I’ve been through a hell of a lot of different hosts in the past few years so I thought I’d give my take on what to go for. I will state first off that I currently use: Slicehost and Linode.
Slicehost
They recently announced their takeover by Rackspace and although that worries me they have been an absolutely fantastic host. They’re very developer-centric with a fantastic community and the owners really listen to the users. When I first signed up I had to wait in a queue for my opportunity. That’s about the only downside – and its not all that much of one especially considering its no longer an issue.
Having said all this though I have to say another favourite and possibly better host (only 3 months though so far) is…
Linode
What really sets this host apart is their hugely feature rich control area. Which is entirely built in-house. I’ve never seen something so shiny and packed with information. Slicehost has a relatively minimalist approach to their control panel area but Linode has gone all out with graphs, operating system choices, even partitioning of your allocated disk space!! So you can effectively have two operating system images.
I’ve never had to use their support so I can’t really comment on that aspect of the service. Linode’s storage offering is better than that of Slicehost for the price. I don’t know whether this is a new development but I could have sworn SH beat them on this. Well – it seems Linode wins hands down.
RimuHosting
When I first got into VPS hositng these were the first ones I tried. They were a relatively small and quite new company when I signed up but their service was second-to-none. They’re also the fastest service I’ve ever used. A lots been happening at RimuHosting over the past year or so I’ve been away and it seems to be catching up with Slicehost and Linode in the features stakes. So I may give it another try in the future. It will always share a special place in my heart though for their great support and friendly community.
