Birthday present? Web space, please...

Today is my birthday! Not too happy, but still my birthday after all. What presents did I get from my relatives and friends? Well, various things, but I told my parents and uncles I actually needed some web space… “What? Didn't you have the hosting sorted out?”
Well, I had, up to a few days ago when my friends and hosting provider, DeWayne Lehman, decided to close down his company. The reason being, to cut a long story short, that he can't keep up with competition: he doesn't have enough customers, and he can't afford server upgrades, while other companies are literally giving space away.
That was a pity, not only because Block House used to host various non-profit orgs and initiatives, but also because the guy who run it was an excellent admin, always offering excellent support.

Anyhow, in the end I'll have to transfer all five of my sites to a new host, so here we go again: what's the best hosting company?
Obviously it depends a lot on what you're looking for, and here's what I need:

  • At least 4GB of space
  • At least 30GB/month bandwidth
  • PHP of course, but also other languages like Perl, Python and Ruby (+ Rails support)
  • MySQL databases… at least 10-20
  • Be able to host 5-6 sites minimum
  • Subdomains allowed (10 in total?)
  • FTP and SSH access
  • Subversion, if possible

All this for less than 10$/month, ideally 5$, on shared hosting. I already made my choice and if you're reading this post it means everything worked fine, but anyway, let's have a look at what the market can offer for my needs. I only went for US-based hosts: Italian hosts are terrible and US hosts are normally more reliable and cheaper.

The first hosting company I was tempted by was DreamHost. They can literally sell you anything but their mother, at stupidly cheap rates for what you get (apparently):

  • 20GB of space
  • 1TB (!) bandwidth
  • PHP4, PHP5 Perl, Python and Ruby + RoR support
  • Unlimited databases
  • Unlimited hosted domains
  • Unlimited hosted subdomains
  • FTP and SSH access
  • Subversion and CVS
  • …and more

For 7.95 if you pay two years in advance. And the first time you can get up to 97$ off by using one of the thousands referrer's coupons available on the net. OK, where's the catch? Well, there's a bad review about them which points out that their reliability is not too great, for example, and that the seem to be rather dodgy in general. “They are overselling, they'll soon enforce CPU restrictions” etc. etc.
…let's move along

I might try out Ruby on Rails someday, so perhaps I thought it would be wise to choose a host supporting it, for a change. The first Rails friendly I thought about was RailsPlayground, which started off as FREE Rails host and then ended up offering interesting commercial hosting plans. They are not bad, and I'd have probably gone with them if I had only one site to manage: for 60$ a year you get:

  • 3GB of space
  • 30GB bandwidth
  • PHP4, PHP5 Perl, Python and Ruby + RoR support
  • Unlimited databases
  • Unlimited add-on domains
  • Unlimited hosted subdomains
  • FTP and SSH access
  • Subversion and CVS
  • …and more

Well, the only reason why I didn't go with them was that I did slightly more space, only that. The plan for 5GB of space costs 11$/month, which was too expensive for my liking.

Since we're talking about Rails, why not Textdrive? Founded by 200 IT professional, hosts high quality sites, it's the official Rails host… An “elite” solution, here's what you get:

  • Use Apache and Lighttpd web servers side-by-side
  • Host PHP4 and PHP5 web pages and applications
  • Host a weblog using Textpattern, Wordpress, MovableType, Typo, etc
  • Host Ruby and Ruby on Rails applications (including FCGI and hundreds of gems)
  • Host Perl applications (including 100's of Perl modules)
  • Host Python applications like Django
  • Manage your code base with version control (Subversion, SVK, Darcs, Monotone & Arch)
  • Share iCal files over WebDAV
  • Mount a WebDAV drive on your desktop (like iDisk)
  • Easily create free subdomains with wildcard DNS
  • Store your Basecamp file uploads over SFTP
  • Access your account via SFTP and SSH
  • Add domains, unlimited IMAP and POP mail boxes and mail aliases through a control panel
  • Check your email through Webmail
  • Host Mailman mailing lists complete with archives
  • Use MySQL (default), PostgreSQL, SQLite and Berkeley databases

Plans start at 12$/month for 1GB of space and one website… The 3GB one is 40$/month, for 20 sites in total. Too bad it's too expensive for me as they are truly the top for shared hosting – I think.

Host Gator, which seems to be one of the most frequently recommended at SitePoint.com forums, is not bad either. They have a “hatchling” plan for 3,5GB at 6.95, which wasn't bad, but it only allows one domain to be hosted. The “Baby” plan allows unlimited domains and is 9.95$/month, which is kinda dear. You get:

  • 5GB of space
  • 75GB bandwidth
  • PHP4, PHP5 Perl and Python
  • Unlimited databases
  • Unlimited add-on domains
  • Unlimited hosted subdomains
  • FTP access
  • …and more

No SSH, no SVN and no Rails: out.

Site5 is also one of SitePoint's favourite, but still has limitations on the number of sites. I would have got the SuperHosting XTREME, for 7,77$/month:

  • 11GB of space
  • 400GB bandwidth
  • PHP4, PHP5 Perl, Python, Ruby + RoR support
  • Unlimited databases
  • 5 domains hosted
  • Unlimited hosted subdomains
  • FTP and SSH access
  • …and more
Not bad, a little bit too much for only 5 sites… I needed 6, too bad :/

This site is currently hosted on BlueHost, a hosting company established in 1996, which seems to be reliable enough (not many complaints on the net) and seems serious enough. They don't offer subversion and WebDAV for “security reasons” and in order to get a shell account you have to send them a copy of an ID card. Annoying? Well, perhaps for some: this made me understand that they don't allow just anybody to get SSH access unconditionally, and I didn't mind. I sent them a scansion of my ID card and I got a friendly support email after a few minutes, confirming that it was activated. Here's what I got:

  • 15GB of space
  • 400GB bandwidth
  • PHP4, PHP5 Perl, Python, Ruby + RoR support
  • 20 MySQL databases + 10 PostgreSQL databases
  • 6 domains hosted in one account (easier for me!)
  • 20 subdomains + 20 parked domains
  • FTP and SSH access
  • …and more

For 6,65$/month, 2 years pre-payment. One of the good things is that they are not fussy about giving the money back if you cancel. Anyhow… let's hope for the best, so far, so good.