Great Shared Hosting for Flarum - Siteground and A2 Hosting

tankerkiller125

010101 My sites load very fast, (less than 2s for flarum on average, less than 1s for static content) I pay for two $10 DigitalOcean VPSs one is my Mail/Error server and the other is my web server. Personally I love their service just because I don't have to deal with other BS, their entire goal is to support developers, that's their entire mission. The only BS you may have to deal with (on brand new accounts) is getting SMTP port 25 open, but even that is pretty easy.

010101

matteocontrini tankerkiller125

This could help me and others in the future when deciding between a "traditional" web host and something like Digital Ocean... If you have time, this would be really good if one of you laid this out:

Pretending you never used something like Digital Ocean before. You just signed up. How many steps and/or what steps are involved with getting Flarum running?

I ask because, with a traditional web host like A2, everything is ready. Composer is installed. Any PHP version you need is ready. You can install a free SSL cert. in a couple clicks... And so on.

How much harder is it do you think for a novice to get going at Digital Ocean?

I tried a random cloud host once, and just to get WordPress running and not crashing all the time, it was rough. And I don't even remember the company, just a random start up cloud hosting company. Experiences like that stick with me and keep me with "traditional" hosts where there is very little setup involved.

I do agree though, if you have a popular website, you need something better and more flexible than shared hosting. That's always been my attitude. I tell myself that if a lot of people ever start visiting my sites, I'd consider something like Digital Ocean.

010101

Thanks everyone! matteocontrini datitisev tankerkiller125

All of this definitely could help someone else in the future. I won't rule out VPS / Digital Ocean type services. Maybe one day I'll feel like trying a service like that out. Sounds like it definitely depends on how confident you are with server management and other things. Or, if you have time and willingness to learn. Or, maybe you know how but just prefer traditional hosting regardless.

matteocontrini

010101 well, DigitalOcean pretty much invented the affordable VPS cloud market. They launched years ago with plans starting from 5$ (with hourly billing!) while still providing a very high-quality offer (SSD, unlimited bandwidth, limited CPU sharing, great control panel, fast deployment, etc.). A2 Hosting, I never heard of it, but hosting is another world which I'm not really into

matteocontrini

010101 Pretending you never used something like Digital Ocean before. You just signed up. How many steps and/or what steps are involved with getting Flarum running?

010101 How much harder is it do you think for a novice to get going at Digital Ocean?

I wouldn't recommend it for someone that doesn't have previous experience in managing a Linux server. It's definitely a good way to start learning it, but there's a lot of things that could go wrong.

Hostings are managed and they take care of maaany things, like setting up the server securely (servers are shared so I'm not saying that they do that for every customer), configuring all the software, together with reasonable PHP/MySQL/Apache settings, solving random Linux issues that inevitably arise with time, taking care of upgrading the system components, applying security patches, etc.

Also, it's not true that VPS cloud providers are always and automatically better at managing high traffic. An hosting might be perfectly fine if you pay for the resources. It's likely going to cost you more, but with all the advantages of a managed solution. With a VPS you'll also have to take care of things like DDoS attacks (DigitalOcean has a very annoying policy about that), while you obviously don't need to think about that with a hosting.

datitisev

010101 Everybody mentions Digital Ocean. Maybe one day I'll try them.

I myself have used OVH (Canadian), DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Hetzner (German). My experience with OVH isn't necessarily great, but their prices are cheap. DigitalOcean and Vultr are largely the same, especially since DO dropped their prices to match Vultr's (both starting @ $5/mo). However, Hetzner has the most competitive prices compared to the rest, starting at 2.49 EUR/mo. While I don't exactly know CPU performance comparisons, and iirc they don't use ECC memory, that's probably one of the best prices for a VPS, especially if you just need a simple forum.

I do agree with matteocontrini in that if you are a beginner, it's probably a terrible idea to start with a VPS. If you have decided to try it out, however, a cheap one that has all the features you need is probably a good idea, especially if it works well.

Just wanted to give my two cents if someone was looking here for a VPS hosting recommendation. If one has some experience (or is willing to experiment with a VPS), paying $10/mo is probably too much for a simple forum.

