3 myths about shared hosting
Posted Jun 10 at 05:06 CDT by Remi in General - 4 comment(s)
The line between shared hosting, VPS hosting and cloud hosting is getting thinner and thinner. By pushing the limits of shared hosting we are able to give you most benefits of VPS hosting and cloud hosting while still keeping the benefits of shared hosting (easier to use, less maintenance and sysadmin work). Here are 3 myths about shared hosting that are no longer true:
Myth #1: Shared hosting isn't flexible and up-to-date in terms of software I can run
This may have been true in the past and may still be true with some shared hosts, but modern shared hosts provide you with all the latest tools and are constantly adding new tools. For instance, we added Python-3.0 to all of our servers a few hours after it was released. We also add new versions of popular tools such as Django, WordPress, Drupal, etc. to our one-click installer shortly after they are released.
In terms of flexibility we let you install and run pretty much any software you like as long as it doesn't violate our AUP and it doesn't use too much resources on the server. We give you all the tools you need to install your own software if you want to, much like a VPS would do: we give you full SSH access and all the compilers and libraries you need. Most tools support a "--home=$HOME" option at configuration time which means you can install it in your home directory and don't need to be root.
Myth #2: Shared hosting suffers from the "bad neighbor" problem
The "bad neighbor" problem in shared hosting means that your site would slow down if another site that happened to be on the same server as you started using lots of resources. This may have been true in the past but with good monitoring and fast action we are able to considerably reduce this problem: we are constantly monitoring the health of our servers (CPU, disk IO, memory usage, network usage) and as soon as a potential problem arises our monitors either send a warning or can even take action if needed. As a result they are able to prevent most "bad neighbor" problems before they arise.
Myth #3: Shared hosting doesn't scale
Some shared hosts only give you one account on one server to run your site so you can only handle traffic up to a point. A while ago we added to our control panel the ability to have multiple plans on multiple servers from the same control panel account. This means that you can setup the same application on multiple servers and load-balance your traffic between these servers (by default our system provide DNS load-balancing but you can also run a software load-balancer on one of your servers).
Right now you have to open a ticket to get extra plans on other servers but we plan to add that ability to our API and when we do you'll be able to instantly add or remove plans from the account.
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Latest news
Posted May 28 at 12:17 CDT by Remi in Django, Drupal, Email, General, Memory, Plone, Python, Software, WordPress, Zope - 5 comment(s)
Here is a quick update on what's been happening lately at WebFaction:
- New Webmail interface: Squirrelmail served us well for all these years but it was time for something a little more modern. We've setup a new webmail interface (AtMail) at https://atmail.webfaction.com and we'll make it the default at https://webmail.webfaction.com in the near future (we'll still keep Squirrelmail at https://squirrelmail.webfaction.com for people who want to keep using it).
- New backup system: In the last few weeks we've rolled out a new backup system on all of our CentOS servers. The new system is a lot faster and lighter on the server and as a result the load on the server isn't impacted when it's being backed up.
- Mail platform improvements: We keep improving our mail platform and we now have better spam detection than ever and we're able to enable new servers within seconds if mail traffic increases.
- New installers: We regularly add new software or new versions to our one click installers. Lately we added the latest WordPress, Drupal, Django, Plone, Joomla and more.
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Customer Spotlight: Hack N Mod!
Posted Apr 4 at 15:30 CDT by Sean in Customer Spotlight - 1 comment(s)
Our latest
featured site is Hack N
Mod - http://www.hacknmod.com!
Tell us about your site!
Hack N Mod features thousands of DIY circuitry and electronics projects. We feature the web's best hacking and modding projects and tutorials in over 20 categories.
What technologies does Hack N Mod use behind the scenes?
Hack N Mod is based on WordPress, with a few other PHP and CGI components, and uses MySQL as the storage backend.
What do you like about WebFaction?
After living through the horrors of mainstream hosting companies, we've found a gem in WebFaction. Their customer support is downright incredible, ready to fulfill any need you may have. Plus, prices are unbeatable, uptime is fantastic, plenty of control and freedom, absolutely no complaints. WebFaction is the perfect hosting company for any size website.
We'd like to thank Hack N Mod for participating in our Customer Spotlight feature, and wish them the best of luck :)
If you'd like to see your own WebFaction-hosted site featured here, just open a support ticket to let us know!
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A little holiday present: 10,000 reqs/sec with Nginx!
Updated Dec 19 at 05:15 CDT (first posted Dec 18 at 06:01 CDT) by Remi in General - 11 comment(s)
A few weeks ago we quietly started to configure our new machines with Nginx as the front web server instead of Apache (we still run Apache behind Nginx for people who need all the features from Apache).
Here is a little benchmark that I did to compare Nginx versus Apache (with the worker-MPM) for serving a small static file:
This benchmark is not representative of a real-world application because in my benchmark the web servers were only serving a small static file from localhost (in real life your files would get served to remote machines and some of your requests would be dynamic) but the results are impressive nonetheless. Both servers are capable of serving a huge number of requests per second, but Apache's performance start decreasing as you add more concurrent connections whereas Nginx's performance almost doesn't drop!
But here comes the best bit: because Nginx is event-based it doesn't need to spawn new processes or threads for each request, so its memory usage is very low. Throughout my benchmark it just sat at 2.5MB of memory while Apache was using a lot more:
To take advantage of the lightning speed of Nginx we have added two new types of applications to our control panel: the "static only" app and the "symlink to static-only" app. They just work like a normal "static/cgi/php" and "symlink to static/cgi/php" app, except that they can only serve purely static content (no .htaccess support) and they are served directly by the front Nginx server.
