What kind of hosting should I get as a start with an Image hosting site? EX. Tinypic, ImageShack etc...

Was looking at some VPS's but i'm not very sure. Prices not sure either, nothing to expensive since the site would be small until it grew.

I would sign up with any conventional shared plan but with a company that also offers a range of other services you can grow into: VPS and Dedicated hosting, so the switch is managed easily and without issues by same people.

Image/file hosting type of sites tend to grow quickly, so you better be best prepared. I doubt you want your hosting company to suspend your site if its using too many resources, which is why you can work out a deal that if its using more resources than your existing plan, they would automatically bump you to the next recommended package/solution.

Thanks for the reply.

You think Hostgator would be a good choice? If not would you please suggest some good company's? =P

What sort of budget do you have for this? I think that you may be better off starting with a shared hosting account and then upgrading as needed

So far as a start around 50-100$ I can pitch in as of now.


ATM i'm paying about 20$ total for mine.

With a budget of 50-100USD you can get already a good VPS. But look for a provider giving you the possibility to upgrade easily either to a bigger VPS or a Dedicated Server.

Yeah, because I know for a fact like Artashes said, these sites grow pretty fast, I have a few people already using it. =P Still, my site isn't 100% finished yet.

For an image hosting website , I would recommend you go with a dedicated server or really good VPS host.

For $50 - $100 a month you can get a really decent machine with nice amount of bandwidth.

With image hosting your biggest concern is going to be amount of bandwidth.

I can't think of anything that would make HostGator not a decent pick. I am pretty confident you also won't be the only image hosting website hosted on their servers. Also, for the size of the company that HostGator is, they have been sustaining a pretty positive client feedback, which is another plus.

The only concerning issue is the ability to work with them on a personal level. HostGator is a huge company with many employees. It is usually harder to make a custom type of agreement with companies of this size that would guarantee your site will stay up and running if it outgrows allocated resources - that some technician would actually read a note on your customer profile that would stipulate you be moved to a better solution instead of suspending your page.

For the budget that you have you can easily start with a solid VPS (not even necessary to go too big quite honestly). No need to spend your full budget for something you won't use at this time. Save your $$$ for advertising.

Thanks.

Probably last question. Haha

Whats a good VPS Company? I was looking at Vpsland, but i'm not too sure. Any ideas? I'll stick with the shared hosting for now, then move up to a VPS.

There are lots of VPS companies out there:

You can scan our marketplace forum for deals:
http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/vps...pecial-offers/
Also check out the showcase:
http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/vir...er-hosting.php

HostingDiscussion.com is hosted with www.handsonwebhosting.com - while we are on a dedicated server, the service is outstanding and their VPS servers shouldn't be any different. The thing to keep in mind is that your site hosts images. To some of your users it might be critical to have the images up and running and always accessible. HandsOnWebHosting.com offer almost real-time backup solution (with backups up to 48 hours I believe) that allows your website to be quickly restored if a disaster were to happen, or if your site was to be attacked/hacked. Happened to us before twice and both times it was solved in a matter of minutes.

I also have experience with:
http://vpsnoc.com/Unmanaged_VPS.html - affordable VPS solutions with service that is ready to go the extra mile.
http://www.spry.com - a bit pricey but had no complaints before.

Aright, thanks for all the help guys. You can close this if you'd like.

Do you need this VPS to be managed or can you manage it yourself? Perhaps we can help recommend a few providers to you

I can manage it myself.

I would use shared hosting as your site grows in popularity you can upgrade.