Shared host eats its final Drupal site...
While I was away on vacation last week, Drupaltherapy.com got hosed by the shared hosting provider I've grown to hate. Days later I was informed that "due to dozens of database queries per second for several hours", all account services were suspended. Dozens of queries is exactly what a database should do, but apparently not for my twitchy host.
This reinforces one of my workshop lessons about shared web hosting services, the you-get-what-you-pay-for lesson. I've configured and managed Drupal in environments from shared to dedicated and the difference in price is reflected most brightly by the level of response and accountability. Dollar per pound, customers shouldn't really expect top levels of service for $4.99/mo.
There are good tips out there on reducing resource consumption, from caching and CSS aggregating as told by John Forsythe to optimizing your custom database queries especially in views.
But nothing can prepare you for a cheapo host pulling the plug and heading home for the weekend. No sites and no email, I was inches from a nice cliff I could have thrown myself from (pictured above). Drupaltherapy is now hosted by a new company and shouldn't be winking out any time soon.
Apologies to any folks who looked but could not find.
Comments
Hi everyone and a big thank you to Sean for all your work and great info.. a really big help !!
I have a handful of sites on a shared host (accountsupport.com) a reseller back end for BlueDomino/Bizland. The system is really great and I do like it for a shared environment. They pay the commissions right on time and never miss. But after the database limits and the slow response times, I switched the BuckeyeLake.org site to HotDrupal.com/HolisticSolutions vps. The site is running very well now and Steve, -the head server guru- is really great, he knows his stuff and has things set up for Drupal to run well. I too wish I could have the same reseller front end at HotDrupal, never did ask Steve about that. I am not a server guy, but I understand you do have root access if you know all that stuff. Anyway, I do recommend them for a drupal site and they have some different plans that are not much money.. I think the small plan is 6 or 7 bucks. One cool thing is that they have they system all set up and ready to go..no config involved, great for a newb like me.
That's my 2 cents.. dave
I have eventually settled on a VPS plan from Servint.net. The price is in the $50/mo range, I have control over all the server configs and can tune it to Drupal's best performance, I've got rationed instead of shared server resources, and the techs answer the phones themselves. I'm pretty happy for now but with web hosting being the beast that it is, I am ready to jump ship at any given time. That's just the nature of this business.
Sean,
Finally which host have you selected?
And how is the performance?
I am with mediatemple gridserver and want to move on to some good host. Have around 15 sites (6 Drupal).
There are plenty of recommendations (seem like advertisements) on drupal.org
I would like to hear it from someone whom I can trust has tried and is genuinely recommending.
Please help me get out of here.
I recently ran across HotDrupal.com - and was absolutely dumbstruck at the speed my website ran after I moved it there.
The price is a tad more that $4.99/mo - but if you run a Drupal site, head over there and take a look - it's certainly worth it.
Sadly, they don't offer any affiliate programs, so I can't make any money passing along this great host! :)
Hi Sean,
have you read this: http://www.scriptygoddess.com/archives/2008/02/12/buyer-beware-do-not-ho...
You are still in the 1 month money back guarantee:-)
Frans.
Thanks, Frans. I'll stick it out for another 30 days, but I'm on a monthly billing cycle rather that annually so I'm taking a pretty low risk. I learned that lesson last Friday :)
Ha! I'm running a couple of Drupal sites on a shared hosting environment, as they're not at the highly popular/mission critical stage just yet. It's crossed my mind a few times that I should ask or look for a solid Drupal-approved web host.
Are there any suggestions before I go a-Googling?
Gerard, its probably best to go a-Drupal.orging for recommendations on hosting companies for Drupal sites. Then it's a great idea to communicate directly with the company's tech department (not marketing dept) and show them the list of Drupal requirements.
I've recommended Dreamhost before, they get mixed reviews. I've specifically -not- recommended DWHS, iPowerweb, and A Small Orange for various reasons. But really, all of these companies in the shared hosting realm fluctuate in service and performance. I've come to accept that part of running Drupal in a shared environment means regularly migrating sites to new hosts.
I've had my freelance sites on pair.com for 9 years now (drupal sites the last 2 years) and I may never move. Great, responsive service on fast servers but definitely not $5 per month.
Great photo.
You truly look like someone who broke out of his crapy hosting ;-)
... reminds me of myself when I quit site5.
Sean,
Why not try a bit expensive host, i am hosted with media temple and feel theree infrastructure is very good. I have switched a lot of hosts and it feels good to finally hve a host i knw will not sell my website performance for some cheap bucks.
Pretyy professional people, you can see the professional in their control panel, where everything works and is well thought off.
Regards,
Aditya
www.appliedeye.com/mindsatwork (u can connect with me here)
Thanks for the advice, Adi. I had tried media temple some time ago and wasn't impressed with their grid server performance. This time around I chose to abandon shared hosting altogether and place my important websites on the VPS tier of service. I figured I had just outgrown shared hosting entirely, as lost of Drupal sites tend to do very quickly, and as expected it is a major improvement.
I would highly recommend Linode as I've used them first hand for a bunch of my Drupal sites. I wrote up a review of it here: Linode Review.
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