4 ms·

Show HN: Mediapig – Simple, affordable VPS hosting

16 points by philgourley 12y ago

philgourley 12y ago
Hi HN, After some early feedback here a few weeks ago we're now ready to put our new product under 'Show HN'. Starting earlier this year my co-founder and I wanted to create a product that approached VPS differently. We wanted something we'd be happy to use. A service that would provide a real use, away from the terminal window. While our ideas extend much further than our initial product launch we're excited to be able to open the doors to our first customers. Our first round of feedback was incredibly helpful and as such we've been able to drastically improve our processes. I wanted to approach HN once again for a new round of critique, discussion and brainstorming. If you're interested in any new features or improvements over the coming months. You can follow us on twitter at @MediaPigHost. As a token of thanks for our previous and any future critique HackerNews readers / users can now use this 20% discount code (HCK20) on any order.
- AdamGibbins 12y ago
  It's not clear to me how this differs from Digital Ocean, other than being (minimally) more expensive. Don't get me wrong, competition is good, and I'm always on the lookout for more hosts (I run a distributed (S|P)aaS, I want as many providers as possible). But a comparison of some description could be useful.
  - mappu 12y ago
    I'm the opposite - i have VPSes spread across a dozen or so countries, and i can't take advantage of any of the providers' differences because it's so much more important to have a uniform stack across all my hosts. (free backups! free ftp space! free database hosting! custom control panel with a totally different api! etc - all pretty useless if you also have to architect for hosts without them) On a side note, i can't use DO because they don't allow multiple IP addresses per VM.
  - virmundi 12y ago
    One point of difference is that DO and Linode both have fixed SSD sizes. This company allows you to mix and match CPU, disk and RAM. Neither to the former allow that (at least not yet).
    - AdamGibbins 12y ago
      That's not true with Linode, you can add additional disk, memory and transfer under the extra's menu once you've purchased a slot. They'll migrate you as required.
      - virmundi 12y ago
        Neat. I did not know that. Do they post that information anywhere on the public, you-haven't-paid-for-this-yet site? I've been trying to figure out what I'll need for hosting for the last few months. Linode looked best, but I worried about having to get beefing systems just to get more HD.
- dotBen 12y ago
  I guess my main question would be - what's your differentiator over DO?
- mappu 12y ago
  Nice! Fedora 21's out, maybe add it to your templates.
  - philgourley 12y ago
    Thanks mappu! We will be providing regularly updated templates so we can get you using Fedora 21 as soon as possible.
stevekemp 12y ago
You provide root-logins for virtual machines, which sounds nice. Cheapest seems to be £6 a month for 512Mb and small disk space which isn't excessive, but doesn't mention VAT. Do you provide IPv6? Can users run their own kernels, or are these externally provided? Do you provide access to the serial console, or VNC, if the user makes a firewalling mistake? Where are your machines hosted, and do you own them or merely resell? Can users configure custom reverse DNS for their IPs?
- philgourley 12y ago
  Hi Steve - Thanks for your questions! We're going to update our site to reflect some of these answers but I wanted to answer you directly. I'm pleased to say that there are no restrictions for users to run their own kernels. We also do provide access to a remote console access via HTML5 Canvas. That's available in your account immediately after purchase. Currently our machines are owned by Hivelocity but we do have around the clock support with them. And we do allow users to configure custom reverse DNS for their IPs. We really appreciate the comments and questions!
  - stevekemp 12y ago
    Good answers, thanks. The obvious omission was the lack of reply about IPv6 support. Do your guests get IPv6 access by default, or can it be added if not? PS. You might want to update your SSL configuration to avoid the POODLE-attack, and add perfect forward secrecy too.
    - philgourley 12y ago
      Sorry Steve, I missed out the detail on this. At the minute we have not implemented IPv6. All of our kit is IPv6 ready and we are looking to go ahead with this very soon! Thanks again!
    - philgourley 12y ago
      Steve - Thanks for bringing the SSL configuration improvements to our attention. While we aren't open about offering bug bounties. If you could send me an email to team@mediapig.co.uk we'll arrange something for you as thanks. We're now operating under Grade A SSL on all our applicable domains which includes POODLE-attack protection and perfect forward secrecy. https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=mediapig.co.uk https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=mediapig.co.u...
longlivegnu 12y ago
Where are the servers located?
- philgourley 12y ago
  Hi Longlivegnu - thanks for the interest! Our servers are located in Tampa, Florida.
etcet 12y ago
Where is your DC located? Is that HDD space or SSD disk space? What will I be relying on for my storage and can you back it up? What virtualization tech do you use? Can you give me a months credit free? :)
- philgourley 12y ago
  Hi etcet - Thanks for your questions! Our DC is located in Tampa, Florida. We'll be looking at expansion to further regions as growth continues. Our disk space is using RAID 10 SATA and use KVM Virtualisation and I'm pleased to say that we can provide backups. At the minute these need to be individually requested but we want to automate this in an upcoming release.
ukandy 12y ago
Site looks good, but you need your business details on the site for people to take you seriously. I wouldn't deal with an unknown entity, hosting in an unknown location
rubiquity 12y ago
Why can't we specify how many cores we get? I'm sick of having 2GB or more of RAM and only one core. Some languages can actually saturate 4 cores and use less than 2GB of RAM while doing so. Are there any CPU core friendly VPS providers out there?
- bryanlarsen 12y ago
  You're not getting exclusive access to a core, you're only getting part of a core. If the host machine has 20 cores and 256 GB of ram, then you're probably getting (2 * 20 / 256) of a core. Would you rather get (2 * 20 / 256) of a single core or (2 * 20 / 256 / 4) of 4 cores? Time slicing and threading adds overhead, so you're generally much better off with a provider that pretends to give you a single core than with one that pretends to give you 4.
hejuehdh 12y ago
I can't quite understand why this is a UK company, apparently registered in England and Wales, but yet the data center is in the US. The main reason I'd go for a UK company over a US one is if the support matched my hours, but with a 24 hour SLA response time, it's not particular great. That mixed with an overseas DC makes it a strange choice for UK customers, I can't see it working out favourably for the company
- philgourley 12y ago
  Hi hejuehdh - We understand your concerns here. The reason for this is after working with various datacenters we found the one who could provide us with the best support; best hands on support and the best SLA were based in Tampa, FL. Whilst the SLA response time is currently 24 hours, as business grows we will work to reduce this. We are also continuing to look at hosting in other datacenters closer to home that will provide us with the same level of hands on support. We're keen to get this right to begin to reduce our SLA response time. Expansion into regional support is a logical next step for us.
SuperKlaus 12y ago
Pricing seem to be (too?) close to DO or Linode and they are established players that provide way more technical specs, not sure why I'd go with mediapig.
- psykovsky 12y ago
  Also, DO and Linode provide phone numbers and addresses for their respective companies.
rahimnathwani 12y ago
It would be great to see: - A test IP (to check ping times) - A test URL with a 100MB file (to test throughput from a specific location) Also, if you use KVM (as you indicate here in the comments) it may be worth mentioning that somewhere on the site (I didn't see it), as otherwise many will assume you use OpenVZ, for which providers usually charge less than you are charging. Check out lowendtalk.com to see the types of questions/comments people often post about these services.
seidler 12y ago
So you want 60 GBP for less specs (4G RAM, 100 vs. 200 G HDD) I can get for 8 EUR at contabo, for example? No level of service can make up for that.

