Best UK Hosts Page

Tue, 17/02/2009 - 15:47 — amcc

Top Ten (so far...)

Clook - http://www.clook.co.uk/

I've been scanning through posts on hosting and think it would be a great idea to collate thoughts about hosts onto a page or sticky topic. It does seem like a fairly common request and i'm frequently asked by people creating Drupal sites what hosts are good. In addition if this is possible then the top scorers (has the most positive comments etc) should be listed as a top 10 or something. This list is for the beginner to advanced Drupal developer / user so isn't intended for the type of person who's going to build their own server So if anyone wants to comment on the best UK based company with good Drupal track record (i.e. instant setup with no nasty .htaccess fiddling to get Drupal to work). Then i'll start things off by editing this post and compiling a list. Things a provider should have (feel free to add to this):

PHP 5
mySQL
CPanel or WHM (a familiar back end is very helpful to most people i would think)
SSH
PHPMyAdmin
The ability to modify PHP variables eg 'memory_limit' and 'upload_max_filesize'
have out of the box clean URLs, ImageCache etc (no unnecessary .htaccess fiddling)
Cron user interface

Just to start the ball rolling here's my initial thoughts: 1 and 1 Used them for 2 sites with the Virtual Private Server setup. Uses Plesk and Virtuozzo to control everything. Good in some ways as pretty much all the functionality is turned on as standard. But i have some major gripes. Firstly the support is dreadful - really dreadful. The standard telephone support goes to a team in the Philippines who know nothing beyond the most basic stuff. They have a server team in the US, but it can be hard to get hold of them (when you do they're great, but if they don't answer you can get looped back to the Phillipines line) Heart Internet Also used them for 2 sites. You need to muck about quite a bit to get everything working with Drupal which is annoying. The email inboxes have a 100MB size max which is bad. To get SSH access you are required to fax (?) a form with a copy of your passport or a bill to get access - madness. Site 5 US based hosting company - i've used them for a few sites and have a reseller account. Very cheap, very fast email support, Drupal just works out of the box, and amazing wikis/forums with ultra quick feedback from admins there too. Only problem - based in the US, though i don't know if this is a disadvantage as they are fast enough (any thoughts on US servers for UK companies - there may be legal issues)

General

Wed, 11/03/2009 - 17:04 — webopius

UK Hosts

Hi, Great idea for a post and I'd be interested in hearing which hosting providers people have successfully been using - specifically for UK based sites. I've tried a number of hosting companies for both Drupal, Wordpress and ASP .NET based sites. To date, with my Drupal based sites, I've not found a good UK provider that meets my needs of good support and consistent performance that also allows me the level of access required to run Drupal at a reasonable price. Currently, all my Drupal sites are hosted in the UK on the Slicehost VPS system. Good value for money with great performance and full root access to my virtual server. I'm running Drupal on the nginx web server which seems to perform well when compared to Apache.

Wed, 11/03/2009 - 17:39 — kingonlineuk

Weycrest hosting

http://www.weycrest.co.uk/ I'm using this for my first experiment with Drupal. Only been using Drupal and Weycrest for a week, so too early to comment, but an org.uk domain and a year's hosting cost less than £25. Then their control panel lets you install Joomla or Drupal from their own server. Very easy. Just got to learn how to use Drupal now!! David

Fri, 26/03/2010 - 17:58 — Samnick142

server host

The interesting thing is when we design and architect a server or a server host , we don't design it for Windows or Linux, we design it for both. We don't really care, as long as we're selling the one the customer wants. The technologies we use now a days are a combination of Linux Xen, KVM and Microsoft Hyper-V. We utilize the latest Intel VT extensions to give optimum performance.

Tue, 17/03/2009 - 12:43 — steev_initsix

Not Fasthosts would be the

Not Fasthosts would be the best advice i can give to anyone. May as well gouge your own eye out with a spork, its less painful and the customer service doesnt stink quite as much. If you like dedicated servers, bytemark.co.uk - months and months of uninterrupted uptime goodness. Must point out tho, atm, im using amazon EC2 and its the best thing since the internet. ridiculous scalability, great pricing structure....e.g. ive been playing with an 8way dual core xeon with 8gb ram for a launch, now im about to dial it back to a dual core 1.7ghz sempron stylee processor with 8gb. Unlimited storage, multiple geographically disparate backups...ah...i could go on...

