What host would be good to host a database-driven website, and maybe a large forum on?

I've heard good things about hostgator, but I don't know if their service would be acceptable for a large forum and website.

Godaddy is out of the question, their databases are WAY to slow.


Thanks for any advice.

I suggest to find some existing forum and if you are satisfied with the speed use some of many tools available to find where is the site hosted.

Some web hosts place database and web site content on the diffrent servers and that cause delays. But if that is on the same server - that is fast. Make sure

Has anyone had experience with trying to run a large forum using a service like hostgator?

Would getting a VPS be better? Well, I know it would be better But would it be so much faster to justify the much higher cost?

You could always just email a few hosting places and ask them about the mysql data bases then go from there

it depends how much your looking to spend
check out the link in my sig to cnahost
they have shared resell and dedicated hosting plans.

Maybe some company who does gaming servers might be good. A VPS would be good since you have have fewer sites using the resources. You probably would want a lot of RAM and a lot of space for the databases. The extra ram will drive your costs up, but it will allow you to cache more of your forum.

I support the idea about VPS. Here you can store your database and the forum stuff.
If you have certain names in mind better discuss that with them in the private conversation

Define "large". How many users online at the same time?

Hostgator's shared hosting is in that budget bracket. It's not really designed to host big forums, but I think you should be able to a 50 average users online level, possibly more, provided you don't use resource hog addons like say shoutbox.

A VPS, especially an entry level one, is more of a way to gain better control over the hosting environment of your site(s), than a way of having more computing resources at your disposal. Cost wise, a VPS comes with management and licensing costs. If you're not a server administrator yourself, you need to get a fully managed one.

There is shared hosting out there that costs significantly more than the ~$10/month that Hostgator charges, and it should be able to sustain bigger forums, if yours fits the definition.

It's always good to discuss your needs with the prospective host (scripts used, traffic levels, average and peaks), and have them advise you on the route to take.

you can try mediatemple.net

You also can ask different companies for the test accounts. Testing will help you to understand what to do: stay here or move and find another web hosting solution.

Originally Posted by Nathand

What host would be good to host a database-driven website, and maybe a large forum on?

I've heard good things about hostgator, but I don't know if their service would be acceptable for a large forum and website.

Godaddy is out of the question, their databases are WAY to slow.


Thanks for any advice.

Hostgator is good and also bluehost having unlimited offer as hostgator....

having unlimited offer

What exactly? I believe you know that some unlimited things are acceptable but some not in the web hosting world