Shared Hosts Optimized For XenForo

[DRE]

Do any of you have experience with the following shared hosts that advertise as being optimized for XenForo? I've tried www.urljet.com and www.mddhosting.com shared hosting and not satisified with my site's performance. It takes forever to rebuild templates. None of those sites are optimized for xenForo forum software unfortunately.


LimeVPS - It says I do not have permission to view their thread on xenforo.com.

This looks kinda fishy: http://xfhosting.com/

I'll google some more later and update this thread with my findings.

 

[Ghan_04]

lol

I really would not trust any hosts that advertise as being optimized for such a specific piece of software without a good bit of hard evidence. You're much better off getting your own unmanaged VPS and setting it up yourself because every Xenforo board is different in terms of what resources it will need and it's very unlikely that any such host will take the time necessary to figure out your particular site and tailor to its needs.
There is nothing magical about Xenforo that enables you as a server administrator to set it up in such a way that it somehow runs Xenforo better than anything else. Likely all they have done is just optimize their MySQL and PHP configs for settings that Xenforo likes and apply that across the board for everyone.

 

[DRE]

Well said Legolas.

 

[Slavik]

https://www.viocom.co.uk/vps/forum-hosting was brought to my attension the other day. I cant vouch for them but they seem to like us

 

[vhcom]

lol

I really would not trust any hosts that advertise as being optimized for such a specific piece of software without a good bit of hard evidence. You're much better off getting your own unmanaged VPS and setting it up yourself because every Xenforo board is different in terms of what resources it will need and it's very unlikely that any such host will take the time necessary to figure out your particular site and tailor to its needs.
There is nothing magical about Xenforo that enables you as a server administrator to set it up in such a way that it somehow runs Xenforo better than anything else. Likely all they have done is just optimize their MySQL and PHP configs for settings that Xenforo likes and apply that across the board for everyone.

We've been migrating some customers over to xenforo and the amount of efforts in hosting have dramtically reduced due to how great xenforo is. Our developers love it and so do our systems administrators. We compliment our VPS range with it and we will be actively promoting it as it's less cost all round for the end customer.

All I would say in terms of hosting is that if you find one that knows Zend and understands it, then your hosting experience will be seamless. Also VPS servers can be tricky in themselves, such that, ISPs may put you on a multi-tenant box with loads of other VPSs not fit for hosting large reads to disk IO. So optimisation don't stop at just the software. We've seen it all, ISPs using virtuozzo and plesk to sell forum software and everyday the sites coming down. We agree with you getting an unmanaged vps is the wise option but if you can find a host that has a dedicated platform for just forums then you will always have them there to solve any issues on your server if any arises, before posting in here, to find out its not the software

 

[Ghan_04]

We've been migrating some customers over to xenforo and the amount of efforts in hosting have dramtically reduced due to how great xenforo is. Our developers love it and so do our systems administrators. We compliment our VPS range with it and we will be actively promoting it as it's less cost all round for the end customer.

All I would say in terms of hosting is that if you find one that knows Zend and understands it, then your hosting experience will be seamless. Also VPS servers can be tricky in themselves, such that, ISPs may put you on a multi-tenant box with loads of other VPSs not fit for hosting large reads to disk IO. So optimisation don't stop at just the software. We've seen it all, ISPs using virtuozzo and plesk to sell forum software and everyday the sites coming down. We agree with you getting an unmanaged vps is the wise option but if you can find a host that has a dedicated platform for just forums then you will always have them there to solve any issues on your server if any arises, before posting in here, to find out its not the software

I would be more inclined to believe a host saying they specialize in forum hosting, as there are certain optimization tricks (like Zend as you mentioned, as well as memcached) that work for several different forum software solutions, but in any case, I would like to see a list of things that a given host does in order to make such claims. Most of the statements I run across are just things like "We are optimized to run <insert forum software here>" and don't get into details.

 

[DRE]

I would be more inclined to believe a host saying they specialize in forum hosting, as there are certain optimization tricks (like Zend as you mentioned, as well as memcached) that work for several different forum software solutions, but in any case, I would like to see a list of things that a given host does in order to make such claims. Most of the statements I run across are just things like "We are optimized to run <insert forum software here>" and don't get into details.

Here, here! Me too!!!

 

[vhcom]

I would be more inclined to believe a host saying they specialize in forum hosting, as there are certain optimization tricks (like Zend as you mentioned, as well as memcached) that work for several different forum software solutions, but in any case, I would like to see a list of things that a given host does in order to make such claims. Most of the statements I run across are just things like "We are optimized to run <insert forum software here>" and don't get into details.

Totally agree with you.

I've been searching the net this morning, seeing a lot of experts The way I see it, it comes down to the type of host they are and more importantly the type of forum it is.

Not sure if any hosting company would go into detail about their setup though.

