What kind of web hosting is most suitable for me?

Question

I'm planning to host a game server. I've got some code written (not a lot), and now I'm looking for a hosting service for it. It should be able to handle at least 20-30 simultaneous clients. It is not open source.

I've read the wikipedia article here .

I started with a free hosting service (Freehostia) but it obviously didn't have what I needed.

The two options I'm considering are VPS (virtual private server) hosting; and shared hosting. VPS hosting will definitely meet my needs, but I think it may be overkill. The best VPS I've found is Fsckvps which offers unmanaged hosting. Shared hosting for me might not be enough, but is a few dollars cheaper than VPS.

Which should I choose?

Answer 1

http://www.slicehost.com/ has excellent service and an iphone app to manage the server

Answer 2

Well if you're talking about a few dollars, one option being possible overkill and one option not being enough, I would pay the few extra dollars. It's always better to have too much than to little.

That being said, most places will let you change your service. Your best bet is to put it up on the cheaper option, and get 20-30 people together to stress test it. If it doesn't have enough horsepower, step up your service.

Without knowing what kind of network traffic and server end processor draw your game takes it's very tough to answer.

Are you hosting a server for a game released by a major company? l4d, team fortress, unreal, etc.? If so, you can probably just google "team fortress server" and get a ton of hits. If it's something you made yourself, then you're going to have to stress test to get the sweet spot of price and performance.