Should we be looking for companies that specialize in vB hosting?

[RedHotChili]

I was intrigued by this post that suggests that vBulletin has special needs and demands that not all hosting companies are aware of.

In my opinion there are two types of hosting - regular hosting and vBulletin hosting. vBulletin has specific needs and demands.... I am glad that our new host recognizes that vBulletin is a different animal.

Does everyone here pretty much agree with this assessment?

Can anyone recommend another company besides Global Gold that specializes in vB hosting and is familiar with the unique demands of vB?

Thanks for your help.

[Steve Machol]

I don't agree with that comment at all. I would request that person provides substantiation.

[RedHotChili]

Thanks for that feedback Steve.

Sounds like the comment is a bit misleading.

I appreciate your expert opinion.

[mavortium]

I started my first forum in 2001 and migrated to vBulletin in 2007, a largely positive move. I now run two vBulletin forums and the original is quite a decent size with a loyal membership. Having been with 4 hosts since 2001, it has been my experience that while the first 3 promised great bandwidth, storage capacity, memory, addon domains and parked domains (none of these resources came close to being used up), when it came to running the forum they would give me a hard time about my CPU usage. My last host was InMotion Hosting - they developed an annoying habit of shutting down my server and leaving me to figure out it was off and hassle them to turn it back on again. InMotion weren't very helpful with trying to figure out where the load was coming from either, despite the fact that I was paying quite a fee to them and I worked for a number of years as Unix server administrator (i.e. I have a clue). Inmotionhosting let me down and hurt my organization and revenue.

So last week I decided it was time to seek a host that was recommended for hosting vB forums of some size. I got that recommendation elsewhere on this forum and that's why I contacted Globalgold. One of the company owners worked with me to tailor a package to suit my needs and despite some setup problems (transferring all that data proved problematic), he worked with me personally this past Sunday to get it all setup and compensated me for the transfer issues. I now find myself with a snappy server and the most fully featured WHM iteration I've encountered yet - I was able to configure my own php and mysql options personally and recompile apache, and I have root ssh access too. And the icing on the cake is that this host understands vB very well.

Obviously it's early days and trust me when I say that it's hard to give an assessment of a hosting company until you've been with them a couple of years, but I feel far more positive about Gg than any of my previous providers at this point.

So given my 8+ years of working with forum software, I believe Steve is wrong to dismiss smnet's assertion about vB hosts. I would extend it to say that some hosts are more understanding and specialized in hosting forum software.

In any case, I'll let you know if I change my mind.

PS: InMotion hosting refused to refund any of the money I had paid in advance for the coming months on the basis that I initiated the closing of the account. Be aware that if you host with US companies you are subject to despicable US consumer law (or lack thereof) and therefore at the mercy of the scruples of the company you choose. InMotion in my experience have been the least fair in their behaviour regarding moving servers. Addendum: After kicking up a stink InMotion did give a partial refund for the time left, but it was not for all of the time left.

[James-A]

Sounds like the comment is a bit misleading.

vBulletin is written in PHP using a MySQL database server. PHP and MySQL both this applications are supported on Linux as well as Windows platform. Around every web hosting provider supports these applications. So, you don't need to look for a special hosting provider for hosting your vBulletin board.

[joeychgo]

Some shared hosts handle vBulletin better then others. Their servers are better tuned to handle the database queries, etc. I was actually kicked off of one host because I had a vB forum. (and was readily accepted by a competitor, who had no problems with my forum)

I have compiled a list on hosts that seem to have good feedback from vBulletin owners: Recommended vBulletin Web Hosting

I hope that helps.

[motoxer311]

Global Gold FTW!!!!!!!

They even offer to do the transfer for you... At first I wanted to do it myself but realized I had no clue about VPS and had them do it.. Once it was set up I shot over numerous questions and they responded asap...

[Mark.B]

I changed to Globalgold in March, they do understand the needs of vB better.

it's not so much that vB is resource hungry, it's more to do with hosts that simply install php and MySQL and run with it, not even understanding anything about forums or vB in particular.

A host that actually knows something about the product you are going to be running is always desirable.

[RedHotChili]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I appreciate it.

I started my first forum in 2001 and migrated to vBulletin in 2007, a largely positive move. I now run two vBulletin forums and the original is quite a decent size with a loyal membership. Having been with 4 hosts since 2001, it has been my experience that while the first 3 promised great bandwidth, storage capacity, memory, addon domains and parked domains (none of these resources came close to being used up), when it came to running the forum they would give me a hard time about my CPU usage. My last host developed an annoying habit of shutting down my server and leaving me to figure out it was off and hassle them to turn it back on again. They weren't very helpful with trying to figure out where the load was coming from either, despite the fact that I was paying quite a fee to them and I worked for a number of years as Unix server administrator (i.e. I have a clue). That host was inmotionhosting by the way.

