VPS.net Review: Great Servers. Great Management. Big Billing Difficulties[Updated]

Mobile Local Social started out as an experiment to see what kind of traction it could get and to find out what kind of talent that we could find to write for it, consistently.  The experiment was an overwhelming success, so instead of being on a very slow, shared server wit Dreamhost… we began our search for a new company to host our site.  We needed something fast, scalable and secure.

We REALLY needed secure, as Dreamhost is one of the most un-secure host providers for the WordPress platform.  You are sharing a server with who-knows-how-many-hundreds of websites… and if one of those sites become compromised with a virus, it seems, it can find it’s way to many of the sites within.  So, MobileLocalSocial.com got a virus.  Now, we HAD to move.  We were getting lots of front page diggs and tweets, but once the virus got on there, our site became a liability.

VPS.net Review

MobLoSo, Editor and Co-Founder, Dan Brady did some massive research and had read some great things about VPS.net and their powerful hosting system.  I, too, researched VPS.net and found them to be a good choice.  You can buy “nodes” which allow you to ramp up your server space when need be.  So, say you have some hugely viral content, and POW! it gets on the front page of Digg or some other viral site and your traffic is huge, you can scale it up momentarily, so your site doesn’t succumb to the “digg effect” and crash your server, like we did on Dreamhost.

So, we decided on 3 nodes, at first.  The total cost, around $54 a month.  Not too bad, we can handle that.  So, Dan and I try to figure out how to configure an empty server.  Because that is what VPS.net gives you, a blank slate to work with.  Since neither Dan nor I am a server admin, we struggled to figure out how to set it up properly.  In fact, there is VERY LITTLE documentation on how to configure the server through them.  So, I think it may be a ploy to get us to buy the Managed server account, which we inevitably did.  And so, we paid them another $45 for setup, and $90 a month.  Another $135 paid to VPS.net this month. $54 + $135= $189, so far… in the first month.

We initially tried, in vain, to set up the server on our own. Well, in the process, we racked up a 3 additional $9 fees for a server add-on called Softaculous. What Softaculous allows us to do is to install WordPress and over 100 other website software components to any website on our server. Well, we installed it twice on accident on a server that we configured wrong and had to start over. We were charged $18 for those. We installed the configuration once again and collectively, Dan and I said, “Screw this” and we went to managed services, so they would set up the server and get my sites ported over well.

They have done a TREMENDOUS job on porting the sites over, and getting things working on the site that we need. MobileLocalSocial.com is now faster than ever. They had to delete the server we installed, and reinstalled it correctly, which we probably would have done, had there been any real documentation for us to read. So, 2 more $9 fees were added.

So, roughly $200 has been charged in the first month… but one of the $9 fees hadn’t been paid for yet… and so they SUSPEND the Server this morning. Over $9.

VPS.net Review: Nickels and Dimes

How completely nice of you VPS.net. Wow, your customer service is AMAZING. If the billing department would be as amazing as the implementation department, they might have a company worth doing business with. In the grand scheme of things, VPS.net, $9 is not very much money. I couldn’t care less about the $9. It’s the principle of the matter. The fact that I could be spending over $1000 this year with you… and you want to suspend me over $9. Not very wise considering the vast amount of web developers, web designers and SEO professionals that we directly and indirectly influence.

So, I’m debating a new search for a new server company now. It shouldn’t have to be this way, but apparently, VPS.net can not see the forest because there are too many trees in the way. There short sightedness is why I am giving VPS a 3 out of 10, so far. If they can figure out their customer service issue, then I would bump it to a 9 of 10.

VPS.net has been amazingly fast and secure, so far. And the support team has been great. I totally recommend this aspect of VPS.net’s business. And it’s WAY better than Dreamhost, but that isn’t saying a whole lot.

[UPDATED]

About 10 minutes after I published this article, The CEO of The UK2Group, owner of VPS.net, tweeted back to me:
.

I wasn’t quite expecting the CEO to reach out, but this is a good sign. They are keeping track of their online reputation. This allows them to put out shitstorms, more effectively, more swiftly. Immediately shit-storm removal.

To which I responded: “Nice of you to follow up @ditlev I was excited for VPS.net but I just can’t fathom getting suspended for $9 after spending $200 this month.”

We are now discussing the problem: He tweets back:

ditlev “@teedubya ya, suspensions are automatic – it has to be with thousands of clients. Systems are smart … but stupid. Sorry for the mess”

That’s great. @ditlev Once resolved, I’ll add an addendum to my post. Also, Terry Myers sent me a great email back. He seems awesome. THX

So, it appears that they are in the process of making their billing system much better. They have helped us get it squared away. I truly appreciate them connecting to me, and what was interesting was that it was through non-traditional channels, through twitter. How cool. This is one company that gets the power of social media. They are managing their reputation and it’s helping them beat their competition.

Overall, now I give them that 9/10.

Server Speed: 10/10
Ease of Unmanaged Setup: 2/10 [get some n00b documentation/ video tutorials]
Managed Server Setup: 10/10
Billing: 4/10 [ and I think they are working on it ]
Customer Service: 9/10
Social Media Management: 10/10