Stickied this, I'm going to start closing any other "what's the best hosting company" threads.

Preface

GSPs are great if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing and are completly unwilling to learn. However, if you want to pick up a few new skills and save a lot of money, I always recommend buying a dedi or VPS for yourself.

SoYouStart (basically OVH with no support)

SoYouStart is brilliant for cheap dedicated servers with a lot of power behind them. I've been using them for about 2 months now and I've never had a problem with them, my servers performance is way better than when it was on shared hosting and having a dedi means that I can run whatever on it, so I moved some of my personal stuff to it as well. The only downside is there's basically 0 support. If your server gets fucked up, good luck recovering it, since its something ridiculous like $45 for KVM access.

Hosthatch

Solid VPS host, still use them for hosting my Cross Server Chat relay server. Servers are fast and cheap, support can sometimes be lacking but more often than not they've fixed my shit pretty fast. If you're running a larger community I'd recommend SoYouStart, however if you've just started running severs Hosthatch are pretty great.

HostHatchSolid VPS host, still use them for hosting my Cross Server Chat relay server. Servers are fast and cheap, support can sometimes be lacking but more often than not they've fixed my shit pretty fast. If you're running a larger community I'd recommend SoYouStart, however if you've just started running severs Hosthatch are pretty great.

I'm using HostHatch right now, however I'm experiencing ping issues. Did you get this? 100-150 ms

VAU Networks

Honestly these guys are possibly the best hosting company i have ever had! There support is fucking amazing, 24 hours around the clock whatever the day and they will help you, i have even spoken with the director before and he was really chill, if you're looking for cheap servers and brillient support, i suggest you look here!

Crident

I switched over to crident recently when i won the Fan-Fiction Comp as i had free credit and so far i'm not dissapointed, the support is amazing especially when you can contact someone via discord and the issue is fixed, even when steam binaries etc went missing they still managed to do it, and as the OP says Dino Panel is quite good

( Not a review ) I'm using ovh since 2 years for a game dedi. I got it 2 years ago during black friday at 40% discount, wich I still pay the same price with 40% discount. So I pay 71$ cad dollars for a I7 4790k with 32 Gb ram, 480 Gb SSD, with 1 Gb/sec ddos protected. Never had a big problem, but when I did have problems ( for ex: adding a failover ip on my dedi ) I simply called the support by phone and they guided me and told me what to do. My dedicated server never went down because of DDos attacks even with a 50 Gb/sec attacks. I was with SYS ( SoYouStart ) Before OVH wich is more affordable, I never had any problems with them too. The support is good too, the same as OVH. I would totally recommend anyone a dedicated server, shared hosting for servers with more than 32 players is bad, atleast, this is what I think.

P.S Sorry for my broken english

##Disclaimer: I run Crident Networks.You can ask me questions about what we do here if you'd like Feel free to remove this post as it's not entirely on topic - but as it's early in this thread that (i assume) has a long time to go, I wanted to make a distinction. Just to keep things laid out level, and in reality from the start. I've also mixed my personal reviews in here, too.

Bymeharrypat 15th of October 2017 11:06:10

PrefaceGSPs are great if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing and are completly unwilling to learn. However, if you want to pick up a few new skills and savea lotof money, I always recommend buying a dedi or VPS for yourself.

A lot of people say this - but it's not fair, it doesn't represent reality. I would appreciate the opportunity to clear this up at the start, on behalf of all game hosts.

Firstly, I don't feel like I should, but apparently I need to point out there are loads of people who absolutely do know what they're doing, but choose to use a managed game host because it's easier, and cheaper considering the context. For example, content creators on gmodstore buy servers from us - I don't think that's because they're inept, and when anyone makes a broad statement like above, it almost infers that others are dumb for using a game host, which isn't fair or true. Even I use our shared hosting for my personal gmod server, and I'd like to think I know how to manage a Dedi, and have the cash to blow on one.

The issue with the second part of your statement is that for high demand game servers; VPS wont cut it. You're looking over the fact that VPS are almost always running on Xeon grade hardware, which isn't a great start. VPS also have virtualisation overhead, though. This is the actual resource the OS and other things the OS comes with uses, but also the inherent performance impact the game server will have as a result of virtualisation.

