Review of different hosting companies & services side by side with our continous testing/monitoring over website performance, customer feed backs and overall industry reputation. We host sample website and do necessary testing on some crucial features to ensure our recommendation is perfect.

Best Coldfusion Hosting Revealed

Coldfusion Hosting

In web hosting service, there's a less hot technology plan called coldfusion hosting. While many people have been used to php or asp.net in today's programming, there're still people who professional in other languages such as python, perl or coldfusion. In today's discussion we would like to talk about coldfusion and see how it's going. If you're looking for coldfusion hosting provider, we'll also discuss the best solution.

Coldfusion Overview

Coldfusion or Adobe Coldfusion is a programming language that makes dynamic website creation simple in early days. It is more accurately known as CFML. Being one of the earliest programming languages, coldfusion got lots of users to speed up their web development. Recent years, the Adobe Corp even launched free course to attract more users into it's development.

Best Coldfusion web hosting

Coldfusion is deployed to windows server. If we need to host a CF project we need to look into windows hosting and check if cf installed or not. Since every hosting company is trying to reduce cost as more as possible to attract more orders, very few providers would like to add such support on the server because there're several requirements. If you do have such project and need a quality service provider, we highly suggest check out ixwebhosting windows hosting plan. IX is probably the only choice among all popular hosting brands. But please keep in mind we have to enable this function manually in control panel. Here's the tutorial about how to enable CF in their H-sphere control panel: http://www.ixwebhosting.com/hosting-manual/adding-features

IX Coldfusion hosting core features

  • Unlimited websites support
  • Up to 3 free domain names
  • Up to 15 free dedicated IPs
  • Unlimited database

Visit ixwebhosting for full features http://ixwebhosting.com

ix coldfusion hosting features

Do we need coldfusion today?

Technically speaking, there's no much difference comparing to other programming languages. However, since it started as paid solution in history, we need to pay for both development and hosting service. At the same time, people have many more FREE choice for dynamic website creation like ASP, PHP, python or Java etc. Unlike the commercial coldfusion, it's all free to use these technologies and there're many docs/tools to build a perfect app.

The coldfusion, is currently mostly used by traditional enterprise web solutions. There're very limited support resources on the web. The actual needs also let coldfusion hard to go further. For example when you get a job from a web development company, most of your programming would be on the famous technologies such as MVC, you have very little chance to program a CF project. Because of such limits, less and less people get involved with CF and that's why coldfusion is listed in "top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills" by computerworld magazine.

Is coldfusion bad? No it's not. Just because people have been used to the current languages and lots of support resources available there. Even the adobe set everything free and give out courses for people, the actual web developing needs will not consider CF as primary choice.

More about Coldfusion Hosting

Generally speaking, the programming industry is mainly based on PHP, Asp.net and Java such popular solutions. No matter if we would like to develop our own project or build an app to clients, they're always our primary consideration because we can seek online resources easily and there're many communities to discuss about. We might take coldfusion as hobby in spare times but can not live with it. How do you think about?

Best Colocation Hosting Reviewed

colocation hosting

Colocation Hosting Introduction

Colocation hosting service means we rent a server rack from datacenter providers and place our own server there. We pay the renting fee for server rack as well as the bandwidth. Once the server is ready, the service company then provides an IP, bandwidth, and power to your server. Once it's up and running, we just use it like a regular hosting server. The difference is we own the hardware and know about the detailed configurations.

Colocation Hosting Pros and Cons

The advantages are easy to point out with this service. Because we setup the server hardwares completely by our own, we know clearly what we can do with this server and how to optimize with our specific requirements. As long as we're professional enough in server management, we can almost ensure 100% uptime! We can make changes to the server any time in need without having to wait for hosting support. Also, colocation server comes with higher bandwidth speeds and better redundancy for network connections. Means if we have pretty high requirements to online app, colocation server simply provides us the best solution.

