In September, I switched from a Baby shared hosting account at HostGator to my very own slice at Slicehost. It’s been an eye-opening plunge into the world of unmanaged hosting, but the Slicehost support team has played a critical role in supporting me while I get my Slice running smoothly, securely, and efficiently. I’m maxing out a 256MB slice with LAMP, a mail server, DAV, and SVN.
The great relief is that every single problem I’ve had been my own, not the limitations or drawbacks of the hosting company. I was impressed with the responsiveness and offering of my HostGator account, but felt limited by not having DAV or SVN access. Slicehost, at least thus far, has simply followed through with its promise: rock-solid, high-performance service with unbeatable support. They’ve gone out of their way to help me troubleshoot and configure my Slice, understanding full well that I’ve been learning as I go. The risk of course is that your server is yours … to completely screw up. I’ve had a few late-night Postfix/Courier experiments go poorly, but there has always been someone around to help. (Which is amazing — I really mean always.)
I plan on posting some articles with what I’ve learned from my own experience. If you’re starting out with Slicehost, however, PickledOnion’s tutorials are a must.