I hope someone out there can help me with this question. Preferably someone who's actually been in the situation -- because, believe me, I know there's a heckuva lot of people out there who can theorize 'til the cows come home.

Anywho, I'm getting to the point where I want to be able to customize some aspects of the server. As in, I want to install certain custom PHP modules and change MX records, but that isn't really an option in your usual shared account.

The rub? you ask. I'm right at the point where even the cheapest dedicated solution is just a little too expensive for my needs au moment. So, what's a webmaster with 10+ subdomains to do? Anyone had any positive experiences making the one giant leap from shared to the next (whatever it is) level?

Well,

It happened to us. Our host, www.Site5.com, was wonderful about it.

Here is what happened:

In July we started to seriously push one of our advertising businesses, by September we were killing our shared hosting acc., and by Nov we were holding load averages on a shared server at 10. Our host told us that we had two choices, pack up and leave or upgrade to dedicated.

We picked dedicated. Site5 then let us have two more days of super-loading the server while they setup our new server, then switched our account over without any down time.

You should talk to your host about upgrading to Dedicated hosting. If your host is not up for it, buy a server, set your site up, THEN switch DNS to avoid down time. When DNS switchs, cancel your virtual acc. Simple as pie, but less taste.

Good luck,
Dan

What about a 'dedicated virtual server' solution - I've seen a few of them around. You get complete access to root and can configure the system however you like - except that there are a number of 'dedicated virtual servers' installed on the same machine - hence it is cheaper than a having a complete system to yourself.

I think I saw some in the "special offers" forum, or here is one link I landed on recently: http://webauthorities.com/wa-hosting.html

I had a similar dilemma when I converted one of my sites to a heavy PHP driven service. After checking out my options, I realized that I had no option but to go dedicated. But I had the same problem when I saw the prices. Wow! In the end, I went with ACSDatanet when their price was only $50!

I would think that in your case, you'll have the same problem with a virtual ded server. After all, if you're using a lot of resources in shared hosting, you'll be dragging down the other virtual ded servers. After all, virtual dedicated is basically shared dedicated.

Seems to me that your only choice is dedicated. From my experience, there's nothing like it. You can do anything you want (including crashing the system :-). There's a lot to learn, but you've got total control, you can add all sorts of scripts and utilities, you can define cron jobs, and much more. I'm really happy with my box, and I'm really glad I made the switch to ded.

One caution... The price I got was great, and I'm very happy with the service. However, be careful when shopping for price. When I was looking for my box I ran across a provider (in England) that was even cheaper. I found out later that if you go with them, you're COMPLETELY on your own. Even though my box is my responsibility, Clint (at ACSDatanet) has been very great. He's helped me out many times on things that were my problem. If you're not a Linux expert (I'm not), it can pretty get hairy at times.

My recommendation - go dedicated.

Good luck

Originally posted by Abu Mami
I would think that in your case, you'll have the same problem with a virtual ded server. After all, if you're using a lot of resources in shared hosting, you'll be dragging down the other virtual ded servers. After all, virtual dedicated is basically shared dedicated.
Seems to me that your only choice is dedicated.

I would have to disagree with this statement. Depending on what platform the host uses, most VPS solutions are just like a dedicated server. You can run your own scripts, you have your own hard drive, your own minimum memory for your exclusive use, and you can even reboot the server. If your scripts, bandwidth, etc are overpowering the resources, its only YOUR resources that are affected- not everyone on the server.

I think you would be an ideal customer for a Virtual Private Server.
I will send you a PM.

laterz,
raqworld

Remarkable Hosting (and others, but I don't know who) have things called "Private Servers" I have one for my forums site, I have had 0 downtime since I got it 5 weeks ago, and the servers start at $34.95/month.

If I was doing a move like that, I'd personally get a private server, and then dedicated after it grows out of the private server.

Raqworld i'm interested in a virtual server could u pls send me a PM as well thanks. :)