So everything is good to colocation hosting? Definitely not. The weakness is mainly by comparing with the standard hosting solutions in the business. Colocation hosting is a costly solution. We need to pay the entire server fee as well as server rack renting fee, other fees such as bandwidth etc are also high. Another weakness is not every hosting company offers such service and actually very few providers do. Especially when you have to send your server to a far away datacenter, there're many uncertain issues to deal with.

Colocation vs Dedicated server

Absolutely, colocation hosting is very similar to dedicated server hosting except we don't own the actual hardware but just renting. However there're many difference with the two services. The dedicated server solution is completely handled by hosting providers and we just use it after paying. Comparing to colocation solution, we saved the money for server purchasing and post fees, we just leave all the work to hosting company. Althoug we don't have the ownership over that server, it's definitely a more affordable solution. The colocation hosting server would be ideal choice if we have very strict requirements for data security and would like to keep everything in hand, the weakness is we have to pay more.

How do we think about colocation hosting? Absolutely, it's not good choice for personal or small business to use such level solution. But if we would like to get full control over the hosting server and make custom configurations at any time, colocation would be the best choice. It really depends your web requirements and financial abilities if to go with this solution or not.

Top Colocation Hosting Providers

There're not so many datacenter providers offering colocation hosting because it's an expensive service comparing to all existing hosting solutions. Actually, the main users with this service are some starter hosts in web hosting industry. They have both financial and technical abilities to build multiple servers and do colocation for them, they can also get some kind discount because of their "bulk buyer" role. Anyway, if you look for colocation hosting providers. The following names probably the best choice to check out

Rackspace – One of the most well know server providers who has leading technologies and business on the globe.
He.net – Another big name for world wide hosting service
Servercentral – Datacenter providers for many hosting companies.
BurstNET – Budget service provider for various hosting solutions including vps/dedi.
DataFoundry.Com – Founded in 1994, Data Foundry is one of the first 50 ISPs in the United States. Their data centers were designed to meet the requirements of High Performance Computing.

Lunarpages Review 2012

lunarpages review 2012

Lunarpages is relatively quiet these days while their competitors are doing hard to get their names more popular. I'm sure the most lunarpages review articles are outdated on the web, because the company recently implemented a lot of changes including their official site domain name! Yes! the changed their site name from lunarpages.com to lpwebhosting.com one.

Lunarpages Hosting Recent Changes

The main changes with lunarpages company is their site domain and sales policies. Their marketing team definitely learnt something from the industry and plan to make new promotion to their business. From their domain name change, we at least learnt they would like to be more search engine friendly and rank higher with some competitive keywords. At the meanwhile, they also increased their affiliate payouts, the highest commission per sale is increased to $300 which is leading ammount in the business. Don't be surprised when you see lots of marketing news with this company in coming days.

Is lunarpages still good web hosting provider?

Well, I can not say they're the best one but absolutely one of the most honest providers in the business. Lunarpages is also one of the very few web hosting companies who can offer lots of choice to clients such as windows hosting, linux hosting, exchange server hosting and even cloud hosting solutions. With over a decade of experience in hosting industry, lunarpages is serving more than 150,000 global customers and the number is still fast increasing.

In order to give back to the society, lunarpages launched education program which is meant to offer free web hosting to U.S. public schools, grades K-12. With the service, schools can easily create websites that serve and support a number of valuable functions. If you're qualify with the offer, don't hesitate to email their team at  education@lunarpages.com or 1-877-586-2772 and they will call back to you with full guidance.

