October 10, 2006 (This post is more than 2 years old.)

A perfect ColdFusion-centric host would have...

coldfusion development

A user contacted me today and mentioned that he is looking to start a hosting service specially designed for ColdFusion users. He wanted to know what the top things CF developers would want out of a host - and also what bugs them out their current hosts.

As an aside, my host is CFXHosting.com. They have graciously allowed me to host my ColdFusion sites for free for some time, so I always try to take the opportunity to mention them to my readers.

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Archived Comments

Comment 1 by Dave posted on 10/11/2006 at 12:07 AM

Open recommendations, <a href = "http://www.hostmysite.com">Hostmysite</a> has always been great to me. I always recommend them when I get an opportunity to.

Comment 2 by SC posted on 10/11/2006 at 12:26 AM

I would say HostMySite.com.

Comment 3 by Raymond Camden posted on 10/11/2006 at 12:30 AM

Guys - it may not have been clear. The user is looking for features of a good host - not a good host. He wants to start his own.

Comment 4 by Damon Gentry posted on 10/11/2006 at 1:07 AM

1. Control Panel Access (Web Server) : The ability to configure your web server to use multiple host-header names, configure ACLs, add mappings / redirects, etc...
2. CF Admin Access : I know, security nightmare: but how about a custom app that leverages the Admin API so that individual developers can add datasources, CF mappings, and other settings that don't affect all users on the server?
3. Flex Data Services ('nuff said)
4. MySQL / PHPMyAdmin
5. The latest release of BlogCFC should be standard.

And some things it should NOT have:

1. Fusion-Debug (debug on your local systems, not on a shared server)
2. CFREGISTRY and CFEXECUTE should not be allowed

Comment 5 by Mark Fuqua posted on 10/11/2006 at 2:33 AM

If I were starting a hosting company,I would make sure the following were just part of the DNA of the company.

1. An 800 support number plastered everywhere. It should be easy to contact support and it should never feel like I'm imposing.

2. Several levels of hosting to offer upgrades short of dedicated.

3. Careful monitoring of all servers so when I call to report my site is down, support tells me what's wrong and that they are all ready working on it.

4. Easy and complete admin access.

5. Easy, skilled support 24/7.

Comment 6 by Jim posted on 10/11/2006 at 3:38 AM

Cheap.

One the biggest hurdles IMO for CF programmers is cheap hosting. I'd love to use and tinker with Ray's blog apps, etc but just can't afford CF hosting... CF hosting is not inexpensive, esp. compared to Linux hosting where I can install Wordpress for $8 month (or less).

Comment 7 by TJ Downes posted on 10/11/2006 at 4:08 AM

1. Backups
2. Redundant bandwidth
3. CFMX 7 support
4. Automated billing system
5. Website statistics tools (AWStats is OSS)
6. SLA (Service Level Agreement)

Comment 8 by raphael posted on 10/11/2006 at 12:04 PM

SVN (or CVS) Repositories for every Account

Comment 9 by Brad posted on 10/11/2006 at 4:11 PM

I have to agree with Jim. Cheap hosting is great for everyone but it's hard to keep costs low because CF is pretty darn expensive. So, I'm still stuck with PHP/Rails hosting since it's pretty cheap.

Comment 10 by Raymond Camden posted on 10/11/2006 at 5:11 PM

Personally, I don't agree with the cheap hosting need. But I suppose it depends on cheap. To me - and I said this in an article going live soon - I wouldn't trust a host whose price is less than that of a meal at Burger King. You get what you pay for. An 8 dollar host would not strike me as something I'd want to put a paying client on. I've seen plenty of CF hosts in the 20-50 dollar range, which is still cheap (and still close to the cost of a family meal at BK).

Comment 11 by Jim posted on 10/11/2006 at 6:14 PM

I should have clarified my 'cheap' comment.

I'd like to see a host that provided cheap entry-level hosting for developers who just need a place to host a blog, wiki or discussion forum and ideally a place to host code they are developing that will change the world :)

If you have paying clients, or are selling a CF product or service, etc - I have no problems with paying for business class services.

I certainly wouldn't expect the same level of services but then again for a home blog and some family email - it shouldn't be needed.

I pay $8/mo and don't expect 24x7 performance - but it does leave me a few bucks in my pocket for Happy Meals :)

Jim

Comment 12 by Tuyen posted on 10/11/2006 at 8:31 PM

Agree with Jim :-)

check out this price $9.95/m CFMX/mySQL
http://hosting.viux.com/ser...

Comment 13 by Jen posted on 10/11/2006 at 8:46 PM

three words:

GREAT customer service :)

Comment 14 by Trond Ulseth posted on 10/12/2006 at 10:53 AM

Just wanted to chime in that there is indeed some cheap CF hosting available:

- http://www.xtreme-host.com
- http://www.anumina.com
- http://hostingatoz.com/shar...

I agree with Ray that I would never put a paying client, or any kind of business solutions on such servers, but for personal blogs and the like I think they would sufice. I have a reseller package with hostingatoz.com my self, and while there is an occational downtime, it's not worse than when I had a $400/mo dedicated server HostMySite (from what others are saying about HMS my server there was probably a one in a million lemon, but still...).

Comment 15 by I Rz posted on 10/12/2006 at 9:40 PM

The number 1 thing a host should have is tech support that knows CF. Many great hosts went down hill very fast, like Intermedia, when they scaled down on their inhouse CF knowledge. We had major problems talking CF to them and finally moved to hostmysite.com (which was a lot cheaper also).

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