Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : Xen powered VPS

[hcgtv]

Hi,

After a couple of weeks of researching VPS plans, I've come to the conclusion that Xen powered plans give you the best bang for the buck.

I'd like to hear any experiences with unixshell# and xelhosting.

Thanks.

[minsight]

I've been very happy with what I've got for my money with my low-end unixshell account.

[msh]

I have had a unixshell VPS since they started and are very happy with my choice.

Allmost no downtime and speedy servers.

Remember, unixshell is unmanaged so they don't offer support on the normal use of your VPS.

[BroadAndElmwood]

I like vpsland.com.
Signed up with them after the aforementioned xen host had one too many network issues.

[hcarty]

I have had an account with unixshell# (their cheapest) for several months now, and I have been very happy with the performance of my VPS.

I have an account with xelhosting as well, as a test, and it seems work well so far, and the performance is excellent. I have not done a lot of in depth work with this account though, so I'm not certain yet.

A few comparisons based on my relatively limited experience:
-Xelhosting is NEW (~1 month old?), unixshell# is new (<1 year I think), but its sister company Tektonic has been around for a while (I don't know how long exactly, a few years+).

- Xelhosting gives more RAM for the $$, but less disk space and bandwidth than comparable unixshell# plans.

- Xelhosting's support seems to be much quicker and friendlier in their responses than unixshell, though to be honest I have not had to use unixshell's support in a while. Both are unmanaged, so support in this case has been for 'my VPS is unaccessible' issues, which I think has happened once with each provider.

- unixshell#'s control panel has more information available, and is in general much more featureful than Xelhosting's CP. Xelhosting's panel is still in development, so some features such as OS reloads need a support ticket.

- Performance on both is excellent for what I'm doing (personal email, web development, SVN for graduate/thesis work). unixshell# does have better pings and significantly better network throughput from what I've seen, though both are more than adequate for my needs.

- For backups, unixshell# provides 'snapshot' capabilities for your VM, which basically creates a .tar.gz of your VM. Each plan from $15 and up includes one snapshot. With Xelhosting, you get rsync/sftp/scp accessible backup space equal to the HD space with your plan (4gb HD space + 4gb backup space). No clear winner their for me, more of a preference thing I guess.

I have not made a decision as to which I will stick with. Xelhosting seems friendlier, and unixshell# more professional. As my VM is for personal use, I'm torn as to which is more important to me :-)

Good luck on your decision.

[hcgtv]

hcarty,

Thanks for your review, it's very informative.

Xelhosting does seem friendlier, that may be the deciding factor for me.

Thanks.

[rasputinj]

Where are Xelhosting Xen servers located?

[hcgtv]

Originally Posted by rasputinj

Where are Xelhosting Xen servers located?

The servers are located in Dallas, Texas, network providers are Internap and
Level3.

[hcgtv]

Hi,

Just wanted to follow up, I ended up with Xelhosting for my Xen based VPS provider.

The speed of my dynamic sites is very impressive, I'm very happy with my decision. Xen 3.0 is an awesome piece of software, beats the pants out of anything else.

My plan is:
Plan 3
12G space
384M memory
150G transfer

I'm running Debian Sarge with Apache, MySQL and PHP. I run a home based Debian server, so it was easy for me to get everything going.

Follow the links in my sig, they are all hosted off the same VPS.

[datruesurfer]

I have a "The 32" account with unixshell simply for testing and backup DNS, and it works great. You really cant beat it for $8/mth

[bl4qkubartnndfhr]

I've had unixshell for a very short amount of time. My server has been down for two days without access to the control panel. Beware, as they do not respond quickly to problems that arrise with your server. Then there is nothing to do but cry because the server is down.

[KnownHost]

So your saying you wouldn't use a Virtuozzo VPS if it was sold at say $15/mo-$20/mo? Xen technology is nice but in a production environment the extra $10/mo is worth it. With the extra $10/mo comes more End User Management Tools and Support ff the company is real. I have used Virtuozzo for over 4 yrs now and tested Xen and was impressed but not for a site for business or to make profits. Backup's, DNS it is golden. Just my 2 cents.

[hcgtv]

Knowhost,

If you plan on reselling your VPS space, then I would say all the tools come in handy for your clients. But for me, I'm the only one on the VPS and I can administer it just fine without all the point and click interfaces.

I like the extra speed of Xen, I can't tell the difference when I use PuTTY to sign on to my VPS or my home-based server, it's that fast. I'll sacrifice ease of use to gain speed any day of the week.

[lottos]

agree with hcgtv - I would rather have less VPS's on a server and have faster response times and more resources for my websites thanks!

and control panels are coming for Xen anyway.

[gplhost]

Originally Posted by hcgtv

The speed of my dynamic sites is very impressive, I'm very happy with my decision. Xen 3.0 is an awesome piece of software, beats the pants out of anything else.

At GPLHost we have evaluated the current Xen 3.0.0 that is available for public download. This version is STILL called "testing" by xensource themself, and our test showed some very strange behavior when starting/stoping domains.

Moreover, xen 2.0.7 has very good performances already, and the only advantage of Xen 3.0 is the support of 64 bit processors and the VT instruction set. For those of you that want a cheaper VPS, 64 bits and dual core Xeons are not the correct choice (they are a way too expensive... for the moment).

For those reasons, GPLHost don't use Xen 3 yet and we don't give the advice to do so. It might be mater of choice (and security), for the same reason we use Debian stable because it's less trouble (I know some are running Unstable for web hosting).

I've tried Xen 3.0.0 testing, and I love the "xm top" command. I'm still searching for a quote for dual-core xeon so I could start windows VPS... but didn't find any available yet. That's something for later. Once again, Xen 2.0.7 is wonderfull already!

Thomas