The most popular lunarpages hosting solutions

Hosting Plans Pricing Disk space /Bandwidth Support Free domain Money back guarantee
Basic Hosting $4.95/mo Unlimited /Unlimited 24×7 yes 12+ months 30-day
Starter Hosting $3.95/mo 5GB /50GB email only no 30-day
Windows Hosting $9.95/mo 5GB /400GB 24×7 yes 12+ months 30-day
Business Hosting $19.95/mo Unlimited /Unlimited 24×7 yes 12+ months 30-day
VPS Hosting $44.95/mo 30GB /1000GB 24×7 yes 12+ months 30-day
Dedicated Hosting $165/mo 2×500 GB /10 TB 24×7 no 30-day

Lunarpages Hosting Cons

The bad specs can be learnt from above table directly. The biggest one is they set different level support with different hosting plans. In a word, if you like cheap, then less support there. If you need further assistance, go upgrade to higher plans. Because of this, their cheap hosting plans are not competitive from the industry as they're forcing users to upgrade and pay more.

Expensive sql server. When people use asp.net apps, sql server is almost a MUST support, but we have to pay extra $10/mo for such service. They definitely need improve on this side because many other popular providers like arvixe and winhost etc are offering it FREE!

Another weak point would be their service structures. They have outstanding email products — Smartermail and Microsoft exchange, but they either offer it with a separate hosting plan or some specific hosting service only. If they can integrate with all hosting solutions and let people to choose from then things will be perfect.

Lunarpages Coupon Updates

For very a long time, you just need to enter the code "save60" when ordering and the system will auto cut $60 from your total order. However, since from the change of their website address, all promo codes are decreased to 15% discount rate which is not so nice as before. You don't have to look anywhere else for better lunarpages coupon because they have not offered yet.

How do we think about lunarpages?

Lunarpages is an old brand in hosting industry and one of the very few webhosts who received so little negative comments. If you have multiple projects on hand and need different support such as programming languages, server platforms etc, do not overlook lunarpages. If their price is acceptable to you for that level services, then you have found the perfect place to host your business.

Other popular hosting brands that come with similiar hosting solutions:

  • Arvixe.com – Primary recommended name to both personal and business level hosting. The arvixe hosting is affordable and powerful to support any kind website.
  • Ixwebhosting.com – Another popular name that most featured with their 15 free dedicated IPs offer. Ixwebhosting also support lots of hosting solutions including windows, linux, web design and shopping cart solution.

Hybrid Cloud Hosting

hybrid cloud hosting

In cloud hosting, some of the most creative methods are using a hybrid of cloud servers and conventional servers to provide the best of both worlds. Thus there's a new type service called Hybrid cloud hosting which is based on hybrid computing techniques. Today our topic is to discuss this service including how it's setup and the advantages comparing to all other types hosting.

Hybrid Computing Introduction

A hybrid computing platform lets customers connect the packaged small business software applications that they run on their own internal desktops or servers to applications that run in the cloud. A hybrid approach allows an enterprise to maintain a centralized approach to IT governance, while experimenting with cloud computing.

The Hybrid Cloud advantages

The hybrid cloud hosting advantages are mainly from the comparison over traditioal cloud hosting. In general, tradional cloud hosting are mainly configured in two logic

Public Cloud – when a service provider offer services such as application usage, development or storage of data, to anyone on the Internet, it's called public cloud. This is the most popular service type that we can sign up with various providers at relatively affordable price. When shoud we use public cloud? Here're several rules quoted from the web

  • Infrastructure requirements are high for your application. If your organization is in SME range, this would be ideal.
  • Agility in terms of scaling to meet your application user base/load growth
  • Reuse the peak load optimizations and techniques, and you don’t have to re-engineer them every time.
  • No maintenance and other administrative tasks involved.

Private Cloud – It's configured within a private infrastructure network. It's extremely useful when you want to set limited access to the network for security purpose. It's more like cluster but more scalable. When should we use private cloud?

  • Data security is prime concern
  • Corporate governance and proprietary data. For e.g financial institutions, health care services.
  • Already have an infrastructure that can be utilized for majority of applications and the investment in resources is high.
  • Applications are too complex that require more control and migrating them to the cloud would lead to disruption in service.
  • Increased need for ownership and accountability within organization on the processes.

