Web Hosting Recommendations

Question

I am developing a website and I currently host with Media Temple. I have a Virtual Dedicated server , and I often find that thing load really slow. I'm looking for recommendations on hosting specific to my needs (I already read the post on recommended hosts). I like the support and admin interface that Media TEmple has, I'm just not satisfied with performance. Here are my thoughts / questions.

I am located in New York, I am developing a site that will be New York centric. Media Temple is collocated on the west coast. I'm thinking that part of the problem is Geographic. If I were to find a host located in New York City, I would assume that the response time would be better.

This brings me to my second question. I know that performance would probably be best using something like Akamai, but I also know that that is prohibitively expensive. Many people have recommended amazon s3, but it is my understanding that that is only for media ... in other words I cant actually run my site from it.

If anyone has recommendations or useful knowledge on the best way for me to proceed. Please let me know.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Even though locality does contribute to overall latency, server response time and bandwidth are easier to control.

Total Latency = Sender Overhead + Time of Flight + (Message Size / Bandwidth) + Receiver Overhead

As for host recommendations, I've been using WebFaction for almost a year now and love it. Their control panel makes it really easy to setup a website, they have over 50 one-click installers for frameworks like Drupal, Django, Rails, Wordpress, etc., and their service plans are very flexible. Also, their customer service is amazing. I, personally, have opened a ticket at 2:00 AM and received an answer within 10 min.

Here's a 2 min video tour, and if you're still not sure, they offer a 60-day moneyback guarantee.

Answer 2

I've been a Liquid Web (referral link) user for about a year, and they've been great. Super fast support response, and really personable customer service. They have data centers in the east and the west.

Beyond that, I know that StackOverflow just moved to Peer1 in NYC as well.

Answer 3

HostGator (referral link) is one of the more popular hosts. I used them for a while and had great service. I never used their dedicated solutions but have always had great customer service and good speeds.

If you're on a tight budget, this might be a good solution for you.

Answer 4

Hi,

I would be interested in learning a little bit more about this website and in particular I would like to know if it is mission critical. The deciding factor will play into uptime, performance and the level of expertise to keep things running in an optimal state.

There are not many players in NYC however I myself am a native of the city and have found a few whom offer the level of services you may be looking for. All of the providers will want to win your business so it is important to have an outline for what else you are looking for.

I'd go into more depth on if it is just performance which would also include geographic load balancing or are you also looking for the management aspect of things such as hardware (replacements free) 100% uptime SLA guarantee on not just the hardware and performance but the application and lastly the expertise to handle the operations and database layer.

I'm also a bit curious to know what platform this runs on.

Most of the enterprise providers will offer CDN such as Akamai and that will allow your peering in a transparent layer regardless of hosting premises.

If you are looking for NYC only and like to meet face to face with your provider, I highly recommend taking a look at Logicworks for hosting.