Ok, so I'm looking to start a forum site...and I need a web hosting service.

I had a look at Exabytes and their rates are expensive....almost RM500 for a year for what I'm looking to do. Where else, GoDaddy.com shows it as about US$5/month (and with unlimited bandwith).

Is there any reason Exabytes so expensive? Is GoDaddy reliable? Which (honestly) do you think I should choose?

Thanks!

Hi, we bought an unlimited server from a Exabyte reseller last month... but due to some reason, we not going to use it... do u got interest to buy it?

I am here to ask a question and get opinions from the ones with the know-how, not buy from you. ntq

it depends.. who are your market audience? if it is local, its best to go with local hostings

they charge very little because it is a shared hosting, means there could be like up to 200 websites in 1 server.
exabytes are also using shared hosting unless you get a VPS or cloud computing..

the reason to stick to local hosting:


for local, even if they do so, at least its easier to settle with them, just go to their office and do your whatever you want to do.
it might be expensive doing it locally, but at least you'll feel safer.. im pretty sure you wont want to fly all the way to godaddy's office just to settle some issues

and dont need to go for CDN (if your target market is local, as it doesnt need any.. unless you plan to expand)..

This post has been edited by mafioso: Oct 2 2012, 09:23 AM

Which package are you referring to that is RM500?
As I see it is only around RM300 for the highest shared hosting package.

If you target is mostly local people, Exabytes is a better choice as your website will be hosted locally and the loading speed for your visitor will be fast.

You can always get support from them better as compared to GoDaddy, you have different time zone and can only contact via Email.

Exabytes you can bug them via phone

are you comparing shared hosting services between godaddy n exabyte? i dont think the shared hosting for exabyte is 500 per year.

Yeah, a glance through Exabytes website showed that the Small Business hosting package is only RM291 per year, free life-time domain some more.

maybe he is looking at VPS

My bad, I was indeed looking at the wrong one.

Ok guys, the thing is, the forum is going to cater to an international audience, most probably North American.

Another thing, I see all these web hosting fellows got storage and bandwith. For a site which I think will start generating 5k visitors per day within 3 months (low estimate), what should I go with? GoDaddy gives unlimited bandwith for all packages.

Please briefly explain the meaning of bandwith and storage in the context of web hosting.

Thanks!

if you are also targetting North American viewers then you should get a CDN.

storage = storage space
bandwidth = should be monthly transfer. i didnt login to my cpanel for quite some time. (pretty lazy now too) sorry :S

if you are targetting 5k visitors then the one around Rm200 is good enough + CDN (separate item)..
http://exabytes.com.my/web-hosting/small-business-hosting/

for the CDN -> http://exabytes.com.my/services/cdn/
*please do not register for CDN if you're only targetting LOCAL viewers as it's pointless..
but since you are also targetting N.A viewers, i'll suggest you to get that so it speeds up the loading time for their side.

just go with these, its more than enough..

For unlimited package, there will still be limited CPU resource and RAM usage, so please take note.

The plan mafioso suggests should be enough for you.
If your site is growing in the future, you can then consider to upgrade to VPS.

Just for comparison sake, does anyone know how much is the bandwith used by a site like Lowyat forum? Will give me a rough idea of things.

u dont have to worry about bandwidth. Start with low, then increase when it reaches 60-80%. Take note that using CDN will greatly reduce your bandwidth as well.
there are other things to consider as well such as when using shared hosting, the server resource such as cpu load will be limited as well. my suggestion is, as the site grows, u upgrade ur hosting.

my suggestion on hosting is might be better use hosting from there rather than take one from malaysia. try research other hosting provider as well rather than comparing between those two only.

Hey,

What is your forum niche? You may visit this website http://www.baitulbytes.com.my/, they have offering 50% Discount for this webhosting packages http://www.baitulbytes.com.my/web-hosting

Is that a new startup webhosting company in Malaysia?
The price is extremely cheap.

Not sure, just notice their have special discount so i share it here

Support exabytes local service

Had a really bad experience with Exabytes , now switch to GoDaddy (SG server) with is much better and faster and cheaper

This post has been edited by xDragonZ: Oct 8 2012, 08:38 PM

sum1 in the same boat as me who got fed up with exabytes. after i have read your post there, conclusion is they have a really lousy support.
in your case, if their support had apologize to their users instead of blaming on user, they wont lose their customer.

in my case, i used to have reseller acc with exabyte, and was so angry with their support for my request.

i have nothing against exabytes services, their services are great. just fed up with their support and their attitude handling customers.

You mean their technical support? Rude in handling your calls or email?