Typical Dedicated Hosting costs...

OK, now that I have several clients using my shared plan for their small hosting requirements, I am seriously considering moving to a dedicated platform.

I have no idea about server management and would therefore need this as part of the service - as well as all the trimmings I have available now i.e. cPanel, Fantastico, Reseller etc...

My current host does regular backups et al all included as part of their shared hosting plan and the customer service is second to none.

What I would like to find out from you good folks is not necessarily which hosts to look at for dedicated, but how much (on a scale/range) one can expect to pay for dedicated hosting. I am trying to work out a business plan to ensure that my very small home-based business will cope with this additional expenditure, or if I will have to dip into my pockets to cover operational costs etc.

Can we share our experiences of dedicated costings here...? Thanks...

ASO can do it for about $300 a month - but thats managed, meaning they will continue to manage the server, but the whole server is yours to do what you like with.

Thanks Joey... and for this amount would one get a significant improvement in performance?

Managing a server is not that hard. Really it isn't. I run servers from Bocacom and use the Direct Admin control panel. (all my vBulletin boards are on these servers btw)

Upgrades are sooooooo darn easy and the servers themselves are fast (NTT/Verio backbone) My servers are between $119 a month and $259 a month depending on the type I use (the dual xeon is obviously more expensive).

Bocacom also has available, CPanel, Plesk 7, and webmin as server control panels. Personally I REALLY like the Direct Admin and so do my clients.

This is going to be another one of those great threads, keep the data coming guys so forum owners can make good decisions on hosting.

For me its fear of the unknown. I would rather dedicated my time to running my sites then playing with the server stuff.

Tim at ASmallOrange just told me they are going to start offering Virtual Servers - and the cost will be between $40 and $120 a month. There will be a max of like 8 clients on a server and you get the amount of resources you pay for guaranted.

I'm thinking, it might not be a bad idea for a few of us to get together and get our own managed server. i.e. 4 of us divide a managed server. SO for around $80 a month, we each have something like 10 gig storage each and 200 gig bandwidth, along with the high performance of a dedicated server, but none of the aggravation.

I would consider that Joey. Count me in for a trial of that.

I still have accounts with the dreaded oneandone that I need to rid myself of and I can offset the costs easily to try your suggestion.

OK, now that I have several clients using my shared plan for their small hosting requirements, I am seriously considering moving to a dedicated platform.

I have no idea about server management and would therefore need this as part of the service - as well as all the trimmings I have available now i.e. cPanel, Fantastico, Reseller etc...

My current host does regular backups et al all included as part of their shared hosting plan and the customer service is second to none.

What I would like to find out from you good folks is not necessarily which hosts to look at for dedicated, but how much (on a scale/range) one can expect to pay for dedicated hosting. I am trying to work out a business plan to ensure that my very small home-based business will cope with this additional expenditure, or if I will have to dip into my pockets to cover operational costs etc.

Can we share our experiences of dedicated costings here...? Thanks...


www.hostgator.com can give you a dedicated server with fantastico, cpanel, and I believe reseller setup for $200/mth....

I have a server with them now, no problems...

Yeah, but this one is fully managed -

Same thinig at hostgator... fully managed.....

for a dual xeon?

I have a dedicated server from ServerMatrix.. www.servermatrix.com
You customize it the way you want so it can keep costs down. I pay around $150 per month. I purchased it just to host the site we use for our videos. We started hosting our videos under a different domain name while we were using conventional hosting so the videos wouldn't kill all of the forums bandwidth. We burn through as much as 500 gig per month of bandwidth from our videos alone. Our server is equipped with Cpanel/WHM and allows me to host other sites. Currently I am hosting our video site, another forum for a friend, and my companies website....

www.hostgator.com can give you a dedicated server with fantastico, cpanel, and I believe reseller setup for $200/mth....

I have a server with them now, no problems...

You may want to check out ServerMatrix, www.servermatrix.com

HostGator is a reseller of ServerMatrix. So when you buy a server from HG, your really getting one from ServerMatrix/The Planet. My server from SM has everything listed above and is only around $150...

Thanks BT... is this a managed server?

Thanks BT... is this a managed server?

