Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Showdown - VDI vs. DI

[Jag]

Well after testing out the VDI operation and trying to compare it with DI, this is what I see.
"*" marks the winner

*DI- Fast servers, great prices
VDI- Not quite as fast for the buck but very close

DI- Good support, fast, knowledable, but only 30days free
*VDI- same as above but no 30 day limit. . woohoo

DI- Upgrades have a setup and a monthly
*VDI- Upgrades are a onetime fee, and not very exspensive

DI- Comes stock with low grade pre-packaged programs
*VDI- Comes with SSH, MySQL, proftp and more

DI- Control panel is very basic, the end user panel is even more basic, and a lot of actions in the panel causes httpsd to stop and you must telnet in to restart it again.
*VDI- No such problem yet, but I havent had the time frame ive had at DI either

DI- Uses 95% for bandwidth resultng in $870 + a mo. for my typical traffic patterns
*VDI- Uses actual transfers although their price per gig is higher the same transfer rate will costs me about $360 mo. Thats a $500+ savings per server

*DI- has a good track record for connectivity
VDI- had some problems that appear to have been overcome

DI- 6mo. contract , and 30 day try out
*VDI- no contract ever, quit when you want

DI- only one way to get connected
*VDI- you can lease a 8mb pipe or whatever you need of your own

Well thats the main points ive seen and in this comparison VDI wins to say the least. I'll have to repost after ive had more time at VDI. Their initial impression is far greater than the initial impression i had with DI but theres a different story for each user. This is in no way intened to influence anybidy to go with either company. Its up to you to make your own decisions, my experiences may not be the same as your own.

I read these boards many times a day...and seldom post....

However, the way everyone rattles on about DI is very strange...

I've used their control panel myself, and it really sucks big time.
If you are going to pick DI, I would recommend to go with servint.com instead, the best support I have ever experienced (when we used to colo there).

To back up what Jaguar just said, VDI's WebHostmanager and cpanel is better than anything else out there....

If you want evidence of that...ask me or my collegues for a demo, or ring VDI direct!

Regards,
Jordan
Ultraspeed UK

[MikeA]

I'll have to back up Jordan on this one. Not only is it a good control panel, but it is FULLY customizable. You can make it look like anything you want (though it does take a while with over 150 HTML files).

Also the downtime that I've heard about with BurstNET must be thier servers (down daily or multiple times per week). We have had two servers with Ultraspeed (located at VDI) and neither has gone down or had any problems in the 3 weeks they have been their. I know the rebut question is, "but three weeks isn't that long". Take a look at my BurstNET log file (in these forums somewhere) and you'll see why 3 weeks is long enough to know.

[Duster]

Originally posted by jaguar
DI- Upgrades have a setup and a monthly
*VDI- Upgrades are a onetime fee, and not very exspensive

Incorrect. Did you get them reversed or just make a mistake? When you add something at DI, like more memory for instance, you do not pay a monthly fee for it.

With respect Duster, you don't pay a monthly fee on memory with most good providers. (Including ourselves)

Regards,

Jordan

[Jag]

Originally posted by Duster

Incorrect. Did you get them reversed or just make a mistake? When you add something at DI, like more memory for instance, you do not pay a monthly fee for it.

Duster, I have had several upgrades done and you DO get charged a setup and a monthly fee. Look at their upgrade services page and see for yourself. I have had so many upgrades done I could qoute you the price of all their upgrades off the top of my head. Here I'll make it easy for you

http://dialtoneinternet.com/services/hardupgrade.htm

[Curious]

Duster,
I had a memory upgrade done on one of the servers I lease from Dialtone, and was charged the upgrade fee plus an additional $11 per month.



[Edited by Curious on 09-13-2000 at 06:48 PM]

[Greg]

I would think all hosting companies would charge more for upgrades, such as memory, even every month after a set up fee.


If they didn't, what would stop you from upgrading the ram and disk space to the same specs as one of their better dedicated servers that costs more, without paying for it.


If Duster was right, I could lease the 4001 plan for $289/month, and upgrade the memory to 512 ram and 18 Gig SCSI, and be close to the same server as the 4003 plan that costs $525/month.....and that just doesn't make sense Duster.

