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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    38

    Managed VPS Hosting For Mid-Sized xenForo Forum

    Hello there!

    We've been hosted by MDDHosting for the past 2 years (and some months), we are very very happy with MDDHosting (http://orojackson.com) but our community has began growing, and soon it's going to be time for us to upgrade our hosting package as well. Currently, we are hosting on MDD's Shared Basic hosting plan (http://www.mddhosting.com/hosting.php).

    We've had no problem up until now, but our well-wishers and a few members have suggested us to upgrade to a VPS. We average around 30 to 40 users online (guests + registered members) at any given time, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays due to the niche our community is based on, and due to interesting articles created we receive anywhere from 3k to 10k unique visitors (100 online users) - that is only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Saturday's and Sunday's also see a slight increase in unique visitors.

    The following is our current statistics;
    Discussions:2,101
    Messages:78,636
    Members:822

    Our current storage is less than 1.5 GB and our bandwidth hasn't gone up more than 100 GB on any given month.

    Now, I would love, really love to stick with MDDHosting, but their prices for VPS compared to others (whom I have researched) are on the higher side. Their semi-dedicated hosting is priced decently, but compared to VPS prices (bandwidth, storage) it's smarter to go for a VPS.

    My budget is around 120 USD (Quarterly), I'm looking for Managed VPS Hosts, managed since I and my partner don't know much about managing servers, and I'm jumping into VPS Hosting for the first time... the below mentioned hosts I've researched on and are in my shortlist, and I would also like WHT'rs opinions and suggestions

    - Knownhost
    This is well in my budget, looking at their SSD VPS plans (http://www.knownhost.com/managed-ssd-vps-packages.html) SSD - 1 suits my requirements, it even offers cPanel for free (I am used to cPanel). I've heard a lot of good about Knownhost, but also some bad (on xenForo company forums), some say that Knownhost support isn't as good as they say and often times leave you hanging to solve issues on your own. Opinions fellow WHT members? Not sure if they provide LiteSpeed as an option (and how much extra would that cost?)

    - ServInt
    Although their plans are well above my budget, I've heard a lot of good (http://www.servint.net/vps.php) their Essential VPS plan suits my requirements, although the storage and bandwidth is an overkill for me. Not sure if they provide LiteSpeed as an option.

    - Wiredtree
    Above my budget once again, but I've heard once again only good about Wiredtree. They do offer LiteSpeed and it's around 70$ above my quarterly budget (SSD2000 Plan).


    LiteSpeed isn't really a requirement, but I've been hosted on MDD that runs LiteSpeed, not sure if the performance is gonna see a drop if switched out of a LiteSpeed environment. I'm open to recommendations and suggestions by others, as well as tips on what to look in VPS Providers. Since I'm new, it's a scary step for me and it won't be a quick decision (we'll give this a thought for at least 3/4 months and switch once our current term with MDD is over).

  2. #2
    Try look at TMZvps. Im a happy TMZ customer

    /Jakob
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jesna View Post
    Try look at TMZvps. Im a happy TMZ customer

    /Jakob
    Thank you for the mention .

    @OP:

    Are you interested in any specific location? Also if you want to save on the costs, most providers can get apache running pretty close to speeds of litespeed with the right configuration.

    - Daniel

  4. #4
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    Jul 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by TmzHosting View Post
    Thank you for the mention .

    @OP:

    Are you interested in any specific location? Also if you want to save on the costs, most providers can get apache running pretty close to speeds of litespeed with the right configuration.

    - Daniel
    Hello, I'm looking into the TMZ plans now! Thank you @Jesna for mentioning them.

    I have no "location" requirement as such, the three main regions I get visitors from are U.S, Europe and Philippines, and I'm fine with a server located in U.S or Europe.

  5. #5
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    Jul 2011
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    Alright, @TmzHosting looks really reliable and decently priced. It has made it to my short-list, my current short list is:

    1. TmzHosting
    2. Knownhost

    ServInt and Wiredtree are just pushing my budget to much, and I'm removing them from my shortlist. I sadly cannot edit my first post.

    @TmzHosting, I have a few questions:
    1. Can you get apache running pretty close to the speeds of LiteSpeed (until I can actually add LiteSpeed to my budget as well!).
    2. If I provide my current MySQL version, PHP version and basic settings, you could recreate the same setup for the vps, right?
    3. We'll be planning the movie sometime in around April 2014, so I'll keep in touch! But what would the estimated downtime be for switching the servers (mainly, DNS stuff which I have no idea of!), an expected time it would take for my domain to start pointing at the new nameservers etc.

    I'm looking more into the reviews for TMZ, and I see mostly positive, which was the same with MDD and I signed up with them, will mostly finish 3 lovely years with them, Mike at MDD has been really amazing. But going ahead on a VPS plan with them would make me poor in no time haha

  6. #6
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    Nov 2007
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    New Jersey, USA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Divvens View Post
    Alright, @TmzHosting looks really reliable and decently priced. It has made it to my short-list, my current short list is:

    1. TmzHosting
    2. Knownhost

    ServInt and Wiredtree are just pushing my budget to much, and I'm removing them from my shortlist. I sadly cannot edit my first post.