Tue, 17/03/2009 - 19:53 — RayVaughn

webhostinguk.com

I've had a linux Business VPS (CentOS 4.7) with webhostinguk.com for a year and a half and so far I'm very satisfied. There have been 2 minor outages (1hour & 2 hours) during that time that I am aware of. Go for Virtuozzo rather than OpenVZ though as they have had issues with the open platform. Current load on the VPS is not testing it really so performance I can't comment on, but up and down speeds and ping times are respectable. Support has been surprisingly responsive with an hour two on email or minutes on the live chat support (once you get past the robot ;) Who knows if their service will falter if the company grows, or the equipment grows older but so far compared to Webfusion / Pipex they are a huge relief. Marcus Clements brightonart.co.uk rocketfestival.com

Wed, 18/03/2009 - 20:37 — gpk

www.nethosted.co.uk

I've previously recommended www.nethosted.co.uk here and do so again ... probably not the cheapest but pretty Drupal friendly and extremely helpful/fast tech support. SSH only on VPS and decicated servers.

Giles Kennedy --> www.alexoria.co.uk

Wed, 18/03/2009 - 23:02 — Neil

great thread idea

Had nothing but problems from Fasthosts, don't even waste your time thinking about them. Had fantastic experience running a VPS with Memset (http://www.memset.com/) Another company I would highly, highly recommend is Clook (http://www.clook.co.uk/). Both these companies have exceptional customer/tech support, which really makes the difference when you get out your comfort zone setting server things. Cheers, Neil -- Drupal Development for Pleasure and Profit http://drupal.altate.ch

Thu, 19/03/2009 - 11:24 — stevecowie

webfusion and dreamhost

I've hosted Drupal sites with webfusion VPS and Dreamhost shared space. Webfusion is not bad but the current ubuntu setup doesn't support PHP 5.2 and that's starting to become a factor for modules like cck filefield. It does provide a Plesk licence, and seems very reliable. The online support is fairly basic as is the documentation. Dreamhost are cheap but and offer lots of features but I have a few gripes: performance is very erratic, they stopped us using our webspace for storing database backups, and when we got so pissed off we left, we couldn't get our money back - they promised a credit for when we return. That will be when Fred Goodwin becomes a bank manager, so not much chance of getting our money back. Something else worth considering is whether PHP is being run as fast CGI. I've just started hosting a site with lunarpages.co.uk and they have a PHP4 setup where you can enable PHP5 as fast CGI. My understanding is that this is not the best setup for performance.

Sat, 11/04/2009 - 10:05 — gpk

It's not so much that fast

It's not so much that fast CGI is slow but AFAIK there are no PHP accelerators (opcode cache) around that work in this configuration. Since Drupal is PHP heavy it benefits hugely from an opcode cache (I've seen 2x or 3x improvement in page generation time for typical pages). On the other hand if you are on a shared server you may want the additional security that CGI can bring (via suexec).

Giles Kennedy --> www.alexoria.co.uk

Thu, 19/03/2009 - 13:31 — amcc

another reason not to use 1and1

when trying to upgrade drupal from 5.old to 5.15 i'm getting max_allowed_packet errors - this is fixable by modifying the my.cnf file for mySQL. I can see where this file is on my VPS, but want the server people to fix this as I don't want to screw anything up so i ask them for help. I also ask them to increase the phpMyAdmin import upload maximum which is configurable by various php.ini settings (i've done this locally - but am not sure how to modify their online version which has an inadequate 2Mb limit), here's their reply to my support email: "Thank you for contacting us. We do not have any control over the configuration of your server, and cannot assist you in such administrative tasks. I suggest that you consult the MySql manual and Drupal's documentation for a solution to this. In regards to phpMyAdmin, we cannot change the upload size. The upload size is limited by browser time-outs, and uploading through a web-browser limits you to about 2mb because of such time-outs. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us." I know that they do have access to every area of my server after getting some help before from them, plus what they say about phpMyAdmin is just wrong

