Need suggestions for new hosting company

[simonmom]

We are shopping for new hosting. I won't say who we are with currently as that isn't necessary. I have read lots of good reviews for hostgator but you never know if they are true or staged.

We have oscommerce as our store and have had no issues with that. We have our own merchant and do not want or need a gateway. We have always passed the PCI compliance security.

Currently our host has us on a full shared server for the database. As you all know, everything now is PHP - our store runs on MySQL. We have had problems with consistency. At any time during the day either our store comes back with Server not found or Server Timed Out, Server Busy or the pages take over 4 minutes to load. Then other times the pages only take 3 to 4 seconds. The problem is we cannot stay in business this way. We need someone that can guarantee us they have enough servers to handle busy databases. I have heard of cluster servers, we already looked at dedicated servers but honestly our store doesn't make that much money. We are a small business and don't want to have outgoing costs higher than income.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Kelly

[psychevinyl]

i would go with the slicehost.

[Chimpie]

I would look into a Reseller or VPS account if you don't think the cost of a Dedicated is worth it.

On a Reseller server, you're on a shared server with other resellers, not the general public. You don't have to resell to be on a reseller server.

VPS is another option that might work well for you.

As for HG in general, I wouldn't recommend anyone else. They have plenty of servers and plenty of staff to monitor them. They are also expanding, recently purchasing a new office building and planning on hiring several hundred people.

[simonmom]

Thank you for the input. I would be completely lost if I had a reseller account as I am still learning all of this and could never manage my own problems if any occured.

We have only one site that has oscommerce and four other sites that we like added on.

We are not a big store but maybe if actually able to stay live and accessible without server timeouts we could grow!

So, I think just a basic business account might be right for us for now. Then if I get better at this I could grow. We just really would like a home that we our customers can visit, look at stuff in our store, buy something and be happy! That isn't much to ask, goodness, our entire sites right now only equal about 2 gigs.

Thanks for any further info. So, if we go with hostgater, maybe a business account would work?

[Chimpie]

Yes, a business account will probably serve your needs. And you can always upgrade as you grow.

And for what it's worth, a reseller is the same as a shared account, except each additional domain gets its own cpanel. Since you only have one site you'll probably be better off with a business account.

[GatorJoshL]

Hello,

I've read a lot of good things about this HostGator company. I would give them a try. Actually your best bet would be to start out with a baby account, it allows unlimited domains and if you do not require an SSL/Toll Free # is the best value.

Send me a PM, I would be glad to answer any questions you might have about our services here at HostGator.

Thanks,