Site5 vs. Futurehosting VPS? Does SSD matter?

[maxita]

Good morning

I'm undecided whether to take on a VPS on FutureHosting or Site5.

80% of our visitors came from Italy, we like to offer "PureSSD VPS" of FutureHosting, we believe that an SSD VPS is much more handsome with better performances. Unfortunately, however, from tests performed with different Italian ISPs, using the speed test files of FH website, we do not overcome the speed of 15 Mb/ s. We talked with their support showing this problem but they said for them its all ok.

Site5 other hand, does not have a package with: SSD VPS. They say they will introduce it soon and that the VPS will migrate to the new VPS SSD server. The speed towards Italy are much higher: about 90 Mb/s.


Any advice on the choice?

[kpmedia]

Don't fall victim to the "SSD is best!" meme. It's not true.

It reminds me of "use CloudFlare!", "use a CDN!", "use cloud hosting!" and others hosting myths. Can SSD be better? Yes, in some cases, for some uses. But even then, the details matter. For example, is it a RAID-10 SAS enterprise configuration? Probably not! Lots of desktop-grade SSDs in SATA configurations out there. And even when it is a good setup, it may not matter for the content. For general hosting of websites, SSD really doesn't help. You're just throwing away money. Maybne someday it'll be better, but not now. Not yet, and not for a while.

With 80% of your visitors coming from Europe, get a host in Europe. I'd suggest either EuroVPS (Amsterdam) or WebhostingBuzz (UK).
EuroVPS is Xen, WebhostingBuzz is KVM.

If Site5 has performed well in your tests, use them. They're one of several VPS hosts we highly suggest. Site is also Xen.

As much as I like Futurehosting, they use Virtuozzo, which is nowhere near as good as Xen or KVM. So again, don't get so caught up in the SSD meme that you overlook other aspects of the server. The virtualization method or datacenter location, for example, has a much greater impact on performance the presence of an SSD!

[maxita]

Thanks kpmedia for your suggestions! After your feedback im considering to back in my decision because i like Site5 services, really! I like their services, one information because you know them, its better they own SiteAdmin or its better the default CPanel? Also considering future migrations to others VPS hosting that usually require CPanel to CPanel migration and maybe custom one can make problems...

For speeds to Italy, yes Amsterdam datacenter of Site5 seems very fast!

What you think about that they don't give the root access too?

[kpmedia]

One of the things I find most appealing about Site5 is speed and effectiveness of support. We're currently redoing our hosting reviews -- as we always keep them updated! -- and Site5 is now 3rd under Stablehost and EuroVPS. It's easily one of the best hosts around, and an excellent choice.

Think of a no-root VPS as a powerful reseller -- not a VPS.
Additionally, they can install extra software on it, as requested. (Varnish, nginx admin, CloudLinux, etc.)

If you want management AND root access, sadly, Site5 isn't for you. You'd need to look at EuroVPS or WebhostingBuzz instead.

I have both an unmanaged VPS at Site5, and a managed one. Although I can manage my own servers, I don't always want to. That account acts as my "reseller account on steroids" and I like it.

[maxita]

thanks a lot for your support, can u say something about SiteAdmin or the default CPanel?
witch is better and compatibility for migrations?

[kpmedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxita

SiteAdmin or the default CPanel?

SiteAdmin *is* cPanel ... just with the Site5 custom skin (and some extra programming) around it.

For an unmanaged VPS, I prefer the default cPanel. But if you're using their managed no-root VPS services, then it's really not like a normal VPS anyway -- it's a really powerful "reseller" (multi-domain) hosting account. And in that case, I'd probably opt for their SiteAdmin. It's what I'm used to on their shared accounts.

You can always have them install that, and play with it for 15-30 minutes. Just don't put anything important on the server yet. If you use it, and hate it, just have them re-provision the VPS with vanilla cPanel. (They probably use Xen images for it, just like the unmanaged VPS.)

Quote:

witch is better and compatibility for migrations?

Both Site5 and Futurehosting were fine for migrations. No complaints with either one.

[maxita]

Hello

one of the best italian seo expert said to me to consider siteground because they have white label service, real good support better than site5 and really good server speeds! Any experience with them and their Cloud VPS?

[Brent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxita

Hello

one of the best italian seo expert said to me to consider siteground because they have white label service, real good support better than site5 and really good server speeds! Any experience with them and their Cloud VPS?

"Whitelable" isn't really something you should base your decision off of. This can all be done via DNS & it's still not 100% transparent. IF someone wants to know who the host is, it can be found out. For example, we use our own nameservers & DNS for people, but we don't try to hide the datacenters we're using. (not saying that's what you're trying to do)

I would definitely head @kpmedia's advice when it comes to hosting & his recommendations.

I have never used SiteGroud however, there's no much information on their cloud other than "special server setup" which leads me to believe it's more of a buzz word. I could be wrong... Perhaps @kpmedia can chime in on that.

[kpmedia]

I would not suggest SiteGround for VPS hosting. It's primarily a shared host (ONLY a shared host, to be honest), and only offers a few "me too" hosting options. In fact, it doesn't really offer traditional VPS hosting at all, and instead has "cloud" VPS offerings. Very few facts are known about this, and what they do tell would-be clients is complete fluff like "optimized for WordPress" (which is quite honestly a lie).

I would suggest that this "SEO expert" is simply pointing you towards something that gives him a commission. He wants to use you, not actually help. This happen far too often, so beware.

Your original two choices were much better, Futurehosting and Site5, with Site5 being the of the two choices.

If you were to expand those choices, you need to look at EuroVPS and WebhostingBuzz. But I think Site5 is really a good fit for your needs.