So it's been a year since I switched my hosting server to Slicehost. I originally started with a 256MB Slice, but recently upgraded to a 512MB Slice. 256MB of memory is, unfortunately, not quite enough to run a lamp server without turning off all unused or unnecessary services (which you should do anyway) and reconfiguring Apache, PHP and MySQL to run with less than optimal resources. I logged into my slicehost account manager today and noticed that the monthly bandwidth quota for my slice had gone up from 200GB to 300GB since the last time I'd logged in. I decided to look into it and quickly discovered that they had changed their hosting plans and added two new options, a 384MB slice and a 768MB slice. The 384MB slice was exactly what I had been hoping for when I upgraded to my 512MB slice a few months earlier. If you are just running a LAMP stack with sites that get light to medium traffic then 384MB of memory is just the right amount. So basically I've enjoyed stellar service and almost 100% uptime from Slicehost over the last year and now they offer hosting plans that are more targeted to users like me and my company. I'm happy to report that after over a year of hosting I'd still recommend Slicehost to anyone looking for a hosting service that focuses on the developer and not on all the unnecessary web control panels and setup tools.

After a year of using a GoDaddy VPS to host my websites, I've made the switch to Slicehost. It's not that I was unhappy with GoDaddy, but I didn't realize another option existed for inexpensive VPS hosting with root access. After a friend of mine recommended Slicehost I decided to take the plunge and so far, I couldn't be happier. Slicehost takes a minimalist approach to VPS hosting. When setting up your account you basically only need to make two decisions:

1. Plan - How much Memory/Storage/Bandwidth you need
2. Distro - Which Linux Distribution do you want to run

For me, the basic 256MB Memory / 10GB Storage / 100GB Monthly Bandwidth option seemed the best fit and I really liked the large selection of Linux distristributions available. Most Hosting companies only give you the option of RedHat/CentOS or Fedora if they give you a choice at all, so to see Distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo and Arch on the list was a refreshing and welcome change. The other reason I say Slicehost takes a minimalist approach is because they don't offer any of the standard web based control panels for server administration such as cPanel or Plesk. The contol panel they do offer has only a few options such as rebooting your server and DNS control. The Slicehost control panel does offer one very nice option which gives you the ability to log into your server through an ajax based web page. This web based console access doesn't use the network to access your server so it can be used as a lifeline if you misconfigure the network settings or firewall on your server. Once you have selected your account settings and paid for the slice, Slicehost will create your VPS. It only took 2 minutes for the server to be provisioned. This was very impressive to me. It took a total of about 5 minutes from when I entered my account selections to actually being logged into my new server. Provisioning isn't the only thing Slicehost does quickly. The new server has roughly the same hardware specs as my previous server at GoDaddy and the Slicehost server runs circles around the GoDaddy VPS both in terms of processing speed and network response time. I've only been with Slicehost for a short while, but I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs a Linux server and doesn't want or need things like cPanel. I'll write more about Slicehost after I've been with them for more time, but unless something changes for the worse I will recommend them highly for VPS hosting.