Differences hosting cloud prices.

Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -
Number of replies: 22

Hello greetings.

I have days looking for hosting cloud for a small project, (50 concurrent users at a rate of 10% of subscribers)

I worry about choosing cloud hosting providers.

cloudh

Why great price difference in plans of apparently equal characteristics?.

I understand that there is an offer to start and renew the price increases but not eight times.

TMDHosting's customer service sales are excellent and Hostgator's help base is impressive.

I would appreciate reading opinions, experiences and recommendations.


José.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Not sure many will respond as the request to experiences might be lacking with all three.

Some points ... or food for thought ...

"customer service sales" ... is that person(s) both ... Service and Sales?   Sales has a tendency to promise anything to make the sale.   It's then up to technical folks to make it happen ... or that's when you descover the devil was in the details not disclosed/discussed.

'HostGator's help base impressive' ... ummmm ... how so?  Is it better than Moodle docs themselves?  Ever see Digital Oceans stuff? https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#droplet

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials?q=Moodle

I don't work for them and don't host with them, but IMHO, I have seen some pretty good docs from them.

Guess what's missing ... installation of Apache solr JRE for Moodle 3.2 Global Search.  Oops, just fed you a fish. smile

Then there is the only thing you've shared about your plans ... "small project, (50 concurrent users at a rate of 10% of subscribers)" ... not sure what 10% means there, but also wonder if you understand what 50 concurrent users means.   That's not hits on web server, but 50 users in the Moodle doing something at the same time.   Case in point: 4th grade teacher saw chat in Moodle and decided to give her students experience at a 'walled garden chat' ... 24 kiddos divided into 4 per group = 6 chat rooms ... launched at pretty much the same time.   What do you think happened?    Server that was already under powered, went to snails pace when the 2nd chat room was launched ... 5th and 6th chat rooms never did launch.   Bad experience all the way around.

Server specs were about the same as some of the 'cheapo's' you've shared above.

Some research questions for you ... running Moodle 3.2 with all the features turned on will require what additional software to be installed ... outside of Moodle?

Can relay a brief story about Site Ground ... popular place ... always has been ... who can beat $4.95 a month for a Joomla (yes, know it's NOT Moodle but the result could be the same).  They have easy one click installers ... takes minutes to get up and running ... but that's tip of iceburg.  Provided customers no way to update or upgrade in place (this was 1.5.x of Joomla).   Moodle, BTW, doesn't either.  It got to the point where all of those cheapo sites sold were never fixed/patched/updated that they became honey pots ... got so bad, Site Ground had to tell all those customers ... update/upgrade or your site will be shut off ... NO REFUND.

Think it's true today more than ever ... one gets what one pays for. ;)

'spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Digital Ocean I am reviewing, very interesting as they offer their services, totally approach for developers, Fernando Acedo already had recommended it to me.

The detail for me is the control panel, only used WHM & cPanel ... For now.

50 concurrent users using chat for example.

Here we have a saying, "Cheap is expensive."

Thanks for your opinion Ken.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

What is your experience level?  What is your moodle experience?

Many companies compete in the hosted server environment. Many of these are less than $10.  For 50 users, you should be in pretty good shape for awhile with any of these.

I have had some success with both TDMHosting and GoDaddy, for under $7US/month.  This was when I first started my Moodle.  Many of these companies will not help you install and manage your moodle for this low cost.

Be careful of one-click installs.  It's a quick way to get your moodle running.  I did it for about a year.  But then you must learn how to install Moodle from scratch.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

My experience in Moodle is administrator and creator courses. I have tried several versions on localhost with XAMPP / Stack Bitnami and shared host 2.4, 2.9, 3.1, 3.2 with cPanel, browsing, learning to properly focus a project.

Of the companies I want to fulfill what they offer, Core, RAM, Storage, Bandwith ... so my concern, will this be true at that price ...?

Thanks for your opinion Rick

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Hello José. Just to let you know I deleted your duplicate post in the General developers' forum in accordance with our Site Policy. (Posting the same query to more than one forum only fragments the support you receive and makes it more difficult for other users to find the correct information in the future when they do a search.)

Don't forget Moodle HQ's own packages, all up to date with service from the people who make Moodle: https://moodlecloud.com/en/

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Hello Mary, Thanks for letting me know. I was sure I had the consultation in the forum. Was it in the same forum? I looked for it and I did not get it, that's why I consulted again.


Moodle-Cloud also reviewed, but the prices, limitations and comments,    I am not encouraged to hire them.


I appreciate your opinion, sorry for the disturbances.

 José

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Marcus Green -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

I don't see MoodleCloud and things like HostGator or Digital Ocean as comparable. Moodle cloud is very specific in giving a Moodle service and is backed up by people dedicated to that job.

HostGator  and Digital Ocean are general hosting cloud services where you really need to be an expert in supporting Moodle to be of use. I suspect you might come in this category so one of those might be suitable but I would advise most people to go with something more dedicated.

