What are the most important qualities to look out with a dedicated server provider?

David Beroff

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I am planing on choosing a dedicated server provider in the near future when my site increases traffic which a VPS can not accommodate. I would like to know what are the essentials to look out with a dedicated server provider. Are there any common warning signs to avoid?
 

VirtuBox

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Hello David,
the SLA and the network speed/bandwith are the most important factor, just after the server components and the price. But it seems you are not planning to pay $200 for a dedicated server with HDD so there should not have other qualities to look for.
 

mekath

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The important qualities to look out for with a dedicated server provider are :
i. Quality of support
ii. Do they offer any trial?
iii. Check their review on different review sites
iv.Quality of network
v.Speed
 

StackNetwork

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StackNetwork
Couldn't agree on ii with you , i don't think any good provider should offer any kind of trial on dedicated servers ...

Here's what i think you need to look for,

Support Quality - Don't check how fast they reply, check how fast they reply with solution ...
Network Quality - Though it depend on many things, still try a ping and download test ...

and please make sure the provider can help you get your server's up fast when it goes down for any reason. Because there are few resellers who do sell servers but can't help fast during critical situation. Also check reviews in different forums / blogs before buying.
 

michal_novacek

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Well I don't agree with you. A good provider should offer trial, which is kind of test for both sides (customer and provider). How would customer recognize if you really offer good support or network? It is great way over trial to confirm that :)

I totally agree with @meekath and I think the most important part are reviews on review portals such as trustpilot.com, hostadvice.com, hostingadvice.com or just type into google the provider's name with magic keyword "review" :)

I would just add one more thing - try to find tools such as looking glass. It is best way to experience the provider's service (here fits the trial)
 

VirtuBox

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VirtuBox
Do you really think an hosting provider will build a dedicated server and make the setup to offer a free trial ? With shared hosting and VPS, that's not a problem, but with dedicated servers that's not possible to offer any trial. And before buying a dedicated server from an hosting provider, I will at least use it with a vps for few months.

And trusting the reviews are most of the time not a really good idea because you have no proof of the authenticity, and with several affiliates program, how can you know if they are not just trying to make money by promoting a bad hosting ?

What do you mean by "try to find tools such as looking glass" ?
 

michal_novacek

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Yes I think so & I am 100% sure. Haven't been told that trial is for free. Just type into google term "trial dedicated server" and you will get list of really serious providers who offer a trial server for a week typically. Btw there are also providers who don't offer VPS apart their dedicated servers.

Yes it is true and good statement. That is reason why you should be aware of this current situation and check more websites as I mentioned - trustpilot.com, hostadvice.com, hostingadvice.com etc (there are more review portals) or just stars on google. In my view there is great review platform Facebook. Every serious provider should have their own FB profile and I am sure that they will have some direct feedbacks from customers.

Well, looking glass is a tool which enables you to ping (or traceroute) from your chosen datacenter to your IP. So you can test the speed and also route if it is or not suitable for your purposes.

Is that enough for you? :)
 

VirtuBox

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Okay, I was thinking this was about "free trial".
But for the "really serious", I'm still not sure because a trial will only give you the ability to test the server performances. For a dedicated server, expect the network speed a XEON E3 will have the same performances than another XEON E3.

And you only be able to see if a provider does a good work the day you will have a problem. That's the same for the uptime, the availability, the traffic. 7 days are not enough to review those points.

For the feedback that's exactly the big problem currently, I have to check everytime each link to see if it's an affiliate link or not. And even with that, I don't know if hostadvice or hostingadvice are not making $$ by promoting some websites.

I agree about looking glass, but if the site use cloudflare, you can't check it
 

michal_novacek

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I don't see any reason why should someone pay for the service which costs thousands or hundreds of dollars without being able to experience a network, speed and support. I wouldn't buy something what costs so much money without giving a try to the service.

Yes. Well, I would say if you are really serious business why would provider decline your demanded extended trial version? Let's say for next 7 days or you are able to buy a trial again and again, which could extend your trial period.

I don't know if they are making money from that or no. Let's find out it. I think that these platforms are independent.

mm rlly? Do you know why? I am that there are another providers who offer looking glass. I've just checked results on google with term "looking glass dedicated server" and there are providers such as fdcservers, 10gbps.io, cogent (which is actually transit provider).
 

VirtuBox

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VirtuBox
Yes, you will ping the cloudflare servers if you try to ping a provider which use Cloudflare. But that's also why server location have less impact than in the past. With Cloudflare, the loading speed of a website will be nearly the same all around the world.

For the reviews platform, they could not be independant, at first because they also need an hosting provider :lol:
But also because there are too much money in the hosting industry to be able to say no. For example the best provider for trustpilot in france is LWS, by browsing their site I have seen they are selling "virtual dedicated servers PRO". That's a joke ..
 

