Lazy or busy, take your pick. Either way, I haven’t made the time to keep going on #9 in this series in several weeks. I must finish the series, though. I’m tired of starting things in my life and not finishing them. Besides, writing this post from Linux Mint-Maya vm is just fun. I’m using the blogging software called Blogilo to pen this chapter of the series.
When it comes to hosting and solutions for WordPress or DotNetNuke, it really comes down to the OS and platform that they run on. WordPress can essentially be run on free software. Since you can throw together a LAMP server at such a lower cost than you can a Windows server, DotNetNuke doesn’t really even compete when it comes to costs. WordPress bloggers can run their websites on some of the cheapest plans on earth. You just can’t do that when you’re running Windows. Of course, Windows can run all of the components to support WordPress, but WordPress isn’t nearly as happy when running on Windows, so I suggest you stick with a Linux server when hosting WordPress sites.
Just because DotNetNuke runs on Windows, though, doesn’t mean you can’t find good hosting solutions in a shared environment. Most end-users will be running their website in shared environment, so if you look for it there are viable solutions out there. There are several reliable DotNetNuke hosting providers out there that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. 3Essentials has been my host for years (and I seriously cannot recommend anyone as highly as I can these guys… they know their stuff!), and they have Windows plans that fit into just about anyone’s budget. Not everyone has to host their site at PowerDNN to be a legitimate DotNetNuke site. More expensive doesn’t always mean better.
Sometimes, though, you do need to spend some good money to support your website. If you expect a lot from your hosting solution, and you plan to have a large site with substantial traffic, you’ll want to sign up for a dedicated server. You can add features to a dedicated server, and you can also run multiple websites on it, so you can spread the cost out overy your clients if you’re in business for yourself. If you don’t want the hassel of supporting the operating system and doing all of the server configurations for your dedicated server, you can order a managed server.
With managed servers (more expensive), the hosting provider does the OS maintenance for you and provides a greater feature set for your server. You typically get more memory, processing power, and various features to help you run your website and/or business. You may not get direct access to web server (since your host would want to be in control of system changes and updates), but you do gain some peace of mind from knowing that your server is going to be well-maintained.
For the adventurous entrepreneur who wants to get their hands on the OS and web server configurations, though, you can go with a cheaper solution in an UNmanaged server. In this scenario, after the OS is installed, you connect via remote desktop and manage the server from the ground up. This can be a lot of fun and a great learning experience, but you better know your stuff if you’re going to choose this route. You’ll need to know how to setup Windows to allow users to connect to your site from the web (or Linux if you’re purchasing that type of server), how to install and run services that power websites, how to configure databases and more. This path is not for the feint of heart.