What Host Should I Use!?

[Chromaniac]

I tried Linode but managing an entire website without a frontend was not my cup of tea. But it is a fantastic option if you can make it work for you! DreamCompute is pretty similar to Linode in nature. You have full control over your instances (droplets as called by other companies). You can essentially use it exactly like you are using Linode for. To keep things simple for me, I am not using DreamCompute to run the entire site as I still need a web based control panel to manage domains and other simple things!

 

[WSWD]

I tried Linode but managing an entire website without a frontend was not my cup of tea.

You do know you can install your own, right? There are quite a few free control panels out there, and they are quite easy to install and configure.

 

[Ernest L. Defoe]

I've managed to figure a few things out without the need for a web based control panel. If it's something I can't figure out I get in touch with @MattW and get him to sort it. Still cheaper than paying for cPanel each month. I've managed to figure out how to update things and that's all I really need to know for now.

 

[Chromaniac]

I have been through tens of web hosts and have used everything from DirectAdmin to WHM/cPanel to Plesk to VirtualMin/WebMin. I can safely say that I prefer Dreamhost's backend the simplest to use. Unless they really mess things up badly, it is unlikely I would be moving out for a while. But I cannot personally recommend it for a mid-sized or larger XenForo forum!

 

[eva2000]

Doesn't seem like a good VPS to me if you're having to run off a different SQL server. Being on a VPS you should have access to your own SQL server. That's why I'm loving Centmin Mod it's an all in one package that does nginx, MariaDB, memcache or Redis, among other things and compared to cPanel it's very light weight. Only disadvantage is there is no web based control panel or mail server.

that can also be seen as an advantage as both a web based control panel + full fledge mail handling = higher server resource usage cpu/ram/disk needed too

I also eat my own dog food and run my own CentminMod.com LEMP web stack for my forums https://community.centminmod.com/ hosted on 4GB Linode KVM VPS

 

[Ernest L. Defoe]

that can also be seen as an advantage as both a web based control panel + full fledge mail handling = higher server resource usage cpu/ram/disk needed too

Didn't say it was a bad thing to not have those. I'm learning how to live without a web based CP and it's not bad and I'm using Google Apps for email at $5.00 a month and let them deal with the server load plus Mailgun for outgoing email. Because Centmin is so good that leaves more resources for things that actually matter and my sites have never loaded faster since using Centmin.

 

[eva2000]

Because Centmin is so good that leaves more resources for things that actually matter and my sites have never loaded faster since using Centmin.

Indeed that is one of the goals of why I developed Centmin Mod the way it is

 

[Ernest L. Defoe]

Indeed that is one of the goals of why I developed Centmin Mod the way it is

Glad you added support for Redis in the installer.

 

[eva2000]

Glad you added support for Redis in the installer.

Yeah what gets added to Centmin Mod usually follows my own personal requirements and as I also use Xenforo + XF Redis Cache addon and also Wordpress + Redis caching, it makes sense

 

[Universe]

I have been running my low traffic forum on their VPS for a while now. It has worked well. Though a while ago there was some issue with their MySQL servers so I had to start a DreamCompute instance to run my own. Since then no problems. I would not recommend their shared hosting account. VPS should work for you if they have fixed the issue with their shared MySQL servers.

When I was setting up my XenForo site, I too had a problem with DreamHost's shared hosting MySQL servers until I slept on my failure and realized I inputted the information wrong.