Hi,

I have been checking around for hosting providers. And it seems there are many wich differ in pricing.

I am planning on launching a website wich hopefully eventually will attract a large amount of traffic a day. (1000 +). Content will be mostly textbased, so no huge graphics here.

Nevertheless, I am unsure about what type of hosting I should aquire. Some people tell me that dedicated servers are best. But they are pricey and my project isn't launched yet and it's unsure that I will reach my target even. So this is not an option.

Then there are people who told me about VPS. Can anyone explain to me in short what this is and what the advantages are ?

Also, I surfed to dreamhost, and I saw there a shared hosting offer wich costs 7.95 USD a month while they give you a bandwidth of 1T ! This is alot of bandwidth! For a low price. Does anyone have experiences with dreamhost ?

Also, would it be possible to change from a shared host to for instance a VPS or dedicated server ? Would this be a complicated thing to achieve ?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,

Gdev

Check the offers section there are several providers that offer products and services that will fit your needs.

gdev,

as a start you can probably just purchase a shared account which should be ok for the first few months, assuming it will take a few months to hit your target of 1000 visit.

Then move on to VPS when your site has taken off the ground. What is a VPS? well simply a dedicated server chopped into a few pieces. eg, like a mini dedicated with maybe 1/4 of the specs and the price of a dedicated server.

It is always possible to move from a shared to a vps and then a dedicated server. It might just cause a bit of a downtime due propagation of DNS etc.

Hopes this help a little :)

Hi, gdev!

Sure, there are gazillions of hosting companies. Some are good, some are not so good. You can tell the difference if you look at their customer reputation. You can check DH for instance - some swear by them, some swear AT them. :)

My advice is: start with a common shared account, which you can get for around $10/month. Over time, you are likely to outgrow that, then you upgrade to either a VPS or a dedicated server.

A VPS is kind of like a dedicated server, except you are actually sharing a server with a few other accounts. It therefore costs less. Expect to pay around $50 per month for a *managed* VPS - you can get one *unmanaged* cheaper, but then you have all the maintanence responsibilities also.

Good Luck!

LOL If they're a good sized company search this forum. If they don't have a lot of haters or deal with the complaints properly then, well, there you go... ;) They'll be the one for you.

KGIII

Also, would it be possible to change from a shared host to for instance a VPS or dedicated server ? Would this be a complicated thing to achieve ?


Yes, you can switch from any type of hosting to any type of hosting. :) Is it complicated? That depends on how your site(s) are setup.

Like others have mentioned, start with a shared host first. No point jumping in with a bus when you only have 1 passenger.