HostGator Vs Lunarpages

Hi

I work for a small family business, Paypershop Ltd, that runs a couple of websites. We are looking to change hosts primarily because of the poor customer service of our existing host and also because we think we can get a better price elsewhere.

We've narrowed down our shortlist to Lunarpages and yourselves and we thought it would be useful to post our requirements here and find out if you feel you can help us out.

Our requirements are fairly standard. We have:

www.paypershop.com - About 12,500 pages and received 70,000+ page views last month

www.thenettle.com - About 180 pages with additional pages behind a Members Area. Will receive about 60,000 page views this month

www.payperwork.com - This will be a recruitment site when it is finished.

We run a couple of forums and PHPAdsNew and altogether we are using about 4-5 MYSQL databases.

We are currently experimenting with streaming video which, at present, we host through a third-party. We'd prefer to host ourselves, but our current host doesn't have the capcacity. We'd be looking at no more than a dozen videos on-line at any one time, no more than 1MB each in size. Number of views is unknown at this time, but could be as high as 1000 views per month per video.

Basically we'd like to know:

1) What package we would need to host the above at what price?
2) Why we should choose HostGator over Lunarpages?

If there is any other info you need, post it here. Sorry if I've missed something obvious, but my knowledge of servers and hosting is pretty limited.

Many thanks.

------------------------------

Greetings from David Congreave
david@paypershop.com

[alex]

I was a customer of Lunarpages a year ago...and I'm afraid I haven't really got anything good to say about them.
I had problems with their servers, with their amazing lack of support and major problems with billing. I had to ask multiple times to have my account cancelled after I had enough.....it got done eventually and then they deceided to bill me a year later...that was the cherry on top of the cake :O)

Lunarpages main problem was their support...they didn't listen to what I was asking them....and when you mention about a problem on their forum, it gets removed by a mod. One minute your post is there along with all the other disgruntled customers asking as to what is going on with x server and then next day it's gone........

Hostgator has excellent support, they don't seem to censor forum posts so I admire their honesty and they are reliable and affordable.

I have a dedicated server with them....I "shop" around every now and then to check up on the prices etc but I doubt very much if I'll move as I'm very happy with my server and their customer support.

Thank you. Anybody else?

[circpros]

Seems to me Hostgator could take care of you. Everything you want seems to be covered with a standard plan.....

I know nothing of Lunarpages, but I've been pretty happy here. I'm a regular in tech support, and they always respond very quickly, and in most cases with a resolution to whatever problem dujour I'm complaining about with amazing speed.

I've got a problem hangin out there right now that hasn't been resolved (they're working on it) with the WHMAP, but even the creator of the WHMAP is somewhat stumped..... I'm confident we'll have it licked soon.

In a nutshell, I've been fortunate that most of the host companies I've used have been pretty good - no horror stories. But I left my last host about a year ago over technical needs, and have been very happy with HG for about a year now. I still work with one other host (not putting all the eggs in one basket), but I'd have to say HG is hands down the best I've worked with. Very professional and usually very patient!

[GatorBrent]

I'm glad everyone posted good things, I did not have to ban anyone. lol j/k


For what you are talking about, you definitely need a dedicated server. Any of them would be suitable however that could change, with more growth.

It really becomes a question of what your budget is, and how much you make off your sites. If you're making Millions a month off your site it would not make sense to go with a cheaper server when a more expensive one, would be more powerful. However at the same time, if you're not making much no point spending a ton when the cheapest dedicated would do the job easily.