Greetings WHT peeps :-)

I just joined WHT after getting a suggestion from another forum. I've been researching reseller hosting for a couple of days. My current host (drupalvaluehosting) gets an A for effort and a D for performance. Service has been utter crap today and I need to make a decision on a new host by tomorrow night. I would REALLY appreciate some quick responses :-)

I'm not interested in starting a hosting company - I build websites and want to have easy access to client sites. I would also like the clients to have a control panel to administer their email accounts and such (CPanel or Plesk is fine by me).

Most of my sites are built on Drupal, and here are some technical needs:
Linux
Apache w/ mod_rewrite
MySQL 4.1+
PHP 5.2
php memory limit 32mb+ *important*
control panel (cpanel preferred due to familiarity)
private nameservers
WHM
great uptime (99%+)
24/7 support

Optional:
Phone support (loved being able to call MediaTemple, hated the fact that I had to call them)

As far as space & bandwidth, I figure I'll get the best I can for my budget of up to $40/mo. My big thing is to avoid some of the issues of shared hosting - like other people's issues resulting in downtime for me. My past hosts have included:

1and1 (solid, great uptime, mediocre Drupal performance)
ANHosting (fast hosting, very responsive support, sites go down 1-2 times per week)
Dreamhost (had serious problems when I was with them in 2006)
MediaTemple (mediocre Drupal performance, no apparent benefit to grid server)
DrupalValueHosting (outstanding Drupal performance, mediocre everything else)

I just want something rock-solid & reliable. With DVH, sites have been down for 1 hr a day for 2 weeks straight. I suspect it's one guy with a vps. I chose them with Drupal-specific hosting in mind and they/he was good for a while.

I've narrowed my choices down to Crucial Paradigm, Hostgator & Site5. I've contacted CrucialP and Hostgator. Site5 I just sent an email too, but I'm open to all comments & suggestion while I wait for a response.

Feature-wise, they all are quite similar. The livechat person with HostGator did say their php memory limit was 64mb, which is a big plus. My gut says CrucialP (although it could be that burrito I ate earlier...). I dunno - I just have to make a quick decision. I'm off to hostjury to read up some more reviews. Hope to get some wisdom from WHT too :-) Thanks!


Arp Laszlo

Welcome to WHT Arp!

Wow, 2 weeks downtime?! Don't blame you for moving.

Your list is OK. Out of the 3, I would say HG has the best reputation.

A $40 month budget is fine so long as the webspace and bandwidth requirements are realistic.

Offers forum is a good place to start... And if you're looking for reviews, http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php would be your best friend ;)

Good luck with your search and be sure to let us know who you settled upon! :agree:

What about space and transfer requirements?

I think for most of my clients, 10gb would be the absolute most space they would need. I'm not sure if I would need to oversell to make it seem like my offering compares well to a budget shared hosting plan, or if I could explicitly NOT oversell and use that as a selling point. I'm not expecting many clients who would get more than 1000 visitors a month. The one client I mentioned as using 60gb does stream video, but that should be the exception rather than the norm.

Hostgator's 64mb php memory limit would be a big plus for me, performance-wise, but I would go with CrucialP or Site5 if they had faster servers and less downtime.

More useful info: I'm hosting about a dozen sites right now, so I don't have huge space/bandwidth needs. I can always upgrade the account when the time comes.

Now also looking at Bluewho & Innohosting...

site5 in my experience were bad, support was generic "we'll get back to you soon" and I regularly had downtime. They ended up crediting me every month. I'd avoid them tbh.

I decided to give Innohosting a go - they seem to have a lot of support in the forums, meet my technical needs and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to offload technical support to them. I'll report back at a later date.

echo

wow that was fast! i would love to hear back on your opinion. I was going to recommend hostgator myself. I have been using them for over 2 years. Had a few small issues but overall they have been very good. Live chat is improving but it still pretty useless a lot of the time, email support is the best router for answers with them.

good luck

My current host crapped itself, so I had to make a quick decision :-) I did start researching on Thursday, so it wasn't THAT fast, but I didn't find WHT til yesterday. The main thing is reconciling myself to the smaller space/bandwidth compared to my currently massively oversold host. I have one client that actually uses more space & bandwidth by themselves, but I wouldn't mind jettisoning them.

One of the main things about IH - besides being able to chat with Rameen yesterday - is the tech support for my clients. I also realize that the smaller size/bandwidth would likely keep away the peeps who are interested in massively reselling and should, theoretically, result in better performance. But mostly I really dig the idea of taking myself out of the tech support equation.

One of the main things about IH - besides being able to chat with Rameen yesterday - is the tech support for my clients. I also realize that the smaller size/bandwidth would likely keep away the peeps who are interested in massively reselling and should, theoretically, result in better performance. But mostly I really dig the idea of taking myself out of the tech support equation.

Out of curiosity, did you evaluate any other hosts that provide end-user support for resellers, such as InnoHosting does? Does anyone know which other companies provide a similar service such as this?

I did not - it was news to me. I know that I could setup some ticketing software and outsource the support, but that would just be a game of email-tag. From one demanding client I've realized that the less time I can spend on support the better.

I did not - it was news to me. I know that I could setup some ticketing software and outsource the support, but that would just be a game of email-tag. From one demanding client I've realized that the less time I can spend on support the better.

Hmmm... Thanks echo. I agree with the "less time on support" thing myself.

I have a small need to resell some hosting packages - it's not my primary business and in fact is a very small part of my business, so I am looking for something like this as well. I don't have the time or desire to deal with the tech support. InnoHosting seems to provide a unique service, and has mostly favorable comments here at WHT. I think they might be on to something.

If anyone else knows of any other companies that provide this type of end-user "white label" support, please let me know. As good as InnoHosting sounds, I'd still like to check out the competition before committing to anything.

There are only a few out there that I'm aware of. Resellerzoom, Flyhigh.net are the others that come to mind, but Inno is the best, in my humble opinion. :)

wow, i never came across inno when i was searching. Thats too bad because it offers everything I was looking for including the end user support. Let us know how it goes. They also offer the WHMCS billing tool which is great (HG does not too but started with the crappy whm autopilot)

site5 in my experience were bad, support was generic "we'll get back to you soon" and I regularly had downtime. They ended up crediting me every month. I'd avoid them tbh.

Same experience. Avoid them as much as possible. (4 year customer here. Haven't made the switch but looking for new company).

They crashed three of my databases....blamed it on me.

I didn't dig Site5's response to my sales query. It was short, and I got a bad vibe from it.

I'm definitely going to try Innohosting - I don't see reselling as a huge business for me, but I do think that offering it is wise. Who knows - maybe it will bring in some income, and every bit counts. But currently, the tech support can be a needless drain and waste of time, and if IH lives up to its rep, it will be WELL worth the money.

Do come back to give us a detailed review after experiencing their service for a couple of months! Not that I doubt Rameen and the team's ability to make you happy. :)

Same experience. Avoid them as much as possible. (4 year customer here. Haven't made the switch but looking for new company).

They crashed three of my databases....blamed it on me.

I had regular problems with their "software". Often features would stop working, databases would be unconnectable and the server uptime was about 99.2% ;|

Site5 is out of the running :-) I will definitely report back about IH in a few months. I don't think I'll be starting with them until next week at the earliest - I have 2 clients who won't be making the move due to their space/bandwidth needs and I've got to sort that out first.