Hello,
I am currently with a HostGator reseller account and feeling concerned by the occasional performance instability and slowdowns. I mostly use it to host and develop WordPress websites for various clients.
I found out about linode and would like to know if it would make sense moving from HG to here in order to get better performance.

I am aware that linode is an "unmanaged host" and setting everything up requires work.
But how hard / time consuming would be the transfer, setup process?
I know that I would have to buy a cPanel(WHM) licence, but what else would I need to buy, setup (firewall, LAMP, etc) in order to get similar functionality as I have with HG?
Considering that I don't have any experience in system administration (I did use linux a bit on several occasions though) and I don't want to spend more time administering my hosting than on my main business, would it make sense moving to linode?

Thanks!

I used Host Gator for many years, pretty much since Brent started the business. He developed a very good business model. HG provides good service and support for a reasonable price.

I have been with Linode since 2009. I finally moved all of my sites here earlier this year. You will find Linode to be an excellent value. With the recent doubling of resources, Linode has become a VERY good value.

I personally find it very easy to set up sites without cpanel and fantastico. If your customers don't need them for their use, you should consider getting along without them. However, if you do find it necessary to have cpanel, they (cpanel) offers a very good price for a version that is tailored to the vps environment.

Give Linode a try. You can set up a trial server for a few weeks to see if it fits your needs for a very small investment. One of the hallmarks of Linode is the flexibility of their servers. They can be resized up or down very easily as your needs grow or recede.

Jeff

Probably not.

As you stated, you make money making websites, not doing system administration.

Unmanaged VPS is a completely different world from shared hosting (both in performance, which is way better, and in system administration overhead, which is way way way more and never ending).

Either hire a system admin (and factor in that cost to use a unmanaged service), or stick with managed servers.

It's the wise (and profitable) business person that knows when not to lose focus on what makes them money versus what costs them time and/or money.

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

Note as well that Linode does offer managed service, so the premise that Linode is unmanaged is somewhat incorrect.

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If I was you, I would buy a Linode with the managed Linode service, and call that a day. Though $100/mo. might be a bit much. There are also other management companies of course, though $100/mo. for manaement of a server is actually quite reasonable.

I mean, you get excellent value for your money at Linode, IMO, but coming from a shared environment and spending $120+/mo. for a server is a steep price hike.

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lakridserne
Serverfruit - shared and managed VPS hosting, SSL certificates and domains
Awesome servers rented from Linode!