Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Finding a decent web host that supports the type of site I own...

[marvell_berner]

Hello I saw this site linked to and decided to check it out since I'm in need of assistance pretty direly.

To put it shortly, I haven't yet found a host that is at least semi-reliable that supports the kind of site I own on a shared hosting plan. I don't know if I'm asking for the impossible, but I've sent support tickets into a few companies and their answer is the same: On a VPS or Dedicated server, but not on shared.
I have no problem paying for those, but right now the site is more or less in development, and I don't want to pay $50+ for largely unused resources.

The kind of site I'm referring to is a dog simulation game - I suppose you can compare this niche to pet games like Neopets, but the general idea is pretty different (I could provide links if wanted to examples, but I'm not sure if that would be allowed).
It's not any sort of virtual world and is done entirely in PHP/MySQL/(X)HTML/CSS - Javascript and Ajax are also used less frequently. These games more or less revolve around the care/breeding/showing of virtual animals (dogs, in this specific case) and also contain a community forum/chatroom (generally not free forum packages, but ones that are programmed from scratch). Most of them are individually, privately owned and have not been sold to large companies.

The largest site I know of that fits this description that hasn't branched into 3D stuff has about 850k accounts and about 300 registered members on at one time, and is owned by one woman.

My particular one will contain some AI but nothing outside of the scope of PHP and MySQL, certainly nothing unrealistic. I'm not stingy at all and of course if I exceeded space or bandwidth I would readily move up to a better hosting plan or a VPS/Dedicated server, but in development I just don't think that is necessary.

I'm sorry for how much I've typed, but I wanted to really expound on what this genre is since many people seem to think it's A) an MMORPG or B) complex 3D things - it's neither.

If anyone has suggestions for web hosting companies that you think would allow something like this, please let me know - to be sure I would contact the company, but I'm a bit stuck on where to turn.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate any and all answers I get

[SaaSMX]

Well, since it's still in development you can start on shared hosting and then move on when it grows.

[marvell_berner]

Originally Posted by VS-fam

Well, since it's still in development you can start on shared hosting and then move on when it grows.

Exactly my thoughts But as stated in my post, no host I've talked to is willing to host a site like this on their shared plans.

[SaaSMX]

Well, the reason could be those hosts are oversellers and know that their service would not keep up with your site even at the very beginning.

[HostLeet]

Originally Posted by marvell_berner

Hello I saw this site linked to and decided to check it out since I'm in need of assistance pretty direly.

To put it shortly, I haven't yet found a host that is at least semi-reliable that supports the kind of site I own on a shared hosting plan. I don't know if I'm asking for the impossible, but I've sent support tickets into a few companies and their answer is the same: On a VPS or Dedicated server, but not on shared.
I have no problem paying for those, but right now the site is more or less in development, and I don't want to pay $50+ for largely unused resources.

The kind of site I'm referring to is a dog simulation game - I suppose you can compare this niche to pet games like Neopets, but the general idea is pretty different (I could provide links if wanted to examples, but I'm not sure if that would be allowed).
It's not any sort of virtual world and is done entirely in PHP/MySQL/(X)HTML/CSS - Javascript and Ajax are also used less frequently. These games more or less revolve around the care/breeding/showing of virtual animals (dogs, in this specific case) and also contain a community forum/chatroom (generally not free forum packages, but ones that are programmed from scratch). Most of them are individually, privately owned and have not been sold to large companies.

The largest site I know of that fits this description that hasn't branched into 3D stuff has about 850k accounts and about 300 registered members on at one time, and is owned by one woman.

My particular one will contain some AI but nothing outside of the scope of PHP and MySQL, certainly nothing unrealistic. I'm not stingy at all and of course if I exceeded space or bandwidth I would readily move up to a better hosting plan or a VPS/Dedicated server, but in development I just don't think that is necessary.

I'm sorry for how much I've typed, but I wanted to really expound on what this genre is since many people seem to think it's A) an MMORPG or B) complex 3D things - it's neither.

If anyone has suggestions for web hosting companies that you think would allow something like this, please let me know - to be sure I would contact the company, but I'm a bit stuck on where to turn.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate any and all answers I get

Hi,

And, welcome to the WHT!

I don't think the problem is the type of site you run, or the bandwidth and disk space that's keeping you from a shared environment..It's the 300 members connected at the same time! This is not going to happen on ANY shared hosting account (regardless of the type of site), at least not for long. The hosts you have been talking to are telling you the truth and are just trying to help you out, before you sign up with anyone else and get shut off the 1st day.

Honestly, with any large sites such as the ones you mentioned, there should be no excuse to why you can't afford to host it on a VPS or Dedicated server.

[DDT]

I don't think HE has 300, he's talking about the largest site of it's type.

