[Web4lib] PHP/Drupal web host recommendation

[Matt Russell]

Hi Ray,

I've been using Hostmonster and Bluehost (same company) for several 
years with about a dozen accounts and several dozen domains.   In 
general, my experience with them has been very good.  They are certainly 
inexpensive, at $7/mo for virtually unlimited drive space and 
bandwidth.  They have all of the 'features' you'd ever want, including 
php5 and mysql5, one-click installs, ssh, etc.  Hostmonster also allow s 
unlimited subdomains, add-on domains, email accounts, etc.  

Most important to me is technical support, especially in the case of 
emergency, and on this point, bluehost/hm is really solid.  They answer 
the phone within a minute or two, and in 99% of the cases their level 1 
tech support reps are VERY good.  They understand what they're doing, 
and they never hand-waive with canned answers.  They will escalate to 
higher levels as needed.  I'm actually very surprised that they're able 
to provide such an enlightened level one support.   I've tried many 
other hosts (site5, dreamhost, yahoo, network solutions, etc. and none 
of the others come close).  One thing I now insist on is phone support, 
because if my host fails I can't tolerate waiting to get an email back.  
The only problems I call about are those which really do require an 
interaction with a support tech.   These  hosts also have a forum, which 
is often a great way to get help, and it keeps the host honest. 

Having said all this, shared hosting is a mixed-bag, and you never know 
how well behaved the other accounts will be on your server.  Most hosts 
put 1000+ domains on a server, some (ie network solutions) it will be 
3000+.  The number of domains is less important than their activity 
patterns.  I use a script to track the response time on each of my 
servers every 10 minutes and there is a wide difference on the overall 
downtime and slowness between servers.  Most are down for at least a few 
10 minute intervals every week. Some can be much worse but hostmonster 
will move you to another server if you like. 

It's very difficult to compare hosting companies on performance and 
technical support since everyone's experience is anecdotal.  The better 
a host is doing, the more customers flock to the host and the greater 
their scaling problems will be.  This year's star host is next year's 
nightmare.  The more customers on a host, the more bad anecdotes you'll 
hear, and some of those people will be very vocal.  Often the problems 
people have with hosting has nothing to do with the hosting service - 
it's one of the other 1000 things that can go wrong with networking and 
software.   "Uptime guarantees" are generally garbage - you have to look 
closely at what they call uptime, how it's measured, and what the 
consequence is if they don't meet it.  Also, you can't trust the vast 
majority of "recommendations" on web sites because of the affiliate 
programs which pay handsomely for referrals (usually by linking).  Sites 
like netcraft and domain tools help you investigate hosts, but I haven't 
found any good, objective comparison sites.  If anyone else knows of a 
source for this comparison, please let me know. 

Hope this helps,
Matt Russell



Raumin "Ray" Dehghan wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
>    Could somebody kindly recommend an inexpensive, quality web hosting
> service that supports Drupal and PHP scripts?  Could you also tell me what
> they charge (per whatever period)?
>
> Thanks very much,
> Raumin "Ray" Dehghan
> (public librarian)
> _______________________________________________
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> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
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>