Should I change my current Hosting requirements or even a change of host?

[Jon12345]

My hosting is due for renewal and I'm looking at my options. Currently I am with KnownHost, who have been excellent on customer support, although I haven't needed much of it in recent times.

My package is MVPS-3:

• 4 CPU (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz)
• 150gb storage
• 6gb ram
• LiteSpeed Webserber Enterprise
• LiteMage (Magento)
• Softaculous
• cPanel Pro 30 Acct

This is costing me about $1,300 per year.

My forum is here: https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/

It is no where as busy as it used to be, with the daily visitors having come down a lot.

I've got a couple of questions about my setup:

1. Do I really need to pay for litespeed since my user count has dropped significantly? It must be costing me something like $300 per year for the privalege.

2. Should I switch to DirectAdmin, since the cpanel fees are costing about $300 per year? If my host does the switch, do I lose settings, like email configs etc?

3. Should I be looking at a different KnownHost package instead or even another Hosting provider?

Thanks.

 

[motowebmaster]

I've never subscribed to Knownhost, but have helped some forums who have. Their platform and service level is nice.

Am a big fan of Litespeed, you might check out the their direct pricing options. I don't personally use Cpanel, but they do have some migration options and it may be worthwhile checking out their direct pricing as well.

To give you some perspective; try spinning up a server on a cloud service and installing trial versions of Cpanel and Litespeed with it. If you're having fun, then take it to the next level

 

[Mr Lucky]

or even another Hosting provider?

I’m aware known host have a good reputation but might be worth checking what @MattW can offer. His hosting has been great for me and some others here and he knows xenForo well.

 

[Suzanne O]

All that for $1300
change hosts.

namecheap's premium host has all of that for $101 a year.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

1. Do I really need to pay for litespeed since my user count has dropped significantly? It must be costing me something like $300 per year for the privalege.

Is there a specific reason for using Litespeed? You could also consider using Openlitespeed which is free.

2. Should I switch to DirectAdmin, since the cpanel fees are costing about $300 per year? If my host does the switch, do I lose settings, like email configs etc?

I'm a big fan of DA, so I would say yes, but this is very personal. If you are used to Cpanel, it could be hard to switch and get used to DA.
It is possible to import cpanel site into DA, so you could keep most settings.

3. Should I be looking at a different KnownHost package instead or even another Hosting provider?

Yes

 

[BikeGremlin]

My hosting is due for renewal and I'm looking at my options. Currently I am with KnownHost, who have been excellent on customer support, although I haven't needed much of it in recent times.

My package is MVPS-3:

• 4 CPU (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz)
• 150gb storage
• 6gb ram
• LiteSpeed Webserber Enterprise
• LiteMage (Magento)
• Softaculous
• cPanel Pro 30 Acct

This is costing me about $1,300 per year.

My forum is here: https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/

It is no where as busy as it used to be, with the daily visitors having come down a lot.

I've got a couple of questions about my setup:

1. Do I really need to pay for litespeed since my user count has dropped significantly? It must be costing me something like $300 per year for the privalege.

2. Should I switch to DirectAdmin, since the cpanel fees are costing about $300 per year? If my host does the switch, do I lose settings, like email configs etc?

3. Should I be looking at a different KnownHost package instead or even another Hosting provider?

Thanks.

My thinking out loud:

I've heard nothing but praise for KnownHost. With the current state of the hosting industry being a race to the bottom price (and quality) wise, there are many good providers, but also many bad and so-so. Moving from a provider to save some money makes sense when you move to a good provider, but can end up costing more (either in terms of money or time) if the provider is worse.

Regarding LiteSpeed, it is excellent for WordPress, both in terms of performance, and reducing server load. I'm not really sure how it does with XenForo.

DirectAdmin vs cPanel - my thoughts are best explained with this picture (billing-panel themed, but same principle):




For a lower price, I think that high-quality shared hosting can be a good idea. Yes (my 2c on the VPS downsides).
What I'm using right now (for my sites and a few forums) is MDDHosting "elastic" reseller hosting on their "Plaid" platform.
Fast hardware, LiteSpeed, CloudLinux, Imunify360 Security - all the bells and whistles are included in the base price.
And, the best thing, it's scalable!
4 vCPU cores and 4 GB RAM are included in the $30 per month price, while double those costs $60 - and so on.

That might just save you some money, without killing any performance.

I've explained the "elastic reseller" in an article about a provider that... I'm no longer using, let's leave it at that.
And these are my notes and metrics for the MDDHosting Plaid reseller (with affiliate links n' all 'cause yachts won't pay for themselves, of course).

