Post: #1

Hello everyone. I'm on the processing of launching my website for my software developing enterprise I'm currently working on.

My basic needs are basically Database Allowment, Domains (including email).

My design is ready. I just need to build the site functionality, I'll be using the Django framework for that.

Would love suggestions with fellow members with experience on this area.

Post: #2

I use Securesignup.

They are not the cheapest, but they are cheap enough, and customer support has been ultra fast, I usually get responses within minutes.

Shop around if you are going to setup a business site. My needs arent that high, I run just a couple of sites and a moderately trafficked blog. Perhaps you will need something more.

But check this guys out.

Edit: I forgot. They allow 50 SQL databases and 20 domain names in their basic account, if that is of any help to you.

Post: #3

If you just need an information/registration site, hostgator will work fine. If you plan to host web apps on it, checkout media temple's grid service. It handles load well for 20$ per month, but becomes very expensive once you exceed 1TB of monthly traffic.


edit: forgot to mention, i used mediatemple's gs back in 09 - things might have changed since then.

Post: #4

You need to tell us more information about your needs.
Which geography or geographies will you be serving to?
How much traffic do you anticipate? ( This is not easy to answer )
Aproximately how many database instances?

If you anticipate the need to provision services as needed, you might consider
Amazon AWS EC2 with S3 ( Amazon just opened a data center in Sao Paolo, Brazil )
Rackspace

If you need an inexpensive place you might try ( These hosts are very inexpensive, but do not serve traffic well to other geographies. You can use these hosts in combination with a CDN )
Bluehost.com ( Utah )
hostgator.com
dreamhost

Do NOT use godaddy.

Post: #5

Moso, you are right, I will exand a little bit:

Right now 1 Database instance will do. Also, I don't expect high traffic as of now so this is of no concern as of now.

Geographically, as of now only concerns Honduras and probably (not very likely) Central America as well.


Regarding previous suggestions, thank you very much for them. I checked Host Gator and it seems very nice and eye appealing. Any takes on their service/Customer support?

Post: #6

(03-12-2012 02:42 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Geographically, as of now only concerns Honduras and probably (not very likely) Central America as well.

don't concern yourself with the rl location of the servers, it doesn't make a difference in most cases.

(03-12-2012 02:42 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Regarding previous suggestions, thank you very much for them. I checked Host Gator and it seems very nice and eye appealing. Any takes on their service/Customer support?

They are ok, as long as you don't expect them to troubleshoot your code.

Post: #7

I'm with bluehost because of the privacy feature they have. Keeping my identity secret is a big plus for me.

Post: #8

(03-12-2012 05:31 PM)Neil Skywalker Wrote:  I'm with bluehost because of the privacy feature they have. Keeping my identity secret is a big plus for me.

Do you mean domain privacy? as in your data is not shown in the whois info. If that is the feature you mean, i think all domain sellers provide that feature for a little extra cost.

Post: #9

If you are just starting, then you should keep your costs lower and use bluehost.com or something similar. Bluehost.com is an excellent bang for your buck. You just need to check the latencies for people in your geography ( Honduras ). I have some web sites that have been with bluehost for many years. You do need a static IP address if you want to be accessible in China. ( Cannot use a dynamically provisioned IP ) When I had people attempt to access my bluehost.com sites as a test from Indonesia, Cameroon, Chile, etc; they received a 404 error the first time. Hopefully you will also add Google Analytics code to each page to help you ascertain where your traffic is coming from and what is happening with that traffic.

Check latencies
1. Use the firebug plugin in Firefox. Enable the network tab of firebug and turn caching off. You will see a graphical representation of all of the get requests along with the download times. It is important to disable caching in the firebug network tab while you are checking latencies.
http getfirebug com
2. You can use the 15 day trial period of the business edition of Visual Route 2010 to measure latencies from different geographic locations.

Check performance of your software stack
1. Use Chrome browser extension "Yslow" to analyze the performance of your web site implementation.
2. Use Chrome browser extension "builtWith Technology profiler" to determine the software stack that a web site uses.

Ensure that you sign up for Google Analytics or a comparable service to analyze where your traffic is coming from and what is happening with that traffic.

third edition of Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin which is published by Sybex. The Kindle third edition is $13.99 USD

Post: #10

(03-11-2012 05:31 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Hello everyone. I'm on the processing of launching my website for my software developing enterprise I'm currently working on.

My basic needs are basically Database Allowment, Domains (including email).

My design is ready. I just need to build the site functionality, I'll be using the Django framework for that.

Would love suggestions with fellow members with experience on this area.

I use Hostgator. And Linkpush to help rank faster.

Post: #11

Best shared host that I've found: mddhosting (check web hosting forums for discount codes). It's a no-BS host and delivers performance at a good price.

If you're serious about scaling web apps, you may also look into Google App Engine (works great with Python/Django and a decent software dev should be able to set it up on GAE in 1-2 hours). Pay as you go for each database call etc., I believe lowest you can pay $2/week.

Use namecheap.com to register domains.

Post: #12

Here is an excellent tool for measuring latencies for different cloud providers, delivery networks, etc. ( This is really cool. Notice the Platform types field and the Platforms field)
https://portal.cedexis.com/dashboard/public/home.html

This tool will tell you the latency for Amazon AWS data centers so that you can pick the best region.
http://www.cloudping.info/

If you are just starting, don't complicate your life by deploying on the cloud. Start with a lower cost host such as bluehost.com and get your feet wet without breaking the bank. Give your self some time and then you will be much better prepared to use a cloud based host if you need to be able to suddenly scale your application.

(03-13-2012 06:46 AM)moso Wrote:  If you are just starting, then you should keep your costs lower and use bluehost.com or something similar. Bluehost.com is an excellent bang for your buck. You just need to check the latencies for people in your geography ( Honduras ). I have some web sites that have been with bluehost for many years. You do need a static IP address if you want to be accessible in China. ( Cannot use a dynamically provisioned IP ) When I had people attempt to access my bluehost.com sites as a test from Indonesia, Cameroon, Chile, etc; they received a 404 error the first time. Hopefully you will also add Google Analytics code to each page to help you ascertain where your traffic is coming from and what is happening with that traffic.

Check latencies
1. Use the firebug plugin in Firefox. Enable the network tab of firebug and turn caching off. You will see a graphical representation of all of the get requests along with the download times. It is important to disable caching in the firebug network tab while you are checking latencies.
http getfirebug com
2. You can use the 15 day trial period of the business edition of Visual Route 2010 to measure latencies from different geographic locations.

Check performance of your software stack
1. Use Chrome browser extension "Yslow" to analyze the performance of your web site implementation.
2. Use Chrome browser extension "builtWith Technology profiler" to determine the software stack that a web site uses.

Ensure that you sign up for Google Analytics or a comparable service to analyze where your traffic is coming from and what is happening with that traffic.

third edition of Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin which is published by Sybex. The Kindle third edition is $13.99 USD