Lab rats required to test new free hosting service
Lee
OG 
As some of you may know I sold my hosting business in September last year, part of the sale conditions was that I cannot offer any paid hosting services for 2 years. So, to keep my hand in I decided to set up a free hosting service.
After a few weeks of playing around with things and a very last minute decision (yesterday) to use Blesta, I have decided to do a bit of a 'soft launch' to get things started.
As always I have too many ideas and trying to do too many things that if I wait until they are done, it will be 2021 before I actually offer anything. So I wanted to get something out there for review.
You can find the new site at - HostingCubes.net
Due to the last-minute decision to use Blesta I have added only two services for now so that I can get some feedback on whether everything is working as it should.
As a side note, I have removed most of the client signup fields in Blesta, all that is required is a name, country, and email address. Saves you thinking up fake info.
There are a single domain and multi-domain account on offer. Using @Francisco at BuyVM in both LU and LV for these. The main site and Blesta are hosted at DigitalOcean in the UK, the mail for both is all being handled by @jarland at mxroute.com.
As much as I have tested things, there is bound to be something I have missed, so really appreciate people signing up and kicking the tires before I announce any further services.
A few things in progress:
- New, way better site design and proper Blesta Integration coming.
- Other locations being added for shared hosting.
- Reseller services coming soon and will be offered to a limited group, i.e. LES members.
- Other services also coming along which I will update on later, you will think I am crazy!
There are others but I need to calm down and stop!
Feel free to embarrass me here when you find any issues.
Comments
hmmm ... it is the year of the Rat, after all
HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))
Indeed ?
I liked the special “idontcare” email account.
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I did an earlier roll out using services in the Netherlands, mostly through restricted channels to gauge interest, but one person seriously did ask, "what is the SLA and is there any comp for downtime".
Great !
I like the idea but it's hard to continue without profit .
However, try your best
MetalVPS
Thanks, profit is not something I need to be worried about for this and it is all very well automated so it will not be that time-consuming.
Once I was asked about SLA for free hosting. That was the day, I completely stopped offering helpdesk support for free hosting clientele........
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I have had a few requests already about location, I have decided to press ahead with the intended Germany location which I was holding off until next week, same plans available, services courtest of @MikePT and all paid up for the next year.
Germany is available as a location now.
This is great. I'd think typically after a "2 years no sell services" deal most people would be sitting back smoking the big ones but you're back to work thinking outside the box. Best wishes.
Michael from DragonWebHost & OnePoundEmail
I have a problem according to my wife who says I can't sit still and do nothing for more than 5 mins at a time.
Most of those non-compete agreements are not legally binding; I mean you do have to eat.. but then again we're talking about a country which makes you license porn now, so..
@Lee I have no use for this but I'd be happy to throw one of my throwaway domains at it if you need some testing.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Glad to be somehow part or your project.
Best luck!
The more testers the better
Luxembourg - Single Domain
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
If he's willing to host people who try to DDoS the president, I'm pretty sure he'd be happy to take the T1 CC uses to host everything on.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
First issue - went to PHP 7.4, tried to enable:
nd_mysqli
nd_pdo_mysql
It just comes back with an empty checkbox and no further info.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
I'm on the same node, same issue confirmed.
Get the error popup in orange "skipped as conflicting".
Maybe it's just me but on the CloudLinux panel you cant have both mysqli and nd_mysqli selected at the same time, one or the other. Same with pdo_mysql and nd_pdo_mysql. I remember this happening to me a while back on something else.
If I set mysqlnd off, then I can activate nd_mysqli, and then it turns mysqlnd back on. Just.. never seen that before.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
I know it's odd, does not act that way consistently on different servers.
@teamacc @FAT32 Who wants to write some blog posts for colocropping? Got WP setup and you're more than welcome to post whatever isn't sueable.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Going to add this to LEBRE sidebar for another reliable free option.
No time to test due to trying to figure out some computational social science research shit with craploads of data that makes the threadripper 3990x look so tempting to buy.
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Now thats not a problem but a feature. Keep it up!
And thanks to everyone who has signed up so far, more popular than I thought it would be. And fewer issues than I was anticipating.
