6 ms·

Explain how they still survive and are the only viable option for anyone in the day and age where $5 VPSes are a thing.

Veen 2y ago
Tens of millions of people want to host a WordPress site and very few of them want to deal with setting up a database, editing config files, securing a server. Most of them have no idea what that stuff means.
- WesolyKubeczek 2y ago
  Then they want a Wordpress, and not this.
- dingnuts 2y ago
  That's why companies like WPEngine exist. This doesn't have much to do with the software; non-technical users could use a WPEngine like service for WriteFreely, if someone ran that service
nucleardog 2y ago
Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap, and it’s not really economical to hire to fill the gap to support a single site (but it is to support hundreds of sites in a shared hosting environment).
- WesolyKubeczek 2y ago
  > Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap It has always been very peculiar. You either had very stripped off permissions of what you could do: FTP comes to mind first, and then you still need to understand how Unix permissions work, and then you wish you had SSH; or you get SSH with some stripped off permissions, and then you do need to have the skills to use the Unix system inside; or you find that the underlying PHP/webserver has 6-month-old zero days and someone keeps owning all tenants all the time, but the sysadmins are prima donnas on power trip who know better. And you are still in a firmly DIY area most of the time, with enough footgun to do you harm. Oh, and if you want a custom domain, welcome to the special hell. Maybe I had bad experiences 15 years ago, but in my opinion, they should be called "mismanaged services".
  - dingnuts 2y ago
    the industry is also mostly dead. non technical users now use sites like Wix with a builder. Technical ones get a VPS or cloud solution and probably don't want LAMP anyway The only non technical people using shared hosting now are people who paid to have a site built for their small business twenty years ago and don't need to update anything, so they just keep paying the bills The whole industry has been on life support for a long time. just look at all the brands Endurance has bought up. That hasn't happened because all of those hosts were making a ton of money
  - BeetleB 2y ago
    Been using shared hosting for 20 years. It's easily easier than VPS. Not sure what you mean by stripped off permissions. Yes, I'm not root, but most VPS providers don't give me root access either (at least not for cheap). SFTP has always worked, and continues to do so. Of course you need to understand UNIX permissions. You also need to understand what a directory is, what a file is, etc. It's not asking too much. I've tried 3 different providers, and they all had SSH access. I've not heard of one that doesn't. The only problems I had with PHP servers is that the admins are doing their job and removing old vulnerable versions. Which is a pain for me but it's why I pay them. The whole point of shared hosting is they're taking care of the zero day exploits for me. Custom domains? Not sure what you mean. Every provider I looked at it made it painless to use. Having a simple LAMP stack is dead simple to use (yes, as long as you know basic UNIX). VPS: I suddenly need to set up the web server, and manage DOS attacks, etc? And keep track of all the security vulnerabilities and keep upgrading? I don't want to deal with that pain. With shared hosting, I need to "fix" things less than once a year. My web apps happily work without my needing to log in. With a VPS, I have to pay more only so that I have to do more work? No thanks.
    - nusl 2y ago
      Root access on a VPS is pretty normal though. Which VPS host doesn't give you root on the server?
      - BeetleB 2y ago
rchaud 2y ago
CPanel simplicity vs a blank slate CLI that doesn't do anything before an endless list of "sudo xyz" commands are run.
vouaobrasil 2y ago
Plenty of people just want something point and click like cPanel with one click wordpress installs, email filtering options, etc.
jnsplm 2y ago
I happily pay some money for not maintaining another server/service in my private time. 10€/month for a managed server with ssh, Postgres, MySQL, mail, and backups is worth it for me: https://uberspace.de/en/ https://uberspace.de/en/ (not affiliated, just a happy customer)
abdullahkhalids 2y ago
There are 26 million software developers in the world [1]. Maybe 10 times as many people who understand some programming. There are over 8 billion people in the world. How do the remaining people create a blog? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demograph...

Veen 2y ago

Tens of millions of people want to host a WordPress site and very few of them want to deal with setting up a database, editing config files, securing a server. Most of them have no idea what that stuff means.

WesolyKubeczek 2y ago
Then they want a Wordpress, and not this.
dingnuts 2y ago
That's why companies like WPEngine exist. This doesn't have much to do with the software; non-technical users could use a WPEngine like service for WriteFreely, if someone ran that service

nucleardog 2y ago

Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap, and it’s not really economical to hire to fill the gap to support a single site (but it is to support hundreds of sites in a shared hosting environment).

WesolyKubeczek 2y ago
> Shared PHP hosting is a managed service, a VPS is not. Not everyone has the skill set to bridge the gap It has always been very peculiar. You either had very stripped off permissions of what you could do: FTP comes to mind first, and then you still need to understand how Unix permissions work, and then you wish you had SSH; or you get SSH with some stripped off permissions, and then you do need to have the skills to use the Unix system inside; or you find that the underlying PHP/webserver has 6-month-old zero days and someone keeps owning all tenants all the time, but the sysadmins are prima donnas on power trip who know better. And you are still in a firmly DIY area most of the time, with enough footgun to do you harm. Oh, and if you want a custom domain, welcome to the special hell. Maybe I had bad experiences 15 years ago, but in my opinion, they should be called "mismanaged services".
- dingnuts 2y ago
  the industry is also mostly dead. non technical users now use sites like Wix with a builder. Technical ones get a VPS or cloud solution and probably don't want LAMP anyway The only non technical people using shared hosting now are people who paid to have a site built for their small business twenty years ago and don't need to update anything, so they just keep paying the bills The whole industry has been on life support for a long time. just look at all the brands Endurance has bought up. That hasn't happened because all of those hosts were making a ton of money
- BeetleB 2y ago
  Been using shared hosting for 20 years. It's easily easier than VPS. Not sure what you mean by stripped off permissions. Yes, I'm not root, but most VPS providers don't give me root access either (at least not for cheap). SFTP has always worked, and continues to do so. Of course you need to understand UNIX permissions. You also need to understand what a directory is, what a file is, etc. It's not asking too much. I've tried 3 different providers, and they all had SSH access. I've not heard of one that doesn't. The only problems I had with PHP servers is that the admins are doing their job and removing old vulnerable versions. Which is a pain for me but it's why I pay them. The whole point of shared hosting is they're taking care of the zero day exploits for me. Custom domains? Not sure what you mean. Every provider I looked at it made it painless to use. Having a simple LAMP stack is dead simple to use (yes, as long as you know basic UNIX). VPS: I suddenly need to set up the web server, and manage DOS attacks, etc? And keep track of all the security vulnerabilities and keep upgrading? I don't want to deal with that pain. With shared hosting, I need to "fix" things less than once a year. My web apps happily work without my needing to log in. With a VPS, I have to pay more only so that I have to do more work? No thanks.
  - nusl 2y ago
    Root access on a VPS is pretty normal though. Which VPS host doesn't give you root on the server?
    - BeetleB 2y ago

rchaud 2y ago

CPanel simplicity vs a blank slate CLI that doesn't do anything before an endless list of "sudo xyz" commands are run.

vouaobrasil 2y ago

Plenty of people just want something point and click like cPanel with one click wordpress installs, email filtering options, etc.

jnsplm 2y ago

I happily pay some money for not maintaining another server/service in my private time. 10€/month for a managed server with ssh, Postgres, MySQL, mail, and backups is worth it for me: https://uberspace.de/en/ https://uberspace.de/en/ (not affiliated, just a happy customer)

abdullahkhalids 2y ago

There are 26 million software developers in the world [1]. Maybe 10 times as many people who understand some programming. There are over 8 billion people in the world. How do the remaining people create a blog? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demograph...