Shared might work for starters until you outgrew it, if regular shared hosts can't meet your initial start-up requirements look for gaming hosts. They are a special breed (no pun intended)

[marvell_berner]

Thank you for the welcome!

To clarify, that site is the highest as far as traffic goes and my site is nowhere near that - I don't expect it to be for quite a while (if at all).

I just went and checked its current stats (most of the code is not uploaded at the moment) and the highest amount of traffic it has ever gotten in one month is 1.13 GB. Within the past months it's been getting about 150 MB.

Thanks for the advice so far, I do appreciate it Before I opened it for public usage I would definitely upgrade since I have seen sites get suspended on "opening day", but I don't feel that we are ready for that.

VS-fam - That may be - I'll have to look around some more.

DDT - Thank you, that is what I meant - and will look into those as well.

[HostLeet]

Originally Posted by marvell_berner

Thank you for the welcome!

To clarify, that site is the highest as far as traffic goes and my site is nowhere near that - I don't expect it to be for quite a while (if at all).

I just went and checked its current stats (most of the code is not uploaded at the moment) and the highest amount of traffic it has ever gotten in one month is 1.13 GB. Within the past months it's been getting about 150 MB.

Thanks for the advice so far, I do appreciate it Before I opened it for public usage I would definitely upgrade since I have seen sites get suspended on "opening day", but I don't feel that we are ready for that.

VS-fam - That may be - I'll have to look around some more.

DDT - Thank you, that is what I meant - and will look into those as well.

Thanks for clarifying.

As others have stated, you might be okay on a shared account for starting out. Just make sure you keep an off-server backup handy, at all times.

[IfHost]

I would suggest you use a company that uses litespeed. This will use less bandwith and be fast for generating PHP and the overall speed of your site.

[coolvserver]

If you are in development mode, there is not much users to use it.
You can sign up with any shared hosting company.
No one will kick you out.
The problem with shared hosting is that you cannot do much custom work.
If you need to change OS, modify Apache, PHP, ..... etc you have to be on a VPS or dedicated server.

[ldcdc]

Well, the reason could be those hosts are oversellers and know that their service would not keep up with your site even at the very beginning.

Very unlikely for that to be the the case. Oversellers make most of their money by hosting 150MB sites using 1GB of data transfer, because that's nothing.

The reason why a wise shared hosting provider would not like to host a project like that is the very fact that it is in a state of development and it can be unstable or insecure.

I'm not stingy at all and of course if I exceeded space or bandwidth I would readily move up to a better hosting plan or a VPS/Dedicated server, but in development I just don't think that is necessary.

There are small, unmanaged VPS providers out there that won't cost you way more than a shared hosting account. You can do anything you please on one of those accounts.

[vinod]

hey,

I have felt that most of the webhosts are pessimist ( it should be so! ) when they are approached for a shared account. So when you describe your site plan they think that it'll eat up their resources

So I'd suggest to go for an unmanaged , low spec VPS ( you can find good deals here, i'll bet ) and build your site there. The advantage of a VPS is that you can scale up to a certain limit. So as you grow, you can keep adding resources and be free from hassles of account migration from one to other.

Further, if you are investing for long term, I'd suggest to go for a VPS on cloud infrastructure which can be the best bet. Because, when you are on a cloud environment , you can scale infinitely and its 100 % redundant and there'll be absolute zero down time.

Vinod

[MikeDVB]

Originally Posted by vinod

Because, when you are on a cloud environment , you can scale infinitely and its 100 % redundant and there'll be absolute zero down time.

1. Cloud or not, nothing is "infinite"
2. Most providers offer redundancy but cloud services can and do still fail from time to time.
3. You're surely not going to see 100% uptime unless you're tremendously lucky no matter what type of service you go with unless it's something custom (i.e. very expensive).

Beyond that, a cloud server isn't a bad idea but tends to be more expensive than a "standard vps" and most cloud servers are just xen VPSs with shared storage.

[SaaSMX]

Originally Posted by ldcdc

Very unlikely for that to be the the case. Oversellers make most of their money by hosting 150MB sites using 1GB of data transfer, because that's nothing.

The reason why a wise shared hosting provider would not like to host a project like that is the very fact that it is in a state of development and it can be unstable or insecure.

I find it very likely considering that oversellers are most of the time overloaders, hence a project in a state of development is unstable and could very easily crash an unstable overloaded server

I'm sure a host like medialayer will take his project, among many others.

[e-Sensibility]

Since your site is atypical it will be more difficult, as you already know, to find a shared host.

But if you talk to a few providers I'm sure somebody will be willing and able to help you out. Perhaps you should give a smaller host a shot.

It's easy to say that you should just cough up the extra money, but if your site really isn't using the resources at this point and won't be in the foreseeable future, I say just shop around for a good shared host.