Finding the right VPS

Question

The market is flooded with VPS (virtual private server) hosting options. It seems everyone and their mother has a overloaded server in his/her closet. Enterprise options always seem priced insanely high, which make the ones that are cheap and claim enterprise level seem shaky.

What do you look for in a quality VPS provider (language support, 24/hr tech, etc), and how if at all do you check their credibility?

Answer 1

I think one way is to look for ones that reputable sites use. For example, I learnt about Slicehost through Refactor my Code using it, and I love it. :-)

Answer 2

I've had good luck with Linode. I run Utility Mill through them. They run great, reasonable rates, and there are always people able to help you in their IRC room.

Back when I was researching, Slicehost also looked very promising but they had a waiting list at that time.

Answer 3

I've tried quite a few of them. The only one that I can recommend wholeheartedly is Slicehost. They are incredibly good at what they do. I have many clients running on their systems.

Answer 4

I use rackforce. I havnt had a problem with mine, but then i dont have anything large scale on it. One thing about them that is good is they are on a borderline of two powergrids and backbones.(so i have heard)

Just stay away from Webserve.ca. They are HORRIBLE, horrible support, they mess things up, slow to resolve problems. and i heard they are a reseller. I tried them a while back when i just needed something quick and didnt do any searching. Bad bad bad.

Answer 5

The best way to find good or bad references about a hosting service, is always googling and foruns. I always look for a good support and how flexible it's service provider is. One that i have as a development and staging server is in the "A small orange" http://www.asmallorange.com/services/vps/. They have even a developer package, that, is what i use. But i started there getting a simple cheaper hosting plan (25 dollars/year) and I checked their support, their uptime and when i felt confident in their service, i've got a VPS. I recommend it.

Answer 6

Most virtual hosting platforms will have a trial period in which you can test out their reliability. They will also give you a list of their high profile sites on their systems. Most keep track of the traffic hogs as it's a great way for them to attest their own stability.

I would recommend Slicehost as I have been with them for over a year and love the control. They have an amazing panel in which you can console in, rebuild slices, and restart slices in an instance. They also allow a VERY fast and painless memory upgrade, bandwidth pooling (taking all of your accounts bandwidth into one large pool), and they allow lots of different Linux kernel OSes.

So to answer your question without sounding like a complete advertisement:

1) Check about their remote capabilities to manage your VPS. 2) Check out their largest clients and some big sites on their systems. 3) Test out their VPS for 30 days or so and give their support a test! 4) Check out forums where people talk about services (like this thread mentioning Slicehost 3 times already). 5) Check out places and make sure people aren't complaining of overselling or crowding out servers. I know in a VPS world, things are sandboxed a lot more than shared hosts, but it's still nice to know they can handle loads. 6) Check out the abilities to move servers or add more memory to your VPS.

Those are things that I look for...

Answer 7

Check credibility on forums like http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

I am about to purchase a VPS and after some research I selected http://www.servint.com/

• Many years in the market
• Seem credible on webhostingtalk
• Managed servers: http://www.servint.net/vps/faq.php#14

Answer 8

Availability is nice, but even cheap solutions are usually sufficient.

Thing I've wanted most since I started having sites hosted: Shell access.

It is a PAIN to do everything through FTP and web interfaces.

Oh, and if your app has PHP/MySQL/Apache/IIS/.Net/JSP/etc version requirements, you'll want to check those first.

Answer 9

Selecting a VPS supplier can be tricky. Some warning signs:

• Suppliers that don't list the amount of guaranteed RAM you get with a VPS plan,
• Suppliers that don't list their contact information or office address (a lot of the small reseller outfits just list their plans and how they want your money).
• Suppliers that don't mention if they own their own hardware or resell capacity from someone else.

Out of a performance perspective there are a number of other things to consider:

• Being able to have your VPS located close to the majority of your customers (at least in the same country)
• Cost/amount of guaranteed RAM.

To list VPS plans and suppliers that at least provide this basic information try CompareVPS.com.

Answer 10

I've been with ServInt for only a month, but so far, the experience has been great. I originally grabbed a VPS from LiquidWeb after hearing some good things on forums, but was terribly disappointed. The loadtimes I was getting were awful. Though I will say that their customer service was pretty sharp. Anyways, I think you'd be making a good move by going with ServInt. So far, the performance has been wonderful, haven't really had to deal with their CS yet though. As far as unmanaged goes, I've heard Slicehost and Linode are winning that race. My 2 cents.

Answer 11

I also should add that this made me pretty confident that I was dealing with a good company, they stood up for their competitor, when they could have easily done the opposite.

http://blog.servint.net/2009/07/08/why-servint-stands-beside-rackspace-and-you-should-too/

Answer 12

You should try JoinVPS. It's cheap and enough reliable.