Forum Moderators: phranque
First, what level of traffic typically represents the tipping point between getting by with shared resources and needing a dedicated server? I have a site currently on a shared server that gets over 300,000 uniques/month with several million page views, no problems. I think this site is probably approaching the max end though. I'm curious as to what the numbers are in other people's experience.
Second, if you get a dedicated server, does it come configured with all the nice stuff that comes with shared packages, i.e. PHP, MySQL, Zend, yadda yadda? Or do you pay extra for that?
Third, I've seen people on here say they have a $99/month dedicated server, but in that price range all I see are servers with a weak Celeron and 128MB of RAM. Is that worth it? My five year old computer has more processing power than that! At least on a shared server, you're likely getting a slice of some beefy hardware.
Four, if you have recommendations for me, feel free to share. :)
2. There are myriad offerings. Keep shopping and reading the fine print. You know the search drill. "Cheap servers", etc. Lots of ads. Oh the fun. :)
3. See #2.
4. I don't think we "do that". It would be open season for forum spamming if we did.
2. It comes with the OS. You can either pay them to configure it, or you can learn to configure it yourself. It's really not that hard to install PHP, mailservers,mysql etc. Learn it, you'll be glad you did.
3. I'm paying about $200/month for a 1GB P4 server, with the firewall and a bandwidth surcharge. That is lower than the current rate, but I've had it for about 3 years now. I will be migrating to a Dual Xeon pretty soon and my bill will double, which is about right these days.
The real VALUE to you is to be able to call someone 24/7 if you have a problem. You can learn to most everything, but if it's down, someone has to be there to push the reset buton.
4. We can't list specific hosts here.
Re: recommendations. I can be contacted privately, if anyone wishes. :)
If I'm shooting for an Alexa top 10,000 site, is a dedicated server essential at that traffic level?
Alexa ranking, however a useless rubric for success, has nothing to do with what type of server you are on.
If you want full control over your machine, including registry and what software it runs, then you need a dedicated server.
you can have a dedicated server and still get no hits.
If you don't need full control and are happy sharing a server, then don't spend the money.
As for recommendations, there are many websites with host comparisons and reviews. Every one has horror stories to share, everyone has kudos to share. Somewhere in the middle is a host for you.
But don't base your business plan on the pseudoscience of Alexa rankings. One has nothing to do with the other.
If you want full control over your machine
I don't. I don't want to think about that stuff. I want to upload my pages, and I want it to work--that's all. I keep trying to make this thread traffic-focused. :)
there are many websites with host comparisons and reviews
From what I hear, they're all affiliate sites masquarading as legitimate review sites. But if anyone has any recommendations for legitimate review sites, I'm game. :)
First, what level of traffic typically represents the tipping point between getting by with shared resources and needing a dedicated server?
There is no typical "tipping point". It will vary on the following factors:-
1. How database/software intensive your site is
2. How many pages per second are being served
3. What else is going on on the shared server at that moment.
Servers don't just suddenly stop when they run out of resources (unless you experience a phenomenal increase in traffic in a very short period of time). Generally, at normal growth rates, they start to get slow, especially at peak load times. That's what you should be watching for.
When that speed decrease happens, you need to ascertain why it's happened. Being on a shared server and simply running out of your CPU "timeslice" or RAM resources will probably be prime suspect #1 if you're using a DB or scripting (php/asp/perl). If it does indeed turn out to be a lack of CPU or resources issue, then you've hit your tipping point and it's time to upgrade to either a more powerful VPS shared server or a dedicated server.
That point will be hit much sooner by a site running a PHP or ASP content management system or forum, than it would be a site built entirely out of static HTML pages.
I have a site currently on a shared server that gets over 300,000 uniques/month with several million page views, no problems. I think this site is probably approaching the max end though. I'm curious as to what the numbers are in other people's experience.
I know a site doing double your traffic being run from a VPS server but it's based entirely on static HTML pages - no database. Bear in mind serving web pages is something that doesn't require a lot of CPU/RAM power (other than for caching pages), and the network connectivity is going to be the physical bottleneck limitation of how fast a page can be retrieved from it. Adding scripted pages and databases etc is really what creates a need for CPU horsepower. In having a dedicated box, that's the horsepower you'll notice.
Second, if you get a dedicated server, does it come configured with all the nice stuff that comes with shared packages, i.e. PHP, MySQL, Zend, yadda yadda? Or do you pay extra for that?
Generally yes except for Zend which I think is still a licenced product and not open-source?
Third, I've seen people on here say they have a $99/month dedicated server, but in that price range all I see are servers with a weak Celeron and 128MB of RAM.
Keep shopping around, there are P4 machines with 1gig RAM to be had at that price point. You do need to understand an important difference between hosted and managed though. At the $99 end, you'll be getting a hosted server which is basically your box, rented, in a rack with internet connectivity. That's it.
As you go toward the "managed" end you get extra's like network monitoring (they actively look to see that your machine is running and operating normally), upgrades (software) managed for you and daily (or even hourly) backups etc.
That's kicking you towards a starting price of nearer $600. So budget for between $99 and $600 depending what "level" of service you want over and above a box in a rack with root access.
If you go to the lower end of simple, self-managed, hosting, a knowledge of Linux and, more importantly, securing Linux, is critical. Every single self-managed server I've ever had has required work to lock it down - straight "out of the box" they've been in an insecure state.
I don't want to think about that stuff. I want to upload my pages
You won't get that for $99 - you need a managed server.
TJ
I really appreciate your statement. I used to think that way as well!
The problem occurs when someone else on your box writes a script that crashes the VPS. Downtime to you should cost you a lot of money.
Writing a script that will crash a server is very easy to do. Done it myself several times by accident. When sharing a server this is fatal!
Traffic should not be the primary concern, remaining up 100% of the time should be!
If you want someone to help with the technical aspects of dedicated hosting you should go with a company that provides "Managed Hosting".
We can't give recommendations any longer :( But, Google can, so Google it and you'll easily find the best choice!
