I really need a reliable hosting service where I can host my clients sites.

I'm a web developer, and usually do sites for small-medium size businesses. So huge traffic will not be that much of a problem, but it does need to be somewhat affordable.

The trouble is, I need pretty good support for modern languages. I'd like to be able to host Java/Spring, Ruby/Rails, and Python/Django applications.

It seems, this limits me to VPS hosting. Which is where I'm stuck. VPS is not too expensive, and decent plans start at around $40/m. But these would not be managed.

Does it take that much time and attention to manage a VPS? I'm ok with linux (I run it as my desktop os), but I don't want to be applying software patches and security updates every day.

Would it be worth paying for a managed VPS? Or is hiring a part-time admin an option?

What do you guys do to deploy java/python/ruby apps?

DreamHost has shared plans with Rails/Django. I'm not sure about Spring though. I'm actually going to be buying a plan from them because my current host doesn't support Rails or Django (I want to use Django). For ~$70/year, it's not bad at all.

This post has been edited by .Maleficus.: 1 Jun, 2008 - 02:47 PM

If you have a large variety of development work, than a vps may be worth it. If you need something custom done, it can take you all of a couple minutes, as opposed to sending in a ticket to your hosting company just to see IF it can be done. Major software versions do not update all that often, and if you get something like cPanel on your vps, the minor versions can be upgraded automatically. Or you just have to type something like "yum update".. not really a big deal.

On the other hand, if you need some custom modules compiled in with php or ruby, or libgd ..etc, you have the flexibility to do that.

I pay $35/mo for a basic vps, and then $5/mo on godaddy for one of the "200GB" type deals, which I use basically just for ftp, larger files, and backups