16 points by philgourley 12y ago

Hi HN, After some early feedback here a few weeks ago we're now ready to put our new product under 'Show HN'. Starting earlier this year my co-founder and I wanted to create a product that approached VPS differently. We wanted something we'd be happy to use. A service that would provide a real use, away from the terminal window. While our ideas extend much further than our initial product launch we're excited to be able to open the doors to our first customers. Our first round of feedback was incredibly helpful and as such we've been able to drastically improve our processes. I wanted to approach HN once again for a new round of critique, discussion and brainstorming. If you're interested in any new features or improvements over the coming months. You can follow us on twitter at @MediaPigHost. As a token of thanks for our previous and any future critique HackerNews readers / users can now use this 20% discount code (HCK20) on any order.

AdamGibbins 12y ago
It's not clear to me how this differs from Digital Ocean, other than being (minimally) more expensive. Don't get me wrong, competition is good, and I'm always on the lookout for more hosts (I run a distributed (S|P)aaS, I want as many providers as possible). But a comparison of some description could be useful.
- mappu 12y ago
  I'm the opposite - i have VPSes spread across a dozen or so countries, and i can't take advantage of any of the providers' differences because it's so much more important to have a uniform stack across all my hosts. (free backups! free ftp space! free database hosting! custom control panel with a totally different api! etc - all pretty useless if you also have to architect for hosts without them) On a side note, i can't use DO because they don't allow multiple IP addresses per VM.
- virmundi 12y ago
  One point of difference is that DO and Linode both have fixed SSD sizes. This company allows you to mix and match CPU, disk and RAM. Neither to the former allow that (at least not yet).
  - AdamGibbins 12y ago
    That's not true with Linode, you can add additional disk, memory and transfer under the extra's menu once you've purchased a slot. They'll migrate you as required.
    - virmundi 12y ago
      Neat. I did not know that. Do they post that information anywhere on the public, you-haven't-paid-for-this-yet site? I've been trying to figure out what I'll need for hosting for the last few months. Linode looked best, but I worried about having to get beefing systems just to get more HD.
dotBen 12y ago
I guess my main question would be - what's your differentiator over DO?
mappu 12y ago
Nice! Fedora 21's out, maybe add it to your templates.
- philgourley 12y ago
  Thanks mappu! We will be providing regularly updated templates so we can get you using Fedora 21 as soon as possible.

