Man I wish I had some affiliate link to post here , but I don't! When I find something really good I share it. In this case... it's a new server I got from Linode.
Lately I've been trying to find a reliable VPS host that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get started and can be easily upgraded along the way.
I have tried Linux Distros and Windows Server 2008 deploy's from probably 10 different webhost's over the last few months... and this... this freaking takes the cake.
Two days ago, I got a Linode 1GB server that's month to month for $20 / month. For starters, their pricing starts at the highest, then is priced in terms of discounts for purchasing a 12 or 24 month plan. There's a 10% discount for a 12 month plan and 15% for a 24, which compared to other providers is phenomenal in it not being twice as expensive to be month to month. This made me comfortable with giving them a try.
All the servers are linux distro's that are accessed through an SSH connection to the terminal. Despite them being GUIless interfaces, check out the support documentation:
https://library.linode.com/
, oh me gusta, I have never in my life seen software documentation that perfect before! As a hugeee tech guy, I'm sure I could have even instructed a person who barely knows how to type to setup this server using their instructions.
All in all, the server took about 2 hours to setup including installing the full stack, transferring the database, and configuring phpmyadmin. When I finally went to test it I was expecting what I got from my AWS EC2 m1.small instance which was nearly twice as expensive... 5-6 second lag times on php pages that hit the database. What I ended up getting appeared to be just as fast as my localhost?? So I ran the diagnostics and I kid you not, I am loading pages 20ms faster from the Linode server than my own IIS localhost.
As for being GUIless, GOOD. It saves a ton of space on the hard disk as well as CPU usage allowing even a small server to have some serious kick. For the file structure, I'm SFTP'd directly in using FileZilla that allows me to instantly transfer over new files from the dev copy faster than I could if I had to remote in first. As for the database, phpmyadmin gives me quick access and you can still open up a port for a custom SQL manager if you so please. I never thought I would enjoy a 100% guiless server this much.
The best part about the whole thing? I started small... at their very smallest. On the server's dashboard it instantly graphs full stats include CPU %, bits/sec, and IO Blocks/sec. I can shut down, reboot, backup, change the linux distro, and even instantly upgrade and transfer my server to a bigger one at a pro-rated charge for the rest of the month at a moments notice. Even though I'm currently on the smallest, it seems like I could run quite a lot of database traffic through this before ever needing to get a bigger server. I'm going to haha, but the stats so far say it can handle a lot.
Why is this such a big deal? I have been trying for MONTHS to find a server this freaking good. I still need to look into their load balancer, but if they have dynamic scaling they may steal me 100% away from AWS which has been giving my server farm hell since the moment I got there. This post is the culmination of probably 200+ hours of research, experimentation, and hassle.
Lately I've been trying to find a reliable VPS host that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get started and can be easily upgraded along the way.
I have tried Linux Distros and Windows Server 2008 deploy's from probably 10 different webhost's over the last few months... and this... this freaking takes the cake.
Two days ago, I got a Linode 1GB server that's month to month for $20 / month. For starters, their pricing starts at the highest, then is priced in terms of discounts for purchasing a 12 or 24 month plan. There's a 10% discount for a 12 month plan and 15% for a 24, which compared to other providers is phenomenal in it not being twice as expensive to be month to month. This made me comfortable with giving them a try.
All the servers are linux distro's that are accessed through an SSH connection to the terminal. Despite them being GUIless interfaces, check out the support documentation:
https://library.linode.com/
, oh me gusta, I have never in my life seen software documentation that perfect before! As a hugeee tech guy, I'm sure I could have even instructed a person who barely knows how to type to setup this server using their instructions.
All in all, the server took about 2 hours to setup including installing the full stack, transferring the database, and configuring phpmyadmin. When I finally went to test it I was expecting what I got from my AWS EC2 m1.small instance which was nearly twice as expensive... 5-6 second lag times on php pages that hit the database. What I ended up getting appeared to be just as fast as my localhost?? So I ran the diagnostics and I kid you not, I am loading pages 20ms faster from the Linode server than my own IIS localhost.
As for being GUIless, GOOD. It saves a ton of space on the hard disk as well as CPU usage allowing even a small server to have some serious kick. For the file structure, I'm SFTP'd directly in using FileZilla that allows me to instantly transfer over new files from the dev copy faster than I could if I had to remote in first. As for the database, phpmyadmin gives me quick access and you can still open up a port for a custom SQL manager if you so please. I never thought I would enjoy a 100% guiless server this much.
The best part about the whole thing? I started small... at their very smallest. On the server's dashboard it instantly graphs full stats include CPU %, bits/sec, and IO Blocks/sec. I can shut down, reboot, backup, change the linux distro, and even instantly upgrade and transfer my server to a bigger one at a pro-rated charge for the rest of the month at a moments notice. Even though I'm currently on the smallest, it seems like I could run quite a lot of database traffic through this before ever needing to get a bigger server. I'm going to haha, but the stats so far say it can handle a lot.
Why is this such a big deal? I have been trying for MONTHS to find a server this freaking good. I still need to look into their load balancer, but if they have dynamic scaling they may steal me 100% away from AWS which has been giving my server farm hell since the moment I got there. This post is the culmination of probably 200+ hours of research, experimentation, and hassle.
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