Even if your site is not static you can still serve all your static data (CSS, javascript, images, ...) directly from Nginx and enjoy the speed gain.
Nginx is only available on Web57 and over. If you're on an older server and would like to use Nginx open a ticket and we'll give you an extra plan on a new Nginx server and a free week to transfer your data.
Nginx FTW!
[Updated December 19th, 2008 to clarify the fact that we still run Apache behind Nginx for people who need all the Apache features]
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Follow us on Twitter
Posted Dec 17 at 05:41 CDT by Remi in General - 2 comment(s)
That's right, we're now on Twitter. Aren't we just so cool :)
You can follow us at http://twitter.com/webfaction - where we'll post about what's happening at WebFaction.
We'll give more frequent updates on Twitter but we'll keep posting big updates on our blog as well.
Happy twittering
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Python-3.0 is here!
Posted Dec 4 at 11:19 CDT by Remi in Python - 13 comment(s)
Some hosts are still stuck on Python-2.1 or even older but we wouldn't do that to you...
Just a few hours after its release we have already rolled out Python-3.0 to all of our servers.
Don't believe me? Here is the proof:
[remi@web50 ~]# python3.0
Python 3.0 (r30:67503, Dec 4 2008, 09:26:21)
[GCC 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print("I used to be a statement you know, but now I'm just a function :(")
I used to be a statement you know, but now I'm just a function :(
>>>
A huge thank you to the Python team for creating such a great piece of software (most of our tools are written in Python). A high-level list of changes is available at http://docs.python.org/3.0/whatsnew/3.0.html.
We'll add third-party modules and installers for web-frameworks as soon as they support Python-3.0
Enjoy while it's hot!
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Customer Spotlight: Beer Suggest!
Posted Sep 15 at 10:29 CDT by Sean in Customer Spotlight - 2 comment(s)
In our most recent newsletter we mentioned that we would be showcasing customer
sites here in the WebFaction blog. That time has come, and our first featured
site is Beer Suggest - http://www.beersuggest.com!
Tell us about your site!
Beer Suggest is a niche wiki/social community for beer enthusiasts. The site allows users to create accounts and rate, review and discover beer. Each user receives personalized beer recommendations based upon your ratings and reviews. It keeps track of all the beers you have tried and allows your friends to view your beer stats, including, but not limited to, top rated beers, beers tried, favorite beer styles, etc.
What technologies does Beer Suggest have under the hood?
The two primary technologies that are used are Python and Django. Before I began this website I knew I wanted to use Python. I had done several desktop apps and administrative scripts in Python and found it very enjoyable to write. My next decision was which Python framework to use. I checked out several such as TurboGears and Web2Py, but ultimately found Django to suit my needs better. Django has been making vast improvements and has a very active community and great documentation.
What do you like about WebFaction?
When I would have issues setting up or configuring something I have found the support to be very helpful when I couldn't find a good answer on the forums. The support has been very responsive and helpful in explaining and resolving any issues I have run into thus far.
We'd like to thank the operator of Beer Suggest for participating in our Customer Spotlight feature, and wish him the best of luck with his site :)
If you'd like to see your own WebFaction-hosted site featured here, just open a support ticket to let us know!
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Django-1.0 is here!
Updated Feb 12 at 06:01 CDT (first posted Sep 4 at 03:39 CDT) by Remi in Django - 22 comment(s)
The highly anticipated Django-1.0 has just been released and we've of course already added it as a one-click installer (with a choice of either a mod_python or mod_wsgi setup)
From the beginning we've worked hard to provide the best possible setup for Django sites so we're very happy to see this project reach this milestone and we congratulate the Django team on their great work.
But that's not all... To celebrate the release of Django-1.0 we are offering a free extra "Shared 1" plan for one year to any new customer signing up in the next month with the right promo code (see below).
You can either get this extra "Shared 1" plan on the same machine as your other plan by using the promo code DJANGO10-SINGLE (this means that you get more memory/diskspace/bandwidth for your sites), or you can get it on a separate machine by using the promo code DJANGO10-MULTIPLE (this means that you can use our load-balancing feature to load-balance your site between two machines).
(Note: This promotion gives you two hosting plans on a single account. It does not give you two separate accounts.)
(Another Note: This promotion expired October 4 2008.)
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Changes to Zope/Plone installers
Updated Sep 2 at 10:04 CDT (first posted Aug 23 at 16:15 CDT) by Sean in Plone, Zope - 0 comment(s)
We've recently rolled out the following changes to our Zope/Plone application installers
- Plone core products are installed in a "PloneProducts" subdirectory - this makes it easier for you to upgrade your Plone installation, since you won't have to sift through a single "Products" directory to figure out which products you need to replace. More information is available in this forum post.
- Your Zope app's logs are now created in ~/logs/user/ and are rotated daily. More information is available in this forum post.
These changes won't affect your existing apps, just new ones. The forum posts include instructions for updating your existing apps if you want to take advantage of these changes.
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Django developer wanted
Posted Aug 20 at 08:40 CDT by Remi in General - 2 comment(s)
We've got tons of new features in mind for our hosting platform and we're hiring a full-time django developer to help us. If you love the web and want to work with great people in a challenging environment make sure you check out our jobs page
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