on Jul 28th, 2006TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping
For the past year and a half I have been hosting all my Ruby on Rails projects at textdrive, but I’ve had nothing but problems. The first 6 months were especially painful. The server(davie) my account was on crashed and burned daily. My support requests went unanswered for weeks and weeks. Over the past 15 years I’ve used probably 10+ different web hosts and textdrive are by far the worst. What’s sad is they charge a premium(compared to other hosts) because of their so called “quality”. I will say that the service and uptime has been pretty solid in the past 6 months.
The reason I finally decided to get my own server was textdrive’s resident memory limit of 48 megs. My rails application is rather complex and once I had a few best testers using the site I ran up against this limit quite often. I decided my only solution would be to either get my own dedicated server or a VPS(virtual private server). I spent about a month researching the pros and cons of both and ended up getting a dedicated server. For those of you who might be interested, I’ll go over what I learned.
What’s the difference between a VPS and a Dedicated Server?
A VPS is a “Virtual Private Server”. It’s very similar to shared hosting in that you are sharing one machine with multiple users, but instead of 100% shared resources, you have a set minimum amount of resources dedicated to your “virtual” server. Your maximum amount of resources usually depends on how many other users are on the same server. The more money you spend, the higher the minimum is. Users typically have complete control over their VPS. They have root access and can install anything they want.
A dedicated server is exactly what it sounds like. You have your own physical server with root access and can do whatever you want with it. They are more expensive than VPS servers.
Managed or Unmanaged?
VPS and dedicated servers come in 2 flavors: Managed and Unmanaged. Managed servers are managed and supported by a 3rd party. These are typically for users who don’t have the expertise to admin their own server. The management team will install software, configure the OS, and generally do most things for you. Unmanaged is exactly the opposite, and is of course cheaper in price. I went with unmanaged.
How did you make your choice?
There are a lot of companies out there selling dedicated servers. One of the best resources out there for learning more about hosting and finding a good provider is webhostingtalk. I spent most of my time reading through all the forums and threads trying to make my decision. You have to be very careful though because there are a *lot* of shills. I learned there are a handful of major companies that sell servers and bandwidth, and a lot of smaller companies that resell servers from the major companies. The 2 majors that get good word of mouth are: Layered Technologies and a relatively new company called Soft Layer. You can get unmanaged dedicated servers directly from them, but I learned that sometimes the resellers have cheapers prices because of volume discounts. There is also an offers forum on webhostingtalk that has some really good special deals.
The company I went with is Server4Sale. They are a reseller of both Layered Tech and Soft Layer. The server I got is hosted at Layered Tech. I’ve only been using them for a month, but I have been *very* impressed. My site has been up 100% of the time, and the 2 support requests I’ve submitted were answered and resolved within 15 minutes(I am completely serious about this).
I have also discovered that cPanel sucks, but I will save that rant for another day.
Hello. I was just wondering what you thought of Server4Sale after using them for a month or so. I am also looking to move away from TextDrive. Thanks!
-Jon
http://www.kaboomerang.com
GTD on the Mac!
I have yet to have any problems at all. I’ve only had to use their support twice, and both times they answered and solved my problems within minutes.
My server has never been down either. Their online account/billing site is very easy to use and you can pay with a credit card online which is cool.
I could not be happier.
Textdrive is full of know-it-alls who can’t get the details right. Servers fall like leaves all year round. Unprofessional at best.
I realize this is a late response, but worth adding. I am in the painful process of moving all my applications and client applications off TextDrive. They have truly been the absolute worst host I have ever used and I would not recommend anyone use them. My support requests went unanswered for weeks and when finally answered, they dripped of condecention and misinformation. If they are know-it-alls, they most certainly do NOT know how run a business.
Furthermore, the setups are extremely complex, the server space and memory is miniscule, and they charge you a premium for this! For shame, 37Signals, for promoting these guys as the premier Rails host!
They are quite awful all around.
[…] Turn of the Crank » TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping Turn of the Crank Home About TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping July 28th, 2006 For the past year and a half I have been hosting all my Ruby on Rails projects at textdrive, but I’ve had nothing but problems. The first 6 months were especi […]
[…] Turn of the Crank » TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping Turn of the Crank Home About TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping July 28th, 2006 For the past year and a half I have been hosting all my Ruby on Rails projects at textdrive, but I’ve had nothing but problems. The first 6 months were especi […]
[…] Turn of the Crank » TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping Turn of the Crank Home About TextDrive Sucks and Dedicated Server Shopping July 28th, 2006 For the past year and a half I have been hosting all my Ruby on Rails projects at textdrive, but I’ve had nothing but problems. The first 6 months were especi […]
The major problem with VPS solutions is someone on the VPS may run away with the resources and force your VPS to run slower. Dedicated managed servers are always the best way to go. No fear of someone else slowing your server/resources down. Plus VPS normally don’t offer Managed support. Some companies like Server Intellect do offer VPS Manged support, but most don’t. If you have the money get a dedicated server over a VPS