Whats the catch with cheap virtual hosting?
 

I'm looking at servage and hostgator, both look good for price bandwith etc, but why so cheap when other virtual hosts offer far less space/bandwith for more then double the price?
My plans are not huge traffic so both should be ok, just don't wanna run into unforeseen probs half way down the line for trying to save a few bucks?

look closer at the hd space...i just noticed the other day places that give you lots of bandwidth sometimes skimp on the storage

Personally, I've been very happy with Dreamhost

if you do not NEED the huge bandwith and immense space, why signup with them ... Get a real host...

That in fact is the catch .. they offer huge allocations, but once you start trying to use it, you will be hit by their TOS and AUP ( CPU per seconds, inodes, etc ... ).

See sig for inexpensive virtual hosting.

I ran my network of sites on a $35 /month phatserver account for almost 3 years. 3 GB Space, 150 GB month BW. That made me 100x a month in revenue. But I used FHG for all my content rather than make my own.

You should let us know how much uniques you have on what type of site, since they will shut you down (all vitruals do so) when having a to big load. When you mail them (presale) they will tell there is no such limit. But trust me there always is...

If you got small sites go for virtual, if your load is pretty big try out vps and later maybe dedi? (see sig)

if you use my cookie you get extra diskspace for servage:
servage

I found that a shared server is sometimes just as good as a dedicated until you get really busy.

not true .

We will be glad to help you out at Way3.com. Contact us and we'll be glad to create an affordable plan that will work for you! And give you a FREE 30 day trial for shared hosting.

- TRUE Tier-1 Bandwidth
- Awstats & Webalizer stats
- Free Control Panel
- State of the Art Data Center
- Proactive Server Monitoring
- VPS's now available!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you! :)

with www.NakedHosting.com - there is no catch. :thumbsup

I think the answer to your question is ... that the real difference TYPICALLY (not always) been a dedicated server and a virtual host is that you share that server with 20, 30, 40 - sometimes 50, 60 or 70 other people. If they are running some crazy crap to drag things down, then sometimes the other people on the same server can suffer.

Some other things to keep in mind ....

Some "virtual" hosts don't give you your own IP. Always ask for it. Sharing a server with 100 other zillion people is bad enough, don't get a search engine ban for sharing their IP too. ^^

Some virtual hosts say they offer X amount of bandwidth per month but what you don't realize is they cap how much you can use at any given time. This can really hurt you in the long run. Ask your potential web hosting companies about this. Despite what some companies will try and tell you, not all of them do it.

Some virtual hosting companies put limits on how much CPU usage you can use (see above). If you run a lot of scripts or one script with a lot of traffic, this could be a problem for you. Again, ASK - be honest about what you are doing, plan to run, etc.

But don't let all of that scare you off ... for the most part, getting a virtual hosting account (with a dedicated IP) is a great solution for the small or starter site. Just ask a lot of questions before giving anyone your money.

Let me tell you something about Servage (sadly, I was dumb enough 4 years ago to host with them. It ruined one year worth of traffic building).

First thing you notice is ridiculously slow FTP transfers (if you have larger websites to upload, you better have few days for it). Secondly, their servers do not support outmail (if you use script based email contact forms you will not be receiving majority of messages from people trying to contact you - a phenomenal way to destroy your business). However, the biggest issue with Servage is that they grow their own business by deceiving unsuspecting webmasters and stealing their traffic. The tactic is simple – they will try to impress you with extra high number as far as bandwidth allowance goes. But if you spend 1% of that bandwidth – that will indicate to them that you get decent traffic to your site, they will suspend your site and place their own link there. So once you have reached the point at which the traffic is worth it, you will lose it all to them. It will grow their business, not yours.

Technically you don’t even need to have a real busy website. You will be led to believe that you still have enough room cause you have only spent a fragment of your monthly bandwidth, but man… as soon as your traffic picks up, if money or effort you have invested to get that traffic actually pays off - as a site owner you will not benefit from it at all, because all that traffic will be redirected to promote Servage. They will simply replace your site with a link to their site. And will use a “high resources use” excuse. Something that they have in fine print, something they use to make sure you do not use all the bandwidth they advertise. So high bandwidth is only used to lure you. You will never come close. You will just see big numbers, you pay them, they destroy your site. You leave and have to start from the beginning. Simple.

This is how they grow themselves. Once again, they will lure you with the fact that their package has high bandwidth allowance, but if you happen to step over 1% of that bandwidth, you will send a clear signal to them that there's some traffic getting through your site, they will suspend it using "too many resources" excuse, your sites will display their link and the spike in traffic will go to promoting Servage, not yourself. If your site is joust about to make it, when that crucial moment comes, you will get suspended and instead of seeing your site collect for efforts you put into it, Servage will collect and your site will get ruined. Think twice before you go for Servage. They love webmasters who have sites with good potential. It’s the ultimate source of new sign ups for them. It is how promote themselves.

Pornask you are wrong...
im currently dedicated but i was with servage for 1 year and went up to an average of 3000 gb a month of the allowed 3600 gb. However, like their TOS says you can only use 3600GB/30days a day, if you go over that once, they wont do anything, if you do it a lot they will suspend your site. BUT NOT place a false msg or a link to servage.
I can show screenshots of using more then 1% of their bandwidth... no idea how you come to that conclusion but its fault! I even used their bandwidth to stream movies....and never got suspended for using 99% of the allowed traffic.

Altho i a gree that they do ditch you if you use to much cpu :(

I have always been a big believer in that you get what you pay for. If you come across a hosting company that seems way too cheap, stay away from them. Choosing the right hosting company for your website is the most important aspect of running your website because without it, you have no website. I suggest that you go ahead and dish out a few extra bucks for a very stable and reliable hosting company.

If you want reliable virtual hosting; contact Sly from Phatservers (icq: 147479144), tell him I sent you and he'll give you 1 month for free.

some hosting companies have annoying little glitches that they don't seem to always be able to stay on top of, software issues, getting hacked, etc.

I've got shared accounts with four right now and I've found pdghosting (direct fiesta posted above) to be really good, maybe a step above the rest at the moment (none of the others I am referring to have posted in this thread so far so I can't comment on the fine folks above)

Thanks everybody, really helpfull advice here :thumbsup

I'm going to pay the extra dollars and go for one of the better accounts, I've narrowed it down to pdghosting, jaguarpc and nakedhosting. I'll have to recheck them and contact them and ask some questions, thanks again guys, I hadn't even thought of some of the comments posted here.

What about dreamhost, they seem to be in the middle for offering high limits etc, or are they just in the same league as servage etc?

I'm not one to put other hosting companies down, but DreamHost are jokers. They may be technically knowledgeable but they don't know how to run a hosting company well.

Latest example: dreamhoststatus.com/2008/01/15/billing-issues

+ they limit nn files per account.

many years ago, when I was on virtual hosting, they told me - hey, 16k files per account is max which you can have.

virtual hosting is good for newbies. or for small projects.

jaqpc is pretty decent. they give full support and have vps and dedi's (easy upgradeable)

It's hard to tell, once your site hits the cap, anyone over that gets a 404 page. It doesn't show up in your stats, and unless you actually check it at that moment, you'd never find out

Servage is great for that price BUT..............

it's not 5000GB/month but it's like 5000/30 /day so You'll never spend all.

And the main problem is, that the limit is 400k hits (according to support ticket conversation year ago, might be 500-600k today). So if You have many elements, You can be suspended with few thousands of unique visitors a day.

So just think about what You need and if this is enough.

Servage referral link (if You're interested) and You'll get with this coupon some extra storage. Enjoy :)
http://www.servage.net/?coupon=cust36085