Need hosting advice

W

wrkalot

Member
This site has been with SiteGround (GrowBig plan) since 2013. I was on vB 4.2.x and recently migrated to xenForo 1.5. I was starting to get throttled for excessive daily executions and blamed vB but it's worse now that I am on xF. I've tried blocking bots and blank refers, removing add ons, etc and nothing helps. This morning I tried to active memcached, which they offer, but was told via chat that they don't support xF. I'm like... really?

Anyway, it's time to move on. It's been years since I have researched hosting and need help! The site is not large but it is a good earner... Discussions: 9,287, Messages: 67,919, Members: 3,932 and around 8k sessions per month.

Any suggestions?
 
To be honest most hosts would accommodate that without issue. Depends what you want to spend per month?
 
$15 per month might be the problem. You can't really get fast stuff for that.

Is it shared hosting, VPS, or standalone server, at the moment?

If you have size and scaling problems, going with a cloud host, like Amazon or Google, gives you the true growth flexibility. You can literally just click to make the RAM or CPU bigger. As I understand it, Google cloud compute currently has a free 1st year deal. The issue then is you need tech know how, or need to pay for it, to transfer it across.

If I remember from google, you can get a single dedicated CPU core for about $15 a month if you commit to a year. Don't know if that's more or less powerful than what you have now, but I'm guessing more.
 
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For unmanaged VPS, Linode or Digital Ocean would be the way to go here. $5 plan should be plenty to handle a site like that. Shared hosting is a bit more hit and miss depending on the provider. I'd hit up Web Hosting Talk for recommendations on that.
 
Assuming you're using their shared hosting, and assuming you're using cPanel, you should be able to access the stats and see what exactly you are being throttled for. Is it CPU? Is it processes? Also, you should be able to ask SiteGround what exactly their limits are. It might be a matter of finding a shared host with higher limits, or as others have said, it might be a matter of moving to a VPS.

That said, if you need cPanel with a VPS, that isn't going to happen within your budget.
 
Thank you all for the comments. The issues, they say, is with Account Executions.

I have 7 forums total but only 2 on the siteground account, the others are on 2 different hostgator accounts. Forums are a hobby/addiction I have :) I am not opposed to spending more but I also have no interest in something unmanaged. Again, I haven't looked at hosting for a few years so I am a bit out of touch/clueless these days. I haven't had any issues with hostgator but I did have major issues with Arvixe when they were purchased by EIG. What a nightmare that was.

I'll have to do some research on VPS. I would be a bit nervous putting all of my eggs in one basket but hosting all sites on one account would be an option. More than $30 per month for that would be pushing it though.
 
You can try Cloudways. At about the same cost as shared hosting, you can get managed VPS from Digital Ocean or Vultr. They have free trial so can test the speed/resource without paying. Support is also instant because they're always online on chat.
 
wrkalot said:
More than $30 per month for that would be pushing it though.
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Honestly, if you're at the $30 a month mark, your best bet is to go to an unmanaged VPS with Linode, buy your cPanel license from cPanel directly -- $17 per month if paying annually, otherwise $20 per month, monthly plan -- install that onto your $10 Linode VPS and you now have a managed VPS.

What? Did I just say managed?

Yes, I did. Once you buy your own license from cPanel, you now have managed cPanel direct support. They respond to tickets usually within minutes, maybe half an hour if super busy, but near instantly IF the issue is critical (i.e. server is down). That's right, managed VPS that you can scale at will, locate in the specific datacenter globally that best suits you (about 6 or 7 choices from memory), with the full benefits of unmanaged scaling, upgrades and such.

cPanel has built-in upgrades, so it will even upgrade your server safely, and if an issue occurs, cPanel will fix it as part of your license.

Obviously you can now install as many sites as you want with full root access and no limitations to your WHM. You can run PHP-FPM on each account uniquely, run the latest stable MariaDB software and more.

Thats how you get managed hosting with all the benefits of unmanaged root access, zero limitations.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
Honestly, if you're at the $30 a month mark, your best bet is to go to an unmanaged VPS with Linode, buy your cPanel license from cPanel directly -- $17 per month if paying annually, otherwise $20 per month, monthly plan -- install that onto your $10 Linode VPS and you now have a managed VPS.

What? Did I just say managed?

Yes, I did. Once you buy your own license from cPanel, you now have managed cPanel direct support. They respond to tickets usually within minutes, maybe half an hour if super busy, but near instantly IF the issue is critical (i.e. server is down). That's right, managed VPS that you can scale at will, locate in the specific datacenter globally that best suits you (about 6 or 7 choices from memory), with the full benefits of unmanaged scaling, upgrades and such.

cPanel has built-in upgrades, so it will even upgrade your server safely, and if an issue occurs, cPanel will fix it as part of your license.

