VPS or a dedicated server REQUIRED?

[Tregg]

Well, apparently they are required. I talked with a webhosts person and they said I NEEDED a VPS [Virtual private server]

So, I looked into the specs they had at the hosts he recommended, and they were more exspensive, less customizable, not pre-setup, and had 1/10 the amount of space and 1/10 the amount of bandwidth compared to bluehost.com. >.>
Is he fricking joking?

What do you recommend?

[Awakening]

Virtual Private Servers and Dedicated Servers are never absolutely required, considering the game is in its early stages.

Rule of thumb I have come to know: Has your site been up and active for more than a year? No? Then you don't need either of the two.

I would recommend shared hosting - no more than $25 a month, and it's usually good for anywhere between 2000 and 5000 active players.

[Tregg]

Thats good, because we are planning on kinda being small, and the most we ever want online is maybe 500 or so. We kinda want a small happy community with no nasty people and stuff XP

And ya, bluehost.com has 3000 gigs of bandwidth monthly, and 300 gigs of space. Thats a lot of bandwidth and space I think. xP Plus, its only 7 bucks a month.

[GodsGal]

Hows bluehost compared to geekhosting?

I keep finding people saying they got cheap service when I keep finding more expensive things. XD

EDIT: Just looked it up. Try this, its cheaper: http://www.geekhosting.com/miniplus.html

[Patrick]

You will need a dedicated when you reach about 20 active users online most of the day. Otherwise you will need either a semi dedicated plan or a large shared plan.

[Awakening]

Hows bluehost compared to geekhosting?

I keep finding people saying they got cheap service when I keep finding more expensive things. XD

EDIT: Just looked it up. Try this, its cheaper: http://www.geekhosting.com/miniplus.html

There's definitely a lot of overselling these days.

Going back to BlueHost, 300,000 MB web space and 3,000,000 MB of data transfer for just $7? A bit fishy.

I'm actually not too familiar with BlueHost - I go with resellers of ThePlanet or BurstNET. Better check the reviews! :)

[Sagashiteru]

I'm with servage, they're great, my site has been down once for 30 minutes in the 5 months that I've been hosted there and they just had to do some upgrades.

[Ole]

Yeah, i use Bluehost.com. Personally, they've been really great for me and hardly any downtime that i can remember.

[webbdh2003]

I agree servage is good I don't use it personally but have been thinking of using it, but yes it is good their plans a good too.

[Tregg]

There's definitely a lot of overselling these days.

Going back to BlueHost, 300,000 MB web space and 3,000,000 MB of data transfer for just $7? A bit fishy.



They have been featured in magazines for web creation and stuff and they say its a great deal XP

Servage? how much is that?

You will need a dedicated when you reach about 20 active users online most of the day. Otherwise you will need either a semi dedicated plan or a large shared plan.
>.> Thats like my whole staff XD

[webbdh2003]

servage.net

6.45/mo
360 GB Webspace
3600 GB Monthly Data Transfer
Unlimited E-Mails
Free Domain or Domain Transfer
Free and almost instant setup

and a lot more.

[revopets]

500 online at once isn't small. That requires a dedicated, easily.

100 online at once = a VPS MINIMUM

Like 10 online at once then you can get away with less.

[Tregg]

Even with 3k gigs of bandwidth? I highly doubt that my friend.

[Haywire]

Hey guys, you have to take a lot into consideration.. Sit down, I am going to take you back to webmastering school! Okay, first off, bandwidth has nothing to do with how many users you can have online at once, just how many times you can serve a page, how many images you serve and how much you upload/download to/from the server. Next off, the whole users-online theory...

You have to take a lot into consideration, first off, how well and optimized your website is developed. If you aren't freeing mysql query results, aren't closing mysql connections, serving large, not-needed php files which use a lot of bandwidth, offering flash games, offering music, allowing image leeching, how many websites are on the server, so on, and so forth.

Overselling is a wonderful thing, it makes hosts a lot of money. By offering such a large amount, they know a user will never, ever reach that limit, therefore they can always sell that amount. Be careful, read the terms, etc, because some companies offer that much, but state you are limited to only using a certian portion of it (i.e. you can upgrade for lots of money to get the full benefits of the plan).

Now, if your website is coded very basic, by someone who does not know how to code well, you can probably handle 10-20 people online, with shared hosting, depending, how many websites are on the server itself. Remember, shared hosts have up to 2000 other websites on their servers, all of which are using CPU and Memory. If you are an experienced professional coder, with fully optimized, secured scripts... You can probably look at 20-60 users online at a time, on shared hosting.. But it would be really slow, and knowing hosts these days, they would give you a warning, or suspend you for using so much CPU/Memory.

