Ask HN: Which dedicated server provider do you currently use?

8 points by samsheen 11 years ago | 16 comments

I am looking at setting up a dedicated server, but am having a hard time figuring out which one.

Hetzner seems the best when it comes to bang for the buck, but should I be concerned about the DDOS issues?

Any recommendations for other providers from HN members? Any Gotchas that I should be careful about?

I'd be great if you could list down the provider you currently use or have used in the past (with price and specs if possible) along with your experience.

czbond 11 years ago |

So you're in Europe/Germany? I've used AWS, Softlayer, Firehost, etc - and my thoughts are: - If you have a small team, and will use the services, AWS can be great. It can become expensive. But many people don't realize the cost actually defers the need for some DevOps team members. Performance of EC2 hosts can be middle of the road at times compared to Softlayer, or pure metal. I love their HighAvailability, and many of their offerings, and security that comes "for free". - SoftLayer is fantastic. They don't have as many SaaS (eg: SQS, SNS, RDS) offerings - so you will build more of your own services and be responsible for uptime, etc. I love their performance. - FireHost is what you want if you're taking care of a very financially at-risk product. It is expensive, but you won't be hacked unless it's on your own stupidity.

samsheen 11 years ago | |

Thanks for the reply. I'm fine with any location for the server. Right now, just looking at keeping the costs down.

tdobson 11 years ago |

Hey Sam, I work for http://bytemark.co.uk

What are you trying to do? What's it for?

There's a whole bunch of pros and cons to dedicated servers, bang for buck, uptime, customer service, networking...

If you explain what you're planning on using it for, I might be able to tailor some suggestions as to what might suit you best - always happy to offer helpful suggestions - even if it's not about our products.

dataminer 11 years ago |

Hetzner 4 years, no major issues yet, good support, reliable servers

Online.net 1 year, no major issues yet, reliable hardware, support a bit slow

samsheen 11 years ago | |

Thanks for your reply. I am definitely leaning towards Hetzner. Are you concerned about the DDoS issue? (related to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6577465)

dataminer 11 years ago | | |

My suggestion would be to first launch your service and then worry about any other issues. Automate provisioning of your servers, so you can migrate to other providers if you have any issues. I would recommend Ansible or Chef for automation.

breakingcups 11 years ago |

I'm with Hetzner, although I'm also considering online.net[0]

No complaints with Hetzner thus far. Support is okay.

0. https://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server

Cort3z 11 years ago |

Check out serverbear.com. They have a really nice overview over most (all?) server providers, their price, IOPS, UnixBench and more. Helped me a lot when choosing servers :) (There is a tab so you only see dedicated servers)

atmosx 11 years ago |

I'm with TransIP but I'd jump to Digital Ocean if I didn't had a fairly complex FreeBSD setup.

NOTE: Sorry I kinda misread, wasn't talking about dedicated, was talking (personal) VPS.

alltakendamned 11 years ago |

Hetzner for a long time. Experienced nothing out of the ordinary. I'm content.

BorisMelnik 11 years ago |

been with Liquid Web for 5+ years. I've got several dedi's with them, never an issue and up time to the 9's.

pipu 11 years ago |

Where? :=)

eip 11 years ago |

soyoustart.com

flippant 11 years ago | |

Is it supposed to be somewhere in between OVH and Kimsufi in terms of service?

haidrali 11 years ago |

digital ocean

BorisMelnik 11 years ago | |

for a dedicated?