How is DigitalOcean? I've never used it.

Kulga

Aesahaettr They'll probably support it, but only regardinng specific things like sudden I/O failures, network suddenly going down, moving a node from a certain location to another..
Stuff like installing programs, configuring them, setting up a webserver - that's up to you, expect to use a terminal and be comfortable navigating through a command line.
More power == more responsibility.
If you have the time, I greatly encourage it. Learn it once, benefit forever. You might even use it as a primary OS 😉
Ramnode is what I use and is very similar to digital ocean.

rdn

If not much experience with VPS/CLI.
Try EasyEngine or Centminmod 😉

Berlyn

I have not personally used it for any production purposes, but I think it's fairly robust and inexpensive for the services and API they offer. It's great for automated deployments to multiple locations around the world. I am hoping the open some droplet locations in Australia as currently I have to settle for Singapore. 🙁

tarun

Berlyn Do you happen to know how it compares to Linode? I haven't been able to make up my mind between the 2...

Dominion

This is not a recommendation, since I haven't actually used it, but...

ServerPilot seems like it might be worth looking into, especially for someone who's new to VPSes.

Dave1

Dominion I've used this combo before. ServerPilot is pretty awesome.

henrywright

I use Digital Ocean; they're my first choice for root access. Cheap and reliable. If you want straightforward shared hosting then try GoDaddy. I've found them to be very good too.

Auk

henrywright If you want straightforward shared hosting then try GoDaddy

I wouldn't want to touch GoDaddy with a barge pole... @Aesahaettr, you're better off learning basic Linux commands first. Very simple stuff. To practice offline/for free: install Vagrant and Virtualbox.

Not required but this is highly recommended for the above purpose. Use Puphpet to generate a vagrant configuration file for you. Follow these instructions. If you're using Windows operating system, then install this tool to connect to your virtual machine/server via SSH. Once logged in via SSH, you can practice the linux commands. Have fun!

Cheun

I hear it's great but I wish they'd cut the prices down a bit. I'm so cheap it's not even funny

Berlyn

tarun I've also never used Linode for production, only for development purposes. It's essentially the same. What I like most about DigitalOcean is the API. I can automate new deployments of applications anywhere from an API, without needing to manually create a new VPS, etc.

Wombat

Ramnode, BuyVM are great as well.

Kulga

If you're looking for cheap + stable ramnode is pretty good. 128MB at $15/yr
Currently paying about $4/month for 512MB 2 core.
I stress tested it a bit here if you want to see.
If you go with 128MB, I'd suggest learning how to optimize a webserver since a LAMP stack can take +250MB but with nginx + php5-fpm got it down to 80-90MB. Don't expect to have a large userbase on it though 😉

Aesahaettr

Auk Oh I agree, I hate GoDaddy. I am a big fan of Namecheap though, other than their customer service translation issues sometimes.

I have never touched command line though, but I will probably get into it in the future when I need to.

Thanks!

henrywright

Auk what's wrong with GoDaddy?

ElChorizo

Digital Ocean runs great VPS's... so does Linode and many other providers, ie. Amazon AWS.

Auk

@Aesahaettr, do it now! 😃 You can do it! Great tutorial - Stick with the defaults and you will be well on your way. If on Windows, Right click on VirtualBox installer, then select "Run as Administrator" to ensure VirtualBox installs correctly.

Aesahaettr

Auk =) What's the benefit? I've heard a lot about it, but could you explain what is so awesome about it?

Auk

Aesahaettr

Automatically set up your server, now you do not have to be at your computer answering all the prompts and questions. It will configure and install software for you (Installs to the operating system inside the virtual machine. Leaving your Desktop tidy and uncluttered.) - All based on your VVagrant configuration.
Your desktop is clean without all the server clutter (program files.) The only files you will have are just your PHP code/web pages/flarum/etc. - Virtual machine can "Share folder" between your desktop and the Linux Operating System that is inside the virtual machine. Whatever you put drop into that folder (think, folder named "mywebpages") will appear inside Linux, and you can also edit the file from linux too.
Ability of setting up you offline server to match your real server.
Access to linux and many toys that's not available to your operating system.
If you screw up/blow up your server from various of experiments, it will not affect your desktop/laptop. Just delete your virtual machine and run the "vagrant up" command again. It will be as if you never made a mistake. The set up is automated, no prompts/questions to answer.
If you have a team of people writing code for your project, give them your vagrant configuration file. They will end up with the same exact "development environment/Linux system and configuration"... Now all members can test exactly the same way, and find bugs the same way. (No more "Works for me" excuse, or "different oddball server setup headaches").
Need more excuses to use vagrant? LOL. Get on board already!!!

rdn

DigitalOcean has poor SSD and CPU performance compare to Linode.
Linode has much faster SSD and CPU speed.

But in terms on CPU, Ramnode is much faster among them 🙂.
But only limited to 4GB for KVM with 3ghz+ cpu.

So for testing porpuses, you may use DigitalOcean.
For Live website either Linode or Ramnode.

Wombat

rdn I just wish Linode had ddos protection 🙁

GRE tunneling is a PITA!

mercurius

As they said, DigitalOcean is a VPS service, you will have root access, so you can install any software as you want, differently from shared hosting services, where you are a normal user only (not root) and can use only your user directory usually /home/USERNAME.

5USD a month is not that expensive, you can try it out. If you use windows, you get PuTTY SSH client and try it out. 🙂

It is not that difficult to setup a VPS, if you really want to learn command line I would recommend that you install a working linux (Ubuntu) on your computer and get used to it. That's the way I learned it. 🙂

Wombat

Auk Those are valid points but those are only true from a Developer Leader / Creator standpoint. When you just want to make some extensions or work on your project locally... I tend to just stick to notepad++.