TMS - JoseQ

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There's a real basic reason why trials aren't offered by serious providers and that is that the first month's payment is usually a write-off. Renting a server for $50-$100 absolutely does not cover the cost of setting up a customer account, corresponding with them, putting together a server, and provisioning it. You can of course add the cost of the space, power and bandwidth. The first month's payment basically goes to cover the cost of doing all of that and none to the cost of the actual server. While a lot of that work can be automated, it still takes time and time isn't free either.

Offering trials, free or at a fraction of the cost of a month could and would likely initiate a flood of trial orders in which you find yourself spending a good amount of time setting up servers and end up paying to work. This just opens the door for even more fraudulent/abusive orders where they just want to send out a batch of spam and they don't care if they're canceled within 24 hours. If I'm a spammer and I can pay $60 for a full month, or $15 for a week, where am I going to go? "Let me call all my spammer friends and have them order trials from X and Y host." The flood is in and the host is bleeding.

In my opinion, the "trial" period should be the month to month contract that most hosts in our industry operate under. That we went from yearly contracts to month to month alone is risky enough. We don't need to go week to week.

Which brings me to what to look for in a dedicated provider:

First & MOST IMPORTANT: How long have they been in business? And how much of that time they've had solid reviews?
- Most hosts that cut corners don't last very long, or they are widely known to have issues. This also implies to avoid brand new hosts. There are inherent growing pains associated with dedicated server hosting. Only use these if they have a killer sale AND your content is somewhat disposable.

Second: Where are they? How is their network? Location is important. If your server is in Seattle and your customers are in Florida, you are unnecessarily adding a significant amount of latency. Make sure their network is solid and offers good connectivity to your customers.

Third: How is their support? This partly comes from my first point, but make sure their support can cover your needs. If you need 24/7 support, make sure they have it. If you need phone support, make sure they have it. Etc. etc.

Encapsulating all of those is of course price. Can you afford their services? Are their prices justified? You will find a wide range of pricing for the same server config, similar network and identical location. But there's so much to the price that isn't those things (See #1 and #3).

I'm sure there are more factors to take into consideration, but I think those are the most important.

JoseQ
 

CyberHour

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michal_novacek

We were about to comment on every single paragraph of your comments but this would be pointless.

We stand behind all said from @VirtuBox. Anyone who have worked as/for hosting provider or is hosting provider know. But not limited to those.. anyone who is actually doing legal business know :)

What we will comment is only this one :

michal_novacek
"I totally agree with @meekath and I think the most important part are reviews on review portals such as trustpilot.com, hostadvice.com, hostingadvice.com or just type into google the provider's name with magic keyword "review""

On daily basis, we receive over 10 requests from hosting reviewing websites offering listing/featuring and fake reviews for 500 to 5k$. This happens with 90% of the hosting reviewing websites :). Period.

We welcome any REAL unpaid reviews in normal bloggers posts.

Best Regards,
Stephan
 

michal_novacek

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michal_novacek
Also answer for @TMS - JoseQ

Ok then. I am just wondering how people (business) make their decision. Actually based on promo-texts, reviews (are these reviews really honest or just paid?) instead of experiencing the server. You just ensure yourself that the provider is suitable for your needs within the trial period, or even realize that it is not suitable for your needs. You still don't know what kind of service you are buying until you buy a server for full-price. Because I think that there a lot of providers with comparable servers, services and the trial could help you to choose the provider.

After you filter all non-relevant trial requests then the LTV of a customer (there so many aspects but I talk about it in general) will be profitable in few months, isn't that true? I would say that this "risky approach" (as Joseq mentioned) is a added value for the customer and they will appreciate it (but it differs from customer to customer).

Regarding the fake reviews, on which platform do you receive these fake reviews? I would like to know what kind of review portals are not trustworthy. I've just checked these websites and most of them looks real (without any affiliate links) - let me know if I'm wrong.
 

TMS - JoseQ

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TMS - JoseQ
My point is that your "trial" should be a month's rental. If that doesn't work, then you can move elsewhere. We've never paid for reviews, but of course there's no way for potential customers to know this. I do think that review sites are mostly bogus, but forum posters will (IMO) post honest reviews. You can add weight to that based on how long a user has been on a forum, their post count, their types of posts, etc. Reputable hosts have been around for a while, so it's easy to find objective reviews of their services.
 

VirtuBox

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Some link from those reviews platform :

http://www.hostingadvice.com/visit/?offer=6448&cat=cheap
https://hostadvice.com/go/host/3955
http://www.whoishostingthis.com/go/siteground/?track=WIHT-Reviews
http://partners.hostgator.com/c/261804/177309/3094?u=http://www.hostgator.com/promo/hostingfacts
http://hosting-review.com/hosting-directory/go2/hostpapa-discount.php
http://hostingreviews.io/web-hosting/flywheel

If they are not using direct hard links, there are a reason ... How much a web hosting provider is ready to pay for having this link in the top ten ?
When you can be paid up to $150 /customer with an affiliate program, I'm sure that's a good business to have a reviews platform
 
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