Is there an economical but reliable virtual server host?

I am finally getting to the point that I want to move away from a shared hosting plan onto a virtual dedicated server with a unique IP. However, the monthly payment for virtual vs. shared is so much higher at my current host I was wondering if any of you could suggest a reliable hosting provider that offers low cost/reasonable virtual dedicated servers.


Another point that goes with this would be how powerful of a server would I need? I am currently running three Joomla sites and a Wordpress site from my shared account. Of these only one of the Joomla installs gets appreciable traffic right now (20k pages/week). I also do a newsletter out of that one that sends to around 1k subscribers so not having a reasonably high daily email send limit would be nice.


I found one host has a $16/month account with the following specs- RAM: 512MB, vCPUs: 1, Disk space: 20GB, Public Network: 20Mbps, Internal Network: 40Mbps


A few other sites have similar offerings but I have no idea what I really need. How much RAM/ bandwidth would I need for the scenario I mentioned above?


Any recommendations? My sincere thanks for any ideas.


-MaestroC

 

Bandwidth likely wont affect you as much as monthly transfer amounts might, although it doesn't sound as if you'd have any issues with it. Do you have any requirements on that? In regards to the e-mail limits, on a VPS that wouldn't be an issue as it is with shared/reseller hosting, providers don't limit the amount of mails sent (they do however monitor outbound port 25 for prolonged heavy usage in regards to spammers).

 

Do you have a control panel currently on your shared hosting account? A lot of people moving from shared to VPS don't understand that control panel licenses cost extra, and along with that, the resources needed to run the control panel, etc., come out of your RAM.

If you use cPanel, for example, you can expect to pay anywhere from $10-15 extra per month just for the cPanel license, and will need a minimum of 512mb of RAM (though you are going to likely have issues), with 1GB of RAM very highly recommended.

Is there anything wrong with your current shared host provider, or shared hosting providers in general? Are you using too many resources or such? You can get dedicated IP addresses for shared hosting, so long as you meet the justification requirements (usually SSL or such).

 

Another consideration (the dirty little secret that VPS sellers don't tell you) is that you become the server admin when you get a VPS. You must be able to configure, optimize and harden your VPS. If you don't know how to figure out MaxClients and iptables sounds like a place for dinner, a VPS might not be your best solution.

 

My transfer logs show about 500-700MB/day on average. Disk space shouldn't be an issue as all of my sites together are less than 8gigs.

 

I know about cPanel and have used it before managing some of the state music association web sites that I have been in charge of in the past. However, those were all shared environments as far as I know and had the OS already installed. I manually installed Joomla and used phpMyadmin to create the databases.

The main problems I have with my current host are:

1) Slow page load and response times.
2) Shared servers show up on several email blacklists

Of those the big problem to be is the response time. So far as I know my emails are not getting flagged, except for one time when my newsletter had an excessive amount of links, etc.

Thank you for your help and advice!

 

I have dabbled in Linux for years but never enough to consider myself "good" at the command line. I admit the idea of configuring all of the email and DNS records scares me and for all of their faults I have to say that GoDaddy has been excellent for me in terms of customer service and helping me adjust things when needed. Their servers are just so pitifully slow IMHO...

Thank you!

 

My recommendation is OneProvider. They are offering reliable service at different locations for affordable prices.

 

I'm not a big fan of email on shared hosts. Have you considered Google Apps or hosted email?

Also, you mention a small mailing list. Mailing lists are one of the main contributors to poor email performance on shared hosts. Have you looked into MailChimp or one of the other mailing list providers? Some host small mailing lists at no cost.

 

I have used the services of cloudclaim.com and i have not found any issues over there.

 

You can always search google for a good VPS provider.

 

Actually i am not familiar with the virtual hosting system it is relatively a new topic for me. And i would like to know more about this. Can anyone recommend me any good source to get such knowledge.

 

Wikipedia is fairly reliable.

"Virtual hosting" is a another name for "shared hosting." A VPS (virtual private server) is an entirely different beast. The VPS article on Wikipedia is a good start.

 

Thanks much for all the help and advice on this VPS question. Just a little update, I wound up going with a company named WSWD.net. They aren't a big name by any means, but the server they set me up with seems to be working out great. Customer support for me as a VPS newbie has been top notch as well. Email only, but fairly fast and helpful.

I've already moved all my sites off of GoDaddy and I do have to admit the speed difference, especially during peak hours is a LOT better and sitting on a dedicated IP for roughly what it was costing me on GD shared. Plus when I send out my newsletter I noticed I am able to get my not-spam score up to 9 out of 10 on most of my mailings. With GD's servers all blacklisted in some of the spam directories I was never able to get it above 7 out of 10.

GoDaddy does not make it really easy for you to switch away from them. All their control panels are proprietary so I had to move all my data off via FTP, dump my SQL databases, and then upload to the new server rather than being able to do some kind of cpanel trick to move the site.

Now the only challenge left is calling up GD and getting them to refund the balance of my prepaid year of hosting. *crosses fingers*

-MaestroC

 

Thanks Maestroc!! We certainly appreciate the positive feedback.

 

Good luck with them and keep us updated on your experience

 

Look at your current usage and double it at least, triple is even better because coming half way through the month and running out of bandwidth is probable the worst thing you can do for your website.

 

1and1 , or fdcservers.net