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Ask HN: What is the preferred cheap host (for low bandwidth sites)?

7 points by Radix ↗ HN
Hello, I found out a couple days ago that my mothers small business's site was recently wiped out due to her hosts bankruptcy. No notice, no backup, and the custom CMS she was using is gone.

I offered to set her up with a new site, and after looking at a feature comparison of the python CMSs I think FeinCMS over Django-CMS-2 is the right choice, for the in-place editing. I chose python, because I have recently learned the basics, and I would like to learn Django and PostgreSQL for a project I've been interested in forever.

While I have tentatively chosen my tools, I do not know which host to choose. Dreamhost looks like a good choice for her low bandwidth site. They seem like jokers, but it's almost endearing. The only negative I see is I would need a dedicated server if I want to install PostgreSQL.

Are there any other hosts I should consider?

(I don't think this should go to the front page, but the discussions about Dreamhost look outdated or of questionable experience. I'm pretty sure I'm ignorant of something important, hoping to learn about it.)

15 comments

[ 366 ms ] story [ 1619 ms ] thread
noodle
could you define your parameters for "cheap" and "host"?

my cheap host is a slice from slicehost.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
icey
linode is also a good option
Radix
Thanks guys. I'm sorry I didn't define cheap. I didn't realize how relative 'cheap' is. I think ~$10/mo is cheap, this site won't directly make any money. Slicehost and Linode look great, though I don't know my stuff.
oldgregg
I just started using http://prgmr.com/xen/ -- a (much) lower cost alternative to slice/linode... works great. It's a small company, but I couldn't be happier... the guy who runs it is active here.
Radix
This is wonderful. It looks out of my league though. I'm looking to learn by doing here, but that approach might be a bit much. (I have a soft spot for small businesses.)
snewe
Webfaction
Micand
Seconded. I wrote a basic blog/portfolio on Django for a designer friend of mine, and Webfaction has served his needs extremely well. If you do not wish to administer a VPS from Slicehost or Linode, Webfaction is an excellent alternative -- it gives you most of the same power (with the ability to run Rails, Django, or just about any environment you please) but without the administrative overhead. Though their control panel is not as powerful as Dreamhost's, it doesn't really want for it. For anything that will be used in production, Webfaction is a better choice than Dreamhost, as Webfaction's servers are much more responsive due to a substantially lesser load.
Radix
You know, this is exactly the perspective I was hoping for. This will likely be my choice.

A little surprised everyone is positive. I guess I was wrong thinking it was possible to make a mistake here.

yannis
You probably looking for Hostgator and a Wordpress or Drupal CMS and I would never let my mother touch python!
Radix
:) You're probably right, but I'm selfish and if I'm going to do this I want to learn something.
rntz
If your site were static or PHP-based, nearlyfreespeech.net offers a really good deal: you pay only and precisely for what you use in terms of bandwidth and storage. Unfortunately the only way to use Python or other languages on it is via CGI (not even fastCGI or SCGI, which would be tolerable).
metastart
Google App Engine is free up to a certain usage level (certainly accomodates low bandwidth). I'd avoid dreamhost or other shared hosts as they won't handle spikes well. Someone like mosso cloud/rackspace cloud or amazon cloud computing would be better I think. Maybe even a virtual machine with fsck or linode or slicehost.