So last week I decided it was time to seek a host that was recommended for hosting vB forums of some size. I got that recommendation elsewhere on this forum and that's why I contacted Globalgold. One of the company owners worked with me to tailor a package to suit my needs and despite some setup problems (transferring all that data proved problematic), he worked with me personally this past Sunday to get it all setup and compensated me for the transfer issues. I now find myself with a snappy server and the most fully featured WHM iteration I've encountered yet - I was able to configure my own php and mysql options personally and recompile apache, and I have root ssh access too. And the icing on the cake is that this host understands vB very well.

Obviously it's early days and trust me when I say that it's hard to give an assessment of a hosting company until you've been with them a couple of years, but I feel far more positive about Gg than any of my previous providers at this point.

So given my 8+ years of working with forum software, I believe Steve is wrong to dismiss smnet's assertion about vB hosts. I would extend it to say that some hosts are more understanding and specialized in hosting forum software.

In any case, I'll let you know if I change my mind.

Thanks for your detailed post, Mavortium. Your years of experience with hosting companies is certainly appreciated, as well as your recommendations.

Some shared hosts handle vBulletin better then others. Their servers are better tuned to handle the database queries, etc. I was actually kicked off of one host because I had a vB forum. (and was readily accepted by a competitor, who had no problems with my forum)

I have compiled a list on hosts that seem to have good feedback from vBulletin owners: Recommended vBulletin Web Hosting

I hope that helps.

Thanks so much for the link, Joey. I really appreciate it. It most certainly helps.

I changed to Globalgold in March, they do understand the needs of vB better.

it's not so much that vB is resource hungry, it's more to do with hosts that simply install php and MySQL and run with it, not even understanding anything about forums or vB in particular.

A host that actually knows something about the product you are going to be running is always desirable.

Thanks a lot, Mark. That makes a lot of sense to me. I appreciate the feedback.

[yogesh]

From the looks of it, you bought a VPS and of course a VPS is always going to be a step up as far as control goes and to a certain degree performance, because it is almost like a dedicated server!

I started my first forum in 2001 and migrated to vBulletin in 2007, a largely positive move. I now run two vBulletin forums and the original is quite a decent size with a loyal membership. Having been with 4 hosts since 2001, it has been my experience that while the first 3 promised great bandwidth, storage capacity, memory, addon domains and parked domains (none of these resources came close to being used up), when it came to running the forum they would give me a hard time about my CPU usage. My last host developed an annoying habit of shutting down my server and leaving me to figure out it was off and hassle them to turn it back on again. They weren't very helpful with trying to figure out where the load was coming from either, despite the fact that I was paying quite a fee to them and I worked for a number of years as Unix server administrator (i.e. I have a clue). That host was inmotionhosting by the way.

So last week I decided it was time to seek a host that was recommended for hosting vB forums of some size. I got that recommendation elsewhere on this forum and that's why I contacted Globalgold. One of the company owners worked with me to tailor a package to suit my needs and despite some setup problems (transferring all that data proved problematic), he worked with me personally this past Sunday to get it all setup and compensated me for the transfer issues. I now find myself with a snappy server and the most fully featured WHM iteration I've encountered yet - I was able to configure my own php and mysql options personally and recompile apache, and I have root ssh access too. And the icing on the cake is that this host understands vB very well.

Obviously it's early days and trust me when I say that it's hard to give an assessment of a hosting company until you've been with them a couple of years, but I feel far more positive about Gg than any of my previous providers at this point.

So given my 8+ years of working with forum software, I believe Steve is wrong to dismiss smnet's assertion about vB hosts. I would extend it to say that some hosts are more understanding and specialized in hosting forum software.

In any case, I'll let you know if I change my mind.

[Mark.B]

From the looks of it, you bought a VPS and of course a VPS is always going to be a step up as far as control goes and to a certain degree performance, because it is almost like a dedicated server!

I suppose you're right there, I'm also on a Globalgold VPS.

But they really are very good. I only went with them earlier this year following the numerous recommendations on here, and I have never regretted it.

[Abomination]

I suppose you're right there, I'm also on a Globalgold VPS.

But they really are very good. I only went with them earlier this year following the numerous recommendations on here, and I have never regretted it.

This place?

http://www.globalgold.co.uk/

[Mark.B]

This place?
http://www.globalgold.co.uk/

Yes, that's the one.

[Shamil.]

Disagree... what if you're on a dedicated server? Specialised vBulletin Dedicated Servers.. that's "optimised" to run vB. All there is, is probably beefy hardware.

Diasgree with statement.

[xnetco]

Disagree... what if you're on a dedicated server? Specialised vBulletin Dedicated Servers.. that's "optimised" to run vB. All there is, is probably beefy hardware.

Diasgree with statement.

That's true to a degree, but you'll find that some ISPs will try and get away with slow SATA drives. If your using a specialist VB host they'll know the benefits of SAS drives for VB sites so you can take full advantage of your dedicated box.