AN Hosting Review
So, you're looking for a new web host, and you don't want to get ripped off. You've probably already read a bunch of forum posts, review sites, and top 10 lists. And you probably noticed most of them didn't seem very trustworthy.
Unfortunately, many of the reviews out there are fake, written by hosting company employees, either to brag about themselves, or to trash their competitors. One particularly bad group of spammers have actually managed to get their fake review sites to rank top 3 on Google for just about every hosting keyword you could imagine.
Fighting back against the spam
With all the spam out there, it's hard to know who you can trust. My best advice is to do your research, and know who you're dealing with. With that in mind, allow me to introduce myself:
My name is John Forsythe. I started making websites for fun back in the 90s, and in 2006, I quit my job in Tech Support to become a full-time entrepreneur. Today, I make my living building websites and writing about it.
You might be familiar with some of my work. I'm the creator of DrupalModules.com, Drupal's largest independent community site. I also do technical reviewing for Packt Publishing, one of the biggest Drupal book publishers. If you're not familiar with Drupal, it's a popular content management system like Joomla or WordPress.
It's all about database speed
One thing all content management systems have in common is the need for really fast database access. Every time you load a page, the system has to make dozens of database queries. If your database is slow, your site will be, too. I learned this the hard way.
Back when I first started working on this site, I signed up with a web hosting company that claimed to be "dreamy". You've probably heard of them. It only took me a few minutes after installing Drupal to see that something wasn't right. Drupal was slow. Really slow. I'd get blank screens for several seconds before pages would load, and it took almost 10 seconds to get into the admin section.
I narrowed it down to the database being really laggy and overloaded, but there didn't seem to be any way around the problem, so I cancelled the account and started looking for a new host.
After about a week of research, I finally settled on a company called AN Hosting. I signed up for an account, installed Drupal again, and wow, the difference was incredible. Check out this graph:
Page loads went from over 3 seconds to under 0.2 seconds! It's shocking how much faster things run when you have a good database server.
The other big improvement was download speeds. I have a lot of music and photos on this site, and maximum transfer speed is really important to me. I have a 10mbit connection at home, and the new host maxes it out at over 1200KB/s.
Dealing with traffic spikes
If you've ever had your site land on Digg or Reddit, you know the real test of a host is whether they can handle sudden bursts of traffic. The last thing you want is a host that pulls the plug on your big day.
I've actually had this site make it to the front page of Reddit a few times. Here's what the traffic looks like in Google Analytics:
At peak, I was getting over 30 page views a second. Amazingly, the site didn't even slow down. One of the advantages of shared hosting is the massive amount of resources the servers have. You can actually outperform a VPS, if things are configured correctly.
Final notes
So, now you know why I like AN Hosting so much. It's fast, it stays up, and and it doesn't slow down. This is my fourth year with AN, and they're still the company I recommend to family and friends.
If you found this review helpful, do me a favor and sign up through this link. I get credit on my account if you do, and you can use coupon code "ANother3" to get 3 months free. It helps me keep my sites running, and you can feel good knowing you're keeping money out of the pockets of spammers! :)
Questions?
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help. Send me an email: john@blamcast.net. Or, if you're in Ottawa, Canada, you can usually find me at the local Drupal meet-ups. Don't be afraid to say hello!
Drupal Hosting FAQ
Here's a quick FAQ for anyone interested in using AN for Drupal hosting:
Do Clean URLs work with AN Hosting?
Yes, there is full support for Clean URLs, and they work right out of the box with the default Drupal settings.
Does Drupal's multi-site feature work on AN Hosting?
Yes, I've set it up and tested it myself, and it works well.
Does AN Hosting support PHP5?
Yes, as of this writing they're using PHP 5.2, which is the minimum you should look for in a Drupal host.
Can I increase the PHP memory limit on AN Hosting?
Yes, you can use a custom php.ini file to change memory limits as needed. I've set mine to 64M without any problems, and I've heard from others using 128M.
Overall, I think AN Hosting offers some of the best Drupal hosting around, especially at the price. They have a 30 day money back guarantee, so give it a try, and if you have any questions, let me know.