similar, I’d love it if you used this referral link to Slicehost or mentioned sachac@gmail.com in the signup referral box. $20/month for a virtual private server isn’t so bad… =)

    • http://www.dankind.com Dan CHmielewski

      Ahhh.. hahaha disregard my earlier comment :D

  • http://blog.zakame.net Zak B. Elep

    Nice going on the VPS route! I myself purchased a VPS recently (plus a handful of domains) from Mabuhay Hosting and in no time I’ve set it up as a sort-of primary base of operations (DNS, mail, blog, and network experiments in between, with a small buildd for my Debian/Ubuntu work coming up.) It’s been quite an adventure, however, as I had to adapt some settings on the default Debian install to make good use of the VPS’ resources, but I’m very happy nonetheless.

  • Wojciech

    I’m a huge fan of http://www.site5.com — $6 / month, 1.8 TB of space, 18.6 TB of transfer, etc… I’ve used them for 2 years and love them.

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