I have a Digital Ocean account myself and it is an excellent developer service. With reference to chat/video conferencingI reccomend BigBlueButton and you can get a free account to experiment with on the MoodleCloud free service. It has some limitations on the numbers of users but it would give you a feel for what it does. 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Marcus Green

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Hello Marcus, I appreciate your opinion.

I am in contact with Digital Ocean and reviewing products. Also forum Moodlecloud reviewing.


José

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Jose, you might want to consider simply picking one of these companies as long as you can do a 2 or 3 month subscription.  The cost can be minimal, and then you would be in a position to try it yourself.  I think that with GoDaddy, you can buy a hosted server for as little as one month.  Other companies might do the same thing.  Get an experimental domain name.  Then try installing moodle on your own.  I have posted some videos showing how to get moodle installed on a hosted server, somewhere.  There are videos from others, too.

With this approach, you will be learning about what it takes to get moodle running on your own server.  Make sure to try to install moodle manually.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Rick, if I'm going to practice and do manual installation.

I have to get a mental map lol. So many questions at once ... If I go swimming, there is complete burnout.

I am watching videos and site Ubuntu> Server. 

I saw Shell Linux in 1992 at the university course OS, something remains in my memory ...

Organizing ideas: cloud technology - administrators - OS- Moodle.

Objective Moodle, strategy in planning / execution.


Of course, very grateful to everyone for their opinions, they are very valuable.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Rick, where I can see the videos?

I saw the video and the presentation  I can translate it. Excellent  Thanks  Expanding_your_MoodleCloud_Storage_to_Fill_the_Entire_Sky

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Try this webpage of mine.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Hi Rick, Thank you! Good video, I do not speak English, but I understand the video perfectly.

Using cPanel if I have experience installing Moodle in several versions.

In fact install a week ago in v-2.4.11. Because Moodle v-2.4.11? ... I have a plan "Reseller host" hired,  I requested to have access to PHP versions to switch to v-5.6 I was told not to and change plan ...

Finally install Moodle 2.4 because my PHP version is 5.3.27.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

I would just point out that Moodle 2.4 is now very old and has not been supported since July 2014 - nearly three years ago. So it is not useful for testing or for using wink

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

From what I gather, php 5.5 is no longer supported.

Jose, you really need to put pressure on your hosting company to upgrade your php.  Usually, on cPanel, you can do this yourself.

Attachment php.jpg
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Pressure...? What they want is for me to pay more ...

The plan is WHM & cPanel, ie: As administrator WHM I was not given a function to change PHP version (EasyApache).



Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Yes,  In WHM use EasyApache.  It is not the easiest software to use, kind of scary, but there is an way through it to only change your php version.  It should show you what is available, with some hard to understand choices.

You might need to provide more screen shots of what it shows you along the way.

You can always back out until the final step.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

I do not have EsayApache, it is not included in the WHM panel.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by José Díaz -

Hello Mary. Yes, I know it's old, I can not do elementary practices like batch registration and send email ...


But it's what I can install because my current hosting does not allow me to update changes to php 5.6.


I will soon practice in 3.1


Thank you Mary.wink

Average of ratings: -
In reply to José Díaz

Re: Differences hosting cloud prices.

by Sam Mudle -

This post is a little late to the party, but I'd like to add my 2cents.

UNLIMITED DISK SPACE, UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH, CPU 4 CORES

What good is 4 CPU cores if they share your little site with 50,000 other sites on the same server -- that's called shared hosting. So if you give a quiz to all of your students, and another site is doing something CPU intensive at the same time during peak hours, you'll see your little moodle site crawl to a stop.   Disk space is cheap yeah, with CDN's bandwidth is dirt cheap but that's not the issue with Moodle which is a relatively small bandwidth footprint.  Honestly shared hosting is really good for just a static HTML page.

PREMIUM SUPPORT

Yeah, maybe.  Generally no phone support, everything is done through email ticket system.  What is the uptime on their server?  Here's typical support:

Me: "Hey I'd like to install Moodle 3.x, but it requires PHP 8.2"

Hostgator: "We don't plan on updating our shared server to PHP 8.2 for a while., but hey you can buy our fantastic VPS plan for $150/month and run Php whatever on that!"

Me: "Hi, my site was running find for the first two months, but now kids are waiting forever to see a quiz generate"

Hostgator: "Yeah we throttled you usage, or added another 6000 sites on your little shared server, but hey, if you choose a VPS server, for $190/mo, you'll get blazing fast speeds"

I've jumped through a few hosts, and finally settled on one that's a bit more expensive, but I've found it's good enough.

If you know nothing about code, then shared hosting will be a nightmare with DNS configs, FTPs, name servers, db passwords and paths....

I pay about $150 per year for shared hosting and I have full control of the source and all plugins.

If I had moodlecloud hosting, it would cost me $500 per year and I would only get a measly 400MB of space for the moodledata folder.

Average of ratings: -