Linux hosting options, pros and cons

[Travis Roy]

> A client with a database-backed LAMP application is considering  
> moving to a new hosting provider for their system.  Surfing the  
> web, they find all of these $6.95/month deals and can't figure out  
> why anyone would pay more. I know there are a number of folks on  
> the list who provide such services for themselves or their  
> customers, and would welcome feedback, from what questions should  
> be asked to what features we should be looking at. (I should  
> explain "we" - I am the developer of the app, and an adequate  
> sysadmin, and will likely end up installing, configuring and  
> maintaining the system)
>

 From what I've seen most of these >$10/month deals fail for some of  
your requirements.


> SSL

I doubt you'll be able to find SSL for such low cost. Since most low  
cost webhosting is just shared virtual hosting. You can't do that  
with SSL. The few that do will only offer a shared site certificate  
and probably require you to use a less then ideal url to access  
secure pages.

> 	
> PHP 4.3 or better with the ability to add PEAR modules
>

Ability to add any modules will probably be limited, if allowed at all.


> MySQL 4.1.19 or later or 5.1

Again, if a shared webhosting company even has MySQL, it will  
probably be shared with other customers, and you'll most likely only  
get one DB.

> ssh/scp access, preferably on a non-standard port

Even with higher end webhosting, unless you own/rent the machine/ 
virtualserver you probably won't be able to do something on a non- 
standard port.


> ability to add custom cron jobs
>

With the low cost webhosting you'll be lucky to get a prompt.


My advice would be either to rent/buy/lease a server or find  
someplace that can give you a virtualserver. Keep in mind that most  
virtual server setups I've seen for this kind of thing have been  
FreeBSD jail systems (not that it's a problem, just an observation)..

Brian Karas (from the list) does a personal colocation service  
(http://karas.net/colo/index.html). My box is hosted with him and I  
have no complaints.

-Travis