Drupal Hosting Review: AN Hosting

I've been hosting my Drupal sites with AN Hosting for over a year now, and in my opinion they're the best Drupal host available. In this review, I'll explain why I chose AN Hosting as my Drupal hosting service, and give you a few examples of why I'm still using them a year later.

Why I Use AN Hosting For My Drupal Sites

Drupal makes a lot of database queries. In fact, database response time is the number one factor affecting the speed of your Drupal site. The longer it takes for your MySQL server to respond, the slower your pages are going to load. If you want fast Drupal hosting, you need fast database access.

Many hosting companies will put your database on slow, overloaded servers in order to save money. I won't name any names, but if you've been burned before, you know who I'm talking about. If it takes 10+ seconds just to load the Drupal admin page, it's time to change hosts.

I'm happy to report that the database speed on AN Hosting is excellent. AN Hosting uses well configured, multi-core Linux servers, and the MySQL query times are the fastest I've seen, with page generation times clocking in at about 130ms.

Download speeds are quick, too. File transfers max out my connection at over 900KB/s (Update: I have a 10mbit connection at home now, and downloads still max it out at over 1200KB/s!). It really is the fastest Drupal hosting I've tried. Try loading a few pages on this site, if you want to test it yourself.

Finally, A Reliable Drupal Hosting Service

Recently, one of my articles was featured on the front page of LinuxToday.com. My site was flooded with hundreds of hits in a matter of minutes, but AN Hosting just kept going. The page didn't even slow down! If that's the kind of performance you need, AN Hosting is where you want to be.

AN Hosting has been around since 2001, and became part of MidPhase in 2004, so you don't have to worry about them disappearing overnight. They have a toll-free support line you can call 24/7, and a 30 day money back guarantee. If it's not the best Drupal hosting service you've ever used, you get your money back.

Pricing And Performance

Aside from the great service, the price is nice, too. For $6.95 a month, you get 500 GB of storage and 5 TB of transfer, which is more than enough for most Drupal sites.

Furthermore, they don't have any hidden SQL query limits, or other sneaky catches you'll find in the "usage agreements" of some other popular hosts.

Frequently Asked Questions

To conclude this review, I'll cover a few specific questions I often get:

1. 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.

2. Does Drupal's multi-site feature work on AN Hosting?

Yes, I've set it up and tested it myself, and it works well.

3. Does AN Hosting support PHP5?

Yes, as of this writing they're using PHP 5.2.

4. Can AN Hosting run Drupal 6?

Yes, and it's quite fast. Check out this demo.

5. Are there any discounts available?

Yes, you can get 3 months free. Just enter coupon code SAVINGCENTER-93818 when you sign up. This coupon code also gets you a free domain for life.

6. I have another question, how do I contact you?

I'd be glad to help you out, here's my email address: