While a domain name is like the address of your proxy site, a hosting server is like the land where it is located. In this last post of the Proxy Building for Beginners series, we will talk about how to find a hosting service for your web proxy site.
Types of Proxy Hosting Plan
Based on the server environment, there are three main proxy hosting plans:
1. Shared Proxy Hosting
This is usually the cheapest proxy hosting plan. The word “Shared” means your proxy site shares the same web server with other 20 – 50 websites if not more. All of those sites are competing for CPU Time, Memory Space, and Network Bandwidth. So the performance of your proxy site largely depends on how well your hosting company allocates and optimizes the resources.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
VPS is often considered as a hybrid of Shared Hosting and Dedicated Server. It offers more resources and controls as Dedicated Server while costs much less as Shared Hosting. In essence, your proxy site still shares the web server with others, but you can get guaranteed resources like Memory Space and CPU Time. Plus you are given a ROOT access to freely install your own software and manage server environment.
3. Dedicated Server
This is the ultimate solution for Pro Proxiers. You may pay more money upfront but get the full control of your proxy business. Specifically, the whole web server is 100% dedicated to you, so you have enough power to host more proxy sites. Moreover, you are allowed to adjust some fundamental server settings to gain the maximum system performance.
Things to Look at for Proxy Hosting
1. Bandwidth
Because a proxy site tends to have more visits and page views than a regular website, you first need to ensure there is enough bandwidth available. A low traffic proxy with 500 visits per day might require 100GB bandwidth per month, while a high traffic one with 3,000 visits often needs 1,000GB.
Try to give your proxy as more traffic allowance as possible. I learned this through some hard lessons. One of my champion proxy site went beyond the maximum bandwidth for 2 months, I ended up paying almost $2,000 for the penalty (the overcharge is on the per MB basis). It almost killed my proxy business.
2. Memory
Memory is the key factor of the proxy performance. When many concurrent requests arrive during the peak time, the server memory will be consumed very fast. Once it is used up, your proxy site will take much longer time (often forever) to response back. Usually for a Shared Hosting Plan, it is hard to guarantee how much memory will be assigned to your proxy, but for VPS and Dedicated server, you will look for at least 512MB, ideally 2GB above.
3. CPU
Nowadays, CPU power is usually not a big concern for proxy sites. As long as the server is not too old, its CPU should do the job well. What you care about is the number of CPU. For shared hosting and VPS, the server should have at least 4-8 CPUs to power multiple sites, for Dedicated Server, you will look for 2-4 CPUs as the starting point.
4. Web Space
Unlike other content sites, your proxy may not need huge hard-drive space. For a medium traffic proxy site, 5GB should be good enough as long as you clean up the temporary files generated by caching and logging on the regular basis.
5. Price and Service
Depends on proxy plans and companies, your hosting fee may vary. The typical price range for a Shared Proxy Hosting is $5 – $30, for VPS is $20 – $90, and for Dedicated Server is $80 – $500. Besides the price factor, you may want to look at a hosting company’s reputation, server up time, money return policy, contract term, and customer service.
Proxy Hosting Plan for Beginners
What is the best proxy hosting plan for beginners? It largely depends on your vision of proxy business and your style of doing things.
As a Pro Proxier, if I could start over, I would have definitely chosen Dedicated Server because it would have saved me tons of money and time fighting with server optimization, bandwidth limitation, and memory shortage.
However, I could also understand your concerns about how much you would make from your proxy business, especially when you still walk in the dark, you may be conservative on the monthly cost. Therefore, a Shared Hosting or VPS might be your Ginny Pig to play around first.
Recommended Hosting Companies
One thing I want to point out is: most of companies do not accept proxy in their shared hosting plan. This includes some big players such as GoDaddy, StartLogic, or BlueHost. Why? Because a proxy site usually has a big demand on CPU Time, Memory Space, and Network Bandwidth, they can’t host as many proxies as other regular websites. Therefore, before you sign up for any shared hosting plan, just make sure it allows proxy.
1. Shared Proxy Hosting
A good shared proxy hosting is about saving money while getting high quality service. Personally, the best one I have used is IwhiC Proxy Hosting. It offers very competitive prices (start from $4.99/Month), generous features, and solid server environment. Among its four proxy packages (Personal, Starter, Advanced, Pro), I would suggest you to get a Pro plan, it only costs less than $0.50 per day while provides all you need to start a proxy business. You can visit IwhiC Proxy Hosting here.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
I would highly recommend 1and1 VPS Root Server II. It costs $39/month and you get 512MB memory(2GB Burstable), 1,000GB Bandwidth, free Domain Name, Dedicated IP, and SSL certificate. 1and1 has been ranked as #1 hosting for many years, it offers great customer support and 90-days money return guarantee. It currently has a best promotion on VPS hosting (first 3 months free). You can visit 1and1 Hosting here.
3. Dedicated Server
For the entry level dedicated server, I recommend 1and1 Dual-Core L, it costs $99.99/month and you get 2GB Memory, 2CPUs, and 2,000GB Bandwidth.
For the premium dedicated server, I recommend FDC 1Gbit Unmetered Server, it costs $299.99/month and you get 8GB Memory, 4CPUs, and unlimited Bandwidth.
In conclusion
Based on your budget, expectation, and experience, you may host your web proxy site on Shared Web Server, VPS, or Dedicated Server. By working with right hosting companies, you would pay less money while get better server features and faster customer supports.
This post concludes the How to Create Your Own Web Proxy Site series which helps beginners to build their first web proxy.