The weakness with public cloud is about security protection. To date there's not a perfect method for public cloud protection over the files. Private cloud solved the security issue but only setup within a limited network behind firewall, however it's very costive and not affordable to every people.

Hybrid cloud actually connects both Public and Private cloud. Besides the improved security configuration, it also ensures the guaranteed resources and preventing applications from conflicting. It's extremely useful when your business need to use some applications in house and some provided by an external provider. This is where the hybrid computing finds itself in a niche position with the applications that require dynamic scaling and faster responses to client demands and adaptability; it can be served via public clouds while the integration can still be done with the sensitive and proprietary data hidden behind the corporate firewalls.

Best hybrid cloud hosting provider

As the understanding from above, hybrid cloud is the way forward and introduced many new techniques. We might find many "hybrid server" providers on the web, but the actual hybrid cloud hosting only available with the industry leading server providers such as softlayer and rackspace. They're not only offering up to date services but also developing their own softwares/platforms for best integration. It's a surprise that the world's biggest cloud hosting Amazon does not have this service yet. If you like to know more about hybrid hosting, you can refer to following article/video.

http://blog.softlayer.com/2011/3-bars-3-questions-hybrid-hosting-video-interview/
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/hybrid/

Stablehost Review

stablehost review

When selecting a web hosting service, reliability is the most essential consideration nowadays, because many people scared by cheap hosting plans and finally have to pay extra for additional support. Under such conditions, price is not so important factor for hosting choice regardless the continuing price downgrade for most providers. However, low price does not always mean less quality service. Today let's check out one of the mostly recommended name in WHT called Stablehost. If you need a quality stablehost review and personal feedback, you got the right place.

Stablehost introduction

In 2002, stablehost was setup in Phoenix, Arizona to provide affordable shared and reseller cpanel hosting, VPS is also launched recently for enterprise level business purpose. From the very beginning, stablehost has been following the cpanel standards and keep up with latest tech updates. All stablehost servers are configured using cloudlinux and litespeed for best performance.

Stablehost Hosting Plans

Stablehost provides multiple level hosting plans including shared, Enterprise, reseller and VPS Hosting. Each hosting solutions are splited into 3 hosting packages with different features/limits. The limits is all about allocated disk space/data transfer. Unlike all their competitors who offer everything unlimited, stablehost limits on disk space and bandwidth to ensure the server health and every client will benifit from this.

Stablehost Pros and Cons

With no doubt, the stablehost infrastructure is configured with the best technologies and user friendly enough. The OS is pre-optimized cloudlinux which is by far the best OS for linux server environment. After the implementation of litespeed, the most reliable platform is ready for quality online service plans.

  • Very affordable service – Only $3.95/mo for guaranteed 1GB disk space and 50GB bandwidth is absolutely perfect choice for most website requirements. With this price we also get free website migration and free sitebuilder. If we're not satisfied with the service we also have 45 days money back guarantee ensurrance.
  • Official 40% discount – If the price is still high with your budget, the stablehost will give you another 40% discount. It's absolutely the best price with this promotional offer. How to claim it? Just enter the coupon code on the home page!
  • Friendly support – The friendly means either you're asking for support or sending service complaint, they will respond in good manner and make it as clear as possible.

What's bad with stablehost? Well, the bad is you can't find too much bad reviews to their service, most reviews and feedbacks are about satisfiction. But it doesn't mean everything is perfect with stablehost, they lack of programming support means if you programed the site by yourself and encountered problems with hosting, you have to fix coding issue by yourself. Their 24×7 support only available for basic hosting service questions.

Stablehost vs mddhosting vs hawkhost

What if we compare stablehost to mddhosting or hawkhost? They're all famous litespeed hosting providers with positive user reviews. All of them provide some kinds discount on official site. From the price rate, the stablehost is similar to hawkhost, From the appearance, it's the same to mddhosting.

