Thanks Mark

Hi there,

Site5 offers perfect hosting and the support is outstanding.

site5.com

Happy hunting

Thank you Alex. It is a big decision

I moved from an unreliable VPS to SiteGround Hosting and have been real pleased with the speed of the server, and the support is excellent.

I am on the GoGeek Plan and I highly recommend this plan for an EasySocial site and use the AWS S3 from Amazon for photo and file storage.

The VPS plan I was on for years was $44.95 a month and it was terrible and they offered little to no Joomla focused support or enhancements. I'll be moving my client sites over to a GoGeek Plan this next week after testing out my own two sites on the GoGeek Plan since early January 2014. Then I can finally get rid of the crappy VPS server I was on.

The GoGeek Plan I chose is $14.95, and I added the Dedicated IP and some other enhancements and I am still far below the monthly cost of the former VPS server. SiteGround understands Joomla and their Joomla focused support is excellent.

SiteGround has 3 pricing plans:
1. Startup - Special Price: $3.95/mo. - 60% OFF the regular $9.95/mo. One Website - 10GB Web Space - Suitable for ~ 10,000 Visits Monthly
2. GrowBig - Special Price: $7.95/mo. - 50% OFF the regular $14.95/mo. Multiple websites - 20GB - Suitable for ~25,000 Visits Monthly
3. GoGeek - Special Price: $14.95/mo. - 50% OFF the regular $29.95/mo. Multiple websites - 30GB - Suitable for ~100,000 Visits Monthly Advanced Features

Yesterday I listened to a Good PodCast about SiteGround and Joomla Hosting: EP38 - Joomla Site Performance with Tenko from SiteGround
http://joomlabe.at/podcast/ep38-joomla-site-performance-with-tenko-from-siteground#.UxDMMfldUrU

"Tenko Nikolov, the CEO of SiteGround joins me on the Joomla Beat Podcast to talk all about Joomla site performance. Tenko has a passion for optimising Joomla websites and SiteGround's server environments really shine when it comes to outstanding server environments to get the most out of your Joomla website.

He shares with us a few great tips in regards to optimising your website to help improve the user experience, search engine optimisation and also server performance.

Tenko also shares a few secrets on the SiteGround servers that make optimising your Joomla websites really easy."

See the 3 Reasons to choose Siteground here: http://stackideas.com/siteground-hosting

Thanks Randall. Really makes me think. Great info. I guess I am thinking about the far away future. What if the site became very successful? What then? I would then have to move the whole thing to a larger company who could cope with larger demand. I know it is very early days but I like thinking ahead (and positively )

I moved from a level 5 HostGator VPS to SiteGround's Cloud 1 package and couldn't be happier. Awesome support and much better security right out of the gates. As far as potential hacks (DFIShield, SQLiShield, etc) based on Akeeba's Admin Tools statistics, I'd say 90% less activity now as compared to when the sites were with HostGator.

I use Cloudaccess, their hosting is geared and optimized for Joomla. You can get a year of hosting for $300.
There CP offers just the basic things you need. You can try them out for free and test drive your site.

So far, it's been very reliable and fast.

Before I was with MEDIATEMPLE, excellent hosting, they use PLESK CP, but bit more expensive.

I guess, when it comes to hosting you get what you pay for.

Mediatemple was bought over by Goddaddy if I recall correctly and I will never ever step into a Godaddy territory because I had nightmares from Godaddy on 3 different occasions

Justin wrote:

I moved from a level 5 HostGator VPS to SiteGround's Cloud 1 package and couldn't be happier. Awesome support and much better security right out of the gates. As far as potential hacks (DFIShield, SQLiShield, etc) based on Akeeba's Admin Tools statistics, I'd say 90% less activity now as compared to when the sites were with HostGator.

I'm on hostgator .. and i thought they are one of the best :/ .. my website is not live yet so i can't really know but your words make me really wonder ..

HMMMMMMMM

@ muhanad - HostGator used to be great, but when they moved everything to Provost after the EIG buyout everything fell apart. Online chat and even ticket support takes much much longer, and they had major downtime last August (for 10 hours) and also on New Year's Eve (for 5 hours). StackIdeas' support is what HostGator used to be, and their servers are much more secure from what I've seen so far.

Looks like whenever those giant company buys over hosting companies, their support level drops by almost 100%

Hi there,

Thanks for all your thoughts, it really brings some light to a very cluttered space. I was looking up site ground as Randall was so kind to mention they were 'recommended' by Stackideas. Just wanted someone's thoughts on the following: they seem to have several plans with one including 'Joomla Booster', which they say is for popular sites. I have a very good feeling about my future project and would like to be ready if it was well received. They charge an extra 40 euros for that and just thought if there may be someone who has it on their site and if it is worth it.


Thanks again!

I would suggest that if your site is still in it's early stage to go with the cheapest viable solution first. Only expand when you need to so you don't have to waste your $ on hosting. You should waste them on StackIdeas (Just kidding..) But yeah, start simple and grow as you need!

Hi David, I'm in a similar situation to you.

I've decided to go for the GoGeek on a two year contract. It works out at just £9 per month for what looks to be the perfect hosting package. The staging tools (if it works as advertised) sealed it for me.

As Mark said, only move up to a VPS (cloud) or dedicated etc when needed.

Mark.

+1

Mark wrote:

I would suggest that if your site is still in it's early stage to go with the cheapest viable solution first. Only expand when you need to so you don't have to waste your $ on hosting. You should waste them on StackIdeas (Just kidding..) But yeah, start simple and grow as you need!