Vidahost going downhill

[Blossom]

@Blossom Just been taken a look at your 20i.com offering. Is it CPanel hosting?

It's not cPanel, it's a bespoke control panel (demo: stackcp.com/login/demo - the file manager & crons are disabled in the demo).

The reason it's bespoke is because cPanel doesn't allow for load-balancing and autoscaling in the way we use it - with 20i your site isn't on one single server as such, it uses the whole platform's resources as needed and scales automatically so you're not affected by high traffic or what other people are doing. It's all brand new quality hardware and totally SSD, not just 'SSD Caching' or 'Smart SSD' as some hosts advertise, and that makes a massive difference.

(I'm trying my best to keep this factual, not salesy, so if you're interested in the specific advantages and details just me know).

If you're migrating from a cPanel Reseller to our Reseller, there's an automatic migration centre that handles everything except domain names, which you can transfer in bulk separately.

Me too, Would be interesting to see how 20i compares to Krystal on the reseller packages. Shame it doesnt say what the different is between e.g. the reseller 'normal' hosting and the wordpress hosting.

Anyone here using 20i? I'd be interested.

I'm not that familiar with Krystal and I've never actually used them myself, but if you want to compare something specifically, I can tell you about it from the 20i perspective, provide server specs etc. Alternatively you can sign up for free hosting with us (you need to transfer a domain in but you could transfer a .uk for free), or try the Reseller for £1 for a month and then cancel if you don't like it - there's a 30 day money back guarantee if you want your £1 back.

Explaining the difference between the Reseller 'normal' hosting and the WordPress hosting is my responsibility really - I need to work on that (as you can imagine there are lots of things to do!). The WordPress hosting is its own separate platform. Only WordPress sites are allowed on it (although you can have webmail as normal) and it's been optimised in various different ways - a bespoke caching plugin, integrated monitoring to automatically identify potentially dodgy WordPress plugins, optimised Apache, optimised MySQL, automatic WP core updates, and some other stuff. It also includes timeline backups.

Off the record, I've been testing it myself on moderately clean WordPress installs and it typically seems to be at least 4x faster than Amazon's hosting (for UK users - I haven't tested US or international audiences). Don't quote me on that though because it's not statistically significant - just my own testing as an end user.

With the regular Reseller Hosting, you can use the Linux platform, WordPress platform, and/or Windows platform. So you still have access to the speedy WordPress platform as a Reseller but you also have the flexibility to use the Linux platform to run non-WordPress websites, store files outside WP etc. It doesn't include timeline backups but you will be able to add those on for an extra fee, and everything can be backed up from the control panel for free anyway. The Reseller Hosting works out cheaper if you're working with a lot of sites, because Resellers get a range of discounts including wholesale domain prices and unlimited WordPress Hosting.

@Blossom and do you do VPS or Dedi

And is there an uptime guarantee/SLA that's actually worth having - i.e. with penalties

We don't have a public uptime guarantee for our shared services, but again I can probably say off record that we haven't had any downtime (launched in September). Without mentioning any names, the team we have is insanely good and has a really strong record in the hosting industry, so we've been around for years and have answered probably every question and fixed every type of issue that's ever come up in UK hosting...I wouldn't be surprised if some people here recognised some familiar names. It's all in-house support and I can't see that changing, and everyone is in the same office and there's no layers of management or hanging around, and that makes a big difference too.

We'll be launching VPS next year but to be honest we've already had a couple of customers say that their site on our shared hosting is equal to or faster than their VPS with other companies. I don't know what kind of sites they are or which companies unfortunately, but as I've said above, give it a go if you're interested because you can do it without losing anything and it's more meaningful than anything I can say to convince you!

 

[martin-s]

I still hear nothing but good things about Melbourne hosting, Manchester based

Manchester based hosting isn't likely to be much good for catching scripts

 

[bonusmedia]

It's not cPanel, it's a bespoke control panel (demo: stackcp.com/login/demo - the file manager & crons are disabled in the demo).