But it comes down to the type of support you will recieve, the quality in their hosting platform (i.e. are they just putting your forum on any kit), redundancy (many will not backup your data and would expect you to pay for it), their understanding of the forum software:- company wide, multi-tenancy (putting too much VPSs on a single platform not taking into consideration the hardware), and a lot of other factors such as development for addons etc.

Then there is the consideration for large traffic forums. How can they provide the right solution for you?

 

[DRE]

Totally agree with you.

I've been searching the net this morning, seeing a lot of experts The way I see it, it comes down to the type of host they are and more importantly the type of forum it is.

Not sure if any hosting company would go into detail about their setup though.

But it comes down to the type of support you will recieve, the quality in their hosting platform (i.e. are they just putting your forum on any kit), redundancy (many will not backup your data and would expect you to pay for it), their understanding of the forum software:- company wide, multi-tenancy (putting too much VPSs on a single platform not taking into consideration the hardware), and a lot of other factors such as development for addons etc.

Then there is the consideration for large traffic forums. How can they provide the right solution for you?

Your lowest VPS xenforo package is 24.99 british pounds aka 38 us dollarsa month and has no plugin limitations?

Do animated avatars work and do modifications like Digitalpoint's User Map work? That modification requires GeoIP

 

[vhcom]

Hi 8thos,

Your lowest VPS xenforo package is 24.99 british pounds aka 38 us dollarsa month and has no plugin limitations?

Do animated avatars work and do modifications like Digitalpoint's User Map work? That modification requires GeoIP

That's right. Our VPS servers are actually Cloud Servers so not the typical VPS on the market. This is not a shared server, this is actually your own server, so there are no limitations apart from the amount of traffic you recieve :- the more traffic the more likely you will need grow. But in terms of hosting we do not like complaints only compliments. So you would never find us offering shared forum hosting as it always ends in tears for the forum master and the reputation of the hosting company.

On that server you can install what you need to get your mods working, and as we like xenforo, we are always going to be here to help the community

 

[DRE]

Do you have examples of forums that use your service and where are your customer reviews?

Do any of your customers use cloudflare or google pagespeed service?

 

[vhcom]

The latest xenforo forum was nethostingtalk.com who approached us last week. other forums such as 28dayslater.co.uk

As for reviews, unfortunately, we do not display any on our own site but since you have raised it, I think that's a good idea. We normally monitor the review center for any feedback and from customer emails.

 

[DRE]

I decided to switch to http://xfhost.me

 

[Ranma1981]

Hello, it depends from your target (Europe, USA), etc. Howeaver, try to search some Hosting optimized per Php/MySQL script, like Medialayer, SimplexWebs, WiredTree.

Regards

 

[craigiri]

Could someone comment on the minimum needed to run an instance of XF and Wordpress...for a NEW site with very little content and traffic? I'm working on a new site and would rather have it somewhere other than on my existing dedicated server (the all eggs in one basket thing).....

My biggest concern is just whether running the scripts, add-ons and mysql ends up using up the 512 that many have as stock memory, leaving no additional room for traffic! I only expect, at most, 100 users a day - which means only a few at a time...and no heavy uploading and downloading.

The site might have 25 WP articles and a forum with no members to start - but I'd like to get up to a couple thousand members and posts before I'd be forced to upgrade or move.

 

[0xym0r0n]

Aside from some minor issues wswd.net works for me And they're really fast to respond to my problems.
The template rebuilds go pretty fast for me. I think the longest rebuild time I've had on an add-on was like a minute.
I don't have a large forum though.

 

[Ranma1981]

Could someone comment on the minimum needed to run an instance of XF and Wordpress...for a NEW site with very little content and traffic? I'm working on a new site and would rather have it somewhere other than on my existing dedicated server (the all eggs in one basket thing).....

My biggest concern is just whether running the scripts, add-ons and mysql ends up using up the 512 that many have as stock memory, leaving no additional room for traffic! I only expect, at most, 100 users a day - which means only a few at a time...and no heavy uploading and downloading.

The site might have 25 WP articles and a forum with no members to start - but I'd like to get up to a couple thousand members and posts before I'd be forced to upgrade or move.

Hello,

I think that for your needs is good a VPS optimized for Php/MySql, with Nginx or LiteSpeed, and almost 1 GB of RAM.

Try to see of nice VPS Provider, as Future Hosting, WiredTree, Knownhost or Liquid Web.

It depends also from the target of your readers, US or EU, and your budget.

Regards!

 

[craigiri]

This site would be in english only, BUT it would attract people from around the world to some degree (a hobby or pastime).

 

[Ranma1981]

Craigiri, from what nations arrive the major parts of your readers? It's important before to choose a Provider Hosting. Otherwise, is advisable use a CDN to distribute your content more fast in all world.

 

[rdn]

I decided to switch to http://xfhost.me

Litespeed+Memcache is Excellent.
Me too like their Hosting Plan.