Yeah, there is nothing to it really. Whenever I have a problem (which is rarely) I just fill out a support ticket just like regular web hosting and its answered always within 30 minutes or so. You can even set it up to have your own DNS name just incase you are using the server to sell webhosting....

I use www.serverplex.com They own the data center and I talk to a live person instantly 24 hours a day when I need help.

They offer packages from shared to dedicated and managed.

Do not go with a host that "specializes" in forums. Their servers are always overloaded so they can turn a profit.

ServerMatrix are good Imo, stay away from ev1servers, there servers are rubbish

If your looking for only a few gig space and bandwith maybe a reseller from another hosting provider would be a better option.

http://neomedia-host.com Are a great hosting company, they offer both shared and reseller hosting :)

If you do end up getting a server that is UNMANAGED you can always aquire the services of a Management Company to take care of things for you. www.fastservermanagement.com we have had many experiences with in the past. If nothing else, the $35 setup fee for them to secure a box for you is WELL worth the money. This way they setup the server with the latest versions of software, setup a firewall etc and leave you to run the server.

If you do need their assistance they are available, however as folks here have said, many times software updates are a breeze.

Be aware though, that just because you get a $100 server, and a $35 contract with FSM, this does not mean that you have nothing to worry about! TRUE server management is a full time job. We have 3 people employed with us just to manage machines and keep servers up to date with the correct patches, firewalls and exploit preventions.

If you're looking for a Hands-OFF approach, Rackspace is pretty good, but start between $250 and $300. With the way server prices have been dropping recently you'll find more and more places offering dedicated servers as part of a package.

If you do plan to offer dedicated servers you should know that dedicated users require more assistance than your regular SHARED hosting customers. Dedicated custoemrs like to "play" in the root and remove files, or corrupt something or install something they shouldn't have and then try to remove it, thus crashing their server. Unless you have the personel to handle true Dedicated Server support, I suggest teaming up with a place that DOES offer Dedicated Servers and working on a commission bassis. This way you get a Piece for every referral, your customer is happy that you could assist them, and you don't have the headache fo trying to figure out how the server works.

dedicated users require more assistance than your regular SHARED hosting customers. Dedicated custoemrs like to "play" in the root and remove files, or corrupt something or install something they shouldn't have and then try to remove it, thus crashing their server.





ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


See - I have a simple attitude. I design, market and manage websites and vbulletin forums. Managing a server would be something entirely out of that relm of expertise. For example, I see the time I would spend in a month managing the server better spent by building a new site. Why? That site is going to earn me money every month. So I prefer to pay for the server to be managed. I dont want to have to worry about if its crashing, or if the processes need to be tweaked, or whatever.

So I want a dedicated to be just like shared from the management perspective. I want it running smooth, and I want someone to complain to when its not running right.

Dig that Joey, we should all partner with someone that actually knows something about server administration.

Conor, I have an offer for you!!!! :wave: :D

I"m all for the management myself. Similarly with users who purchase shopping cart software, then do all the design work, seo, tweaking etc. Yes an individual can learn how to do each of these tasks, and over time get quite good at it, but most times it's to your advantage to hire a "professional" to do the work and you concentrate on what you do best - SELLING. If sales is not the strong point, then being the lead sales guy should not be your position.

Another recommendation for decent priced managed servers:
http://www.liquidweb.com

I have a full managed dual opteron there for just over $300 - both Platinax and Threadwatch are hosted on it, which last month totalled towards 200,000 uniques per month, not to mention a few regular slashdottings - no problem at all. :)

I'm lazy when it comes to dedicated server management, I don't want to spend my hours doing it either so I find it's easier to pay the extra $$ a month to just get it done and out of my mind.

http://www.amhosting.com is who I'm thru now...they are basically HostRack....

My current config is a P4 2.4, 2g ram, 40g IDE, 20g IDE backup, and a 18g SCSI for databases. No backend cpanel or anything, but that's add-able. I currently average about 375g monthly and had a couple months at close to 600.....once it starts peaking regularly over 400, I'll add a 2nd server for the database. I've got my site on the server, 1 other small SimpleMachines forum, and a couple relatively static business/personal sites.