The reason it's bespoke is because cPanel doesn't allow for load-balancing and autoscaling in the way we use it - with 20i your site isn't on one single server as such, it uses the whole platform's resources as needed and scales automatically so you're not affected by high traffic or what other people are doing. It's all brand new quality hardware and totally SSD, not just 'SSD Caching' or 'Smart SSD' as some hosts advertise, and that makes a massive difference.

(I'm trying my best to keep this factual, not salesy, so if you're interested in the specific advantages and details just me know).

If you're migrating from a cPanel Reseller to our Reseller, there's an automatic migration centre that handles everything except domain names, which you can transfer in bulk separately.



I'm not that familiar with Krystal and I've never actually used them myself, but if you want to compare something specifically, I can tell you about it from the 20i perspective, provide server specs etc. Alternatively you can sign up for free hosting with us (you need to transfer a domain in but you could transfer a .uk for free), or try the Reseller for £1 for a month and then cancel if you don't like it - there's a 30 day money back guarantee if you want your £1 back.

Explaining the difference between the Reseller 'normal' hosting and the WordPress hosting is my responsibility really - I need to work on that (as you can imagine there are lots of things to do!). The WordPress hosting is its own separate platform. Only WordPress sites are allowed on it (although you can have webmail as normal) and it's been optimised in various different ways - a bespoke caching plugin, integrated monitoring to automatically identify potentially dodgy WordPress plugins, optimised Apache, optimised MySQL, automatic WP core updates, and some other stuff. It also includes timeline backups.

Off the record, I've been testing it myself on moderately clean WordPress installs and it typically seems to be at least 4x faster than Amazon's hosting (for UK users - I haven't tested US or international audiences). Don't quote me on that though because it's not statistically significant - just my own testing as an end user.

With the regular Reseller Hosting, you can use the Linux platform, WordPress platform, and/or Windows platform. So you still have access to the speedy WordPress platform as a Reseller but you also have the flexibility to use the Linux platform to run non-WordPress websites, store files outside WP etc. It doesn't include timeline backups but you will be able to add those on for an extra fee, and everything can be backed up from the control panel for free anyway. The Reseller Hosting works out cheaper if you're working with a lot of sites, because Resellers get a range of discounts including wholesale domain prices and unlimited WordPress Hosting.



We don't have a public uptime guarantee for our shared services, but again I can probably say off record that we haven't had any downtime (launched in September). Without mentioning any names, the team we have is insanely good and has a really strong record in the hosting industry, so we've been around for years and have answered probably every question and fixed every type of issue that's ever come up in UK hosting...I wouldn't be surprised if some people here recognised some familiar names. It's all in-house support and I can't see that changing, and everyone is in the same office and there's no layers of management or hanging around, and that makes a big difference too.

We'll be launching VPS next year but to be honest we've already had a couple of customers say that their site on our shared hosting is equal to or faster than their VPS with other companies. I don't know what kind of sites they are or which companies unfortunately, but as I've said above, give it a go if you're interested because you can do it without losing anything and it's more meaningful than anything I can say to convince you!

Thanks - this is impressive. We don't resell so not sure if we need a lot of those features - we're concerned about getting the best possible performance out of 10-15 main sites

Any limitations/differences between stackcp and cpanel?

What is pricing on VPS likely to be?

We could probably do with a few hours consulting and planning, assistance with migration, re-organizing, best practice etc - Is that available?

 

[Blossom]

Thanks - this is impressive. We don't resell so not sure if we need a lot of those features - we're concerned about getting the best possible performance out of 10-15 main sites

For more than 10 sites it's going to be better value to get a Reseller. You don't need to use the specific Reseller features and you can adjust StackCP to only show the features you want.

Any limitations/differences between stackcp and cpanel?

