Shared / VPS / Dedicated?

Hosting Type?

  • Shared Hosting

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • VPS Hosting

    Votes: 10 66.7%
  • Dedicated Server

    Votes: 5 33.3%

  • Total voters
    15

Matt

Owner
Just wondering what people are currently using to host their sites?

I've used all 3 over the years, and for the last 5 years, have been using VPS hosting for my sites.
 
I've never used a shared hosting environment, only ever used a dedicated server or a VPS.

I prefer a VPS because they allow for scalability and also because I create/destroy VPS instances several times a week to while testing stuff.
 
I started off in a shared hosting plan back in 2005 / 2006 and had numerous issues with it. The server was always over loaded, and causing my site to be very slow, or not load at all.

It was then in November 2006 I first used a VPS, with 128mb ram and 10gig space, and that ran the site OK for a couple of months. and then in January 2007 I got my first dedicated server:

Code:
Celeron 2.0
+ 512mb ram
+ 1 x 80gb IDE hd
+ RHE 4 (32-bit)
+ Plesk 8 w/powerpack (100 domain license)
+ 1300gb monthly transfer

setup: $25
monthly: $119

and to think by today's standards, that is a lower spec than the $5 DigitalOcean droplet!

I then moved the site back to a VPS in July 2009, as the technology had come along a hell of a lot in the 2 years since I first tried one:

13840_50529706f50265ca5b91f7a4b90d8c34.jpg


I was with the same company for the next 4 years, and only moved elsewhere in 2013 due to increase in SSD hosts available. I've since moved about a few more times in 2013, but mainly because I enjoy building them up, and trying new things, and I can move the DNS over in 60 seconds, so there is no downtime to any of my members on the main site.
 
I came from a very cheap shared hosting way back 2011, started using VPS on 2012 and decided to use Dedicated Server last December 2013 :)
 
I came from a very cheap shared hosting way back 2011, started using VPS on 2012 and decided to use Dedicated Server last December 2013 :)
How fast did your site grow to warrant the rapid progression from shared to dedicated?
 
2011 to 2012 > Shared Hosting
2012 to November 2013 > VPS Hosting and Cloud Hosting
December 2013 up until now > Dedicated Server

I just remember last June 2013, The "High Plan" here http://vps.net/cloud-sites is not enough anymore with my Forum.
Then started to find some host that can handle my forum traffic, from nimbus, knownhost, xfhost.
3rd and 4th quarter of 2013, I got ddos all the time.
I decided to host my Forum on an Un-Managed Dedicated Server because of their very effective DDOS protection.
 
Good insight….can you share which company you went with for the Un-Managed Dedicated ?
 
It is amazing to see how prices came down.
My first web host was my ISP in 1995. It was provided with the dialup connection. The storage was 500kb if I remember well and it was possible to upgrade by buying more space by pack of 200kb and it wasn't cheap. I was happy when Geocities started to offer "large" storage like 6mb so I could extend my site. In April 1997 I got my first domain and it was US$100 for 2 years or $70? I don't remember anymore. First true shared web host was Simplenet. They still exist. Then I had a dedicated server at Virtualis. It was an AMD K something with 96mb ram. They had a great control panel. Then I moved to VenturesOnline in 2001. I stayed there for a long time. I had the dedicated #3 (Pentium III 866, 256 Mb ram, 18.5
Gb SCSI HD, 100 Gb transfert for $400 a month) and I added to it 512mb ram which was a $300 one time fee plus the daily backup ($45 monthly). After that I moved to The Planet for a Xeon server with 2gb ram then 4 and also a SCSI HD and now I moved to soyoustart.co.uk with Matt's help :)
 
@Teddington small world, I was hosted on VenturesOnline around that time too since I knew the owner (we shared common offline hobby heh) and he put me up for a while and referred quite a few number of dedicated clients to him too :)

Just wondering what people are currently using to host their sites?

I've used all 3 over the years, and for the last 5 years, have been using VPS hosting for my sites.
my first ever forum and first ever server was in 2000, jumped straight into deep in for both vBulletin 1.x and dedicated AMD based server from Rackspace - never used linux before that, never ran a hosted forum prior and never used any type of web hosting prior. Just a total noob diving head first into the deep end :LOL::eek::D

I was all dedicated until my first managed VPS in 2008 with Wiredtree - still with them for 6yrs now for my WHM/Cpanel LiteSpeed VPSes.

Since then tried lots of VPSes from many providers and have 27 servers of which 2 are dedicated server and 25 are VPSes.
 
@Teddington small world, I was hosted on VenturesOnline around that time too since I knew the owner (we shared common offline hobby heh) and he put me up for a while and referred quite a few number of dedicated clients to him too :)
Well it is probably due to you I moved my sites to VenturesOnline. You helped me optimizing my server years ago on vb :D
I only knew Pat and Daniel from that company. Good web host while I used it :)
 
Well it is probably due to you I moved my sites to VenturesOnline. You helped me optimizing my server years ago on vb :D
I only knew Pat and Daniel from that company. Good web host while I used it :)
Ah it's indeed a small world :D

Good to see you're in good hands with @Matt (y)
 
Good to see you're in good hands with @Matt (y)
I am! But Matt might have lost all his hair by now because of me :D He must be a bot because he doesn't sleep!
He is incredibly good and the problem is gallery script conversion related (and he is fixing most of the bugs!)
 
I started off with a home server(xampp). Ran that myself for a couple years.

Then i moved to shared hosting with HostGator for almost 5 years. Until i added more sites and wanted more power.

So i moved up to VPS with HostGator. And been with them ever since. I might get a dedicated server soon. Or a more powerful VPS.

But with a different hosting company. It's just a pain looking for a new one. There's too many choices.
 
Started in a shared server around 1998, one year later if that much moved to a different host after problems with server loads and bad support, later around 2000 moved to bluehost on a better shared service running a few PHP-Nukes!

Later 2001 with few friends started to build a forum in some Nuke distro for a MMORPG just to keep things up for a small group of friends, later the small group of friends started to grow and tired of the Nuke I decided to go vBulletin and after 1 year got my VPS with Global Gold, moved to Nimbus almost after GG split and now trying a new experience with a dedicated one with Matt taking care of the things.

Maybe this time I will take time to dig into it, always got ppl on the background caring about the servers I got lazzy I guess :)
 
I'm now on a dedicated server! My first dedicated server and i can definetly notice the speed difference.

It was very easy to move over my websites to a dedicated because matt did it for me :D

Indeed we're on a VPS with DO, and have been a customer of Matt's for a couple of months now. Definitely the go-to guy.
But my question is, we use a pretty high spec VPS with DO, pretty fast - did you notice a significant change with a dedicated server?

As suggested to us, I am considering going with SYS and something like this;
Server E3-SSD-4 - So you Start

Just wondering if you noticed a huge increase? Mobile users I need to target specifically. :)
 
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