Thu, 19/03/2009 - 16:42 — wstep

1and1 ok for me

Sorry to hear about your problems with 1and1, but I've got nothing but praise for them, although my Drupal site is far from complete, it is up and running without problems. Their customer service has been just brilliant. About 18 months ago I was having real problems with transferring a database from one server to a 1and1 server. It wasn't really anything to do with 1and1 but their tech guys went out of their way to sort it out for me. *****

Fri, 20/03/2009 - 16:13 — amcc

I've had a few issues with

I've had a few issues with 1and1, the servers are ok as far as i can tell, they may have sorted out their support a bit now, but after spending a whole day being bounced round a telephone support in the Philippines I wasn't too impressed. It also takes generally a few days and at least 2 repeat emails to get any email response. I'm used to site5 (US host) and now Clook who respond in minutes. I just dont think that 1and1 care all that much, it seems that if you get a VPS you're out on your own.

Sun, 05/06/2011 - 12:59 — DaveSmall

1and1 dedicated server is ok

1and1 dedicated server is ok for me. And I haven't met a down issue so far. They offer un-managed service to their customers, which means if you use the product, you have to know some server management skills for trouble shooting.

But anyway, their servers is really cheap

Fri, 20/03/2009 - 16:18 — amcc

Clook

just put my money where my mouth is to test Clook out, I've got Shared Hosting for now (the cheapest), but if i like it will probably upgrade to a VPS: http://www.clook.co.uk/ So far so good... I've moved because Heart Internet were giving me grief - support tickets disappearing into the either, ie no response at all and they dont even show up in the list of tickets. No php error log to be found, and i cant change the php settings to create on (using any method - php.ini, htaccess or ini_set Clook seem quick, they have a very good installation of CPanel, which is customized a pretty powerful as far as i can make out - my site worked off the bat with no fiddling (drupal 6 with a bunch of modules). I also managed to easily tweak the memory_limit setting and that was all i needed to do to get the dreaded imagecache / filefield module combo to work. There will be a full update when i test Clook further

Thu, 09/04/2009 - 12:49 — timj (not verified)

What does anyone think of

What does anyone think of opensource host? Therye in the US.

Fri, 17/07/2009 - 13:42 — spindizzy

iFuse

I can recomend www.ifusehosting.com - I've used them for about six months now, very little in the way of problems (a couple of hours down time late one night) and their support is excellent; quick and helpful.

Fri, 26/02/2010 - 21:44 — jonbntl

Nice idea to get them all

Nice idea to get them all together. I use Namesco for my server hosting

Wed, 31/03/2010 - 11:49 — gerard

dreamhost...

i'm using Dreamhost... the cheapo basic package... then i noticed that things were a bit slow... i had maybe 10 drupal sites running... is that too much?

then one of my website got mentioned in Wired magazine http://PlayFairNow.org so i had to upgrade to the virtual private server thingy, not sure exactly what its called...

support is really good, reply to my emails quickly and they have online chat help too...

http://NoteToSelfDontDie.co.uk

Thu, 15/04/2010 - 15:29 — re-present

Recomendations

I have sites running on virtual servers from www.xcalibre.co.uk and though I've had no real problems have found them very helpful when I display general ignorance of server matters.

Rackspace also come highly reccomended but are pricey - I'm on my 3rd site build on their servers now.

Thu, 15/04/2010 - 17:32 — johnw

NearlyFreeSpeech.net

For a low-traffic site, and assuming you're comfortable ssh'ing to a command line, I can't recommend NearlyFreeSpeech.net highly enough. It's pay-as-you-go, you can use PayPal to fund it, and if your hobby site suddenly gets slashdotted, you don't get stuck with bandwidth-exceeded charges, you're in control. I.e. when the funds you put in are exhausted, you decide whether to put in more money or to take the site offline temporarily. It's cost me about $25 for nearly 2 years.

In addition I really like the ethics of the people running it, it's refreshing to find people who care about what they're doing, and as their name suggests, they may not like what you're saying on your site, but they'll defend your right to say it (as long as it's legal). Can't say that's an aspect that is relevant for my own site, but I like that attitude.