No negative ones as far as I'm aware - the aim was to create something taking inspiration from cPanel but that looked more modern and worked for our platform. The main difference is that it allows for our platform-wide autoscaling and load-balancing so you're not limited to one server. Sorry that's a bit vague, probably worth emailing or calling our sales team for more specifics on the differences or if you're concerned about particular features

Edit: Oh, I would probably add that we're open to reasonable requests because we have the flexibility to change absolutely anything about StackCP and we have some pretty interesting ideas we'll be implementing as we go further down the line. So if you wanted to suggest another one-click install or feature or a better way to do something or position something we're open to hearing that.

What is pricing on VPS likely to be?

No idea as yet, but with everything else we've done so far we've aimed to make it better than what's currently in the UK market for the same price or cheaper. I'd guess it'll be the same approach.

We could probably do with a few hours consulting and planning, assistance with migration, re-organizing, best practice etc - Is that available?

I would think so depending on what's involved Our sales guys are technical guys so they should be able to give you a good idea.

 

[bonusmedia]

For more than 10 sites it's going to be better value to get a Reseller. You don't need to use the specific Reseller features and you can adjust StackCP to only show the features you want.



No negative ones as far as I'm aware - the aim was to create something taking inspiration from cPanel but that looked more modern and worked for our platform. The main difference is that it allows for our platform-wide autoscaling and load-balancing so you're not limited to one server. Sorry that's a bit vague, probably worth emailing or calling our sales team for more specifics on the differences or if you're concerned about particular features

Edit: Oh, I would probably add that we're open to reasonable requests because we have the flexibility to change absolutely anything about StackCP and we have some pretty interesting ideas we'll be implementing as we go further down the line. So if you wanted to suggest another one-click install or feature or a better way to do something or position something we're open to hearing that.



No idea as yet, but with everything else we've done so far we've aimed to make it better than what's currently in the UK market for the same price or cheaper. I'd guess it'll be the same approach.



I would think so depending on what's involved Our sales guys are technical guys so they should be able to give you a good idea.

Thanks - I'll get in touch

 

[mdrussell]

Load balancing and scaling cPanel is easy enough, it's called virtualising the hardware on which it runs You can then use containers or similar to enable each shared use to use a set or burstable amount of resources.

Some folks want VPS for root access, reboots, reimaging, snapshots etc (more Cloud than VPS these days). Others just want the VPS level of resources. All things being equal on the same hardware and network, VPS/Cloud will be faster as you can tune Apache/PHP for specific needs, and bare metal faster still with no virtualisation overhead.

 

[Skinner]

Didn't think we were talking catching hosts

Manchester based hosting isn't likely to be much good for catching scripts

 

[AssetDomains]

Had exactly the same issues no noticeable increase in traffic but loads of resource issues and the same stupid cryptic responses. When I asked if nothing has changed for a year why am I suddenly running out of resources they just come back telling me to upgrade.
I moved my site over to Cloudways (My referral link if that's ok admin) they add a small layer of management security etc onto the cloud server offerings of most of the big players DO, amazon, google.
I only used there support once so far livechat. Guy new what he was doing got me sorted pronto
They panel is bespoke but fairly intuitive not always as obvious as cPanel.
The one major pain in the backside was no email out of the box its available as an add-on $1per mailbox via rackspace
I found it cheaper to host elsewhere though as I had multiple mailboxes.
Worth a look and having a play on the 30 days free they give
https://www.cloudways.com/en/?id=81572

 

[bonusmedia]

Wonder what more technically minded folks will make of this:

"Hi Ben, Apologies for the inconveniences. Actually your server is not going down, for reference, here is the uptime statistics for your server: uptime 07:55:28 up 50 days, 13:32, 1 user, load average: 0.71, 0.64, 0.60 What is happening is that due to spikes in load/visits Apache (the web service running on your server) is dropping some connections: [Sat Dec 17 07:52:46 2016] [error] server reached MaxClients setting, consider raising the MaxClients setting I have altered its configuration accordingly, hopefully this shouldn't happen again. If the issue occur again we might need to increase the resources on your server and change the Apache configuration accordingly to match the newly available resources. Kind regards, Julian"

Just to note, whatever the log says, a server that's completely inaccessible for 30 mins is down in my book.