    @TmzHosting, I have a few questions:
    1. Can you get apache running pretty close to the speeds of LiteSpeed (until I can actually add LiteSpeed to my budget as well!).
    2. If I provide my current MySQL version, PHP version and basic settings, you could recreate the same setup for the vps, right?
    3. We'll be planning the movie sometime in around April 2014, so I'll keep in touch! But what would the estimated downtime be for switching the servers (mainly, DNS stuff which I have no idea of!), an expected time it would take for my domain to start pointing at the new nameservers etc.

    I'm looking more into the reviews for TMZ, and I see mostly positive, which was the same with MDD and I signed up with them, will mostly finish 3 lovely years with them, Mike at MDD has been really amazing. But going ahead on a VPS plan with them would make me poor in no time haha
    1. Yes we can get pretty close.
    2. Yes.
    3. There shouldn't be any downtime if your current provider uses cPanel it should be an easy switch.

    Let me know if you have any further questions.

    - Daniel

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    OP keep us updated with your choice.
    Failure is success if we learn from it.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Alabama
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    Something for the OP to keep in mind is true SSD vs SSD caching. There's a pretty big difference as a pure SSD RAID 10 array will outperform caching every time.
    KnownHost Managed VPS Specialists
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Divvens View Post
    - Knownhost
    This is well in my budget, looking at their SSD VPS plans (http://www.knownhost.com/managed-ssd-vps-packages.html) SSD - 1 suits my requirements, it even offers cPanel for free (I am used to cPanel). I've heard a lot of good about Knownhost, but also some bad (on xenForo company forums), some say that Knownhost support isn't as good as they say and often times leave you hanging to solve issues on your own. Opinions fellow WHT members? Not sure if they provide LiteSpeed as an option (and how much extra would that cost?)
    Divvens,

    I can assure you that we don't leave customers hanging - ever. We make sure that all customers are taken care of, all the time. Now unfortunately not everyone will always be happy with you, but we do try our best. A simple search of WHT forums for reviews of us will clearly show this and I think you'll be pleased with your findings

    We do provide Litespeed as an option. The price varies based on the amount of RAM you have.

    Look at the bottom of the page at http://www.knownhost.com/vps-addons.html for pricing info.
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    38
    Quote Originally Posted by TmzHosting View Post
    1. Yes we can get pretty close.
    2. Yes.
    3. There shouldn't be any downtime if your current provider uses cPanel it should be an easy switch.

    Let me know if you have any further questions.

    - Daniel
    One more question, what is your mailing policy? I looked around and couldn't find anything related to mailing policy. As in limits of hourly/daily/monthly mails on your VPS Servers

    Quote Originally Posted by KnownHost-Jonathan View Post
    Divvens,

    I can assure you that we don't leave customers hanging - ever. We make sure that all customers are taken care of, all the time. Now unfortunately not everyone will always be happy with you, but we do try our best. A simple search of WHT forums for reviews of us will clearly show this and I think you'll be pleased with your findings

    We do provide Litespeed as an option. The price varies based on the amount of RAM you have.

    Look at the bottom of the page at http://www.knownhost.com/vps-addons.html for pricing info.
    That is good to know, I'll be talking with my partner and we'll be taking a decision after thinking quite a bit I'll keep you informed of the decision!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Alabama
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    Quote Originally Posted by Divvens View Post
    One more question, what is your mailing policy? I looked around and couldn't find anything related to mailing policy. As in limits of hourly/daily/monthly mails on your VPS Servers
    Per our AUP, it's officially no more than 60 mails/minute (3600/hr), however this can be waived so long as your mail meets the CAN-SPAM act and doesn't get bounced and just sit in the Exim queue.



    Quote Originally Posted by Divvens View Post
    That is good to know, I'll be talking with my partner and we'll be taking a decision after thinking quite a bit I'll keep you informed of the decision!

    Bring on more questions if you have them
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Divvens View Post
    One more question, what is your mailing policy? I looked around and couldn't find anything related to mailing policy. As in limits of hourly/daily/monthly mails on your VPS Servers



    That is good to know, I'll be talking with my partner and we'll be taking a decision after thinking quite a bit I'll keep you informed of the decision!
    On shared hosting you would have e-mail limits. On our VPS's there are absolutely no e-mail limits, and you can send as many as you would like as long as they follow our spam policies.

    - Daniel

  13. #13
    Join Date
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    Glasgow, Scotland
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    All four are good choices.

    - Alexander
    HostUS - Premium Hosting Made Affordable
    TEN Worldwide locations spanning USA, Europe & Asia Pacific
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    38
    Thanks to everyone for their opinions.

    After lots of discussion over skype with my partner, we have decided to continue with MDD, we didn't want to leave them, it just didn't feel right and just the thought of "planning to leave" was troubling is, as in creating quite a bit of sadness within us. That's how good MDD has been to us, we just love them

    So me and my partner have decided that we won't make the jump to VPS, but rather to their semi-dedicated platform when required to (sometime around next year).

    When we come to a stage of VPS requirement, I shall look back upon this thread.

    Regards-
    Divvens

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Miami, FL
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    You should also consider target audience and choose the closest provider to them in order to achieve best connectivity.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    43
    @KnownHost-Jonathan what servers does Knownhost use?

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by tommydamic68 View Post
    @KnownHost-Jonathan what servers does Knownhost use?
    Im assuming you talking about the server brand? They are custom-built but we use Supermicro as a base.

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