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This web hosting review was started by tonysayz on 2009-02-14 15:32:53:

Customer Profile:

Currently I am hosted on A small orange’s tiny 75 MB / 3000 MB plan on the Aaron server.
I’ve been with them for 2-3 years now but I need to change to a faster server. Right now, it loads too slow for me to get any real work done and I am flirting with the limits.

A little info about me: I’ve been designing web sites since I was in elementary school and using geocities around 10 years ago. Been a member of these forums for almost as long but I don’t really post unless I am in the market. Sorry for lack of contributions, there’s just too many communities on the net to become involved in and so little time. Maybe I’ll write a review on ASO soon enough but there’s already so much info on that giant. My previous hosts include:

• CI Host
• Host Yard
• Host Rocket
• rokland hosting
• Host Gator
• A Small Orange

Although, I may have gotten a few names wrong or missed somce since I don’t keep an official record and it’s been a decade. I usually stay with each host for at least a year, usually more, so I can be a pretty loyal customer.

I’m also not a very high maintenance customer.
I won’t be emailing support every week when I have trouble setting up scripts. I prefer being given the tools to do everything by myself rather than constantly harassing others. A wiki, a forum, and an FAQ or two would be all I need to survive. However, I still contact support once in awhile when I’m not given control over some features so I would appreciate fast responses when I do. That being said, I’m flexible and would always be willing to help out a host that needs to move me to a new server or similar circumstances. Stuff happens that you can’t avoid, and that’s ok. As long as the host treats me like a customer and informs me then I will never go in postal.

My site is flexible and portable.
It’s just a hobbyist’s wordpress blog. I do more graphic designing than actually blogging so I’m more likely to eat up bandwidth and space. The bandwidth eaters are mostly posts of screenshots and a graphic showcase of my work. I also use a few pngs as signatures which I hotlink to in forums and tend to get a lot of hits. I also mess around with PHP scripts every once in awhile but nothing outrageously resource consuming like a forum. I use gmail / forwarders so I don’t even bother with setting up email accounts. I just started it a few weeks ago and it doesn’t have that many posts yet so I can’t give you specifics on visitor counts since it is a work in progress.

Speed is the biggest issue for me.
Currently, my server is just way too slow when I’m updating my site live. I feel bad for the server and I know I probably should do everything on my local server first but my custom scripts run differently on my computer so I need a live environment. Speedy MySQL database is also nice so I hate unlimited MySQL plans where customers let their scripts run rampant or install every CMS there is just because they can.

In fact, I hate all unlimited plans and more so I hate games.
I’m straightforward and direct and I expect my web host to be the same. I don’t want to have to guess what my true bandwidth or space is. Unlimited plans = uncertainty and that destroys my peace of mind. Limits set my mind at rest since they are something tangible that I can deal with and fix by upgrading when needed. Some people like me need structure and efficiency and not pointless dreams of an unlimited future. Give me a number, there’s so many to choose from that you think it would be easy. Doesn’t even have to be round, 734 MB would be good enough.

However, I’m not an extremist who says I only go with big hosts or small hosts and overselling is the devil.
I won’t ask for impossible things like 100% up time, the best host, a host with 100% positive reviews, or is so cheap it’s practically free. I’m a reasonable customer who wants a reasonable host that can do its job. It’s a simple concept that is lost among many with the plethora of exaggerated numbers and superlatives. Just give me a site that works. One where I don’t have to sit and wait forever while I FTP files, one where the site doesn’t time out whenever I am updating a PHP script and refreshing 10 times a minute, and one where I can use up the limits of my plan without being yelled at or threatened.

I’ve really digressed and starting ranting and this post is starting to reach the requirements for a tl;dr reply so here are my bare minimum requirements. I say that because I will likely go over them in the future, but not at the moment. At the moment, I would prefer to keep things efficient and only upgrade when necessary rather than buying too much and then having to scale down. Being around for 10 years makes me realize how little I end up using sites and I just don’t feel like playing games anymore. I don’t need anything more than what I listed so something with 5000 MB of space and 20000 GB bandwidth isn’t going to make it better for me. In fact, that may hurt it a bit because I know I can’t take them seriously. No games, just business.

Budget: $5-10 Monthly

Shared Hosting Requirements:

• 500 MB space
• 5000 MB bandwidth
• 1 MySQL DB
• 1 Domain
• 1 Sub-domain
• no emails required, just forwarders
• Linux Server w/Apache
• Cron Jobs
• PHP 5.xx
• Administrative Panel - cPanel preferred but flexible
• Prompt email / ticket support - preferred method of contact

Three big requirements:

• Must allow hot-linking to images
  I use up about 1 GB a week from php generated signature/profile graphics I place in a social networking site.
• Must have great upgrade plans
  I hate waste and bogus unlimited plans so I would prefer going the basic route and then upgrading when I truly need it. I’d be willing to spend $20+ a month if the day ever comes when I need it but judging from past experience, this probably won’t happen.
• Pay Monthly
  I hate paying yearly. I’ve used sites for a few months heavily in the past and then dropped the project a few months later only to have to waste the rest of the pre-paid months.

Small host vs big host:

Frankly, I don’t care. If they meet my requirements then either is fine. My rule for big companies is I hate unlimited extreme oversellers but if they provide plans at the right price with the right amount of speed, reliability, support, and have a good track record then they are fine. A little overselling doesn’t hurt either. For small companies, the rule of thumb for me is as long as they don’t make it hard for me to find information about them then they are ok. If they are a decent company then I should be able to hear about them easily and I shouldn’t have to work at it.

Currently looking at:

OK, I fail. I have a few considerations atm but I don’t want to list them and skew the results thinking that that’s the type of company I’m looking for. There is no mold, there is only flexibility and understanding. I think I gave as much info as I could to narrow the scope but I’d like to avoid tunnel vision. Also, it isn’t as extensive as a list as I would like but I don’t have as much time going around this time so I can’t research as much as I’d like to. That’s why I’m hoping you guys could narrow it down for me a little bit. I apologize for not doing it myself and asking for help but I hope you’ll give me just a tiny bit of slack.

I think I covered everything. It amazes me how much this forum changes every time I use it to find a new web host. Over the past 7 or so years I think I’ve searched for a web host 3 different ways on this site. Any help in recommendations or pointing me in the right direction for further research would be appreciated. Thank you so much for reading my long recommendation request / rant. Have a great day!

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