My review of dreamhost, hawkhost, wiredtree, rackspace cloud and linode

[ScrapingWeb.com]

Trying to contribute to this community before I start promoting my own products and services so I figure I may post something useful like this.

I've been with dreamhost, hawkhost, wiredtree, rackspace cloud and linode. Listed below are their pros and cons from my experience. Hope they could be helpful when you are making Hosting decisions about them.

DreamHost

Pros:
1. Very cheap - some overselling though
2. Proprietary control panel that's good-looking, packed with features and easy to use
3. Feature/library-rich servers
4. Very technical and competent support - 90% of my problems were solved with just one ticket.

Cons:
1. Uptime is about 99.5% - 99.6%, just so so. You get what you pay for.
2. Sometimes servers can be really slow.

Sum-up:
Great for hobby sites that are not so mission-critical and for files download hosting because of the cheap bandwidth (unlimited).

HawkHost (shared plan)

Pros:
1. Very cheap - but NOT in the sense of overselling
2. Fast servers and internet connections - I did tests.

Cons:
1. A few down times, the uptime is about 99.8%. Not bad for the price.

Sum-up:
Great for all sorts of websites.

WiredTree

Pros:
1. Extremely responsive and friendly support staff - I used to bug them a lot yet they responded to every of my tickets within 15 minutes after submission, every single time.
2. I was with them for a month or so. The uptime I experienced was 99.9% - 100%.
3. Very responsive and fast servers

Cons:
1. They gave me too many options / choices with all the installed software (full root access with cpanel, whmcs, etc.) that I was a bit overwhelmed - if this can be counted as a con.

Sum-up:
I would trust my paid membership sites and busy web applications with them.

Rackspace Cloud (I've only been with cloud servers, unmanaged vps)

Pros:
1. Very good internet connection and fast servers
2. No downtime that I experienced of during the 2 months when I was with them
3. Very sleek and easy to use control panel - simplistic yet to the point
4. Live chat support - very rare, especially considering that cloud servers is so cheap
5. One-click backup and restore were a breeze.

Cons:
1. None that I experienced of except cloud servers is meant for developers with strong server administration background.

Sum-up:
Very affordable yet powerful web hosting package that delivers.

Linode (unmanaged VPS hosting)

Pros:
1. Very reliable servers and fast internet connections - I've been with them for a year now and I have yet to send any support tickets.
2. Great community to get started on becoming a Linux administrator
3. Very cheap VPS hosting - unmanaged though

Cons:
1. Meant for technical users - performance optimization and server security are not for the faint of heart.

Sum-up:
I would trust my most important sites with Linode.

[Tom K.]

Thank you for those very helpful reviews.

Just to add a footnote: for ongoing development of domains, the best choice is VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting with cPanel/WHM (Web Host Manager), from our experience.

Again, very useful feedback.

[INFORG]

Yes, some helpful reviews. I agree with the VPS for Hosting with cPanelWHM is a great plan for most medium to larger domainers. For those without a ton of experience with servers, there are some nice managed VPS plans out there for under $75/month. I use knownhost.com and have been extremely pleased with function and support there.

Hopefully, this year I will get all of my sites better consolidated and be able to dump some of the shared hosting plans I still use.

[ScrapingWeb.com]

Yes, some helpful reviews. I agree with the VPS for Hosting with cPanelWHM is a great plan for most medium to larger domainers. For those without a ton of experience with servers, there are some nice managed VPS plans out there for under $75/month. I use knownhost.com and have been extremely pleased with function and support there.

Hopefully, this year I will get all of my sites better consolidated and be able to dump some of the shared hosting plans I still use.

I've heard all sorts of good things about knownhost.com. I'm going to order a beginner VPS box for my next project to see if they are actually that good.

[sunja]

completely agree with the sum up for dreamhost. spot on. Great for hobby stuff, but I'd be hesitant to put my business on there.