stevekemp 12y ago

You provide root-logins for virtual machines, which sounds nice. Cheapest seems to be £6 a month for 512Mb and small disk space which isn't excessive, but doesn't mention VAT. Do you provide IPv6? Can users run their own kernels, or are these externally provided? Do you provide access to the serial console, or VNC, if the user makes a firewalling mistake? Where are your machines hosted, and do you own them or merely resell? Can users configure custom reverse DNS for their IPs?

philgourley 12y ago
Hi Steve - Thanks for your questions! We're going to update our site to reflect some of these answers but I wanted to answer you directly. I'm pleased to say that there are no restrictions for users to run their own kernels. We also do provide access to a remote console access via HTML5 Canvas. That's available in your account immediately after purchase. Currently our machines are owned by Hivelocity but we do have around the clock support with them. And we do allow users to configure custom reverse DNS for their IPs. We really appreciate the comments and questions!
- stevekemp 12y ago
  Good answers, thanks. The obvious omission was the lack of reply about IPv6 support. Do your guests get IPv6 access by default, or can it be added if not? PS. You might want to update your SSL configuration to avoid the POODLE-attack, and add perfect forward secrecy too.
  - philgourley 12y ago
    Sorry Steve, I missed out the detail on this. At the minute we have not implemented IPv6. All of our kit is IPv6 ready and we are looking to go ahead with this very soon! Thanks again!
  - philgourley 12y ago
    Steve - Thanks for bringing the SSL configuration improvements to our attention. While we aren't open about offering bug bounties. If you could send me an email to team@mediapig.co.uk we'll arrange something for you as thanks. We're now operating under Grade A SSL on all our applicable domains which includes POODLE-attack protection and perfect forward secrecy. https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=mediapig.co.uk https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=mediapig.co.u...

longlivegnu 12y ago

Where are the servers located?

philgourley 12y ago
Hi Longlivegnu - thanks for the interest! Our servers are located in Tampa, Florida.

etcet 12y ago

Where is your DC located? Is that HDD space or SSD disk space? What will I be relying on for my storage and can you back it up? What virtualization tech do you use? Can you give me a months credit free? :)

philgourley 12y ago
Hi etcet - Thanks for your questions! Our DC is located in Tampa, Florida. We'll be looking at expansion to further regions as growth continues. Our disk space is using RAID 10 SATA and use KVM Virtualisation and I'm pleased to say that we can provide backups. At the minute these need to be individually requested but we want to automate this in an upcoming release.

ukandy 12y ago

Site looks good, but you need your business details on the site for people to take you seriously. I wouldn't deal with an unknown entity, hosting in an unknown location

rubiquity 12y ago

Why can't we specify how many cores we get? I'm sick of having 2GB or more of RAM and only one core. Some languages can actually saturate 4 cores and use less than 2GB of RAM while doing so. Are there any CPU core friendly VPS providers out there?

bryanlarsen 12y ago
You're not getting exclusive access to a core, you're only getting part of a core. If the host machine has 20 cores and 256 GB of ram, then you're probably getting (2 * 20 / 256) of a core. Would you rather get (2 * 20 / 256) of a single core or (2 * 20 / 256 / 4) of 4 cores? Time slicing and threading adds overhead, so you're generally much better off with a provider that pretends to give you a single core than with one that pretends to give you 4.

hejuehdh 12y ago

I can't quite understand why this is a UK company, apparently registered in England and Wales, but yet the data center is in the US. The main reason I'd go for a UK company over a US one is if the support matched my hours, but with a 24 hour SLA response time, it's not particular great. That mixed with an overseas DC makes it a strange choice for UK customers, I can't see it working out favourably for the company

philgourley 12y ago
Hi hejuehdh - We understand your concerns here. The reason for this is after working with various datacenters we found the one who could provide us with the best support; best hands on support and the best SLA were based in Tampa, FL. Whilst the SLA response time is currently 24 hours, as business grows we will work to reduce this. We are also continuing to look at hosting in other datacenters closer to home that will provide us with the same level of hands on support. We're keen to get this right to begin to reduce our SLA response time. Expansion into regional support is a logical next step for us.

SuperKlaus 12y ago

Pricing seem to be (too?) close to DO or Linode and they are established players that provide way more technical specs, not sure why I'd go with mediapig.

psykovsky 12y ago
Also, DO and Linode provide phone numbers and addresses for their respective companies.

rahimnathwani 12y ago

It would be great to see: - A test IP (to check ping times) - A test URL with a 100MB file (to test throughput from a specific location) Also, if you use KVM (as you indicate here in the comments) it may be worth mentioning that somewhere on the site (I didn't see it), as otherwise many will assume you use OpenVZ, for which providers usually charge less than you are charging. Check out lowendtalk.com to see the types of questions/comments people often post about these services.

seidler 12y ago

So you want 60 GBP for less specs (4G RAM, 100 vs. 200 G HDD) I can get for 8 EUR at contabo, for example? No level of service can make up for that.