[Martie]

Jaguar....Nice comparisons! Looks like VDI would be the choice. Im quite happy where I am at the moment with Alabanza but figured I would give my opinion. I looked at Dialtone for quite some time, as well as other companies before actually going with Alabanza. About a year ago a friend of mine got into one of those contracts with DI, with limited system (I dont remember which one) It was pretty expensive though, and for 2 or 3 years. Within 30 days, she had numerous problems with NO accounts even on the server. Believe me she got charged for stuff, bandwidth being one, and constantly a hacker getting in. Last I heard she had to purchase a firewall?
Ive seen Jaguar's posts all along, and some others too, but that bandwidth percentile figure that they use..well I find it UNreal!!
Common sense tells me too that DI would most certainly charge for upgrades!

[DanielP]

Greg, The reason my company and many others charge only setup/install fee's only is because of the following.

A) Setup/Install fee = cost of part
B) It doesn't cost me any more a month for a 1ghz 512mb ram server in a rack vs a 400mhz 64mb celeron in a rack.


Of course it could be the little part of my brain which tells me this:

"Ok they are upgrading their server, that means their going to be using more resources which means more bandwidth usage which means their monthly goes up and I make more of a profit."

Charging a monthly fee for more ram and hard drives and the like is just plain stupid.

[Greg]

Look, I realize that it costs you nothing at all after you install it, so why would you keep charging your clients for it?


Because if you lease more than 1 type of server, like DI does, you can't do it that way. If they did, everyone would lease the lowest server for $289/month, then upgrade it to the best server $789/month...and only pay DI the set up fee then $289/month, for the same plan that they charge $789/month for.


Email DI and ask them why they do it, chances are they will explain it just like they explained to Duster about sendmail and FTP, they will give you all the logic behind it.

[Chicken]

I must say, that *that* is one of the reasons I decided to buy my server, instead of lease one. Now I understand we all have to make money, really I do, but the thought of pyaing a setup fee (which covers the cost or close), plus monthly charges just didn't sit well with me. Again, I understand why they do it, but I don't like it and chose another route.

If VDI had been a bit better when I bought my server, I may have tried USusa and Daniel out. Maybe next time.

[Duster]

I stand corrected (or actually, I sit that way). They've changed, and I should have checked first. A few months ago, adding 64 mb of RAM was a one time fee of $177, including the setup. I don't like the idea of paying for something monthly that is a durable product. Memory doesn't go bad unless you shoot electricity through it.

I certainly don't see any justification for charging a higher setup for different memory sizes, or for different hard drive sizes. It takes the same amount of time to put in a 64 mb stick as it does a 128 or 256 mb one. I can understand a reasonable monthly fee, since they are responsible for it and will change it if anything happens, but that makes more sense with hard drives than with memory.

Things change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

[DanielP]

Greg, I understand what your saying.

However, I don't personally agree with DI's pricing plans (sure the lower ones are great, but they are really taking a good bit of money. Something like their server 4004 costs roughly 3500 to build (thats a rough estimate i can contact my hardware provider for exacts).

Now, with their 6 month contract they are making around 4734.00 . They just paid for the server and made 1200 which easily covers monthly bandwidth charges and then some.

After that , they are making near 700 a month profit.
Pretty darn good deal for them don't ya think?

Anyhow, I don't want to get into some big argument over their prices, if you'd like to do that feel free to contact me privately or start another thread.

{Edit} Rephrased a word or two {/Edit}


[Edited by DanielP on 09-13-2000 at 10:49 PM]

[JayC]

Originally posted by DanielP Now, with their 6 month contract they are making around 4734.00 . They just paid for the server and made 1200 which easily covers monthly bandwidth charges and then some.

After that , they are making near 700 a month profit.
Pretty darn good deal for them don't ya think?

Yeah, what's with those guys, expecting to make enough money to pay their staff, the rent or mortgage on their building, the utility and phone bills... heck, they probably even expect to make a profit. What kind of way is that to run a business?

It's not uncommon in many businesses for the way a product or service is priced for resale to have little connection to how the wholesaler pays for it. If you have call waiting from your local phone company, you pay them every month for it and you paid a setup fee to turn it on. What did it take to turn it on? Somebody typed a few keystrokes. There's no significant monthly expense for the phone company to continue to provide it to you, and they've already recovered the development and infrastructure costs of providing it, years ago -- but they still charge you every month. So are they ripping you off?