CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

If you have the skills, my experience has been to pick a VPS for the best outcome and performance.

I use lampp installed on the server since I'm not that technically skilled to install and confgure apache and mysql from scratch and jack the memory up and it is working really well.

I use linode, but slicehost also gets good reviews.

VPS come in a variety of flavours. If you know your way around your favourite Linux then you can install and manage it yourself. If you want the flexibility of a VPS without all the hassle of managing it you can get a managed VPS. Ultimately you get what you pay for. I've been using knownhost for a few months and am happy with them.

My VPS was provisioned by the host using Virtuozzo and I use cPanel/WHM to handle admin tasks. As a managed service there are a bunch of cron jobs that periodically update the host. While this might be a bit scary I've not run into any issues with it yet. I understand that WHM doesn't implement a code base until it has been stable in the field for a while.

Take you time, research well and ask questions.

I use Media Temple, but I have the virtual dedicated hosting.  It works fine with civiCRM.  Its definitely not a click and go hosting plan (with the virtual dedicated) but if you have some experience it shouldnt be that hard to pick up.  Media Temple has AWESOME customer service (although I've had to wait for up to 15 minutes on the phone to talk to them).

I also use IXwebhosting for alot of other sites.  My plan didnt have the newest version of PHP installed, but the new plans they are selling now do.  I really have been pleased with IXwebhosting, especially since they've moved to a new data center.  They stand by their 99.99% uptime guarantee and they will refund any month where it wasn't met.  They also have great customer service (in my experience).