What Hosting Do People With Sytist Use?

I would like to get some feedback from people regarding what host they use for Sytist and what they think of it and the uploading of photos.

Edited by

Saratogahosting.com and inmotionhosting.com are two of the best.

Saratogahosting.com has more personalized service, but both rank high in service. Saratogahosting.com also has about the fastest servers for shared hosting available.

Edited by

Is anybody using Bluehost or GoDaddy?

Edited by

Only problems reported. You can check the old forum. However, I think you'll find the consensus are the two I gave you. Doesn't mean that's who you should choose, but never a single negative comment about either of the two.

BTW, Sytist is to new (beta) and many are still waiting on features. So the install base is limited, my reply is based on photocart experience, which should be similar.

Edited Wed Jan 15, 14 5:59 PM by Bill Wells

I appreciate the feedback Bill. I asked about those two as I already have hosting accounts with each of these two. I have already had to re-install Sytist within 24 hours of installing it in the first place so I think if I have to install again and purchase a third hosting might be a little too much to get done within the 14 day time frame.

Edited by

I'm not sure about either of the two you referenced. I do know that GoDaddy seems to work, for some, then breaks for no apparent reason (based on forum post). GoDaddy's shared hosting is really geared toward small, limited static page sites. I would say that of the complaints posted 95% were about one or both of those two hosts. That's why I recommended saratogahosting.com or inmotionhosting.com.

You may want to ask Tim about install issues via support email.

Edited Wed Jan 15, 14 9:26 PM by Bill Wells

Unfortunately we do need heaps of space. At the moment I think we have over 500,000 photos on our current website (currently hosted with GoDaddy).

Edited Wed Jan 15, 14 9:40 PM by a badger

I've had close to that on saratogahosting servers. Get ready for GoDaddy to either request you upgrade to VPS or dedicated server, since you are way over their file limit. Not file space but file number. I don't see how your getting away with that. If you have 500,000 images online in photocart you can multiply that by at least 3 (photocart creates thumb, display and zoom) that would be 1.5 million, just in image files.

Bluehost will not allow that many files on shared server. Most "unlimited disk space" do limit the number of files they will allow.

Edited Wed Jan 15, 14 11:32 PM by Bill Wells

Bill, with GoDaddy we simply purchased a reseller plan, we have been with them for ages. The new hosting we have with Bluehost is a VPS account which allows any NUMBER of files but is limited to different amounts of storage space (30 - 240GB). I have been setting up on the Bluehost account simply because our current hosting with GoDaddy is a Windows hosting and I am not sure if they will transfer it to a Linux hosting. We have another website with Bluehost and that is why I looked there, and I admit the idea of setting up Sytist on a completely fresh hosting account seemed an attractive option. I am having glitches every now and then but I am not sure if that is relating to the Beta factor or the fact the site is not live as such or if it is a hosting issue that might continue.

If it is the last one how hard will it be to transfer the completed setup to a new host?

Edited by

Saratoga Hosting one of the fastest you will come across. He doesn't "oversell" his hosting plans.

I can tell you I have a lot of customers hosting at Blue Host and Godaddy. I would go with blue host over godaddy if those are your 2 choices. But I think godaddy is offering cPanel hosting now and might be alright too.

Edited by

Thanks Tim, I will continue setting up on Bluehost then and hope I can quickly get my other question resolved (menu categories not showing) and I will give you all some feedback on the experience. I must admit I prefer Bluehost to GoDaddy, there live chat support is awesome.

Edited by

Here in the uk I use Uk-cheapest @ only ?7.95 a month that for me is not a bad price!
never had an issue with downtime, Customer support is usual online ticket system with fairly rapid response times.

using them now for 3 years.

Daniel

Edited by

Try Inmotionhosting.com, they have everything you need plus their customer service is top grade. Been using them for many years and NEVER had any issues. I would stay clear of GoDaddy, I've had issues with them in the past.

Edited by

ADNCDN how many files and folders do you have on your hosting with Inmotionhosting.com if you don't mind me asking. I think I saw something before about you being an event photographer.

Edited by

I'm just moving to inmotionhosting now so I haven't moved all my galleries. But I have in excess of 150,000 images on saratogahosting and that is down from my high of 500,000+ that I did have.

My estimates are I could easily place 2,000,000 on the VPS at inmotionhosting and still have room to breathe. I do shoot events local high school sports, Dance, Weddings and Seniors.

I will say that 98% of purchases happen during the season and most of them within a couple of weeks of posting. I use Dave's uploader to shrink the galleries after the season and that is nice, that is if I remember to do it.

I think Saratogahosting is wonderful and have nothing but top notch speed and service. However, I'm hosting a few other sites from local businesses and I needed the ability to give them their own cpanel. Hopefully, I'll make enough from those few sites to help cover my hosting expenses.

Edited by

BILL WELLS, which plan are you choosing from inmotionhosting and what plan were you on with saratogahosting if you don't mind me asking?

Edited by

inmotion has 3 vps plans. I'm on the middle one. It may be a bit more than I need, but it gives me someplace to step-up to if needed. BTW, it has double the disk space from what I had a Saratogahosting.

