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  1. #1

    dreamhost or bluehost

    I am trying to run away from powweb, which is a total mess recently, been with them since 2002, in good and bad times, but even my patience is over!

    I looked at many hosts, posted questions at their support forums, and finally I am down to these 2: bluehost and dreamhost. Both have some positive and negative comments, so I cannot make my mind.

    They offer about the same, which suits my needs, I need about 100GB traffic, and about 5 GB of space. My site is a dating service, small one, defiantely not like match.com, but growing (hopefully!).

    I am mostly concerned about uptime and speed, and NO mysql problems and no mysql restrictions, like "too many connections", my site is all dynamic pages, all mysql driven, so stable database is the most important thing to me. When my site is down, too slow or gives mysql errors, my customers simply register somewhere else, after all they have a lot of options for online dating!

    The customer support is not very important in my case. I used to resolve my problems myself, and hate opening support tickets. On powweb, in spite of all their problems, I only opened 2 tickets in 4 years. Not because the service was that great, but because I don't like complaining everytime my site is down. I just don't want it down!

    So, bluehost or dreamhost?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Widnes, England
    Posts
    595
    With that amount of bandwidth and reliance on a database, I'd suggest a dedicated server or high spec VPS.
    Sean

  3. #3
    are you sure?? I read comments on this forum and people asking for 100GB (also ex-powweb customers, btw) were discussing shared hosts! Actually, as of today my site only uses 1.5GB per day, but just for the future, as I don't like jumping from host to host every 6 months. I don't think you really need dedicated hosting for 2Gb per day.

  4. #4
    I had the same problem myself. I couldm't decide which host to use.
    I did a lot of research and I finally decided Bluehost. I have just uploaded my site
    ( walleluia.com ) and everything seems to be good so far. I also use MySQL databases but I can't tell you what is going to happen in case of a lot of traffic because my site is 3 days old. So I can't tell you what is going to happen to my database if there are many visitors.

    People there are very halpful. I didn't need much help, just a few questions. They were really helpful.

    I decided Bluehost after searching for a couple of months. I hope my choice was wise.

    I hope I was helpful.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    1,061
    I'd go for dreamhost - at least they gave me much better performance, both bandwidth and cpu.
    (Edit: I ended up at surfspeedy since they had better peering).
    -Mr Bister

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Opinions can vary, but I know I would not put that type of site in a regular shared hosting environment. For my own peace of mind, I would go for at least a VPS or a semidedicated.

  7. #7

  8. #8
    I would go with a VPS. It may be more expensive but you won't have to worry about your account getting shut down at least.
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    joisey
    Posts
    32
    If you didn't know, Bluehost recently changed how they measured the CPU cap. You more likely to hit it with them now. The CEO was nice enough to let us know on the change as they rolled out a more expensive plan. When I asked why the $6.95 plan was changed he basically said any shared host that doesn't measure a cap in a 1 minute timeframe will bring down the server.

    Being curious I kept questioning him on it and he basically told me to leave. It was in their forum and it's been deleted. I have it saved though.


    The guys behind Dreamhost are a nice bunch but their server performance is weak. I think they've grown too big. If they improved their performance problems I'd go back to them. They are very open and know how to communicate with their customers unlike Bluehost.

    I agree about the VPS. I'm looking into that myself.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    411
    Like said, look for a VPS

    although more expensive, you have much more control and u wont get shut down
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  11. #11
    thanks for your input guys, but like I asked in another thread about CPU, I have no idea if my site uses too much CPU. It's a phpbb and maximum users I can have online is about 40, while usually it's 15-20. Is it considered a lot of CPU?? Then what is NOT a lot of CPU? Having 3 people on forums? I think even tripod can do that! LOL

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    160
    You could go with shared for 5 GB and 100 GB Bandwidth. You might have to do a custom plan with someone, but it's possible. You don't need a VPS considering it's a phpBB forum that only has 15-20 at a time, you might need to upgrade in the future though, to a VPS if it does grow.
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  13. #13
    My advice would be to stay well away from dreamhost because they've been terrible lately. My site has been down all evening (at least 7 hours now) and support have neither fixed it nor explained what's happening. This isn't an isolated incident either, there's been a ton of downtime recently. If you value your uptime (and sanity) choose another host, dreamhost are just too slow to fix serious problems.

