Social-Networking Startup, Hosting Plan [closed]

Question

I've created a social networking community which is soon ready to release, and I'm trying to decide on a type of hosting plan.

I have considered options such as VPS and Reseller plans. I anticipate (or hope for at least) a significant amount of traffic/bandwidth in the not-too-distant future.

If I open a reseller, will I receive the same amount of server lag during busy hours that I do with a shared account? How significant is the profit margin with the reseller option?

Aside from generalized "configurability", what advantages merit purchasing a VPS? Is there anything stopping me from reselling space on a VPS account?

Features I need Include:

• PHP,
• MySql,
• Unlimited Domains,
• Ruby on Rails,
• Remote Database Connections

Answer 1

I would choose a VPS like Linode. I rather like them because you can start up small and build your own cluster eventually..

I wouldn't go an invest in a dedicated server with a product that you don't know will even generate a MB of traffic. (and usually dedicated servers cost in the $100s just for initial setup)

edit:

And yes, you can resell space on a VPS account, the only problem is that you have to configure it all and make sure it's secure. With a VPS account, you have root access, you can do anything really.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what the purpose is for your reseller plan? Seems entirely unrelated to your actual site. You should really focus on your site and handle any potential reseller plan business at another time. Reseller plans for your site doesn't really make sense, if you expect alot of traffic in the future, a reseller plan is not really giving you anything and is usually on the same servers as shared accounts.

You typically can't resell a VPS plan as none of the reselling tools exists for this. The reason for getting a VPS plan is so that you can have control over the entire OS. If you don't need that, you really just need a dedicated/semi-dedicated machine to handle alot of traffic if you think you need that.

Generally, host hosting plans will be able to scale as you grow, so you probably don't need a dedicated plan off the bat.

Answer 3

I really would not "anticipate" a large amount of traffic, the internet does not really need another social networking site, you have to compete with twitter, facebook, myspace, etc (stack overflow?). But not say that you should not try, because you never know, but you should go with a shared hosting plan (not sure why you would need a reseller unless you plan on being a social networking site that sell hosting?). But if you are like me, I would go with a VPS (Linode or Slicehost) and install the OS and the web server of you choice (nginx for me), no matter what you expect your traffic to be. When you have decided post a link to you website, I would love to see your work.

Answer 4

While I've had good experiences with Linode and VPS/Virtualization in general I wonder if you should look at something like Amazon EC2.

The problem with these kinds of endeavors is that if you are lucky enough to be successful you need to scale very quickly and smoothly or you'll get a bad reputation just as fast.

The Linodes and such can only be pushed so far so if your honestly expecting that much load you need to build your server cluster to scale easily from the start. That means setting up a proper load balanced setup which is beyond the scope of the question.

If your talking reseller because you are expecting to SAAS your site then that isn't really a reseller arangement, or isn't likely to be. Resellers would be if you essentially want to rebadge and sell VPS to 3rd parties.

I'd say start with a Linode and keep your finger on the pulse and be ready to move fast.

Answer 5

Some people suggest not to launch another ocial network but i disagree. In today environment we need one. Facebook has become a privacy invasion heaven. They changes their business model mid way and today are a big offenders of privacy. There is no reason any company should store all your personal info forever. While server logs an activity history are fine, not my photos, comments, messages chat history etc. This is very dangerous in the long run given how nowaday we see how the government is trying to control everyone. If you are following the same business model then yes it is a bad idea to start a new one but if you can give people real privacy and keep thee spammer and advertisers out from people's lives then go for it. I know many people who will switch right away an close their facebook accounts.