Linux hosting options, pros and cons

[Kent Johnson]

Travis Roy wrote:

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

I don't have experience with them myself, but from the information 
available on their website it seems WebFaction offers much more than you 
indicate below. For $9.50 a month (less if you pay by the year) you get 
the following (text is from their website):

>> 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.

SSL - Yes - If you want to use a trusted certificate (no popup) you'll 
need your own IP address which is charged at +$5/month.

>> 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.

 From static HTML, PHP and CGI to Rails, Django, Turbogears and Plone, 
these plans let you run any software you want. You can even install your 
own custom software in your home directory

We provide PHP-5 with lots of modules (mysql, postgres, gd, zlib, curl, 
freetype, pspell, mbstring, xsl, ...).

> 
> 
>> 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.

MySql or PostgreSql databases  	5

<not clear which version>

> 
>> 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.

Full shell account with SSH and sFTP access  	Yes

> 
> 
>> ability to add custom cron jobs
>>
> 
> With the low cost webhosting you'll be lucky to get a prompt.

Can I run cron jobs ?

Yes you can. Note however that if your cron jobs run too often or take 
too long to execute they will be considered as long-running processes 
and you will need to take this into account while choosing your plan.

Kent