 

[bonusmedia]

Wonder what more technically minded folks will make of this:

"Hi Ben, Apologies for the inconveniences. Actually your server is not going down, for reference, here is the uptime statistics for your server: uptime 07:55:28 up 50 days, 13:32, 1 user, load average: 0.71, 0.64, 0.60 What is happening is that due to spikes in load/visits Apache (the web service running on your server) is dropping some connections: [Sat Dec 17 07:52:46 2016] [error] server reached MaxClients setting, consider raising the MaxClients setting I have altered its configuration accordingly, hopefully this shouldn't happen again. If the issue occur again we might need to increase the resources on your server and change the Apache configuration accordingly to match the newly available resources. Kind regards, Julian"

Just to note, whatever the log says, a server that's completely inaccessible for 30 mins is down in my book.

Turned out that was bullshit. Now a sysadmin is going to call me back. Not holding my breath, because of the last 3 times they've promised that I only got one call. 1 hr and 20 mins of downtime so far today

 

[Skinner]

Dreamhost used to be like that early days, maybe still is, been a long time since I had any access. Tons of bandwidth, Tons of Storage, decent amount of burstable ram, but then they locked down simultaneous connections to a silly low number and limited maximum execution time to seconds so only absolute basic low usage sites could survive without paying more.

Its a hook to up sell, your situ sounds similar.

 

[bonusmedia]

Dreamhost used to be like that early days, maybe still is, been a long time since I had any access. Tons of bandwidth, Tons of Storage, decent amount of burstable ram, but then they locked down simultaneous connections to a silly low number and limited maximum execution time to seconds so only absolute basic low usage sites could survive without paying more.

Its a hook to up sell, your situ sounds similar.

It wasn't the issue anyway. The whole thing went down for 1 hr 20 mins at lunchtime after this supposed fix.

The other day when I called, they managed to get it back up immediately but wouldn't tell me the issue beyond ' high load' or let me speak to the sysadmin.

Extremely frustrating.

We're moving next week, I wanted to hold it off to the New Year but we're losing too much.

They will also lose 400+ domain renewals per year as I'm now finally going to get my Nom tag.

I'm sure they've disclaimed any possible responsibility for anything otherwise I'd sue.

 

[Skinner]

If someone doesn't value you're business, take it somewhere who will. Rubbish timing but by all accounts a good time to jump.

The tags a no brainer at 400+, given noms current proclivity towards offers and discounts with the run up to .uk and increase its staff bonus pot, its a good time to get on board

 

[Admin]

I just tried to buy a years reseller package @Blossom - declined... Im not the type to mess about for too long before i try something else, if someone cant take my money easily, sorry.

It's not cPanel, it's a bespoke control panel (demo: stackcp.com/login/demo - the file manager & crons are disabled in the demo).

The reason it's bespoke is because cPanel doesn't allow for load-balancing and autoscaling in the way we use it - with 20i your site isn't on one single server as such, it uses the whole platform's resources as needed and scales automatically so you're not affected by high traffic or what other people are doing. It's all brand new quality hardware and totally SSD, not just 'SSD Caching' or 'Smart SSD' as some hosts advertise, and that makes a massive difference.

(I'm trying my best to keep this factual, not salesy, so if you're interested in the specific advantages and details just me know).

If you're migrating from a cPanel Reseller to our Reseller, there's an automatic migration centre that handles everything except domain names, which you can transfer in bulk separately.



I'm not that familiar with Krystal and I've never actually used them myself, but if you want to compare something specifically, I can tell you about it from the 20i perspective, provide server specs etc. Alternatively you can sign up for free hosting with us (you need to transfer a domain in but you could transfer a .uk for free), or try the Reseller for £1 for a month and then cancel if you don't like it - there's a 30 day money back guarantee if you want your £1 back.

