I run a Wordpress blog that currently receives 60k/month visitors. The bandwidth usage is about 5 GB / month.
I’m entering an agreement that will drop about 100k visitors on my site per DAY. The organization has had negative experiences with sites that guaranteed the ability to handle the traffic, then were down for 3 days. Obviously something I want to avoid. Whether the traffic goes up/down from there is dependent on my site’s popularity.
I currently use split-shared hosting with crucialwebhost, which isn’t where I would like to upgrade.
I have researched Media Temple, which has mixed reviews for the cloud, but I would probably go with the DV (BASE) as the upgrades are seamless.
I would definitely have the site on a VPS, and definitely at a provider that lets you upgrade to a bigger VPS from the control panel, automatically. Then even if you underestimate the CPU and memory required for the site, you can always flip a switch and increase your allocation with just a reboot. That hinges on you knowing how to configure Apache, MySQL and any other services you’re using to make use of the resources efficiently. You can’t just leave the configuration files the way they came out of the box.
That said, a lot depends on your site. If it consists of static pages, or can be cached as static pages, then you might need no more than a very low end VPS.
There is, though I’ve never worked with one and doubt the host takes the time to learn your application usage patterns and sets the configuration accordingly for you to get the most out of the hardware. More likely they just dump you on a generically configured system, answer your questions, and management is limited to running a package updater regularly to install security fixes.
Do you have any experience with the load I expressed at hostgator? Or were you just throwing that out there?
With all due respect, I can use google. I know what services show up (hostgator being one). What I’m looking for is a recommendation based on experience or fact.
More likely they just dump you on a generically configured system, answer your questions, and management is limited to running a package updater regularly to install security fixes.
Often times one does get a “no guarantees”, “best effort” attempt from the host to help set things up, install a custom script etc. But no, they will not turn into your host+programmer+webmaster at the price levels they’re charging.
Still, managed should be a fair option for someone in the OP’s position. I would however discuss my needs and expectations in detail with the company prior to signing up.
You asked what we would do, not what companies you might choose from. I do not purchase managed hosting – my sites operate at Softlayer (unmanaged servers), Amazon EC2 (unmanaged cloud hosting instances) and Linode (unmanaged VPS), all of which I am happy to recommend but aren’t what you want.
If you can afford MediaTemple, as they are very pricey, they are often well recommended.
The title is “Looking for recommended web hosting for moderately high traffic.” I also gave a name of a host as an example. Never once did I mention I was looking examples of types of hosting I should choose.
Even if you answered the question, as you inferred it, you would have made that post 1st. Instead of generically suggesting VPS.
Step back and imagine standing in a room with me. You say, out loud, exactly what you wrote:
and I say back
Does this not sound like a direct response to your question, which tells you exactly what I would do in your situation? I gave you my criteria to choose a provider for your needs – that you need VPS hosting, that you need VPS hosting that lets you upgrade from the control panel instantly, and why you need this kind of VPS hosting instead of a provider where upgrading requires sending in a support ticket and waiting.
Now, someone DID come in and recommend a specific host, to which you retort:
Which sounds an awful lot like you’re going to bite the head off of anyone that gives you a name, because they’d be insinuating you don’t know how to find the hosts on your own.
Unless they read the next sentence “What I’m looking for is a recommendation based on experience or fact.”
Let’s be honest, if we were standing in a room and your response was VPS, it would be minimally helpful at best. I made it perfectly clear I have no experience with unmanaged hosting.
It’s clear you don’t have anything further to contribute. Thanks though.
I’m in total agreement with Dan on this - the typical 1st level support you’ll encounter at most hosts (even very good ones) will just tell you to upgrade to the next package, or get a dedicated server once your site goes down. The support doesn’t generally extend to in depth configuration and optimisation, the expertise level for which wouldn’t be economic at the cost charged for much hosting.
You should create a duplicate of your site on the proposed spec of hosting, and run it through some load tests to see what happens, it’s probably worth while you hiring a system administrator to set up your hosting and test it rather than just hope for the best.
Sorry to be a late comer in this thread but I use modVPS(.com) and have been quite pleased with their managed VPS solutions. Quite reasonable price, good services and good support.