    I have an account at bluehost as well, I recently got hit by the 'CPU Quota Exceeded' messages too so it's hard to recommend them either.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    joisey
    Posts
    32
    It doesn't sound like you need a lot but the CPU cap is too easily triggered. These caps are good but I think they went overboard. They have a generous refund policy though. Give bluehost a try.

    You could also ask in their forum to see if anyone is in a similar situation as you.
    -joon [www:dvessel:com]

  15. #15
    I have never used bluehost but at this moment, Dreamhost is experiencing severe problems with speed. I don't know what's going on but I'm getting ping timeouts from my site. Usually I get around 20-30 ms ping.

  16. #16
    Thank you guys, I will probably try bluehost. I don't think my site uses that much CPU, and slowness and downtime is what I am trying to escape from!!

    One thing I don't like about dreamhost is that they are so pushy!!! Like car salesmen. LOL Those guys all over the place, with the dreamhost promotion codes... argh!!!

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    52
    dreamhost has been absolute crap for the last 2 and a half months and things arent looking any better.
    Hai2u

  18. #18
    Stay away from dreamhost at least 2 months
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    771
    If this is a business that earns you money, you have to decide if a budget shared hosting account is really the way to go. Personally, I would never put a business account that needs to be accessible and reliable on such an account.

    As these accounts go, Bluehost is probably OK, they have addressed the CPU question and do have a (more expensive) option now that gives access to more CPU, so you can switch when you hit the CPU limits on the cheap account.

    You ask how you can tell if your site is CPU intensive. All database driven sites are CPU intensive. It's hard to predict when you will start hitting the CPU limits (that depends on a lot of things), but you will hit them sometime. More expensive accounts (with reputable hosts) generally offer higher levels of support, access to more CPU for a given level of space/transfer, and have faster/more reliable servers and connections to the net.

  20. #20
    Dreamhost has been having alot of issues lately. Mostly network issues but this is something they will have to work through.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by dvessel
    If you didn't know, Bluehost recently changed how they measured the CPU cap. You more likely to hit it with them now. The CEO was nice enough to let us know on the change as they rolled out a more expensive plan. When I asked why the $6.95 plan was changed he basically said any shared host that doesn't measure a cap in a 1 minute timeframe will bring down the server.

    Being curious I kept questioning him on it and he basically told me to leave. It was in their forum and it's been deleted. I have it saved though.


    The guys behind Dreamhost are a nice bunch but their server performance is weak. I think they've grown too big. If they improved their performance problems I'd go back to them. They are very open and know how to communicate with their customers unlike Bluehost.

    I agree about the VPS. I'm looking into that myself.
    lol I remember that post that was freaky...incredibly rude
    www.skatersforum.com

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by dvessel
    I agree about the VPS. I'm looking into that myself.
    This response is off-topic here but if you are still looking for a VPS I would recommend checking out JaguarPC.com. I checked them out for a couple of months then realized that a VPS was way more than I needed so I reverted back to my previous host. However for the couple of months that I was there the experience was nothing but positive. Also it would be best not to go with the cheapest VPS either. Ok. 'nuff out of me on that one.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    joisey
    Posts
    32
    Well, I found an unmanaged VPS plan and I love it. Glad I left Bluehost. :p I'll fix my own problems now. Thanks for the recommendation shin, but I'm happy with SolarVPS.

    I would have not had a problem with them if their "attempt" at communicating wasn't so broken. And their only answer to any cpu errors is that your scripts are not efficient to be run on a shared hosting plan even if these scripts are provided by their licensed fantastico installed apps.

    They consistently put out weak arguments with no details. It looks like they just want to squeeze last client into a single box.
    -joon [www:dvessel:com]

  24. #24
    lol. I think that describes alot of shared hosting companies out there. The Fantastico bit might not be completely under control as far as what can be installed from it. They shouldn't be offering it though if they cannot handle the scripts that it is installing.

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