For Saratogahosting, I had their top plan, I NEVER hit the limits and the servers are sooooooooo faaaaaaast. Like i've said my move to inmotinhosting was NOT because of poor service or performance, I just needed a seperate cPanel for some of my hosting clients.

Edited by

BILL WELLS - did you have the option set up for people to download the large photos? I only ask because I only loaded a couple of events and hit 15Gb pretty fast.

Edited by

Nothing that large. What size are people wanting to print? Most of my clients print 5x7's and some 8x10's. If you upload full size images then that's an issue. Let's say you were shooting with Nikon D800, those files are going to be huge.

I tell people, you can print great quality 4x6 or even 5x7 which is what we call proofs, but anything larger should be printed at a professional lab since CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, etc... wouldn't give you good quality in the first place.

Edited Fri Jan 31, 14 5:21 PM by Bill Wells

I use saratogahosting.com and I am VERY VERY pleased with it. I host 3 sites with them and am very happy with the speed of the servers and customer service.

Edited by

I just wanted everyone to know my last experience with GoDaddy. Recently I had an issue with my checkout where Go daddy Servers Firewall blocked the IP from Authorize.net. Caused me almost a week of down time and lots of wasted time back and forth? Nothing had changed on my system?. only their server. They block certain IPs for security reasons in a blanket sort of way without a warning to you?. All of a sudden! I had about 8 to 10 people from Go Daddy tell me it was my code or authorize.net. Quick to blame anyone but them. After that they tried to get me to move to their new C-panel without looking at my site.. to see qualifications. I have over the 250000 files. There is a limit of files for C-panel. Go Daddy is great on price and I didn't have a problem for years?BUT if you do have a problem you can never call back and get the same person. It is like to many chefs in the kitchen. They finally admitted to the problem and are fixing it but at a great aggravation to me. I am looking into moving my site now or in the close future?I just called Saratoga hosting and spoke to the owner. I really couldn't believe it. He was the most personable and sincere business person I have ever spoken with? no exaggeration. I am excited to have found it and thank you all for recommending them.

Edited by

I have been at Saratoga for only 2 months now, but I can't say enough about the service I have received. Professional, timely, and customer orientated. Thrilled with the switch!

Andy

Edited by

I went with Bluehost in the end after considering GoDaddy due to previous good experience. I have been happy with Bluehost on price and space using their VPS. I have added to the storage space twice now and the techs on chat support have always been helpful, particularly when I don't know much of anything about VPS. Saratoga wasn't an option for us based on price and the size we required.

Edited by

There are any number of hosting options available that fit a million different specific needs. Some people upload huge images and keep them online forever, so they need storage space. Others upload huge images, but only keep them online for a short period of 30-60 days. As well as, any other combination that you can think of.

The bottom line is what is the best fit for your "specific" needs. I tend to view from the client side and want servers that are fast. Saratogahosting.com has the fastest of any shared hosting, period. They also have the fewest issues running photocart or sytist. They don't however have unlimited storage space. With that said, Saratogahosting.com is the best fit for 95% of PicturesPro users.

The fact is, online sales drop drastically after 30 days and drop to almost zero after 60 days. So those galleries should be deleted. If you keep galleries online for the reason of "look how much work I've done", then you have missed online marketing and it doesn't matter.

You should use your website/blog to display your work and then only display your best work. The cart should only be for selling what is being purchased. Again, using it as a display of work is missing the boat.

Just my thoughts.

Edited by

I had GoDaddy for years and never had an issue, put had to pay extra for an imap email address. When it came time to renew in June, it was cheaper to host for 3 years w/bluehost than pay for the eamil....HOWEVER....I may move back. Every time I have an issue, it's over 30 minute wait on hold to get someone and they don't seem as smart as the GoDaddy technicians. They put me on hold to consult, or worse, ask me to try something and CALL BACK...ugggggh.

I much prefer GoDaddys tech support!!!

Edited by

You should see saratogahosting's support. Give em' a call just to test.

Edited by

I would steer clear of InMotion unless you get a VPS server. I just ended a day-long ordeal of them treating me like a criminal because I had the audacity to store photos and make website backups on their systems. This is from a recent email exchange with them:

Section 11: Customer shall not use any bandwidth and/or disk usage for materials other than the Customer?s Web site, Customer Content and/or Customer's electronic mail services.

You were advised by our Systems team earlier that 1-2 backups is permitted, as if the backup is not large enough to affect other users, it can often be overlook and an exception can be made. I understand that the backups may get large due to the nature of your website. While we do not limit the storage space for you to use for your website, please keep in mind you are currently on a shared hosting plan. In this type of hosting environment, the disk space and server resources are shared among many other users. So if for some reason your portion of the server is affecting other users, it may result in suspension. While IMH does not meter disk space & bandwidth, the purpose of an IMH hosting account is to host web sites. Using a hosting account primarily for online file storage or archiving electronic files is prohibited.

So... yeah, either stay under their radar and don't use Sytist for too many galleries (10GB seems to be a trigger for them) or shell out the money for VPS.

As an aside, I am thoroughly disgusted with the way I was treated by support both via email and over the phone. They clearly were not interested in solving my problem (I had to pose the question about VPS) and instead just kept telling me in various ways that I was in violation of their TOS.

Blech...

Edited by