Radu

Yes, they provide great services but the renewals will kill you—they will ask you almost double compared to the first year. I recommend Interserver because they give you SSH access and the prices are extremely low, and most important the renewals have the same price. I gave up on A2 Hosting long time ago...

010101

Radu I might change my tune when it comes time to renew since I know I’ll have to start paying double when renewal time comes. But, maybe they’ll cut me a deal. 😉

Also, my multiple websites are blazing fast with A2. In the past, I’ve had some kind of issue with every host I’ve tried. With A2, no issues, it automatically had everything I needed installed ready to go, and my sites load fast, and it’s compatible with Flarum which is now a hosting requirement for me.

But again, we’ll see... if I can’t afford the renewal cost when it’s time (I’ve still got 2 years left before renewal) I may end up switching. I hope that doesn’t happen though because despite what others say, A2 has given me the best hosting I’ve had yet. And I’ve tried, probably close to 10 different web hosts over the years.

I’m starting to think you get what you pay for is very true. Yes, A2 can get a little expensive after the promotional price depending on the package you choose, but it’ll be bad if I switch and then my websites are slow. 🥺

Radu

010101 I had many problems with A2, but anyway, if everything works fine for you that's great.

[deleted]

Radu I used A2 for about an hour not so long ago as they touted themselves as being blazingly fast with great support. In fact, they were entirely the reverse. Hugely oversubscribed, slow as f***, and dreadful support.

Contact cancelled immediately 😠

010101

Radu That email looks fake. Does that say yahoo.com? And there’s nothing wrong with a host sending that kind of email alert although I suspect that’s a spoof and didn’t come from A2 Hosting.

[deleted] Yeah, that’s what you’ve said. That’s a shame they were so bad when you signed up. I get blazing fast speed just like they advertise.

All I can do is give a recommendation based on my experience so far.

Another thing is I paid for 3 years up front. I was fortunate at the time to be able to do that. I realize it’s sometimes not feasible to pay for multiple years like that. It’s cheaper per month that way when you break it down, and I don’t have to worry about paying them anything for almost 2 more years; I’m 1 year into being their customer.

I’ll definitely post here and share if I ever experience anything negative over the next two years.

Radu

[deleted] I used it for 1 year and the support was great for me to be honest, but as you said they are not that fast as they claim to be and the renewal price after 1 year just killed me. With that kind of money, you can get way better services. I hate this strategy, crazy cheap the first year then triple the price—why the f not right?! 😆

jordanjay29

Radu I dislike companies that pull this stunt, they think it will discourage people from price shopping because of the sunk cost fallacy. And it works to an extent, but causes such immense frustration and resentment that customers are quick to flee when the rage pot boils over.

[deleted]

Radu exactly right

Radu

jordanjay29 You gotta love the idea of "Terms & Conditions" that nobody reads, and the fact that they "reserve the right" to modify those terms as many times as they please.

Radu

010101 Sure the email didn't come from A2 but selling client email addresses or getting hacked is not what a company like A2 should do or not having the strength to protect themselves. That was just a minor example, nothing much. Again, if everything works fine for you I'm glad, but write us back when you have to renew and tell us how you feel then. Just kiddin' bro! 😄

010101

Radu 😆 Will do! Honestly, I'm kind of hoping they'll cut me a deal when it is time to renew. I know, wishful thinking... I've heard of hosts doing that though to keep a customer. Also, anyone can spoof an email like that. It is not necessarily the web host's fault or a sign they are not secure. I could create and send that out to a bunch of people right now (if I had a list of email addresses). It's just because they are a fairly popular and well known company and so email spammers target companies like that. I got a spoof email the other day from my bank. Except, it wasn't from my bank.

Radu

010101 Hard to spoof an email address that was created and used only for managing A2 and never published anywhere by me.

virtualsky

using hostgator.in but not working via pockethold it stucked here

Installing flarum/flarum (v0.1.0-beta.13)

Installing flarum/flarum (v0.1.0-beta.13): Downloading (100%)
Created project in ./pockethold/download
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)

then tried other company hosting.india.to still same

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