Best Hosting For Laravel Based Retail Site?

Hello Michael,

I would suggest you digitalocean.com services for hosting. Actually I am using their services and I am pretty pleased with them. They have many data centers around the world, and when you create your own you choose your desired physical location. Regarding security, it depends to you how you manage it. It is valuable to note that they have a really good articles how to do things on your server.

I would probably go with a managed server/service if you want 24/7 help with it. They will also setup the server for you and maintain it.

I don't know of many places for managed hosting but Media Temple are up there: https://mediatemple.net/cloudtech/managed-services-web-hosting/

this is what i was reading on another site http://laravel.io/forum/05-06-2015-best-hosting-for-laravel

"Digital Ocean, Amazon, Rackspace, Linode, MediaTemple are solid...I've had bad experiences with GoDaddy hosting (great for DNS though)."

I would recommend using something like DigitalOcean, Linode, or RackSpace combined with Laravel forge and Envoyer. Since using DigitalOcean is mostly cheap that solves your hosting problem, but digital ocean isn't managed. Laravel Forge and Envoyer can easily help you solve the "management" problem. It would most likely take 1 person to manage the server, scale-up your services and resolve any issues the site/server faces.

I've had good experiences using DigitalOcean and Forge together. Little to no problems setting up the server, deploying, and maintaining the website.

which would you say is the best if price wasnt an issue? I want something thats 24/7 support, USA based, and im not sure if i want VPS or dedicated? I want security.

@sabeast DigitalOcean, Linode etc don't do "managed" hosting. RackSpace / MediaTemple do do it. Here's RackSpaces' http://www.rackspace.co.uk/managed-cloud (and MediaTemple from my post above). Either of those I'd recommend.

would managed be better than unmanaged? Sorry i dont know the difference......

"openshift"

@sabeast You sound like you wanted managed (24/7 tech support for server), plus they setup the actual server for you and maintain it.

Un-managed = You set the server up and deal with configuration. Managed = The company setup the server and maintain it.

ah ok got it....i guess i need to decide between VPS or dedicated now. Inmotion,rackspace, and a2 have dedicated. I heard mixed reviews about amazon and i dont even see pricing anywhere for them.

What about godaddy.com VPS they prvide 24x7 support

i had godaddy years ago and it was horrible! My site was always down.

@sabeast which server now you hosting in, i'have checked your website it's a kinda slow not so user friendly, hey din't mean to offend you or some thing, just said in user perspective

when you say not so user friendly you mean speed wise or design? As far as hosting goes im not sure. It was under my past developers server whom i dont talk to anymore and wanting to move out of his server ASAP!

@sabeast Both mainly speed and performance

i think the design of my site is great...what dont you like about it? All the images are High-Res perhaps thats why its slow.

@sabeast The images are High-Res but the full size image is being served as the thumbnail.

On the page http://michaelsa.com/lookbook the pictures are "small" (aka, thumbnails) but the fullsize picture is being served there, some of these are a couple of megs each and could be reduced to 10x the file size while still being the same physical height and quality - just much faster loading! (that was the first thing I noticed....)

In terms of hosting I would contact rackspace and let them know what your after, they can still do VPS servers but you'll also get the managed component with the monitoring etc that it sounds like you need.

@sabeast indeed it is great it is simple and super cool, but just need a little bit of styling. and uses friendly means there are lots of things to be consider it depends on how your business works, as i can see there is only little information about the products

As a uses i would like to know lot more details about what i'm willing to buy, as i said it all depends on how your business works i have developed 2 e-commerce website from user requirement to marketing so just said my opinion

Good luck with your business @sabeast

The new developer i hired is telling me to go with linode, digitial ocean, or amazon VPS. My top thing is security, no downtime, VPS is ok for this? I know dedicated is great for that but it seems as its much more expensive.

@sabeast VPS will just do fine, there is no much difference between vps and dedicated server. You can upgrade the same to dedicate later

all i know is my site also uses cloudlflare

Total Bandwidth Last Month 39 GB

Cached Bandwidth Last Month 12 GB

Uncached Bandwidth Last Month 27 GB

i just need to pick a host ASAP so my new developer can migrate my site over and start new work i want him to do.

@sabeast

As the new developer what will happen if at 3am the server stops responding and the website if offline.

With a managed system the company gets alerts and will be able to sort it out.

Using Linode / Digital Ocean / AWS you (or the developer, or pay someone else) to setup the alerts and respond to them for you.

oh ok i got it...So who do you recommend?

My last developer replied and he told me I'm currently on digital ocean and said on on Laravel 4.2 so I can go with https://forge.laravel.com/ whatever that is

Should I upgrade to Laravel 5?

@sabeast I'd go with 5.1 if possible (LTS release which is extended support for security updates).

I can recommend https://www.fortrabbit.com/laravel-hosting

Fairly cheap, starting from € 7,- per month. A lot of options to expand and scale.

@TheNephilim Not managed hosting though.

Linode has managed services which I've used. I found them disappointing.

DigitalOcean has nothing.

AWS has some managed-ish services, but they are very expensive.

Maybe Rackspace is what you need.

Me, personally, I find AWS to be the most robust platform to set up secure and scaleable sites. I'd hire someone to set up a solution with AWS and manage flaps when they happen. I've used and run sites on DO, Linode, and AWS.

Perhaps deploy on AWS through Forge w/ Envoyer and pay someone else to make sure you take advantage of what AWS has to offer.

From what I see, I do not think you need managed services once you get settled.