Several months back I covered a new hosting service called Grid Server by Media Temple that I learned about via TechCrunch. I signed up for an account and played around with it for a few of our sites.
Today we cancelled the account. For our purposes it just wasn’t worth it. We’re going to continue using Dreamhost for all our hosting.
The Grid Server service is just not fully baked yet in my opinion. There were a few planned outages, the speed was not any better in our testing, and the back-end (while slick-looking) was just too confusing.
Here is a screenshot of the main admin page:
24 different links with no clear organizational hierarchy! Plus even some of the links are not what you would expect them to be. Setting multiple websites was a pain. The descriptions were not clear, the choices were not explained very well – after a while I just gave up because the whole back-end was just way too confusing.
They claim they are still making changes to the service, but I don’t want to be paying $20/mo. for what I consider to be a beta product.
For our projects I’ll stick with Dreamhost. If your site is setup properly and your cache is working, you should be able to handle Digg spikes and loads of traffic with a decent shared account.
Conclusion: I much prefer my $7/mo. Dreamhost account to the confusing $20/mo. Grid Server system. If only have one site and are expecting to create extraordinarily demanding apps, then maybe Grid-Server would work for you, but in our testing, it didn’t seem like it was worth it.
P.S. This is a good reminder not to drink the TechCrunch koolaid – even when Michael Arrington disclaims a relationship (and potential conflict of interest), like he did for the grid server post, any article that’s hyping a related company’s product launch with such a glowing review should be taken with a grain of salt.
P.P.S. Since we switched to full RSS feeds, you’ll now be seeing this Dreamhost promo at the bottom of each post: Get $40 off Hosting. Since Dreamhost has a pretty nice affiliate program, AND I’m a fan of their service, it’s our only type of “advertising” at the moment.
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As a MT grid server customer, I have to agree. I moved to MT pre-grid server because everyone said they were the best. Going from a shared server to a grid server was pretty easy, I haven’t found it to be any faster, and sometimes it seems slower. In fact, sometimes the admin panel is much slower.
Fotureately for me, I signed up for a Shared Server account and pre-paid two years for $7 year, so that’s what I’m getting a grid server for. There’s no way I’m paying $20 a month when my contract runs out, so to dreamhost I will go.
I’ve used both MT and Dreamhost, and I have to say I prefer Dreamhost. I’ve signed up for Media Temple twice in the last 3 years following hype and seeming popularity :( I know, I know… and each time I find it to be a let down.
Dreamhost comes up trumps in the admin dept. It’s so much easier to use. Everything is clearly marked and it just seems more intuitive. My gripe with MT is that even though the design elements are proffesional, the usablity and IA are tragic.
I will give MT merit for their support though. They seem to have 24hr coverage so getting in touch is faster, maybe that’s what you pay for.
Speed wise I can’t really tell the difference. I have to admit ruby on rails apps on Dreamhost seem a little sluggish… the thought of a MT Grid Server for a rails app sounds appealing.
Food for thought.
I have to agree with every point in this article. Well said.
I too agree. I did the same and signed up when Tech Crunch featured them at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, I bought a full year of service at the time. I wish I hadn’t, it’s suffered several planned and unplanned outages and a host of problems. I planning on switching as soon as my year is up.
Hey Tom, thanks for stopping by. If you’re not happy you should email them and ask for a prorated amount back – I would think they would honor that request.
Thanks Guys i was going to go with them , just changed mind :)
I just switched my personal blog to them and so far it’s been fantastic. I’m paying $17/month.
I didn’t use them during their “beta”, but things have changed.
I have to agree with Kyle here, I had an issue with the SQL server at 5pm and they emailed me at 8pm confirming that it had been fixed. Other than that, I like the service so far and I am loving the iPhone app as well.
I signed up using a retailmenot coupon and I currently pay $16 for as long as I have the account.
I’m one of those users that have tried out a number of the big shared hosting providers including Dreamhost, 1&1, GoDaddy, Bluehost, & HostGator – I’ve found MediaTemple to be the most pleasant experience of all of the hosts I’ve tried even with their random outages. While uptime is important, load consistency is much more important to me -
I’ve been with MT for 1.3 years and currently host 66 domains (and subdomains) on my single (gs) account. I used a coupon code and pay $17/month, higher than average but completely worth it because –
* My pages load within a second most of the time and never exceeds 3 seconds unless the script itself is performing a large amount of commands. Even during peak times — For me, this alone justifies the extra money monthly. While it’s not lightening fast, we’re talking about a shared hosting platform: Sound-barrier fast is good enough for just about anyone.
* Ability to SSH into my (gs) account allowing me to perform batch commands, download and extract files directly to my hosting account. Custom PHP.ini files for specific directories/sites.
* While there’s no clear organizational hierarchy on the admin panel, It’s great for me since I just quickly search for FTP or email or mysql to find what I’m looking for. It’s a bit confusing, I agree, but I’m one of those people that like having everything right in front of me and sorting out the mess.
- – - – - – - – - – -
The only real downsides I’ve experienced is the MySQL database User limit of 5 additional users and sporadic outages that are quickly resolved (Less than an hour). So it’s not all that flexible if you want to dedicate a user per client for security purposes or if it’s life-support.
MT has come a long way, I love it and plan to use it unless something major occurs.
( Always take backups, no matter how reliable you think your host is =P )
Before MT I was at VPS spending money each time my site was going slow for extra CPU’s and RAM just to support the WHM and CPANEL and mysql database.
Since I found Media Temple’s GS all I can say so far my site has never been happier.
At least there is a phone number and English speaking Team of professionals here in the US to talk to who seem educated and are very helpful in solving my problems.
Maybe I’ll be singing a different tune next month or not Knock on WOOD so far so good :)