We just want to be web programmers, hosting options?

blackhorse

OK here is the situation, I am a php programmer. I am hosting and only hosting the web sites I developed on a unix server my local hosting company custom set up and support for me. The current hosting money I can collect is more than 400-500 dollars, good enough to get 2 servers from other places. But the money I paid to my local hosting company for that server, traffic, tech support, updates, etc. are more than 500 dollars a month. Plus, the time I have to deal with the individual client for collecting hosting bills and for support hosting issues are too much. If things go well, I can see my hosting sites jump twice or three times or more next year. But the hosting support and cost would jump too. Plus, I would rather spend my time on web design than on unix.

I am looking for a hosting company that can take my hosting business (400-500 dollars a server now, and double or triple next year, and still one server would be good enough to run them) from me. Set up and update a server as I request, host and only host the clients from me as their hosting clients and support them on the hosting issue as well. In turn I will submit and even set up the new client on the server for them myself.

Also I need root access to the server and master access to all the hosting sites if I need to update these web sites (i developed) etc. Plus the hosting company should take care of the server security, update, and whole server back up.

In simple words, I want someone else have my hosting business but offer the server which is set up as I request.

Are there any hosting companies out there doing this kind business and trustworthy for that, where I can find them?

Or maybe instead of find a hosting company like this, I would take another approach, rent a good root access server for 200 dollars, outsource an trustworthy unix expert on call to do the server support for 300 dollars a month. (the server works are really not very much but needs to be available 24/7) Where I can find trustworthy outsource web server experts? The disadvantage of this approach is I still have to deal with these small hosting billing collection and the web site hosting support etc, but at least the server and server cost issue are in control.

I am talking with my current local hosting guy now for both options too. They are good service people we have know for years but we are current hosting with them so we may not be in the best negotiation position in the term of price, the service package from them, and hardware we are getting.

But the approaches I am asking above is more like too personal and it may only be solved in finding a local hosting service instead of remote ones, more like finding from local friends than a business directory?

What is your experience? Thanks!

stolzyboy

How many sites are you talking about? What kind of traffic and cpu usage are some of the sites? Are many of them dynamic/static?

You should really have an automatic CC charging system, like WHMCS. This will do your invoicing/etc... automatically!

bpat1434

I personally use my own dedicated server to host my sites and sites I create (if possible). So I do my own server maintenance, I do the configuring, and I do the designing. Everything is as I want it to be.

Now, if you want to automate things, I would do as stolzyboy suggested and use WHMCS or even WHM AutoPilot to deal with billing and collections. Problem is, they need a web control panel (cPanel, Plesk, WebMin, DirectAdmin, etc.) to interface with. If you're not using one, then you can't really use them 🙁

Another alternative is to use a company called Mosso. They have a rather unique setup. You can add "customers" and then assign domains to them. You can set up packages and addon prices and then let Mosso do all the bill collections for you. I have never used this service, but it seems to be right up your alley. Problem is, their servers are run by them, so adding third-party modules and such may not be possible all the time. But they can run both Windows and Linux sites simultaneously...

I've been managing my own server now for about 2 years, and it's easy as pie to do. I'm no technical expert either. Just watch the logs, and make sure you update every day or at least once a week. A simple cron-job can easily take care of this for you.

blackhorse

Now I have about 20 clients total 50- 60 active clients sites (another 30-40 silent client sites) and about 30 my own sites (only 4 or 5 are regular active, the rest are quiet. parent, child site for different products of different market, such as shopping, real estate, marketing etc. plus demo sites for each)

And I am expecting to add 20-40 clients next year at least.

My server was set up by my local hosting company. Very simple, very straight forward. I manage it through root access, so no control panel was installed.

The system set up such as the web sites set up, the ftp set up and email set up are very simple, may not be able to use some built in web server management or bill panels etc.

The active sites most are php/mysql. Regular php codes, traffic is not high.

My current local hosting offers to take over my hosting too but I am their current client, I may not get the best deal in terms of the price, hardware, service support etc.

stolzyboy;10886645 wrote:
How many sites are you talking about? What kind of traffic and cpu usage are some of the sites? Are many of them dynamic/static?

You should really have an automatic CC charging system, like WHMCS. This will do your invoicing/etc... automatically!

blackhorse

bpat1434;10886650 wrote:
I personally use my own dedicated server to host my sites and sites I create (if possible). So I do my own server maintenance, I do the configuring, and I do the designing. Everything is as I want it to be.

That is an ideal world that if i can fully manage my own server all by myself. I have been using this server platform LAMP (first linux then freebsd) for a few years too. I set up my developing server myself, duplicated the set up almost the same as my product server. But for the product server, I would rather let the server professional to manage for me. I could try learn server skills as much as I can, but I would rather spending the time on developing web sites.

I think I may need to find a local hosting for what I want.

rulian

For you guys hosting your own servers, what type of connections are you using, are you at a datacenter sharing a t1 or are you at home running cable or dsl?

bpat1434

Heh... I do both 😉 I rent a dedicated server from Manage My Box (I'm always looking for a better/cheaper host, but I can't find one). I also run a local CentOS 5 box from my house (which is connected via FiOS). And for a short while I also had a Win2k3 server running IIS (just because I needed to test a few things out).

blackhorse

rulian;10886722 wrote:
For you guys hosting your own servers, what type of connections are you using, are you at a datacenter sharing a t1 or are you at home running cable or dsl?

I rent a server from data center . But the develop server, I even didn't connect it to the internet.