What is Best Dedicated Server Company

Published on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 9:17 am GMT
Category: Web Hosting

I know this question has been asked, so if you must, just point me to a thread.

But, I was wondering what you guys considered the best dedicated [managed] servers.

My site is growing, and it is always nice to be in the market.

I have used quite a few dedicated providers over the years, but I have found a steady home at www.fastservers.net

Their staff is the best I’ve come across, both in sales and support. The best part is, you can choose your server management level. They have 5 different levels, from completely unmanaged, to completely managed. You get to decide. I have a few servers there now with them that have been in operation for about 3 years.

Everyone will have their own definition of best, but I rank these guys as the best when it comes to hardware, features, and response time.

I personally can’t say anything good about any of them, but I can say Managed.com is horrible.

managed.com is not managed server.

There are some managed server providers around like ServInt, LiquidWeb, Rackspace. However, the costs for a fully managed server is usually much higher than un-managed one. You can rent an un-managed server, then hire an admin to manage it

Do you have any idea about your new server? configuration? platform? control panel? your budget.

ev1servers.net

We have 3 dedicated servers with them.

ev1 is totally un-managed. the question here is for managed server

Ev1 wont manage

Managed.com is 100% UNMANAGED

theplanet.com - managed

allmanaged.com - part of Sago, managed

hey before anybody puts his links in the thread and you go for them try reading this article
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/which-web-hosts-worth

What’s best for one may not be best for you. A better question might be what’s the best I can get for xyz dollars? Additionally you need to inquire as to what the prospective hosts definition of managed are. Is it proactive, reactive, limited to kernel, os patches, and/or security updates?

I can recommend 2 companies:
hostgator.com
rackspace.com

I have to agree that Rackspace is very good at fully-managed solutions.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I’m looking at managed dedicated, with about 1000GB bandwidth and up to 75GB storage. Maybe do a duel 36×36 hard drive.

Thanks Again.

My site is getting close to needing it… so looking early

I’m REALLY recommending CrystalTech.com. Great, great people.

theplanet it’s great,

They havea great control panel, 24×7 phonne support, good prices with servermatrix, good techs, and very very stable datacenter.

If you have enough budget the world best managed dedicated servers are being provided by rackspace.com.
but it will be too expensive like $700 for a p4 server that have only 100gb bandwidth.
But they really manage the server fully.

Yeah, I do shared hosting now and get 150GB a month for $7 and my service is great and speed is just fine.

I would not go rackspace for less bandwidth for so much more. The main reason I need to switch will be bandwidth.

I need 900 GB to 1000GB a month

That’s not much of a budget. You can try an unmanaged box from managed.com … ironic isn’t it.

No, I’m willing to pay a lot more, just not for LESS bandwidth.

$300 or less range would be nice.

Maybe you woukd like to start with VPS which is more cheaper and managed rather then a dedicated server without any hassle.

The company I use is called CalPop, based in cali. It’s unmanaged, but you can get a dual xeon 2.6 machine with 2000gb for $185 a month. Honestly, if you want it for a web host, it’s not hard to manage it yourself.
There are a lot of pre-packaged server platforms out there that are VERY easy to deploy. If you want a good apache/php/sql/perl/everything package, take a look at “Apache2Triad”. It’s just one of many that offers one installer for everything.
As far as security, setup a firewall and block all th eports but the ones needed for the services you run.

Calpop has a horrible uptime record. Search here and webhostingtalk.com for reviews.

How does this relate to the topic?

The poster is specifically looking for good managed server companies. I wouldn’t consider Calpop a good unmanaged server company either. Their reputation is horrible.

Managed dedicated:

rackspace, theplanet, dedicatedcentral, allmanaged, isprime, crystaltech, jupiter hosting.

i recommend allmanaged…. their support has been great for me.

Check out ndchost.com if you want fast servers and super fiendly support….I got boxes there and I plan on staying with them for a long time.

they offer only Windows servers!! which makes the servers a bit costly if your work can be done on non-windows servers.

yes, I only need LINUX… as all my pages are PHP programmed and nothing more…. plus MySql databases.