It is reccomended that if you have over 25 users online at a time, less than 50 users online, than you would go for a VPS, if you were looking to ONLY host that one website. If you have multiple websites, or you have more than 50 users online, dedicated is what you are looking at getting. You can spend anywhere between 80 and 10,000 on a dedicated server, not to mention, it also relies on how optimized the back-end operating system and software are aswell. So, taking that into consideration, do not start a site, without a budget, and a plan. You always have to be aware, that you are going to have to spend a lot of money. FOr the first 3 months to a year, you may not receive any donations, or profit, and you might have to pay completely out of your own pocket! Remember, plan ahead, or get some investors!

[Fly]

I'd have to agree with ePhene.

You totally need to have the money either in hand or in the bank before starting any kind of site. If you don't, then it will suck when you have to close it because of lack of funds.

I myself would never rely on contributions until after the first year. I think you need that time to build your user base up to a good level.

[Tregg]

Thanks for the huge tips.

So what are you guys saying overall... like, should we not make it, or put it aside or something?

[Fly]

I'm not saying don't do it.... I'm saying be prepared for anything and everything. It's better to be ready for trouble and have the cash on hand to "fix" the problem, than have a problem and not being able to do anything about it.

I hate to sound like the voice of doom!

Use your own judgement. What if your game turns out to be the greatest "new features", "best pets I've ever seen", website? A rush of players join. If you don't have the money to get what you need (servers for one) then what? Do you close the game? Do you tell people they have to play for a limited time? Turn people away that are dying to see what their friends are so into?

[Tregg]

Hmm... I see you point.

I found an awesome host to start with.
http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html

They have 3 TBs of Bandwidth for the one I want, and it increases weekly. :D
Plus, we will have low-bandwidth mode on tuesdays XP Thats when the layout changes to a grey-scale layout which has minimal coding and very small file types, and you can choose to set you layout to that in the prefs page to be rewarded 1000 tB (tyzen bucks) weekly. xP I guess that would be helpful, I'm not sure though.

But ya, on that host you can stay on the regular hosting as long as you want, but you can upgrade and stuff, and they have a dedicated server hosting [350 bucks a month though] and it has a ton of everything I will ever need. :D

[Fly]

That sounds like your best bet then. Very good luck!!

[Kael]

*shudders* I do NOT recommend DreamHost. I dislike it so much x.x It was so confusing. It is for some people, while others it is not for. Depends what you like i suppose xD

[topdogger]

I'm not sure of the credibility of all the individuals giving advice here so I will say this. Almost all gaming websites should move to a VPS(I would recommend dedicated) when they can keep a steady 20 users on their website. I understand some of you may be saying, "thats way more then I need so why should I?" It's all for the reason of being prepared. When you manage your own bread and butter you aren't going to eat mold. When people put the butter on your bread you can't always see the mold underneath.

Switching web hosts is VERY hard on a website, it's users, and the sites income. Staying ahead of your backends limit is extremely important. Also, I noticed someone said something along the lines of if your site isn't a year old you don't need a dedicated server. This is incorrect. With a proper business plan of any shape or form a dedicated server is a basic requirement. If you can't handle the costs of a dedicated server for the first month before a website kicks off then you should seek partnership with a serious investor. A proper startup should include a private beta, public beta and then a full public release. During the BETAs it would be reasonable to host a site on a private development server but during the public beta period you would want to switch to a dedicated service.

As far as the original topic goes I would recommend a dedicated server just from hearing the numbers. If those are honest numbers and the site is a heavy load application(most games are) then it's time to upgrade your backend.

Any average joe can post advice. I'm a PHP security expert who has worked with both law enforcement agencies and local crown corporations to fix security issues. I also run my own professional web development business and have been managing servers at a root level for several years. I've owned my own gaming sites and worked on others. Heck I've even developed control panel software like CPanel. So if you want advice from someone who's been down the road there it is. Some others may be qualified aswell and I respect that. It's just something you should consider when accepting business advice.

[Tregg]

Good advice.

Thank you so much. I am putting the site on hold until my dad can support that amount of an investment. I'm actually concidering selling services and working for petsites instead as I need experience first XP

[cpvr]

Good advice.

Thank you so much. I am putting the site on hold until my dad can support that amount of an investment. I'm actually concidering selling services and working for petsites instead as I need experience first XP
That could work wonders too. Especially if you fine the right pet site to work for.

[Awakening]

I'm going to have to argue against topdogger here. I have developed two games myself (both are STILL in existence, sharing 6 years altogether) and am currently marketing another one.

You DO NOT need a dedicated server in the first month. What kind of volume are you expecting? Unless you have full on promotion (submissions to top gaming directories accepted, spamming every single forum possible, forcing all your friends to signup) there is no reason why shared hosting will not fit you.

And don't make out server upgrades or host switches to be so difficult - I've done a few myself and they are not hard at all. If you are inexperienced, a week at most, and even then it's better than wasting $500+ for useless specs.

[cpvr]

Yes, but the main factor is how the site is coded. If it's badly coded, then of course it'll require a dedicated server, but if its coded properly, and optimized, then it should be fine with a VPS.