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  1. #1

    Question advice and help needed on choosing the right host/plan

    Hi,

    I would really appreciate some help/advice on choosing a reliable host and the right plan. I don’t have much experience with this, so I’m having a hard time deciding what to do.


    I’ll be running 5 unrelated websites, each will have 3-4 parked domains pointed to it.

    1 static
    1 running Drupal or Joomla (haven’t decided yet, under development)
    3 running Wordpress

    the static and Wordpress sites average about 2000 - 3000 visits per month. I don’t know how the CMS site will turn out, so we’ll see...

    Each site will also have a phpBB with a few hundred users, (but rarely more than 10 users at a time).

    Users will be uploading and downloading small files in the 2 of the forums regularly.

    The static site will have a 5MB PDF Newsletter (yes it’s optimized ) available for download every month... it gets downloaded about 10 times per day.
    That in itself comes to about 1.5GB of bandwidth per month...

    Not sure if this will make a difference, but MOST of the visitors will be from Canada.


    These are the hosts I’m considering

    - Host Gator (their shared plans are pretty inexpensive, comfortable with cPanel)
    - Steadfast Networks (good reviews... but they use H-Sphere and I’m not familiar with it)
    - Dayana Host (hosted my first site with them, and they were pretty good)

    but I’m open to suggestions...


    I also need help choosing a plan... Do I go with a reseller plan, so each site can have its own Control Panel? Right now my sites are hosted on different accounts (shared plans)... I don’t have any experience hosting multiple domains using the same Control Panel... but I’m willing to give it a shot if it will help me save money. At the moment, I can’t really afford to spend more than $10 - $15 per month.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

  2. #2
    I would send that directly to the web hosts you are looking at and ask if it will cause any issues with their hosting.

    That setup will work fine on most hosts, but some hosts (including one you have listed) are overly strict on cpu usage.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
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    * Welcome to WHT!!

    Hi Canidae

    What your looking for isn't anywhere near beyond a good shared host with add-ons, no need for a reseller

    As you've had previous experience of Dayana Host they would be a strong one to go with if the price is right for what you require, if not Steadfast are the 2nd best for you in my honest opinion.

    If none of them two then personally I'd look elsewhere

    Good luck and please keep us informed of how you go
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  4. #4
    Yeah any good shared hosting company can accommodate you easily. Just be careful of hosting plans that offer you way to much for the dollar. Usually those services are over sold.

    But it sounds like you like Dayana host... why leave? Need more competitive pricing? You might want to ask them if they can get you a deal?
    Managed Virtual and Dedicated Servers Los Angeles - KEVWORKS
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Posts
    573
    Greetings Canidae

    I like your Drupal vs Joomla question. Drupal is really growing up and has strengths in building a community with multi-site support. It also has an easier structure. Joomla at this point is more versatile and has better upload support.

    I really do like Drupal these days but it's not as mature as Joomla yet.

    And H-Sphere is different than your regular cPanel but it's also quite easy to use (once you spend a few hours with it).
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Northern Europe.
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    I have no personal experience with these hosts, except Hostgator. I happen to have a reseller account with them nowadays.

    You can have multiple-site hosting with most hosts nowadays (including HG), with a separate control panel for each site.

    The only catch is that in my experience there are certain little things that don't quite work on such an account - like I tried having separate .htaccess files on a shared account with cPanel, and THAT didn't work.
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  7. #7
    Thanks guys. I'm taking all your advice into considering... so please keep it coming.

    I should add one more requirement:
    decent transfer rates. Since people are constantly downloading PDF files from one of the sites, this is an important factor.

    Dayana Host is fine, and their pricing is competitive. Their support response time is not great, but then again, I've rarely needed it. They have a nice promotion right now, but before I renew, I just want to see what else is available out there.



    Nadabrahma,
    I've contacted several hosts (including HG), and the only way that I can have a separate cPanel for each website, is by either having separate plans/accounts for each site, OR having a reseller account (which just allows me to setup separate accounts of each site).

    A lot of hosts allow you to host multiple domains using the same account, but it's done using pointers.

    just to clarify, the .htaccess didn't work because you were hosting multiple domains under the same account? have you had much experience with this? is the directory/file structure messy?
    Last edited by canidae; 03-03-2008 at 08:37 PM. Reason: formatting?

  8. #8
    How do you guys feel about Synhosting (aka Syn Hosting)? They're a Canadian company. I searched the forums and found some positive comments, but they don't seem to be well known. Their prices seem very competitive.

    I also looked into MediaLayer and UtropicMedia... but hosting 5 websites will get a bit more expensive with them. MediaLayer seems to be getting really good reviews though.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    484
    I personally recommend Medialayer.com

    Cartikahosting is a highly respected Canadian webhost with great reviews and they have a clustered system. Maybe look into them?

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
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    21,920
    I don’t have any experience hosting multiple domains using the same Control Panel...
    It's not rocket science. If you know what a folder is, you'll do fine.

    Not sure if this will make a difference, but MOST of the visitors will be from Canada.
    Speed wise, hosting in the US should not make a noticeable difference. You might want to use .ca domains though, for SEO reasons. It's a way to tell the search engines that your site is likely to be of interest to a CA audience, and to be listed for "pages in CA" searches.

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