What about www.VenturesOnline.com . SitePoint is with them (check the link in the footer). I’m thinking of using them as my first VPS service and then move to dedicated.

Brinkster has Windows 2003 server for only $79. Have anybody tried that? I am planning go for that pretty soon.

I think that link is paid advertisement. SitePoint is not hosted by VenturesOnline, instead its Rackspace. Check the WHOIS of SitePoint.com at http://whois.webhosting.info/sitepoint.com or any other whois service you use. Look for the nameservers, they are rackspace.com

They offer 20GB for $130/month. If I were to pay that kinda money, then I’d get a nice P4 2.4GHz Server with 80GB HDD & 1GB RAM from ServerMatrix. And I can have a 100Mbps Uplink & cPanel/WHM with it as well & it’ll cost me $139/month. With it I’ll have my choice of OS & full control over the server.

If you’d argue about the server management, well, VenturesOnline will give you basic support & management on your VPS. So will ServerMatrix, they have their basic Silver Support Plan free, you can opt for it if you want. And both of them chrage for backups.

So unless you are going for the 5GB VPS, I’d say that you are better off getting a server.

You’ve gotta be kidding!!! Brinkster is offering a Windows server at $79/month??
Look at http://www.brinkster.com/Server/Server.aspx. The cheapest server they offer is $159/month. Where did you hear about them offering at $79?

I’m looking for a webhost to run about 300 flash games and don’t want to spend more than $50/month. What’s a good reliable host for this task?

Please start a new thread for this discussion in the forum at http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=96? This thread is discussing managed dedicated servers.

They have not published that in the site. I don’t know why. But I purchased one from them and I am in the process of moving my sites to the dedicated server. You can go on Live chat with those guys and they will tell you.

Thanks for the info. I geuss I still gotta do a bit of shopping around then

I’ve been with many hosting companies since 1998 and can really recommend Liquidweb.

Every company has a different understanding of what “fully manged” means, but Liquidweb has really fully managed servers, they own their datacenter and their prices are great considering the service and value they offer.

thanks. Will check them out.

Only the SitePoint guys know why they claim to be hosted by VentureOnline when its Rackspace. I guess that if its not an advertisement, then they were previously hosted by VenturesOnline & later got their server from Rackspace but forgot to change the footer.

Honestly the real question here is what you considered managed. This is very fuzzy terminology in the dedicated server market. I deal with a lot of people everyday and this is obviously one of the challenges to overcome, and any good provider will have well defined management plans that are both detailed and well explained. While I do work for one of the companies mentioned early on, the biggest challenge for seeking the perfect provider is matching you needs (abilities, budget, server horse power) with the right provider. When this is done a great long term relationship can be established.

For some the matching comes easy, they know handling security, updates, troubleshooting, monitoring, backups, and can really participate in the overall upkeep of the server and a unmanaged or semi-managed provider works out. When it comes to those that need more assistance, less hands on, and need expert advice from true professionals, that’s when it time to start getting on the phone to the various dedicated hosting providers and see if they make a good match.

An excellent sales engineer will provide you a well rounded solution and ask you just the right questions, if you are looking at the big picture, talking about high uptime, redundancy, and support they will ask questions that will get you moving in the right direction. Call, compare, call some more, compare some more, and make an educated decision based on your specific and unique needs

What does managed hosting mean? Does that mean that the company you buy hosting from (be it reseller or otherwise) will manage your server?

yes, it means your provider will take care your server. However, I see many providers now saying their server is managed, but it’s not! Managed server means your provider will have to know about the server status, know that it’s having trouble and fix it before you know. The provider will need to have staff 24/7 to keep server running smoothly.

A reseller is always fully managed, because you don’t have root access and you can’t install any patches on the server level.

With a VPS (the DC does the kernel updates for you) or dedicated server you have root access and you may have to start having to do some security updates - or not. This all depends on how your provider defines “fully managed”. If you go with a company like Liquidweb, you may never have to log in to your server - they will take care of all OS updates, firewall, kernel, patches etc.

