DreamHost

After much hemming and hawing (yeah, GoDaddy really moved my cheese), I've decided to go back to my old host, DreamHost. They have improved some of the issues that caused me to leave them in the first place, and I'm not going to use their cloud storage (which they kept reconfiguring, which was annoying and inconvenient), and I'm not going to use them for email (got RunBox for that).

I've set up the smallest VPS I can get, at US$15 a month. It provides 30GB storage, 1GB of memory, unlimited traffic, and unlimited domains (and subdomains). I've moved my domain registration to Gandi. (I like to keep them separate.)

They do have a custom panel, which I know and like. (I detest cPanel.) Someone here(?) had mentioned that they didn't know what it looked like; if you are interested, I will be happy to post some screenshots. Just let me know which areas you would like to see the most.

Their VPS packages are here, and their shared hosting packages are here.

Right now, I just want to focus on creating some content, but in the future, I do want to get back to development. For that, I will probably use their DreamCompute cloud service, which is essentially an unmanaged VPS that you can spin up or down at will, and which is fairly cost-effective. You can read more about that here.

And yes, I have an affiliate link. If you're looking at shared hosting, this link will get you $50 off a shared hosting package. They do offer a 97-day money-back guarantee, which was of the reasons I signed up for them so long ago (2009). I figured that if I couldn't figure out how to create a website in three months, then it probably wasn't for me. As it turned out, it was.

Also, if you've visited here over the past week, you may have noticed this site going in and out of existence. That was me reconfiguring domains, registrations, and the like. This forum is now hosted on DreamHost, and it should be staying put for now.

I did send in a long support request before I decided to do this. My questions and their responses are below.

1) Do you have an inode limit on either shared hosting or VPS hosting? (A
lot of hosts advertise a huge amount of storage or even unlimited
storage, but then limit the number of inodes. Since I’m running CMSs
that have numerous small files, and not large video or audio files, I’m
essentially paying for something I’ll never be able to use.)
-- There is no inode limit on a shared or VPS. The shared hosting does
allow unlimited disk space (for hosting purposes) and the VPS servers are
allocated a fixed size for disk but no inode limits are enforced

2) You are independently owned, which I like. Is DreamHost committed to
remaining independent, or is there a chance you may sell out to the likes
of GoDaddy or EIG?
-- We are committed to maintaining our independence and have no plan to
sell out.

3) What is your support like? My prior experience with DreamHost support
is that either support requests get answered almost immediately, or they
sit there in the queue forever and I have to reach out on Twitter to get
some movement on them.
-- Our support is 24/7 and email responses are generally answered within
24hrs. LiveChat can be used to get in touch with a live support team
member and LiveChat hours are 5:30a-9:30p PST daily. You can also request
a call back and you can schedule them at a given time frame. For more
information please visit:
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/218084068-Contacting-support-overview

4) Is DreamCompute essentially an unmanaged VPS, or is there some
advantage to it beyond that? It seems ridiculously inexpensive.
-- DreamCompute is our cloud service built on openstack. The instance you
provision on DreamCompute will have no default DreamHost services so in a
sense it is an "unmanaged" service. If you need root access to your
server, DreamCompute would be an ideal service plan.

5) Will there be any issue installing AWS CLI via the command line? I use
bash scripts to back up websites, push them to my AWS S3 instance, and
then delete them from the web server. (This is more secure, and also
keeps the web server from getting cluttered with backup files.)
-- You can install 's3cmd' on your web server and this should allow you
to push to/from your AWS instance:
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215916627

6) Is it possible to run a cronjob every minute on VPS? My understanding
is that the highest frequency a cronjob can run on shared hosting is once
every 10 minutes, which can be problematic for some apps such as Moodle.
-- The DreamHost panel will limit you to 5min frequency but that can be
bypassed by creating your cron job via crontab. Running cronjobs at every
minute might not optimal. You will want to enforce a lock to prevent
overlapping of your cron jobs executing.
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215767047-Creating-a-custom-Cron-Job

7) I like your custom built control panel, which also works pretty well
on mobile. Are you planning to keep it more or less forever, and will
never switch to cPanel?
-- We will not be changing to cPanel. Glad to hear you like the DreamHost
web panel. It's built for the people by the people. Your feedback on what
you like and/or what needs to be improved with the panel are always
welcomed and reviewed.

8) Can I set up my own Git repository in a subdomain?
-- Yes, you can create your own Git on a sub-domain. For more information
please visit:
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/216445317-How-do-I-set-up-a-Git-repository-

I have had to put in a few support requests and all of my issues were handled within 24 hours. I work during the day, so this schedule works for me.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to field them.