Ask a Jedi: ColdFusion Hosts

Karen asks,

Hi Ray, Looking for a hosting for a new website that will be done in ColdFusion. You know any?

So - this question is a rather simple one to answer. About as simple as 'Do you support the War on Terror' or 'Are you pro-choice or pro-life.' I'm sure this one post will result in about ten million comments or so. That being said, I will answer with that I think is the right answer. My company (Mindseye, and yes I know it's down at the moment) as well as I use Hosting.com. Hosting.com graciously provides the box that runs this blog, CFLib, CFCZone.org and the CFCDev list, and other resources free of charge. I can say I've seen cheaper hosting companies out there, but I like the turnaround time I've seen with them and I know my coworkers are happy with them as well.

Archived Comments

Comment 1 by Ben Arledge posted on 11/28/2005 at 9:30 AM

If anyone is looking for cheap dedicated, www.layeredtech.com is worth checking out. www.1and1.com is also inexpensive but their support was somewhere between shady and horrible.

Comment 2 by Sean Corfield posted on 11/28/2005 at 9:40 AM

I'm very happy with HostMySite who offer good Linux setups (as well as Windows). My site is on CFMX 7 Enterprise on Linux - which is their LinuxBuilder+ plan (Linux, Apache, MySQL, CFMX).

Comment 3 by Alan posted on 11/28/2005 at 6:12 PM

I have been with Minerva Network Systems for almost 10 years. They have been "down" twice in that time, and once was planned. They have always taken care of me and everyone I have sent their way. http://www.minerva.net

Comment 4 by Brian Kotek posted on 11/28/2005 at 7:24 PM

I've had very good luck with CrystalTech for over 3 years now. And it's under $20 a month for CFMX 7 shared hosting, SQL Server, mail, stats, etc.

Comment 5 by Phillip Senn posted on 11/28/2005 at 7:55 PM

I had no idea you hosted!
I'm evaluating hosting solutions, and since I saw a full page ad in MX Developer's Journal with Hal Helms recommending hostmysite.com, I'm seriously looking into them.
They've answered the phone with a technically adept person, and they offer a 30% discount for being a "reseller", which means more than one site.
But Ray, if you're serious about hosting, I would definately give that a lot of respect.
The mindseye website looks more like a consulting business than a hosting company.
Where is the pricing chart?

Comment 6 by Seth Petry-Johnson posted on 11/28/2005 at 7:58 PM

I host a faily busy e-commerce site on a dedicated box at CFX Hosting (www.cfxhosting.com), which is part of the "Hosting.com family of companies".

Between this job and my previous one I've been with CFX for nearly 7 years. I've been very pleased with their technical support and network stability in that time.

If you decide to call them, ask for Mark Click in sales and tell him Seth referred you.

Comment 7 by Raymond Camden posted on 11/28/2005 at 7:58 PM

Oh no, I'm not into hosting. If I made that impression - I'm sorry.

Comment 8 by Raymond Camden posted on 11/28/2005 at 8:00 PM

Mark CLick was my source as well, so tell em I sent you too. ;)

Comment 9 by noname posted on 11/28/2005 at 11:26 PM

Sorry for throwing this url in the mix, but godaddy.com couldn't be that bad!

Comment 10 by Tariq Ahmed posted on 11/29/2005 at 1:03 AM

It's all about CrystalTech (www.crystaltech.com)!! Their control panel let's you do ANYTHING. Manage database's (SQL Server 2K and 2K5, mySQL, ms access), logs, stats (SmarterStats), accounts, customtag paths, dns zones, mail, iis settings, CF SCHEDULED TASKS, mailing lists, you name it..

Comment 11 by Mike G posted on 11/29/2005 at 1:52 AM

Just to echo a previous post ... godaddy.com lets you add CF 7 to any package from something like $1.95 a month. Considering their starter plans are around 5 bucks a month ... that's hard to beat.

Comment 12 by Rob Gonda posted on 11/29/2005 at 10:06 AM

I do my own hosting and have a full cage with seven racks, so I can’t use my sites as a reference. However, we just launched a campaign for www.adiamondisforever.com with load balanced clustered CFMX7 servers and mssql 2000 with hostmysite. They have been extremely helpful, with great support; not the cheapest, but great for enterprise level apps.

Comment 13 by noname posted on 11/29/2005 at 6:53 PM

Don't forget about Ben's page:

For a thorough list of hosts: http://www.forta.com/cf/isp...

ps. godaddy is cheap isn't it :) Being as big as they are I would imagine it's pretty reliable too, with atleast 99% uptime.

Comment 14 by Raymond Camden posted on 11/29/2005 at 7:09 PM

While I haven't used godaddy for hosting, I _love_ them for domain names. They have great service too.

Comment 15 by Doug posted on 11/30/2005 at 5:50 AM

Dantor has been very reliable and at $36 a month very affordable and they have upgraded to CF 7. For the beginning developer they also allow MS Access databases.

Comment 16 by todd posted on 12/1/2005 at 5:34 AM

I feel so used after reading this. I actually just intentionally READ 15 commercials... :(

Comment 17 by todd posted on 12/8/2005 at 12:16 AM

ok - all kidding aside - any recommedations on what a novice blogger might be looking for in terms of space and bandwidth? I've been contemplating starting my own blog, but i'm not sure how much space or bandwidth is 'enough'.

It wouldn't be too fancy, just along the lines of this blog - maybe a few live examples and a few random pics...

What would everyone recommend? Obviously I could always upgrade. I'm sure I wouldn't get the traffic raymond gets, but just out of curiousity raymond, how much bandwidth do you consume a month??

Comment 18 by Raymond Camden posted on 12/8/2005 at 12:20 AM

I would assume the vast majority of bloggers get a few hits a day, so traffic should be next to nothing. As for my traffic, I'd have to look it up. I get around 6k hits per day, but a lot of that is just RSS. (Time to add some ads to my RSS. ;)