I would love to know more about Alabanza. Are they any good? About how much do they charge (prices aren't listed on their site) and I heard they "nickle and dime" their customers. I was wondering if there's any truth to that and would like to hear from past and current customers (are you happy with them?).

Thanks in advance.

Sebastian

Pros:

Their network is very reliable, with only the occasional hiccups, as every network has.
Their servers run very well.
Their control panel is stable, and thus far they have the best management tools on both the user and host side, which offer both newbies (who may need assistance with server admin) and more experienced folks (who like a combination of GUI and command-line management) what they need.
Their emergency team is great.
You get root.

Cons:

They are expensive, ranking right up there with Verio, Catalog, and some others.
Their support is outsourced, and has been pretty bad over the last several months. This is a continual downward trend for them.
Because of some of their more specialized functions, you can't do just anything you like to the boxes, although you can do a lot more than some people would have you believe.
They have recently gone 0-for-3 on backup requests for us, within the past month, and I've heard similar reports from others.
They don't have a place where you can easily talk to them (like an online forum) or check network status.

I still recommend them, with caveats. When we first got boxes with them, a year ago, their performance was stellar. I would rate them a 4 out of 10 at this moment, contingent on changes they keep saying are in the works for support issues.

just do a search on 'alabanza' and you will find out all there is to know about them.

what i can tell you though is:

1) VERY VERY VERY EXPENSIVE

2) improved network running very good!

3) NO SUPPORT AT ALL (so learn all you can first)

personal costs:

alabanza: currently host 470 accounts for 1450.00/mo

burst: currently host 300+ accounts for 400.00/mo

summary: you do the math :)

NOTE: if your growth is not expected to shoot through the roof, i would look somwhere else so that you can start a little more 'on a budget'.

just my 2 cents...