Forum Moderators: phranque
My ValueWeb hosting plan includes 20 MB of MySQL space. My web developer has been building my site in such a manner that he feels 20 MB will be insufficent. He's stated that he's already used 15 MB for the database and that I could run out of MySQL space when I start accepting orders.
I talked to ValueWeb and their take is that 20 MB of MySQL is usually more than enough for most ecommerce websites. They said the ecommerce websites they host average around 5 MB of MySQL.
I'm pretty confused because on one hand my web developer says that 20 MB of MySQL space is not enough and ValueWeb states that 20 MB of MySQL space should me more than enough.
My web developer works directly with a web host and sells hosting packages on their behalf. He is offering me 25% off the normal web hosting fee and says that it will have more MySQL space than what Value Web currently offers.
On the other hand, I'm not sure that the particular ValueWeb plan I have will allow me to purchase additional MySQL space (as an FYI, I got my plan through CostCo and they have a pre-existing agreement for all the space limits).
So I'm kind of in a bind and I don't know what to believe. The way I see it, I have 4 options:
1) Switch to my web developer's web host.
2) Ask my web developer to modify the shopping cart so that it uses less MySQL space (although I don't know how much functionality I will lose).
3) Switch to a different web host (but not the one that my web developer has recommended).
4) Work with a 3rd party that offers more MySQL space (this will obviously be on a different server and make me reliant on two different hosts for service).
As an FYI...here are the particulars of the different web hosting packages:
ValueWeb
- Cost: $14.95/month
- 50 GB Disc Space
- 200 GB Data Transfer
- MySQL - 20MB
- 24/7 DIRECT TELEPHONE support
Web Developer's Recommended Web Host
- Cost: $5.81/month
- 2500 MB Hosting
- 40 GB Transfer
- The default SQl database space is 1 MB; however, you can add additional space from your web control panel (up to 45-50 MB)
- 24/7 phone support; however, you have to write/send a ticket request and then they will call you back. They don't give you a direct telephone number to use.
Here's some additional background info:
- My developer is using OSCommerce for the shopping cart.
- I am only selling two products to start on my website.
- I am using PayPal for my merchant account, hence, I will not need to purchase an SSL certificate or payment gateway for the time being.
Can anyone help me out and point me in the right direction? How much MySQL space do I really need? Also, which of the above options would you choose? Any help/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
You are in a bit of a pickle. 20MB is indeed a very small database, and you could outgrow that quickly.
However, perhaps you don't want to be reliant on your developer's server either.
Even 50MB isn't a lot of database space. I run a small site and I'm up to over 125MB.
For me, 24/7 phone support is worth a lot. I can actually call my host and talk to someone. that was worth a lot of points in my choosing them.
The price you pay should be down at the bottom. You will be successful, right? So you can afford a good host - after all that's your entire shop. If you sell Rolex watches, you'll sell more of them in a well lit, decorated store in an upscale neighborhood than a dirty store in the seedy part of town. Your web host is that neighborhood. You CANNOT afford to be down. Period. If you are down, you want to know that you can call someone and find out how to get it back up NOW!
Web space such as 50GB is a farce. The actual website will be very small. HTML pages are text and take up practically no room. Images, sound files, etc. take up more space. You want to invest in DB space that will grow with you.
There are tons of webhosts out there. We don't allow direct posting of recommendations, but search for them and get more to look at. Call them, talk to their tech departments, see how fast they respond. Make up questions that have no answer. (Do your servers use the PK chip?) and see what they say. Many will try to bluff you. (There is no PK chip).
If you intend on making money from the web, you will need to invest your time to do the research.
Good luck with it!
if you want to do more, like have lots of products, log the movements of customers, write all cart actions to the db ... in short find out what your customers are doing then you need a LOT more.
you give lots of details but it basically comes down to ... do you want to host with your developer or seperately? the other factor is reliability - you only find this out later when your host goes pear shaped or not over a problem.
sorry i've just checked back on your post, with only two products then i think your db more than ok - to some extent it depends on how busy you are but assuming you aren't expecting 100s of sales a day you'll be more than fine,
i haven't used oscommerce, but it seems to me that if you are using paypal why do you even need oscommerce for only 2 products,
... just use the paypal cart or buy it now buttons, problem solved :)
you can set up a paypal cart and integrate it into your site (for 2 products) in less than half an hour if you already have a paypal account
