Good PHP hosting options?

Question

Surprisingly, it seems this question hasn't been asked yet (or at least I couldn't find it). I'm after a "good" PHP hosting solution. Obviously "good" is a subjective term, so I'll provide some guidelines:

• Scalable solutions from cheap shared to dedicated with easy transition between them (ie a smooth and relatively painless upgrade path);
• MySQL 5.1 (preferably);
• PHP 5.2.8;
• Relatively good uptime and support turnaround (yes, I realize this is one of those "you get what you pay for" criteria);
• Secure. I came across this question on shared server setup. What is the typical security situation with hosting providers?
• Relatively generous quotas, particularly with database storage;
• Opcode caching of some kind (eg APC); and
• memcached access would be a nice-to-have.

Anything else I should be aware of when shopping around? There are a plethora of PHP hosting providers out there so it's hard to tell what the differences are (if any), apart from the obvious metrics (cost, bandwidth, disk space, etc).

EDIT: added requirements about opcode and other caching.

Answer 1

When looking for a shared hosting provide I like to do a few probes of their servers to see if there are any obvious security problems that have over-looked.

It's bad enough when we forget something in the code but to have your site compromised because of the hosting company is unacceptable, although this is not a major problem with the BIG hosting companies but, is still good to do.

Answer 2

This company allows you to host your code for pennies unless you actually end up with a fair amount of traffic. They have both PHP5 and PHP4 support.

https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/

The nice thing about their pricing model is that you only pay for bandwidth you use - AND they charge you a fair price. I haven't used them but that's primarily because I have a dedicated server I don't want to give up.

Answer 3

For small sites I've never had a problem with Godaddy (don't hate me) but as soon as it gets big I usually just move it to a small dedicated server at ServerPronto.

Answer 4

i like HostICan .. they sell a full range of services .. Never had any problems

Answer 5

I must agree with the other answerer and say that I've also never had a problem with GoDaddy for small websites. The only problem I've had (and it's not really a problem, I suppose) is that the economy plan only allows you to host one domain on that plan. One of the sometimes overlooked pluses about GoDaddy is the 24 hour support- that means you can call them right now (midnight on Christmas), and you'll reach a support person. (I've used GoDaddy for 2+ years now.)

Another hosting company which I have had zero problems with is WebFaction. It's a bit more expensive than most shared hosting, but it's highly rated by many. It's still shared hosting though and you will run into issues if you keep growing. (I've used WebFaction for about 6 months now.)

For something with a little more horsepower, I would suggest SliceHost. They are owned by Rackspace, an established hosting company. They offer VPSes, and if you start to hit high loads on one "slice" you can purchase another slice, and I think they will handle the load balancing for you. You get full root access, but I believe you'll have to have a basic grasp of Linux commands in order to get your VPS properly working.

For even more horsepower, you can, of course, get a dedicated server. I have had good experience in the past with a dedicated server from Gate.com, but I have also heard good things about ThePlanet and SoftLayer.

Answer 6

I spent a good deal of time last year researching hosting companies when I outgrew my shared host. Most of these companies offer the same types of services with similar tiered pricing structures, to the point that it's become a comodity.

But after using several hosts over the years, the difference is in their customer service and support. I cannot stand calling with a technical question and having to explain it three times as my problem gets escalated through a support group. This happens a lot with shared hosting companies that cater to the end user.

I had great experiences with Rackspace when I was in the corporate world. They are very attentive to your needs and issues, but that comes at a price.

My goal was to find a company that took customer service seriously, but won't cost me hundreds a month. My research led me to ServInt, where I have a VPS solution, and every time I have called with a support issue, I have spoken to an engineer in their NOC (not an operator or front-line customer service person). My issues get solved in a tenth of the time that they used to take, and that makes me look good to my clients.

They are geared at developers, agencies and resellers, so their solutions are more sophisticated than the shared hosts--their basic setup is a VPS with everything you'd get in a shared host, plus root access and no limits on databases, email addresses or subdomains. Charge your clients $20 a month and you only need three of them to break even on the service.

Answer 7

Shared? I've used A Small Orange before. I have a bunch of friends currently hosted there. It's been about 2 years since I've used them myself (need a VPS for my needs); but from what I hear, they are still pretty good.

If you're interested in a VPS, I have nothing but good things to say about PowerVPS. Also check out Steadfast (shared, dedi or vps) -- my work currently has a few dedicated servers from them and we can't complain.

Answer 8

I'm quite a fan of RimuHosting. Its more tailored to experienced users though, they'll give you a linux box (XEN Vps, depending on your choice), with root access via ssh to the distribution of your choice.

You can ask them to install whatever you want ( within reason ) for you and they'll do the initial setup for you.

They have great staff, whom know what they're doing, great support, great uptime. I'm about to get my first outage in a year because they need to upgrade some switches on the rack I'm on for a bandwidth increase.

They also have DNS servers you can delegate your records to, and I can say, I've seen lots of different DNS administration interfaces, theirs doesn't suck for a change.

They have a referral service, but I think they're so awesome I don't need to try make a profit of pimping them. ;)

When I signed up, they had me up and going, with SSH root access in under 4 hours ( with the tools I requested installed ) from the initial request, and it was a SUNDAY, and I handn't even paid them yet, you really can't beat that sort of service.

Answer 9

MediaTemple is also really, like really nice.

Answer 10

eUKhost have excellent support and reasonable pricing for the UK.

Answer 11

I've been very happy with NEXCESS.NET

Answer 12

Our business has been very happy with Rackspace. They may be above what your budget permits but they really are committed to service -- they seem to be thinking about how to serve us best, not just how to serve us in the lowest-cost way.

Answer 13

I just found this eAccelerator based PHP hosting and since I'm interested in PHP hosting with opcode caching I thought I'd post it here.

Answer 14

Axishift Web Hosting has good plans and support for developers, http://www.axishift.com. It caters the Asian market.