Cheap host to start - Xenforo

ioneti

Active member
Hi

I want to start a new forum and im searching for a cheap&good host to start it.

I dont want to pay for a big host beacuse is a crazy idea forum.

Which do you recommended me?

Thanks a lot!
 
As long as you don't need access to shell any shared hosting should be OK. (Elastic search)

As such php/mysql is the bare requirements.

If you are unsure ask them if xenforo will work on their servers. If they don't help then don't be a customer.

You don't need to go to the bigger plans either, even if your a picture/video hosting site. And if you do need more space talking to your host should be easy.

That's why having a taking relationship is important.

Also ignore unlimited plans. If it does take off and I wish you the best, unlimited plans tend not to be unlimited when you consume 90% of a server.

Again if your not technical this is where having a good relationship with your host can help because he could migrate you to a dedicated server.

Obviously that costs more and more but hopefully there is a long term plan on how to make it pay for its self.

The jist of my post is it's important to have a good relationship with your host.
 
Almost any host that supports php and mysql/mariadb will do.

I suggest to ask on http://webhostingtalk.com/
Its a forum where hosting companies hang out, you'll find plenty of good deals there. You can also use it to check for decent feedback (unlike "review" websites that are 100% ads spam) on hosting companies.

Ok, thanks

You can also look into the Third-Party Services & Offers section on this forum. A few hosts advertise on this forum and are generally active within XF which might be a plus.

Ive write to a host and send me 20$ month...
 
You can get pretty good hosting from asmallorange.com for a few bucks a month or like $25 a year.

They aren't as great as they used to be, but they're still pretty decent for the price.
 
I think simultaneous connections are the biggest thing for a forum. If you think you'll have less than 50 people online at the same time, you can start off with a bottom of the barrel shared host, imo.
 
Almost any host that supports php and mysql/mariadb will do.

I suggest to ask on http://webhostingtalk.com/
Its a forum where hosting companies hang out, you'll find plenty of good deals there. You can also use it to check for decent feedback (unlike "review" websites that are 100% ads spam) on hosting companies.

^ He's right. That's the best site to find your deal.

If you want to check out my host it's an option as well. There very professional for such a cheap price.

www.nuwebhosting.com
 
You can get pretty good hosting from asmallorange.com for a few bucks a month or like $25 a year.

They aren't as great as they used to be, but they're still pretty decent for the price.
And they are an EIG company... and you get what you "pay" for with any of the EIG subsidiary companies like them. Typically recommended to stay FAR away from anyone associated with EIG.
 
And they are an EIG company... and you get what you "pay" for with any of the EIG subsidiary companies like them. Typically recommended to stay FAR away from anyone associated with EIG.

Care to explain further? I hadn't hosted websites for like 6 years before starting my latest project so I'm out of the loop in regards to these things
 
DigitalOcean offers $5/month boxes, which gives you full shell access. I love them because you can create/destroy your VPS (droplet) in seconds. It's also pay by the hour and resizable, so you can easily test and scale at low costs.

I've also found them to be ridiculously fast and reliable.

If you choose the default LEMP stack and do some tweaking + caching, you can get a lot of concurrent users for your $5 :)
 
Care to explain further?
Ref: EIG
This thread entitled "Headsup ASO has been purchased by EIG" on our board will enlighten you fairly quick. The thread is a compulation of data from all over the web, including admin reviews of their experiences after EIG purchased the companies they were using as hosts.

We went with ASO in 2006 when we started our board and had been pretty happy up until Dec 2015.

Fast-Forward until this month and our website has been down for 442 minutes so far in May. :eek:

I've put a lot of time and effort into researching our next host and @MattW (i.e. MattWServices) is who we plan on going with.
 
ASO Terms of Service reads:
14. Uptime Guarantee

14.1. A Small Orange guarantees that your website and services that directly affect its display to the Internet (such as HTTP or MySQL) will be accessible 99.9% of the time in any given calendar month. If A Small Orange fails to meet its uptime guarantee, you will be issued a credit equivalent to one (1) day of service per forty five (45) minutes downtime. The first 45 minutes (or 0.1%) of downtime per month are not counted towards any credit and the maximum credit available is one (1) month of service. This clause does not apply to subscribers of Virtual Private Servers ("VPS"), Cloud Hosting, Semi-Dedicated, or Dedicated Server packages.

14.2. Credits are only available for future services/invoices and cannot be issued as refunds. All credit requests must be sent via email to A Small Orange's billing department no later than the tenth (10th) day of the month following the SLA (as that term is defined below) violation. Credits are issued based on the uptime for the previous calendar month only and requests not submitted within the required time frame cannot be approved.

So the first 45mins (each month) of downtime doesn't cost them anything, and only after you've had a second 45mins (or more) of downtime are you allowed file-a-claim for it.

During April, we just missed having a second 45mins of downtime so we could not file-a-claim for the lost time. As soon as May comes to a close, then we can file for it.

As for any reason(s) for the downtime on the ASO Blog, not a word has been mentioned about it and the ASO Forums (for open customer discussions) have been completely removed.(It was formerly located at http://forums.asmallorange.com/index.php but now redirects to https://status.asmallorange.com/index.php instead.) On that page, the last 5 notices appear and vary from Intermittant Networks Issues, or Network Interruptions, or Network Disturbances or just (generic) Network Issues to DNS Interruptions.

In the past (i.e. pre-EIG days) if there was any significant downtime, ASO would email us, state the problem and announce they were automatically crediting everyone's account for X-days. I think that happened once or twice, during our 9+ years with them. Nowadays (i.e. post-EIG buyout) instead, mum's-the-word.

Offhand I would estimate we had less than 15min/year of downtime with ASO over the past decade, so they used to be a stellar host in their pre-EIG days.

If I could only make two points to folks shopping for a host (especially newbies) in regards to EIG, they would be:

1)
“If this company buys a company you work for, don't walk away, run!”
Pros
None really, they don't do anything at all good for their employees. They expect you to devote your life to the job so there is no balance.

Cons
Once EIG acquires a company, they slowly start having the employees train their DIYA team (call center in India) to do the work, and then lay off the American employees. They will also start taking away perks, bit by bit. So if you get acquired, start looking for other opportunities before you are forced out the door. I watched it happen to many good, hard working employees. (source EIG Employee Reviews)

2)
As of 01/26/2016, here are their Better Business Bureau Statistics...
Screen Shot 2016-01-26 at 12.46.38 AM.webp
 
Wow.

What does ASO have to say about the downtime? Do you / they know what the cause is?

No clue, but they are down again right now and have been for a few hours now.

I'm actively seeking a new hosting company as I type this, found a few VPS hosts that I may just make the jump to one of them if I can figure out a way to swing it on my sites budget.
 
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