The irony is that KnownHost is on my shortlist of providers to try.
They offer similar reseller hosting resource allocation to MDDHosting, only they include too many cPanel accounts in the price, and too little vCPU and RAM, so it's not a good fit for me (folks with many low-traffic/load sites would probably find that to be a good fit).

Having said that, look at the prices, put it on paper, and ask KnownHost what they would recommend. Again, I would be surprised if they don't provide some solution, as I've heard nothing but stellar feedback about that provider.

Relja GoSharedOrGoHome Novović

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Check the $110 a month package at IONOS (which includes SSDs), linked below.

That's a lot more value than your current package at a similar price.

AMD Servers | Ryzen Pro and Epyc | IONOS

Power your project with AMD Ryzen Pro and Epyc processors » CPUs for handling any type of workload ✓ HDD, SSD or NVMe storage ✓ Per-minute billing ✓ No setup fees

www.ionos.com

I can attest to the experiences I've had with IONOS.

 

[DanielP]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for being a KH customer we do appreciate it. I'll drop some thoughts in-line below, but have you reached out to our technical support department and asked them to conduct a review of your server usage/needs? They can work with our billing department to try and help better answer what you do or don't need.

It is no where as busy as it used to be, with the daily visitors having come down a lot.

I've got a couple of questions about my setup:

1. Do I really need to pay for litespeed since my user count has dropped significantly? It must be costing me something like $300 per year for the privalege.

Honestly it's your call, LS does great at reducing the server resource usage needs, but Apache configs have gotten a lot better over the years, including PHP-FPM configs that can stand up better to higher traffic configs.

2. Should I switch to DirectAdmin, since the cpanel fees are costing about $300 per year? If my host does the switch, do I lose settings, like email configs etc?

If you've got one website, I'd absolutely switch. cPanel continues to raise prices year after year without providing much else for it. Sure it's a solid panel, but how often do you actually use it?

Here's a high-level comparison between the two: https://www.knownhost.com/kb/cpanel-and-directadmin-the-basics/

Some settings will reset, but we try and migrate over as much as we can.

3. Should I be looking at a different KnownHost package instead or even another Hosting provider?

Our staff can easily evaluate this for you, just pop open a ticket and we'll get you sorted.

Thanks.

Thanks again for being a KnownHost customer, if you need anything just let us know!

 

[Gene Steinberg]

And what about Plesk?

 

[Mr Lucky]

I'm not really sure how it does with XenForo.

I think it is good but I'd steer clear of the xenForo Litespeed addon, it broke a lot of my site for months without me knowing and I lost a lot of traffic during that time.

 

[BikeGremlin]

I think it is good but I'd steer clear of the xenForo Litespeed addon, it broke a lot of my site for months without me knowing and I lost a lot of traffic during that time.

I hope this could help the OP as well:
Do you have any tips/tutorials/useful links on how to configure LiteSpeed for XenForo without using the addon?

Thanks in advance.

Relja

 

[Mr Lucky]

Do you have any tips/tutorials/useful links on how to configure LiteSpeed for XenForo without using the addon?

I think that is a question best asked of @MattW, my site is on his Litespeed server but without the addon. Another of my sites is also hosted there, but that's Wordpress and the Litespeed plugin for that seems to work well.

 

[Muddy Boots]

My hosting is due for renewal and I'm looking at my options. Currently I am with KnownHost, who have been excellent on customer support, although I haven't needed much of it in recent times.

My package is MVPS-3:

• 4 CPU (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz)
• 150gb storage
• 6gb ram
• LiteSpeed Webserber Enterprise
• LiteMage (Magento)
• Softaculous
• cPanel Pro 30 Acct

This is costing me about $1,300 per year.

If it was me (but its not )

I would (depending on your traffic and online numbers)

Use either a decent dedicated cloud VPS at Hetzner 16 Euros a month plus backups and snap shots - CPX31 for example

Or a dedicated server from them 35 Euros a month on there server auction page

Run this on a @eva Centmin Mod install on Alma (or Rocky) 8 and dump CPanel and LiteSpeed (and dont bother with direct admin either)

Support over at CMM is rock solid from Eva2000

Run the mail through MXRoutes mail system (BF Deal from memory $75 for 3 years)

You wont go wrong and it will be a far superior set up and a lot cheaper and all under your control (especially if you also do offsite backups)

 

[fly]

If the site is low volume, just save yourself the headache and switch to shared hosting. I'd stay far away from GoDaddy and Namecheap though.

