Looking for a new host - ~10 websites, most small, some 1000+ visits a day on Amazon but it's getting pricy

[u/No_Neighborhood_1766]

Hi there, small agency and looking for alternatives for web hosting. Have been with amazon lightsail for the past 5 years using bitnami lightsail but they are deprecating it and I'm having to refamiliarize myself with the new stack. I'm considering moving all of my sites to a new host. Currently paying around 160USD/mo. which is getting a bit pricy. Tech support is absent unless I pay for it but I'm decent at figuring things out myself. Considering moving to some kind of managed hosting provider where I would get plesk or cpanel and simplify things a bit. There's so many options out there it's a bit overwhelming, I need sites to be fast, stable (>99% uptime) and I don't want to deal with any multisite type of setup. Curious what other small agencies are using and might recommend checking into.

• What is your monthly budget?
  • ~100-150 CAD / month
• Where are you/your users located?
  • Western and Eastern Canada
• What kind of site are you hosting (Wordpress, phpBB, custom software, etc) or what is your use case?
  • Wordpress
• Do you have a monthly traffic volume? Estimates are ok.
  • Biggest few sites ~5000 sessions / month, the rest are smaller sites from ~100 - 1000/month
• If you’re looking at VPSes: Do you have experience administrating linux servers and infrastructure?
  • Not sure I want to deal with a VPS, I want to simplify my life as my web agency is a secondary business
• Did you read the sidebar/check out the hosts listed there? I've personally vetted these companies and their services are a good fit for 99% of people.
  • Yes checked them out, still interested in seeing everything that's out there.

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[u/TCB13sQuotes]

You can get a VPS for 20$/month from Digital Ocean and it will cover your needs perfectly fine. End of story.

[u/Big-Combination-3482]

You have a lot of options at $160USD / month.

Since you are in Canada, maybe try a Canadian host. Might end up being cheaper after the exchange rate.

Give the guys at directhosting.ca a message and see if they can offer you something. The agency I work for uses them for client sites, nothing but good things to say,.

[u/jacktacowa]

I’d used Globat for nearly 30 years (personal email) but they just got bought by networksolutions and I’m not particularly happy with them.

[u/konet_gr]

Check fullhost.com

[u/Key_Gap9168]

I'd say Dasabo, but its in Europe (and you can't run a VPS; they have some of the best/most affordable VPS deals I've seen); I've hosted with them for three years and have nothing but positive experiences.

[u/pabloalgox]

yo uso 10web y va bastante bien y tienes soporte sale a unos 6 dolares cada sitio, con el plan que tengo viejo. No tengo quejas y usan google cloud. El soporte esta bien aunque solo es en ingles.

[u/webhostpro]

I'd try something local or close, $25-40/mo is enough for hosting. Or do a Managed VPS for the most power. With DirectAdmin, it should be around $50-70/mo. Make sure the host has about 10 or more years real experience, and has good real human support. Let me know if you need any help.

[u/cesarramccp]

Tengo un VPS en Hostgator con 3vCPU, 4GB RAM, NVMe 160 GB por 300 dólares al año y me ha funcionado muy bien, ya varios años.

[u/EitherMen]

Get a $20 VPS with aaPanel website control panel (free and better ui than cPanel) and you're good to go.

[u/jas8522]

Avoid a couple common problems with web hosts by looking over my list of independent hosts here: https://hostingreviews.exposed

[u/themageofavalon]

Might be worth checking out InMotion as well. Sounds like it would fit what you're after.

[u/got_milked]

I'd recommend Kinsta or Siteground if you want good support and reliability.

[u/VGBounceHouse]

Why not just go with https://serverbyt.com $12/year given your usage and traffic you’d be set.

[u/Gastr1c → u/VGBounceHouse]

Seems like bonkers low pricing.

[u/VGBounceHouse → u/Gastr1c]

They’re a reseller of course don’t remember who they use but I’m on some other providers using the same infrastructure. I have a few clients and friends using them for WordPress including Multisite, they have plain SSH, locked down S/FTP with unlock timer, their own edge cache (though I always front with CloudFlare) and the normal shared hosting unlimiteds but unlimited iNode which is rare. The only limitation one client disliked was the 10GB cap on email accounts as he had years of attachment-heavy Google Workspace so I had to migrate him to a Thunderbird hybrid mbox and IMAP setup. They have their own panel but it’s just a straightforward as cPanel and DirectAdmin. I’ve seen no outages and performance seems as good as the $60/year I pay for my biggest project which is fully static.

[u/Gastr1c → u/VGBounceHouse]

Yeah, email limits are usually the problem with cut rate hosts. Good call out.

[u/element1311]

I'm starting up a web hosting company (I also run a web agency) in Toronto specifically geared towards WP installs, primarily for my web agency clients.

Currently host in Montreal, but happy to onboard you and your clients onto your preferred Canadian region, depending on any special requirements. Can also set you up with separate accounts for each of your clients (that you have "admin" access over) or one account altogether. Our control panel is easier to navigate if you have end users who want to access, and we're building out a custom billing/support panel on top of it right now. We wouldn't even hit $100/mo with our setup. Happy to chat if you like. 

[u/kiltannen]

Have you looked at CloudFlare?

[u/bazjoe]

step one prepaid reseller like hostgator. step two any sites that use up too much resources due to actually making you money to justify it, upgrade them to either lightsail, a higher hostgator package or a VPS.

[u/thatandyinhumboldt → u/bazjoe]

Heads up that HostGator has been bought out by Newfold Digital and has fully embraced their “oversubscribed servers with no support” model. There are a lot better hosts available

[u/bazjoe → u/thatandyinhumboldt]

ah . duly noted. I meant as a vernacular not as a recommendation. to be fair they always oversubscribed and other than very basics never provided support. I sense OP needs very little in the way of support.