A bit confused about the hosting choices

[Helias]

Hello,

I'm thinking of using HG as my hosting provider for a technology-driven Wordpress blog. I expect people to add comments to my entries, and maybe get a few diggs here and there. This can bring some spikes in traffic. I also have the idea to include a forum integration to the blog, I did not decide yet between IPB, vBulletin or SMF. That means a lot of potential dynamic interactions.

What I'm wondering is if I choose a shared baby hosting plan, will it be enough? I WHOIS'ed a popular website and saw it was hosted here (dunno which plan though). Said website got a lot of hits from reddit and others, but seems to be doing fine (uses Wordpress too).

My main fear is being suspended or running out of memory. This is unacceptable for me and my readers. So, taking that into account, which hosting plan do you suggest me?

In a nutshell :
-> Wordpress blog with a few plugins
-> Probably a vBulletin, IPB or SMF forum (added interactivity)
-> Possible "social news" traffic (reddit, digg, stumbleupon, etc.)

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Helias

In a nutshell :
-> Wordpress blog with a few plugins
-> Probably a vBulletin, IPB or SMF forum (added interactivity)
-> Possible "social news" traffic (reddit, digg, stumbleupon, etc.)

Many people here have WordPress blogs and various forums without problem. Server speed and uptime are good. However, what nobody can answer is how busy your site will be or become. If in time a shared hosting plan isn't sufficient, then you have little alternative but to move a dedicated server.

As this is just a peer support forum, I would suggest emailing HG sales for an official answer.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by Helias

Hello,

I'm thinking of using HG as my hosting provider for a technology-driven Wordpress blog. I expect people to add comments to my entries, and maybe get a few diggs here and there. This can bring some spikes in traffic. I also have the idea to include a forum integration to the blog, I did not decide yet between IPB, vBulletin or SMF. That means a lot of potential dynamic interactions.

What I'm wondering is if I choose a shared baby hosting plan, will it be enough? I WHOIS'ed a popular website and saw it was hosted here (dunno which plan though). Said website got a lot of hits from reddit and others, but seems to be doing fine (uses Wordpress too).

My main fear is being suspended or running out of memory. This is unacceptable for me and my readers. So, taking that into account, which hosting plan do you suggest me?

In a nutshell :
-> Wordpress blog with a few plugins
-> Probably a vBulletin, IPB or SMF forum (added interactivity)
-> Possible "social news" traffic (reddit, digg, stumbleupon, etc.)

It's unclear whether this blog already exists, at another provider, or does not. If it already exists, you have an idea of the traffic and triggers it experiences--if you've outgrown a small shared account elsewhere, you probably will outgrow one here, too, very quickly.

If, however, the blog doesn't exist yet, you will have a little time before you need to worry.

[Helias]

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. The blog is not currently on another host, so that's why I'm worried ; I don't know how much traffic I'll get. I guess I should just start and see how things go from there.

[Pazeh]

your account won't get overloaded that much to be suspended overnight, unless you got in digg's front page or something big, so you will have the time to notices slowness & when you do that its a "warning" to upgrade.

also have a look on WP cache plug in, I have read it has the potential to save you, even if your site got digged.

[Helias]

Yea I planned to use this plugin, very helpful. It has just been updated for WP 2.8.1 too, so that's great!

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/

[Helias]

It seems I can't edit. I just checked Super Cache and its not compatible with Popularity Contest, which is a very important plugin for my website. I guess I'll see what happens.