Although it has made me consider whether the last location I was planning for shared services is going to be the right choice. Everyone seems to prefer EU over US but maybe that is just because of the US location, LV is not getting much love at all.
LV location definitely gets love!
https://hc.srvr.ovh
Works just fine! Even though not from OVH. :-)
No love for Asian users
?
MetalVPS
@Lee you are very talented & if it is going to be even half of what you claim then it'll be unfair to providers for whom the business of shared hosting is bread & butter
While I like the idea of free hosting by someone as knowledgeable about hosting as you & there would hardly be any people who hate the massive gutter of Buffalo more than me still I would request to do it in a way that it doesn't hurt providers out there trying to earn honest money from this business.
Recommend: SmallWeb|BuyVM|Linode|RamNode
@vpsgeek
I will be completely honest as I appreciate your comments, some have expressed the same in private. I set an annual budget for this project and put the 1st year in an account with Revolut (OCD organization). Then I halved it as I took on board comments in private.
I am not trying to compete with anyone or lose anyone an opportunity to make money. Some things will still go ahead, a couple of other shared locations in place of other plans as they are probably too close to having an effect on some providers so they will be canned to prevent that.
As I have said, its a personal project, one of several I am involved in. There is no intention to step on toes.
As a paid provider with similar services I also see this as an opportunity for providers like me to grow and learn from your successes in this project. As @vpsgeek said you are somebody respected with great knowledge in the industry. I've got no beef.
Michael from DragonWebHost & OnePoundEmail
I've got no beef until some sort of drama occurs. Until then, I lurk.
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Free hosting will never replace paid hosting for the majority. Everyone understands that if you want a good service with all the extras, fast support, less crowded servers thus faster servers, and so on. You need to pay. Whilst I am not going to operate anything but a good service it will never be seen as reliable as paying someone and motivating them with money.
Let's be honest, it is what everyone wants, will do my best.
I suggest you get rid of or redesign the Try Demo button.
It navigates users away from your site (only realised when I saw the "pricing" button at the top & thought wait what). Double confusing cause your site has a gif of the directadmin page header at top of that page so they even look similar
Good luck!
It will all change once the new site is done.
No one uses nor should use free hosting for serious projects. The market will continue to be saturated and we will always have the Free vs budget vs premium providers debate.
I am just happy to see another well-respected member of the industry joining the "Free Host" gang. Joe led the way, I am here, doing trying to do my fair share of charity, Lee will redefine and make it awesome as he always does!! Keep it up, man! Losing money ain't fun but the satisfaction is worth the investment
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A few more testers would be great to make sure everything is running ok with the new Netherlands location running cPanel.
It doesn't feel right to create a free hosting account for cPanel plans. Each account is costing the provider money. Its okay as long as it's (free cPanel hosting) for testing.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.
I think he's asking why anyone would offer a free cPanel plan with the new pricing.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
The new pricing is not that bad, I have always said it for what is offered by cPanel, you may not think so. In any event, its factored in, I wouldn't use anyone to provide the service that was not sensibly limiting the number of accounts for the cost of service.
We will see what people lean towards, DA or cPanel.
If you're used to CloudLinux+cPanel, DA is actually not all that different these days for the end user - even the grouping of specific tasks is similar.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Did you just assume his gender agenda?
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Thanks for clarifying, @WSS. With new cPanel pricing model, a 'free' account is also costing the provider money even if that account is idle/not using any hardware resources. That is because now there is a software cost as well for 'each' account. Free hosting offered on DirectAdmin, free-panels such as CyberPanel, or hosting providers' custom panels is, financially, a much better option.
But since @Lee said that, currently, the free cPanel hosting is for testing the platform, so in that case it's all right (for me) to use/test it for free.
CloudLinux + Softaculous + a third-party Backup/Restore plugin are the things that I think most people want in shared hosting control panels.
No agenda, sorry
Have you tried turning it off and on again?Too early to tell? I definitively prefer DA, though there's a couple of features not present (yet) ...
Cpanel without a doubt.
@Lee Tits, or ass?
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Ass.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Thought it might be so, as only DA is listed/available.