Explaining the difference between the Reseller 'normal' hosting and the WordPress hosting is my responsibility really - I need to work on that (as you can imagine there are lots of things to do!). The WordPress hosting is its own separate platform. Only WordPress sites are allowed on it (although you can have webmail as normal) and it's been optimised in various different ways - a bespoke caching plugin, integrated monitoring to automatically identify potentially dodgy WordPress plugins, optimised Apache, optimised MySQL, automatic WP core updates, and some other stuff. It also includes timeline backups.

Off the record, I've been testing it myself on moderately clean WordPress installs and it typically seems to be at least 4x faster than Amazon's hosting (for UK users - I haven't tested US or international audiences). Don't quote me on that though because it's not statistically significant - just my own testing as an end user.

With the regular Reseller Hosting, you can use the Linux platform, WordPress platform, and/or Windows platform. So you still have access to the speedy WordPress platform as a Reseller but you also have the flexibility to use the Linux platform to run non-WordPress websites, store files outside WP etc. It doesn't include timeline backups but you will be able to add those on for an extra fee, and everything can be backed up from the control panel for free anyway. The Reseller Hosting works out cheaper if you're working with a lot of sites, because Resellers get a range of discounts including wholesale domain prices and unlimited WordPress Hosting.



We don't have a public uptime guarantee for our shared services, but again I can probably say off record that we haven't had any downtime (launched in September). Without mentioning any names, the team we have is insanely good and has a really strong record in the hosting industry, so we've been around for years and have answered probably every question and fixed every type of issue that's ever come up in UK hosting...I wouldn't be surprised if some people here recognised some familiar names. It's all in-house support and I can't see that changing, and everyone is in the same office and there's no layers of management or hanging around, and that makes a big difference too.

We'll be launching VPS next year but to be honest we've already had a couple of customers say that their site on our shared hosting is equal to or faster than their VPS with other companies. I don't know what kind of sites they are or which companies unfortunately, but as I've said above, give it a go if you're interested because you can do it without losing anything and it's more meaningful than anything I can say to convince you!

 

[Admin]

I have managed to buy a years reseller hosting from 20i. The panel looks excellent and unique. Added a hosting account for a site I just bought, selected wordpress unlimited. I expected a wordpress optimised empty account but it comes with wordpress installed. Tried to delete the files via file manager, Delete not possible. Decided to upload my zipped folder of the sites files and work out how to get rid of incumbent installation later...file upload has frozen at 85mb. Made me sad. Back to my old hosting. I do things instantly and at a high pace, I have 2 sites I plan to setup this afternoon, no live chat support at weekends. Just saying.

 

[AssetDomains]

Try cloudways think they had WordPress option although I've only used the laravel builds.
I think most hosts install the wordress files on this type of thing though.
To be fair to Vidahost I dumped a few small things on there basic hosting no problems there so far think they were just trying to squeeze there managed vps clients for a bit more cash

 

[Admin]

@Blossom - you might want a dedicated 20i thread on here. As an update, theres a bit of learning curve with 20i, their optimised wordpress hosting locks down access to everything except wp-content, htaccess, config file. Their web based file manger limits file size quite tight. I've had to use ftp instead which is working well, ive recreated my hosting packages as linux instead of wordpress optimised to make life easier for now. Support got back to me in 3 minutes and then repeatedly after that within minutes with excellent support.

 

[Admin]

A few peculiarities aside this has been an entertaining and rewarding afternoon looking into 20i hosting. The support is 5*. They've just extracted my ftp uploaded files and offered to complete config setup and db install. I accepted and moments later I had confirmation and a staging url which worked (for internal pages too ...without my having to mess with local dns). Two sites completely moved and setup and the hosting is lightning fast, you can feel the SSD.

 

[Blossom]

@admin Thanks for your honest feedback, it's really helpful to see your thought process and actions so we can adjust some things If there are any more 'peculiarities' or you have any suggestions feel free to DM me and I'll pass them on Glad you're finding the support great and lightning fast speeds, that's our aim!

Do I just create a thread or is there some kind of process for it?

 

[Sam]

I am with jolt.co.uk have been with them for years even since they changed there name have a few servers with them always good service !