Forum Hosting VPS or Dedicated

I have presently got an IPB forum on shared hosting with up to 80 members online at once, I've started to get cpu quota exceeded errors during this peak activity...

What options do I have now the sites growing, would a VPS be suitable or is dedicated server the way to go?

Anyone had similar problems and can offer advice, the cost of some of the dedicated severs are scary and I have no knowledge of management as I'm used to cpanel interface and shared hosting??

Any advice would be appreciated...

 

Here's my opinion on it...

Get a cheap dedicated server with a company that allows you to upgrade for no charge. That way, you have the CPU all to yourself and then you have an upgrade path if/when you need it.

If your forum is that big, donations will cover the cost. Just put a Paypal button on the forum and ask for help with dedicated server costs. You'll be suprised how much it brings in.

http://www.serverpronto.com/ has servers starting at $29.95/mo. that would probably fit the bill for you and you can upgrade anytime.

 

http://www.serverpronto.com/compare.php There seems to be a lot of hidden extras that would put the price right up, for cpanel addition its an extra $40 month.. Is a VPS not suitable..

 

Well, you don't need cPanel really. Webmin is free and would do everything you need it to do for one forum site. There no hidden charges. Just add-ons. It's like buying a car. Options drive the price up. Just go with the $29 package. It's all you need.

Sure a VPS will do. But... you'll still be sharing the cpu with 2-4 other vps users on that server and may still have the same problems. How much are the VPS packages you're looking at?

 

The pricing is similar if not more, how hard is it to install the likes of mysql and GD onto a server, I've no knowledge is there any tutorials... would 256mb be enough ram for high usage times..?

 

wow...serverpronto.com seems to have pretty good deals. Anyone want to comment? I prefer webmin and freebsd and they actually have that combo.

 

MySQL and GD are basic installs, but it's a concern that you probably don't know how to keep the server secure. Updating software regularly is an important task on a dedicated server - if you are going cheap, you shouldn't expect software upgrades to be included in the monthly cost.

Firewall's are extra too.

Take a look at some hosts specializing in IPB, and if you really want to go with your own server or a VPS solution, start reading about administering and securing a box.

 

I can't confirm what you are saying about donations. This highly depends on the demoraphics of your visitors. Most likely the more adult (21+) visitors you have, the more donation you will get. I can only say from my own experience, and I'm running a "big board", that if you mainly have younger visitors, you hardly will any donations at all, since most of them don't have a credit card.

Concerning VPS or dedicated: Defenetly go dedicated, there is no way around in your case I guess. If your budget is allowing it, buy a good, used and upgradable server, and go colo.

 

whats the minimum dedicated server spec you would recommend?

 

After seeing the prices, I'm also interested in these guys.

Does anyone host with Server Pronto and if so, can you recommend them?

It's a good sign that their website loaded quickly.

 

www.servint.com

Their VPS plans are excellent and they've got solo and deuce (where you share with one other person) dedicated servers. Good stuff. Even their essential $50/mo VPS will has handled 4 phpBB forums and a vBulletin forum with over 200 users online (all 5 combined) at once and another 10 websites with marginal traffic and the server load remained under 1. The server and forums were optimized pretty good though.

 

I agree with mdvaldosta, the VPS plans from servint are fantastic.