For a high-traffic site, probably not the most economical, but for niche sites and for development or prototyping, certainly worth a try. When you sign up they even give you 2 cents to try before you buy!

US based, no plans to set up in UK, but personally I don't have a problem with that.

Wed, 19/05/2010 - 09:29 — baglady

Clook

Am new to Drupal and am looking for a webhost. I currently use Fasthosts for a (non-Drupal) site and they have been OK although setting up a PHPBB3 forum with them was a total pain.

Reading all of the above posts I decided that Clook seemed to come out best so I gave them a call to give them my business - but they didn't answer the phones... tried several times and just got through to an answering machine and told to leave a message - Not a good start!

What are the latest thoughts on best UK hosting companies as some of these posts go back over 12 months?

Thanks

Sat, 29/05/2010 - 09:58 — SteveTurnbull

Purley Hosting

I've started switching my Drupal shared hosting to Purley Hosting (http://www.purleyhosting.com) from IX Web Hosting in the States.

IX claim to give you an 80MB PHP limit - but I can't get even the simplest site to load up the modules page - always bombs out with a white screen of death. Once the site's in place you can leave it but just don't try to change anything. (I reckon you never get more than 32MB - maybe 48.) IX do have good support (seems to be Eastern European but their English is good) - but they can't make executive decisions.

The guy who runs Purley (Neil Spellings) uses Drupal himself and you get a guaranteed 128MB limit - and their lowest deal is about £30/year. Just moved http://www.oceanstormfilms.com/ over and I'm in the process of repairing it but now I can switch on needed modules on Live without overstepping the limit.

As for support - you get Neil :-) and he's usually available when you need him. Cottage industry, personal support.

(I admit I've known Neil for years - I've always hosted one site with him - but I don't get any commission. Mind you if you said "Steve sent me" I might, and I wouldn't refuse it )

Fri, 04/06/2010 - 06:12 — zcrafts

UK Web Hosting for Drupal Webhost.uk.net

Hello,

I got one of the best support to install Drupal and get it working for my customers with webhost.uk.net , got my 3rd VPS with this guy, they will help me in customizing php.ini setting as drupal requires memory limit of 128MB my previous host never replied me for hours..but since I have joint webhost.uk.net its nearly 2 years now..there support has been top class helped me with every single request. I will highly recommend this guys if anyone is looking for UK Drupal web hosting.

Regards,

Chris

Wed, 09/06/2010 - 13:00 — mike dodd

HelloI have a couple of the

Hello

I have a couple of the top spec dedicated fasthost boxes. they come in at around £250 a month each but they are dual quad core boxes 8gb of RAM beasts. The network conection is so fast and deals with huge volumes of traffic 100,000 + hits a month in its stride. There is however limited support, they supply you the box pre installed with Plesk but the rest is up to you (editing php.ini files, restricting access on the iptables etc) However its a dedicated box so I have complete control over everything so if you know what your doing its great PLUS its in the UK whcih is so important to avoid violating the data protection act!!

I think the fast hosts shared services are very poor I have the feeling they ram so many clients on and don't worry about it, but hte dedicated boxes are awesome :)

Sat, 07/05/2011 - 09:37 — jprj

I like webhost.uk.net

Having read horror stories elswhere on getting Drupal working on some hosts, my set up on webhost.uk.net could not have been more simple. 1 FTP session, 1 PHPMyAdmin session and a couple of tweaks to settings.php: my site was uploaded, up and running. So, so simple and easy. CPanel makes it very easy to manage. Ok, I'm only 1 week in with this host, but so far I like what I get very much.

Fri, 24/06/2011 - 21:29 — NickciN

Not new

I liked the VPS offer... though it looked like a new site/CO to me at first... but I checked the domains details, it's been in business for 3 years which is not bad. I might use it for my handmade jewelry site.

Sun, 05/06/2011 - 13:02 — DaveSmall

You could submit a product

You could submit a product review to Drupal Hosting Review site where your experience will be leveraged by the other webmaster. And you will see most UK hosting service providers there, and still waiting for being reviewed by Drupaler.

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