This issue came up for a couple of reasons one being the disaster related to http://statecraft21.com over the last few days. I created the site on a server (http://www.servage.net) where I have an account. The account includes an amazing amount of storage and of bandwidth. But, apparently, a database-heavy application was just not going to fly there.

The site is now here at site5 where I have some other sites hosted as well. I have used them for years and they have been great. But, I was actually looking for a hosting company in Europe for a couple of sites and decided to use statecraft21 as a test.

Many years ago, the issue used to be bandwidth. The first serious hosting I was involved with included a T1 Frame Relay connection to our business for around $1000/mo. We then did co-location in Seattle, in Costa Rica and managed servers in both the US and Canada. When we started using managed servers, there were a lot of fairly low-end options meaning $100/mo or less.

Now, much like that new TV or stereo with more options, you can find systems with lots more features, disk space and bandwidth but at higher prices. There seems to be a big gap between shared hosting (like here) and dedicated machines (which are also available here but at much higher prices).

The closest to a solution is offered by http://www.easyspeedy.com in Denmark. I have used them before. They are the best deal I have found anywhere in the world for dedicated machines. While the low-end is €129/mo, it is a lot of machine and their auto-install system is amazing. I am not talking about for applications, you can remotely re-load your OS from a whole list of choices in just a few minutes.

OK. back to reality but consider those clues if you are shopping.