An evaluation of Serve Direct

We, at bioceramics.org, have picked 'Serve Direct' to be our current domain name and hosting provider. Hence we suppose that this brief review of 'Serve Direct' is perchance going to be very helpful for other people from all around the World in search for domain name and web hosting solutions. We say folks from all around the World, since the mere truth is that 'Serve Direct' presently distributes domain and hosting services in numerous datacenter facility locations: in America (Chicago, IL), in the United Kingdom (Maidenhead, 20 miles outside London), in Sweden (Stockholm) and in Australia (Sydney). That way, encompassing almost the entire Earth. At least as far as the World Wide Web is concerned. So, here is what you could anticipate from 'Serve Direct' in brief:

Shared Web Space Hosting Plans

The first thing we, at bioceramics.org, have perceived is the affordable prices of the shared website hosting accounts supplied by 'Serve Direct'. Shared doesn't seem very good, does it? Well, that's what it is referred to as: shared hosting. The good thing here is that the hosting accounts provided by 'Serve Direct' are powered by an in-house developed, leading edge cloud web hosting platform (each web hosting service, like mail, databases, web page hosting CP, web space, DNS, stats, etc., is being dealt with by a different host of web hosting servers in a cluster). This is something EVERY cPanel web hosting corporation in the World will have great complications with, since cPanel is a one single server based website hosting platform (each hosting service, like electronic mail, databases, web page hosting CP, data storage, DNS, stats, and so on, is being served by one and the same web hosting server), cPanel is not open source (hence the cPanel-based web hosting distributors are unable to add additional functionality and manipulate it the way they want it) and there is no open source file system (they must build their own file system), which is the prerequisite of any cloud web hosting service. Let's get back to the shared web hosting packages, which are driven by a genuine clustered web page hosting platform. With a shared package, each customer pays solely for his/her plan, thus maintaining the price amazingly low (since plenty of users are hosted on the same server). In short, a shared hosting package, which runs on a clustered web hosting system, enables you to pay only for the resources that you indeed need, evading a scenario where you pay for a powerful site hosting plan that you cannot actually use, or for a tiny web site hosting plan that cannot handle your web site. The option to upgrade your account from one plan to another with just two clicks of the mouse grants you the flexibility to commence with a low-end plan and upgrade as your site grows. In this way, you spare cash that you can spend on advertising the site while it is still brand new. Each hosting plan delivered by 'Serve Direct' offers an online website builder and more than forty popular script platforms including WordPress, Joomla, Zen Cart and Moodle that will economize you hundreds of dollars for web site design solutions. 'Serve Direct' furnishes shared website hosting services in a number of different regions across the Globe. There is one server farm in Chicago covering the United States and Canada; 2 European server farms - in Great Britain and in Scandinavia; and another one in Australia, which encompasses the Asia Pacific region. In this way, nearly the entire World is encompassed to provide you and your visitors with a stable and fast web site hosting solution at a preferred place. All in all, the shared hosting plans delivered 'Serve Direct' are really well equipped and come at a good price (starting from $3.58 for the Starter plan).

Semi-dedicated Web Hosting Servers

To customers with little to no practice, a virtual private hosting server may seem tough to handle. That's perhaps why 'Serve Direct' also hosts semi-dedicated hosting servers in its main North American datacenter in Chicago. Handling these plans is comparable to handling a normal shared webspace hosting account via a webspace hosting CP tool. They have all the features of a shared website hosting account such as a free-of-charge web site building tool and a PHP script installation tool, but the system resource quota typical of a semi-dedicated server plan is many times bigger than that of a shared plan. For instance, the CPU power that can be used is about FIVE times as much as compared with the shared web site hosting packages. When juxtaposed to a shared web page hosting account, the quota of database queries included within the semi-dedicated hosting plans is enormous: 90 000 / hour. An unmetered hosted TLD allowance is a pattern as well. The semi-dedicated hosting accounts do not offer server root access (we, at bioceramics.org, think of this as a slight weak point), but the good point is that they are managed through the very same webspace hosting Control Panel tool as the shared site hosting accounts. This suggests that a well-known graphical user interface is accessible by all clients who do not have enough self-condifence to manage a private virtual hosting server, yet require more power and resources than a private virtual web hosting server can furnish them with. This is like that due to the fact that the semi-dedicated web hosting servers share the resources of the same powerful avant-garde web servers as the ones which host the private virtual hosting server plans, however, the number of the semi-dedicated web hosting servers is quite low (somewhere between 20 to 30 per physical machine), while the VPS hosting servers can reach a much bigger number (eighty to 120 per physical server). Having that info in mind, the semi-dedicated servers furnished by 'Serve Direct' can be defined as being very cheap (as far as cost is concerned), starting from $20.00 for the Mercury package.

Dedicated Servers

In bioceramics.org's opinion, huge web sites such as social networks, community and business portals or famous online storefronts with 1000s of clients need a much more powerful web space hosting platform. It seems that the folks from 'Serve Direct' have arrived at the same conclusion as well. To satisfy its clients' expectations, 'Serve Direct' supplies a bouquet of dedicated servers that can handle millions of daily hits. That evaluation stands on the hardware configurations the servers have: many-core processors, up to 4 GB of RAM, two thousand gigabytes of data storage and Gigabit NICs will undoubtedly guarantee the quick and steady work of any type of website. In 'Serve Direct's opinion, the primary hardware specifications can be upgraded for more system resource-requiring web sites. We, from bioceramics.org, believe that all dedicated server specs delivered by 'Serve Direct' are also suitable for kickstarting a hosting reseller business as each dedicated web hosting server comes with free-of-cost invoicing transaction software platform and a free-of-cost domain reseller account. Unfortunately, the dedicated servers provided by 'Serve Direct' are all unmanaged. We, at bioceramics.org, deem this a minor weakness, which can be adjusted by paying a monthly tax which amounts to $32.00 USD. So, if you need support, the Managed Services upgrade includes an array of extra services such as a regular backup, software installation, server surveillance and troubleshooting procedures. A handful of web space hosting Control Panel (CP) user interfaces are available with each of the dedicated web servers - Hepsia, cPanel and DirectAdmin. Our (bioceramics.org's) prediction is that the splendid point and click File Manager included in the Hepsia website hosting Control Panel will probably make the utilization of any File Transfer Protocol software program futile. Our (bioceramics.org's) inference is that the dedicated servers furnished by 'Serve Direct' don't seem to be very cheap (still the Hepsia site hosting Control Panel and the unmetered hosted domain allowance will beyond doubt make you smile), starting from $113.00 for the Xeon Scalable 6c plan.