Recommend a host...

[Dreamerbydesign]

Greetings guys -

I am looking for a reliable, affordable host. I am looking to spend less than $10 a month initially, but would be willing to spend more if the site grew. It is for a new website that will have a forum. Linux server is fine. I'd like the ability to upgrade the package at a later date if I run into demand issues.

Do you guys have any recommendations?

 

[ChoGGi]

dreamhost.com or nearlyfreespeech.net

 

[lilfiend]

I like digitalocean personally, not 100% sure on upgrades though. I know you can make a snapshot and redeploy it to a more powerful instance though.

 

[Deleted member 126051]

Dreamhost's shared hosting isn't terrible by any means. But if you're looking to do an active/interactive site, you're probably going to be disappointed by bulk hosting on any site.

Fortunately there are upgrade paths to virtual private servers with dedicated resources.

VPS Hosting - Your Own Virtual Private Server – DreamHost

 

[Grentz]

Mddhosting is great. The owner cares and is responsive. Uptime has been great.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I am going to look into them.

 

[Tup3x]

I have pretty bad experiences with Dreamhost. It was slow as hell and totally choked when there were a bit more users (unless they have improved a lot lately). Even the cheapest Digitalocean VPS can handle things way, way better.

 

[The Donut]

I've been with Site5 for almost 7 years and have never had any major issues.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Having one on vps.net; it can also grow a bit with you demand; key for me was the free SSL certificate. Later you might want dedicated server ...

 

[CEpeep]

DigitalOcean starts at $5/mo and is a great pick for getting a new site tested and off the ground, OP.

Later you might want dedicated server ...

Not for a website. It's 2016. If you outstrip the resources a large VPS can provide, you should migrate to a cloud infrastructure like AWS or Azure. The days of dedicated servers for web hosting are over.

DigitalOcean and Linode are my top picks right now for a small unmanaged VPS. Anything beyond hobby or single-site (i.e. bringing in some kind of revenue) should go right to a cloud provider from the start.