Obviously you can now install as many sites as you want with full root access and no limitations to your WHM. You can run PHP-FPM on each account uniquely, run the latest stable MariaDB software and more.

Thats how you get managed hosting with all the benefits of unmanaged root access, zero limitations.
Click to expand...

No, no, no. Support from cPanel is nowhere near the same as management. Please do not confuse the two. They support cPanel, and that is it. They're not going to fix your server for you (unless cPanel is causing the problem), they aren't going to do updates other than the ones that cPanel handles, they aren't going to apply security patches that aren't cPanel related, they aren't going to do the myriad of other things that a server management company would do.

There are no responses within minutes. There is no means of indicating on a ticket if the issue is critical or not. You can pay extra for priority support, which puts you further ahead in the queue and sets you back $35, but you do not somehow jump ahead of all the other tickets because your server is down. The only way you are going to get instant support is to use the phone option, and that costs $65/incident.

@wrkalot you can email cPanel directly and ask them these things, and verify the scope of their support. I promise you server management is not going to be one of the things they mention. ;)

What you need to ask yourself, is why do you need management? What are you trying to accomplish with server management? Do you not know how to set the server up? Do you not know how to apply security patches? etc.

If you don't need them often, I always suggest just paying for a management company one-off when you need them, rather than paying for it all the time. Generally speaking, it's going to be around $30-60/hr. depending on who you choose, but if you pay that once or twice a year vs. paying $30+/mo. extra to go with a managed server company, there's a big difference.
 
WSWD said:
They support cPanel, and that is it.
Click to expand...
cPanel has pretty much everything in it that the majority of website owners ever need.
WSWD said:
They're not going to fix your server for you (unless cPanel is causing the problem)
Click to expand...
There are two things when using cPanel, the hardware (looked after by the host, Linode, DO, etc) and the software, all of which once you install the Centos on your Linode / Droplet, is all then managed by WHM. I have used cPanel support to fix OS updates via the WHM console, and they absolutely fix such issues because they provide the feature. If it breaks, they fix it. I've had them do it for me.

WSWD said:
they aren't going to do updates other than the ones that cPanel handles, they aren't going to apply security patches that aren't cPanel related
Click to expand...
Updates for both the OS and cPanel are done via WHM. Any issues in either process and cPanel absolutely fix the issue, update the system and go forward. I had an OS update cause DB issues, taking out a site, they fixed that too.
WSWD said:
they aren't going to do the myriad of other things that a server management company would do.
Click to expand...
Like? When the hardware is looked after by the host, the software by cPanel, what else does the average website owner need? Anything custom a host charges you for nowadays. Often even when you have managed hosting. No different if using cPanel... you get someone to do any custom aspects at setup, or once a year if needed, just like you outlined above.

Otherwise, hosting management is not needed.

WSWD said:
There are no responses within minutes.
Click to expand...
Most of my responses have been within minutes from cPanel support. They're usually very quick when you outline the issue, give them direct access via their system, and away they go to correct the issue. They usually tell you when starting, then again when fixed. There is no need for discussion with them and their instant access system.

You're a host. You have one view. I have another. Managed hosting is not a requirement nowadays like it used to be. Its cheaper to buy SSD VPS with a cPanel license direct, once setup, anyone used to cPanel can then manage their day to day aspects. Setup is always the tedious part... beyond that, there is no need to touch a server more often than not. cPanel even make setup super easy... one line of code from the built-in SSH client.

There are lots of cases where managed hosting is ideal, custom work may be needed by larger sites... but for the majority, install Centos, install cPanel, adjust the default settings to suit, upload site and away you go. If already using cPanel... import it and everything just keeps working.

I like my custom NGINX setup... but I do a similar setup for people who like the ease of cPanel... once done, it just keeps working for them.
 
wrkalot said:
This site has been with SiteGround (GrowBig plan) since 2013. I was on vB 4.2.x and recently migrated to xenForo 1.5. I was starting to get throttled for excessive daily executions and blamed vB but it's worse now that I am on xF. I've tried blocking bots and blank refers, removing add ons, etc and nothing helps. This morning I tried to active memcached, which they offer, but was told via chat that they don't support xF. I'm like... really?
Click to expand...