Base plan is $75... 2.4 Celeron, 256k, 400/800g bandwidth and other stuff...all on their site.

I've got no complaints...been there for almost 2 years, and both my contact (Ryan) and the manager (Steve, IIRC) will post on my forum when users notice something odd....great customer service.

Another recommendation for decent priced managed servers:
http://www.liquidweb.com

I have a full managed dual opteron there for just over $300 - both Platinax and Threadwatch are hosted on it, which last month totalled towards 200,000 uniques per month, not to mention a few regular slashdottings - no problem at all. :)


Brian are you a partner with Nick on Threadwatch :confused:

Good thread with a lot of good thoughts. I have run my own servers for several years and use a cohost location. To compare this with cost I have a 1000gb bandwidth limit per machine per month and the cost is $190 a month per machine. The advantage in taking care of the machine yourself is you can do or add anything you want. If there is a problem you can also make the change yourself. It is for many people a new area but the only thing to fear is fear itself and of course leaving an open smtp relay. :)

The basic setup is very easy and if you use one of the many Linux distro's it is really simple and with yum you can do all your updates almost automatic. You can also use webmin for a free control if your not comfortable with ssh and webmin can be setup for control from a list of IP's and does support https for security. I used webmin when I started but now do most everything directly through ssh and find it very simple really. Having full control offers you a lot of things that a typical host won't setup for you, proxy is a good example. If you surf from work and they use anything like websense or other blocking programs you have the ability to ssh proxy direct through your server and to bypass anything the company might view or block.

You also have the ability to control the firewall yourself and storage and rights are much easier to set when you have root access. It also gives you the ability to control cron which you can use to do your sql dumps and you can store your sql data outside of the apache folders for added security with your information.

Should you ever require a reboot it is just a command line away "shutdown -r now" . If you decide to add more domains you can setup your own dns and handle everything in house as well. It has so many advantages compared to any other type of hosting. Lets say you want to alter the php.ini file to allow larger uploads, it is a simple file edit away. The advantages are so great I could never feature having someone else doing it for me and having to wait on them for everything.

Just thought I would add this to this conversation. Check to see if you have a cohost in your area, in my area average for 100gb bandwidth is only about $75 a month and that allows you to put up all the machine you want. Nothing like a dual xeon with 5 to 7 scsi drives running in raid 5 with about 4 gb of ram to perk up a forum. Usually the bottleneck is the host or lan connections as my machines pretty much idle along 24/7.

Typical TOP data spread.

top - 20:04:23 up 10 days, 17:02, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.03, 0.01
Tasks: 96 total, 1 running, 95 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 14.0% us, 1.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 84.8% id, 0.0% wa, 0.1% hi, 0.1% si
Mem: 4037580k total, 1203456k used, 2834124k free, 182480k buffers
Swap: 2031608k total, 0k used, 2031608k free, 561236k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
21957 apache 16 0 126m 20m 8308 S 10.0 0.5 0:01.27 httpd
21958 apache 16 0 125m 20m 8316 S 10.0 0.5 0:00.74 httpd
21953 apache 15 0 125m 20m 8300 S 9.7 0.5 0:00.72 httpd
21952 apache 16 0 125m 20m 8308 S 5.3 0.5 0:00.58 httpd
21955 apache 16 0 125m 20m 8308 S 5.3 0.5 0:00.72 httpd
21951 apache 16 0 126m 20m 8316 S 5.0 0.5 0:00.93 httpd
21954 apache 16 0 125m 20m 8300 S 4.7 0.5 0:00.56 httpd
21956 apache 15 0 125m 20m 8308 S 4.7 0.5 0:00.57 httpd
2386 mysql 16 0 148m 26m 4796 S 3.7 0.7 0:05.44 mysqld
3192 root 15 0 33156 11m 2604 S 0.3 0.3 9:45.49 X
22419 root 16 0 6144 1004 772 R 0.3 0.0 0:00.17 top
1 root 16 0 4744 516 432 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.07 init
2 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 migration/0
3 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.05 ksoftirqd/0
4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 migration/1
5 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.09 ksoftirqd/1
6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 migration/2