Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : What do I need? VPS? Ded? Help needed...

[MrBob]

Hi All,

I have a decent size wordpress blog that is doing horribly on the MT cloud service. I need to move to a better managed solution but I'm clueless as to what to select. Can you help me out?

Site Stats:

WordPress Blog
140k uniques a month
23k MB bandwidth a month
1.7GB disk space used
500 GPU usage per month (I expect to bring this down some)

Requested features:

Speed
Fully managed
Some sort of Control Panel
Static IPs

I'm expecting some decent growth so I need to get on a server more reliable than MTs cloud. Speed and reliability is more important to me than price, although I can't break the bank

Any suggestions, tips, pointers, etc would be greatly appreciated.

[Lev]

You could still do shared/reseller, depending on how that traffic is spread out. What is the highest amount of uniques you get PER HOUR?

We need to know more about what you mean decent growth (ie, double your current uniques, more, less?). A decent VPS is powerful enough to handle your workload, the question becomes whether you can find a provider with a stable node (the entire server, not just your VPS), I would say that's quite difficult.

[MikeDVB]

If you're not using any sort of caching such as WPSuperCache I would suggest enabling it and that will help a lot.

Your uniques per month is fairly high for a standard shared plan but it would be doable with the appropriate caching. Beyond that you may try a smaller managed VPS or a lower end dedicated server.

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by Lev

You could still do shared/reseller, depending on how that traffic is spread out. What is the highest amount of uniques you get PER HOUR?

I have no idea how to determine that, any tips?

We need to know more about what you mean decent growth (ie, double your current uniques, more, less?

I would say double within a year or so.

WPSuperCache I would suggest enabling it and that will help a lot

I am caching now and using a cdn service.

A decent VPS is powerful enough to handle your workload, the question becomes whether you can find a provider with a stable node (the entire server, not just your VPS), I would say that's quite difficult

great...but thats why I posted here

[Lev]

Originally Posted by MrBob

I have no idea how to determine that, any tips?

Do you have a statistics package that you use? Like awstats, or google analytics? I am not familiar with MT's cloud service, but I would be very surprised if they did not include some kind of statistics (ie, how did you determine your uniques is 140,000 a month?). That should have uniques per hour, take a look and tell us what you see.

If you're determined to go with a VPS or higher, a decent VPS (just don't go low end) will do well as long as the entire server is stable (even if you're basically getting all those 4k visitors/day in a couple hours). A low-end dedicated server will also do well for you.

[MrBob]

I use google analytics and didn't see how I could see stats by hour?

I haven't had much luck hosting this site so I am thinking VPS at a minimum. Do you have any suggestions as to which host? I was ready to go Hostgator until I saw a couple posts on here...

I also don't really know what I need, some of these hosts have configurable packages...where do I start with that?

[Jedito]

Unless you get all the visitors in one hour per day and you were using some resources intensive plug-ins, you still should be able to be hosted on a decent shared host, you have an average of 4700 visitors per month, which still suit perfectly fine in a shared account.

[ubservers]

A small dedicated server, if you can afford it, would give you much more speed, control and the ability to grow on.
If you don't have the funds, try a decent VPS.

Good luck!

[MrBob]

you have an average of 4700 visitors per month

I think you mean per day? and shared is really no go here, this site has killed many shared hosts and I need room to grow.

visitors in one hour

I checked visitors per hour and the highest was 795.

A small dedicated server, if you can afford it, would give you much more speed, control and the ability to grow on.
If you don't have the funds, try a decent VPS

I know that much but thanks I need help picking the host and how much I really need on the server.

[CraigMesser]

You may do better with some Business hosting, where there are no more than around 30 sites hosted on a Dual, quad core server.

Again as said above failing that a small VPS... I'm sure you'll find many hosts on this forum who can provide what you need.

Are you looking for a UK or US provider...?

[Lev]

Originally Posted by MrBob

I use google analytics and didn't see how I could see stats by hour?

Login to Google Analytics and click 'Custom Reports' in the bottom left and then 'Create new custom report'. Next click 'Metrics' -> 'Site Usage' and then drag 'Unique Visitors' box to the blue 'metric' box. Then in the green 'Dimensions' box, click 'Visitors' and drag 'Hour of the Day' to the first green box. Then click 'Preview Report'. In the window that comes up, select a range of one day only. Note the highest unique visitors per hour. Do this for 5-10 days (or if you remember any particular high traffic days, try those). Give us what the highest results you get are.

Edit: noticed you already found this, so nevermind.

I haven't had much luck hosting this site so I am thinking VPS at a minimum. Do you have any suggestions as to which host? I was ready to go Hostgator until I saw a couple posts on here...

I do not think a VPS will resolve the issues you've been having in the long term (well it will, but you need a very well managed server). One thing is for sure: the company you go with should have glowing reviews, it is quite difficult to maintain a VPS node correctly for prolonged periods of time. A dedicated server hosting one customer is significantly easier to manage than a server hosting many VPS'.

I would suggest you find a company that does something like semi-dedicated and use that. It's shared but 800 visitors is really not that many, if the company has servers which specialize in hosting higher-use shared accounts, you should be fine.

I also don't really know what I need, some of these hosts have configurable packages...where do I start with that?

We need the provider in question. I know what you mean but different providers allow different configuration options.

Edit: That 800 number you gave above, are you sure that's per hour and not for several hours? Google Analytics by default has a range of several hours. It's important to get this number right.

[superblade]

Hey Bob:

I recently bought a VPS and quickly learned not to skimp on RAM. Even a small uncached WordPress site can quickly take down a low end VPS.

Regarding RAM, I think you are typically looking in the region of 3M per request for static content and 15M per request for dynamic content.


Multiply RAM per request by the number of simultaneous requests you want your server to handle without crashing, and you get a ballpark figure for how much RAM you will need. A knowledgeable provider should be able to recommend what will/won't work for your needs.

For managed VPS, I think there are several companies that regularly get good reviews on here: WiredTree, ServInt, LiquidWeb are a few you may want to look for reviews on.

[stebaker]

Seems like getting a decent size vps server would work.

[MrBob]

Are you looking for a UK or US provider...?

US

We need the provider in question

I can't seem to get that far I've been told every type of hosting could be just fine but I know that isn't right...so I have no idea how to even start picking a provider yet

are you sure that's per hour and not for several hours?

yes, it was for the highest hour in the last 3 months.

Multiply RAM per request by the number of simultaneous requests you want your server to handle without crashing

well... wouldn't I want it to handle all of them without crashing? how do I know how many requests I need?

regularly get good reviews on here: WiredTree, ServInt, LiquidWeb

this is helpful thanks! but this did make my budget more clear - if I can only host this site I can't spend more than $1-150 per month. if I can host a couple other sites I can do $200 per month.

dang, this is more of a pain than I thought. any/all other tips anyone has are very welcome, thanks for your help!

[cartika-andrew]

Originally Posted by Jedito

Unless you get all the visitors in one hour per day and you were using some resources intensive plug-ins, you still should be able to be hosted on a decent shared host, you have an average of 4700 visitors per month, which still suit perfectly fine in a shared account.

agreed - a good shared account will easily suffice with this sort of traffic. As Jedito said, assuming you have proper caching setup and are not using any horrible 3rd party plugins.

Having said this, if you have a need for scalability, and your traffic is "spiky" in nature (ie the majority of your traffic comes during certain times of the day or during certain days of the month, etc) - and if you do expect rapid growth - a GOOD, managed cloud solution is also a good idea for you.