With other companies this may be different. Just compare the definition of “managed” or “fully managed” for the companies you are interested in. They will all tell you exactly what is covered and what is not. There are only few companies offering really fully managed services where you don’t have to be worried at all.

Thank you for your answers..

As I’ve just started my business, its not doing too well — therefore I’m thinking of buying a reseller account, but I don’t really want to handle any apache, web server management or touch anything to do with it.

This is because I just want to concentrate on sales, and clients — but also because I know jack all about apache, and I just want to start making a little money from doing small business web sites (Yes, I know there is not much money to be made with it).

I’m thinking about hostgator.com, but I’m not sure if this is what they are offering.

My current host (domain and hosting) is running out in a few days — (yes, I left it till the last minute), my host has raised the prices, plus I hate their overly high “bandwidth” charges - and I’d rather pay a little more with a company I can trust, has good reputation and can manage my server - whilst I just press on the buttons to make it all happen.

Does such a server / hosting company exist?

As previously stated the defintions vary from host to host. What you also need to remember are that for each of the management classes (un, semi, managed and/or fully) there is also an underlying proactive and reactive position/stance. Proactive means we monitor, respond to the same, update kernel, apply security/OS patches and harden server without your having to ask. Reactive means the host will only do dome if not all these things if/when you ask. The significance being if you have to ask you must first be aware the same are needed. This means you must subscribe to all the necessary lists and/or industry newsletters to remain abreast of emerging trends and/or updates. This also means you need to know which updates apply to your server and which to request. Last but not least it also means that by the time you ask the server may already have been compromised.

I understand what you are saying. Thank you.

If you just want to set up accounts in WHM and do not want to deal with the server management at all, a reseller account or a fully managed VPS will be fine for you. They are very similar, the WHM in a VPS just gives you a few more choices than the reseller WHM (suppoed the VPS is fully managed and you choose WHM / CPanel).

But also with a reseller account there are differences how good and fast support is.

For reseller accounts I would recommend the following 2 companies from my own experience with them:
- Voxtreme
- HTTPme

They are more expensive than Hostgator, but support is to notch. I have never been with Hostgator, but it’s alsways a good idea searching your host at WebHostingTalk begore signing up.

For fully managed VPS (where you don’t have to worry about server management and can upgrade to a fully managed dedicated server later), I would recommend
- Liquidweb
- Servint

Yes, I’ve been looking through webhostingtalk for reviews and I’ve been trying really hard to identify the best quality.

Thanks for your help.

I agree with you. Every good host also has BAD reviews.

Easy to get lost… which I still am.

I have a point of view.

If you host with the main datacenters, you always will have a good host, and I mean main datacenter: savvis, gnax, ev1, theplanet, things like that.

What makes’s the difference it’s the support. If you have good in house support maybe you will never have to open a ticket with any of them, so you will have a good host.

I pay to acunett.com for every server that I have, and I hope to grow enough to be able to have in house level 1 and level 2 tech to manage my severs. And with them, if I have a problem they’re the bad people, not the host.

And normally acunett.com are great people, they can turn a very bad host, into a great host.

Of course this is the expensive way to do things, since they cost me an additional $55 each host. But since I’m concern in quality, I think my customers deserve them.

And It’s important to have a Backup, because every server can fail, and It’s nice to have it around when that happens.

BTW: I’m not hosting right now with any of the mayor datacenter, I’m moving to FDC Servers, since I got nice deals on unmetered servers with them. I heard bad things from them and good as well (the same happens with Layeredtech)

But now I only expect that I have good luck, my and server doesn’t crash, and that guys reply for the tickets when I really need with a good solution, like they usually do. I opened tickets with them at different hours, and they reply always promptly.

Good luck!

SitePoint.com is on a server at Data393/VenturesOnline.com though we are looking to move in the next 4-8 weeks as we’ve outgrown them - the “SitePoint.com is hosted by VenturesOnline.com” is NOT a paid advertisement.

Matt, how come SitePoint.com points to rackspace nameservers then? Am I missing something?

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