The difference is all about the targeted clients. While mddhosting offeres their hosting with uplevel price, their targeted users are enterprise website purpose companies. If you need budget hosting purpose only, hawkhost or stablehost would be the right direction. The difference between stablehost and hawkhost is on hosting plans setup. When your website is grow up and need affordable upgrade plan support, it's not available with stablehost but hawkhost has! So if your website is going to get predictable popularity and need further hosting solutions, hawkhost would be the best choice.

Servage.net Review

servage.net review

The web hosting industry is never lack of cheap/affordable service providers. However many of them are either less-quality or going to increase the price once got more business. Only few names still work well. Today we'll introduce one of the oldest hosting brands called "Servage". If you have founded this company and looking for servage review, I would like to share such info with our clients' experience.

Servage Introduction

Their name is resulted from the words "Serve" and "Age". Servage was founded in 1998, it's part of the Servage group AB. Since from the business beginning they have gathered some of the industry's most prestigious awards such as "editors' choice" "best webhost" etc. Currently there're over 180,000 websites being served on servage platforms.

Servage Hosting Plans

Servage is well known for it's "one solution" hosting. There's only a single shared hosting plan that comes with everything they have on hand. The service is configured on standard cpanel with all addons such as auto installer, traffic analyser, sitebuilder etc. In a word, we get all features from other cpanel hosting providers with servage for only $2.95/mo.

Servage also provides domain registration and VPS server hosting service. The servage domain registration service starts with $12.99/mo for popular extensions like .com .net .org etc, it's pretty expensive comparing to leading domain providers like godaddy and namecheap. If you just want to register a domain name without hosting, servage is not recommended.

The servage VPS hosting is very different from all other hosting providers, they just offer a single VPS hosting plan with following configurations

  • 1 CPU
  • 600MB RAM
  • 150GB disk space
  • 5 TB bandwidth

Above server advantages only cost us $19.95/mo + $9.9 setup fee. The VPS server is between managed and unmanaged because they will install their own hosting control panel to the server and offer basic maintenance to it. Based their server features, it's already leading among all hosting providers. To learn more about the servage control panel, plase check this page.

Servage Pros and Cons

The advantages with servage are various, we'll just pick out the spotlights

Affordable service to everyone – Yes, for everyone! the service only costs us $2.95/mo which is quite affordable. In case we're not ready to pay more yet for hosting, servage is definitely a good choice. They even offers a stand alone sitebuilder software for free downloading, if you're novice to web development, just download it to your desktop and create a professional site in few minutes!

Up to date server technologies and stable system – the servage platform is cluster based with redundant setups. server uptime and networking is monitered by their 24×7 professionals

Spam free service – The active anti-spam system maintains a white list for your account preventing spammer from emailing your account, easy to manage in every servage hosting account.

Friendly and efficient response to support requests – Servage has established procedures for communication between support and clients via live chat/phone/ticket tunnels, it ensures the communication is effective.

The weakness of servage service would be their cheap and all in one solution. beause of the cheap and various offers, it's easy for users to overuse the actual server resources and cause problems. That's why we viewed some negative feedbacks to their service. Because they don't have an upgrade option and when we grow out of a shared server we have to switch service. It's bad if we have lots of complex data to move.

Customer feedbacks for servage hosting

Dan
I have used servage for 2 yrs now and am satisfied with the service.
The price is very good and my website has good uptime and speed. The technical support is good too. The response time of the support was around 10-15 minutes when I asked for help.
Therefore I would recommend servage to friends. 🙂

Paul
Servage rocks! I am a fan of servage because support, uptime, speed and security are great! Never suffered any problems. I don't see why people are alsways complaining, change your passwords regularly and update and you will not be hacked guys! It is not the fault of the webhsoter if your website gets hacked but only your fault! And if the webhost suspends you because of this, it is only for your advantage.
So..I would recommend servage anytime!

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