Really disappointed, right? and felt want to move to a new host?
If that then I was in your case.

wrkalot said:
Anyway, it's time to move on. It's been years since I have researched hosting and need help! The site is not large but it is a good earner... Discussions: 9,287, Messages: 67,919, Members: 3,932 and around 8k sessions per month.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You are having a decent forum and to grow it you need to at least a fast VPS or a small dedicated server.
I would suggest using Vultr or OVH or Linode, there are many comparisons for these hosting companies here: Vultr vs. OVH vs. Ramnode vs. Linode vs. Digitalocean

If you want to have good price, go with OVH or Linode, vice versa, if you want to have good support then Vultr can be a good choice.

Hope that helps!
 
OVH is awesome... but gets a bit restrictive on actual physical location compared to others. They like to sell their IP geolocation as a Google statement vs what is best for your users.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
You're a host. You have one view. I have another.
Click to expand...

True, but that doesn't mean I'm a fan of managed hosting. I'm not. Like I said, most people don't need it, and can just get one-off management as needed.

That said, relying on the cPanel people to manage your server is just plain stupid, IMO. Your experiences with them are wildly different than mine and most people I know. I would sure be curious to know why. They will definitely help fix a lot, that's for sure. But I certainly wouldn't rely on them if the server was broken.

Anthony Parsons said:
Most of my responses have been within minutes from cPanel support. They're usually very quick when you outline the issue, give them direct access via their system, and away they go to correct the issue.
Click to expand...

And this is exactly what leads me to believe that you are stretching the facts. They have a ticket queue set up in their support system. Providing them with direct access, outlining the issue, etc. (which you are required to do anyway) does not get you through that queue any faster, period. In fact, there are currently 47 normal tickets in the queue plus 31 priority tickets. If I submitted a ticket right now, and became ticket number 79, you're telling me that they are going to get through 78 other tickets, and get to mine within minutes? o_O Not going to happen. I'm a cPanel partner. Still not going to happen. I've had tickets sit for 24+ hours before being addressed, and I can assure you I outlined the issue and gave them direct access. ;)

That's why I'm saying, if your server is down and you are looking for cPanel to fix it in a matter of minutes, I promise that isn't going to happen, especially over the weekend. And that might be perfectly fine for a personal site where downtime isn't a big deal. Just depends on your expectations for your site.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
OVH is awesome... but gets a bit restrictive on actual physical location compared to others. They like to sell their IP geolocation as a Google statement vs what is best for your users.
Click to expand...

Sure, until your server gets shut down and all of the data is deleted because their automatic payment system is broken when you have several months worth of credit on the account and a card attached. Not to mention no sort of overdue notice, or notice that the automatic payment failed.
 
Thank you all for your input, and those that have contacted me privately. For a variety of reasons I decided to go with a reseller account with HawkHost. So far I am very happy with the decision. I got all of my sites moved and things are ticking along quite well so far.
 
wrkalot said:
Thank you all for your input, and those that have contacted me privately. For a variety of reasons I decided to go with a reseller account with HawkHost. So far I am very happy with the decision. I got all of my sites moved and things are ticking along quite well so far.
Click to expand...

I was actually about to suggest HawkHost I have been using them for a couple of months and really like them so far but only on a regular shared plan not a reseller plan. I like that they offer memcache and now Redis.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
Once you buy your own license from cPanel, you now have managed cPanel direct support. They respond to tickets usually within minutes, maybe half an hour if super busy, but near instantly IF the issue is critical
Click to expand...

Wait.. What? cPanel support replying within minutes? Instant if critical? They don't even have an option to mark a ticket critical. Yes you can PAY to bump your ticket to the front, which even then you normally have about 15-20 tickets on an average ahead of you. Any time I have put in a ticket, I don't ever recall a queue of under 60 tickets ahead of me and it normally takes 6-8 hours to receive a first reply and up to 12 hours is the average to resolve. Issues escalated up the support ladder can sit open longer than 24 hours, even as long as 72+ hours.

and please, for the love of humanity don't tell someone that cPanel support is the same as managed support as it is not. cPanel support fixes cPanel issues. Even if you have a heavy server load, they won't fix it for you. They might offer tips on what to adjust or links to tutorials, but they won't touch any config or server files outside of the cPanel folders. So you tell someone you have managed now.. So are you going to fix their server for them when they have a kernel panic and the server won't boot cause of it. Contacting cPanel, you'll wait hours while your server is offline only to be told "this is out of our scope of support, you will need to contact your hosting provider" Then VPS provider replies to your ticket with them "Sorry but we are an unmanaged provider, would you like me to boot your container up using a recovery cd?" So now, this person is screwed because he has no "managed" support.
 
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