 

[Rhody]

Mddhosting has been great for us, with a cloudlinux reseller account setup. It is under $25/month and I have a couple Xenforo forums (and about 8 other website) on the same account. With litespeed, using the litespeed add-on, cpanel, php 8.2, etc. We switched to their ELASTIC plan last year, lowering the price, and it has been fine. Their tech support is absolutely amazing. They reply to tickets in about 5 minutes.

The only I regret is not being able to run elasticsearch with this setup, but the forums seem to be quick and reliable. I don't quite have the demand to justify a vps or dedicated machine at this time, but it would be nice!

 

[Suzanne O]

If the site is low volume, just save yourself the headache and switch to shared hosting. I'd stay far away from GoDaddy and Namecheap though.

Disagree with you on namecheap. Have been with them for close to 15 years. They have a premium service called stella hosting which has a proper CPanel.

Knownhost seems to be too expensive. There's no way i'd be paying over $1300 a year on a place that causes problems.

 

[fly]

Disagree with you on namecheap. Have been with them for close to 15 years. They have a premium service called stella hosting which has a proper CPanel.

Knownhost seems to be too expensive. There's no way i'd be paying over $1300 a year on a place that causes problems.

It may be fine, but they're basically about as bad as GoDaddy. I'd personally prefer to not give those types of webhosts money.

 

[BikeGremlin]

Mddhosting has been great for us, with a cloudlinux reseller account setup. It is under $25/month and I have a couple Xenforo forums (and about 8 other website) on the same account. With litespeed, using the litespeed add-on, cpanel, php 8.2, etc. We switched to their ELASTIC plan last year, lowering the price, and it has been fine. Their tech support is absolutely amazing. They reply to tickets in about 5 minutes.

The only I regret is not being able to run elasticsearch with this setup, but the forums seem to be quick and reliable. I don't quite have the demand to justify a vps or dedicated machine at this time, but it would be nice!

I didn't "buy" the elastic search add-on, and set up the Google Programmable (custom) search.

Though, based on my experience (and stats) with websites over the past years, hardly anyone uses search - and that seems to be the case with the forum too (I use the search often LOL ).

Relja

 

[Forsaken]

Disagree with you on namecheap. Have been with them for close to 15 years. They have a premium service called stella hosting which has a proper CPanel.

Knownhost seems to be too expensive. There's no way i'd be paying over $1300 a year on a place that causes problems.

Which issues have you had with Knownhost? Because while I have not personally used them, others I know have used them without any problem that would not occur regularly at any other provider (including Namecheap).

As far as Namecheap, I do not use shared hosting nor would I use a company that is notorious for overselling resources (which is the only way you can sell at their prices for shared hosting or VPS hosting and make a profit), but I did previously use them for domain hosting and they were singularly one of the worst companies I ever used.

They do not properly train their staff, and allowed a script kiddie to gain access to my account through very basic social engineering, and almost cost me ~50 domains, many of which are high value (one I sold for $20k). Luckily, I was aware of it in time and took back access and locked down my account, but Namecheap took no accountability.

This same thing has happened within the last few years to someone else I know who uses Namecheap .

There is also a much bigger difference between a site with 4-10 members, and a site with 100k members and over 1million posts.

 

[TPerry]

They have a premium service called stella hosting which has a proper CPanel.

Can you define a "proper" cPanel? Every shared hosting installation I've ever used has been identical in what it offered, dependent upon the version of cPanel in place.

I used NameCheap and found then an intro level shared hosting provider that oversold their resources. They have 3 levels of their shared hosting... .Stellar, Stellar Plus and Stellar Business. The Plus level was what I was trying out. They "brag" about their unmetered SSD... but look hard enough and you find that they limit you to 300,000 inodes. That is a 300,000 file limit. Just my small site contains almost 76,000 files. When you add the other sites hosted, I'm near 180,000. And since my primary site allows (in fact encourages) image uploads, that number will only increase steadily. That's what gets a lot of people with those cheap "unlimited" plans. Many of them give between 100-250K inodes on their "unlimited" storage.

Knownhost seems to be too expensive. There's no way i'd be paying over $1300 a year on a place that causes problems.

Pretty sure the OP didn't comment on them "causing problems". In fact, KnownHost is one of the more reliable hosting providers out there historically... WAY more-so than NameCheap is.
There several providers I avoid, and do not recommend to others.
GoDaddy
NameCheap
HostGator
any EIG affiliated company