JaguarPC: a developers friendly hosting provider

I signed up for my first web hosting account back in 1998, a shared plan with 20 Mb. of disk space and five mailboxes running in a Windows NT 4.0 server. At US$ 72.50 per month it seemed like a good deal at the time.

Two months later, with a couple of hundred dollars less in my pocket, I started searching for other options. I moved from Windows to Linux and then tried many providers in shared, reseller and VPS plans.

In 2001 I leased my first dedicated server and started a web hosting business that grew to six servers and more than 500 clients in ten countries. In 2006 I decided to move on, sold the hosting business and bought a server for my own projects that I colocated in a Los Angeles data center.

During all that time I worked in dozens of web development projects hosted in lots of different configurations. Obviously, I've had enough of hosting experiences to know when a provider delivers and is developer friendly. JaguarPC is such a provider.

My encounters with the Jags

In 2002 I started working with a client who had a shared account at JaguarPC. At first I didn't pay attention to the plan details, it was the Gigadeal, just needed to create a MySQL database from cPanel and upload a few files via FTP; however, when the project requirements grew I started asking questions and found more good things in JaguarPC's offering. After that I've recommended many other clients to host with them and have just received good comments.

In 2003 I signed up for my own CentOS based VPS with JaguarPC and kept it running for almost three years, it worked great until I decided to do colocation.

Four reasons for hosting with JaguarPC

I need a couple of things before recommending any hosting provider: lots of time and lots of testing. I've had both with JaguarPC and found the following benefits while hosting with them:

• Good tech support: We, web developers, know our tools and expect that everybody in our hosting company's tech support department talk our talk. Nothing makes me angrier than canned responses telling me to check my Internet connection or some FTP client's documentation. We are not newbies, know what we are doing and have a real problem or wouldn't be asking. Sometimes we don't even FTP, just commit or scp. I expect the tech guys to know and understand that, master their servers and give me practical advice and solutions. JaguarPC does all this quickly and in a very friendly manner.
• Developer friendly access: I am a shell guy, do all my stuff from the command line, including talking to MySQL and PostgreSQL, and of course code with vim. I understand hosting companies need to offer control panels for their non techie clients but that doesn't mean they should limit those who know our way around. JaguarPC offers the well known cPanel but also gives you shell access, even in their most basic plans, quite useful when you hate dealing with PHPMyAdmin or nice looking FTP clients that keep hanging.
• A loyal community: There's nothing that tells you more about a hosting company than their clients. The community around JaguarPC is very active and the discussion forums are a great place to get answers for most of your hosting issues, either from clients like you or from the Jags themselves. There's also a JaguarPC blog which provides insight into the company's operations and publishes hosting and technology related articles. Being this open is a big plus for any services oriented company.
• Reliable network and solid hardware: JaguarPC's network includes servers in several data centers in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore. Access speeds are quite good and uptime guarantee is 100%. In the event of any failure or upgrade you'll always be informed of what the JaguarPC is doing about it. Many of my web development clients who moved to JaguarPC have noticed their sites loading faster than with their previous providers and that's always a good sign.
• Affordable prices: I don't think price alone should direct your decision when looking for web hosting, the benefits I've mentioned above are much more important, but still JaguarPC has very attractive prices for what they offer. From their Gigadeal shared plan, which ranges between US$ 6 and US$ 12 per month depending on how many months you sign up for, to reseller and VPS plans for less than US$ 20 a month, there's no doubt you'll find a good hosting deal according to your budget and needs.

The web hosting decision

As a web developer you know what each project will require in terms of web hosting. In some cases a shared account is more than enough, in others you may need root access and think about your own dedicated box, or VPS if on a tight budget. Sometimes decisions have already been made by your clients but if you can make suggestions or are working in your own projects then take a look at JaguarPC, it may be exactly what you need.

Oh, and don't forget to come back and tell us about your experience hosting with JaguarPC.