These reasons, combined with the extra time a VPS and Dedi will take to manage, are why larger communities would be better using shared hosting, or dedicated hosting in some cases.

This is why I present the people my guide to what solution is the best for your scenario, and my personal favourites.

####VPS: VPS are great for small scale projects, development and flexibility. The beauty of VPS is that you're not just restricted to running a Garry's Mod server - you can run two, or a MySQL database, a website, TeamSpeak and the list goes on. VPS don't come without their downfalls, though. They're not going to be the best for performance, especially if you are running multiple servers, or other apps on top of your server. I explained this stuff above if you want more info. VPS can also get pricey easily as you scale up. (That's just one or two VPS!) For VPS I personally love Vultr, but I wouldn't personally run a production game server on a VPS.

####Dedi: Dedicated Servers are what most people with a VPS wish they had. But the ultimate fact is they don't have the money, or more often; don't think it's worth the money for a whole Dedi. I personally couldn't justify a Dedi for my community. Provided you've bought a high end Dedi you could run easily 4-8+ gmod servers on there with MySQL databases, webservers and some other random shit. For dedicated I personally love OVH. They've been great to me and imho have the most intelligent business strategy I've seen from any data centre.

####Game Host: Game hosts are exciting to me because the market is still developing. In an ideal world they basically sit between Dedi's and VPS. With game hosting you should get better performance on par with a Dedi, because there is no virtualisation, but you still save a load of money as you're sharing a dedi, just like with VPS.

I see a game host as a professional tool, honestly. To give you context, you might test your website on a VPS, but you run the production site on AWS. I see a hame host as the "AWS" for game hosting. In theory a good game host should provide much better performance than a VPS while being easier to use and trying to give you as much control as a dedi would over the game server.

Sadly this isn't what's been happening with game hosting, and this is why I understand people taking the stance Harry did. Game hosting has been pretty fucked for the last few years. The reality is that if a host is paying ~£100/mo for a dedi, and you're paying £10/mo for your 42 slot server, they need to run 10 42 slot servers to break even, and then probably another 5-10 to make the profit they want. If you're not paying shit, expect shit.

I really think the future of game hosting will be resource based. We already see it gaining traction with games like Minecraft, where you buy the amount of memory you want. I think for Garry's Mod and other games it'll be CPU based, because these games are heavy on CPU.

Sadly there aren't many options for people right now, but not all hope is lost. There are two companies I know which do proper CPU based sales, and that's GMCHosting and Crident. This video might help explain my above points better.

SNOServers It's a pretty new host with great employees, support & hosting quality. They are currently selling Voice Servers (TS) from $3.20, Web Hosting, Domains and mutliple Game Servers.

Which interests me the most is their Garry's Mod hosting. It starts at $11 with normal CPU & Ram Priority, and 20GB with Block Storage. There are two options with the slots, either 32 Slots with is free or unlimited slots (1-128) for an extra 10 USD. You have 10 different locations to choose from and It's pretty cheap compared to others, the only thing you pay for is the CPU & Ram Priority expect if you want more storage or unlimited slots.

They have a 24/7 live chat and tickets you get a reply within 12 hours.

I've used the host for about 2 months and I've only had good experiences.

I disagree with the fact that a VPS isn’t capable of handling a game server. I rent a VPS from ExtraVM which is actually on OVH’s i7 6700k and I have no issues with performance. When it comes to a VPS for game servers, you just have to play your cards right.

By[IGN] Skeptic ❄at 17th of October 2017 02:09:51

I disagree with the fact that a VPS isn’t capable of handling a game server. I rent a VPS from ExtraVM which is actually on OVH’s i7 6700k and I have no issues with performance. When it comes to a VPS for game servers, you just have to play your cards right.

Hard to have performance issues with 0 players :)

Byahshop3at 17th of October 2017 15:13:56

Hard to have performance issues with 0 players :)

Hard to function in society with an IQ below 50 :)

By[IGN] Skeptic ❄at 17th of October 2017 19:34:33

Hard to function in society with an IQ below 50 :)

no drama, his point was valid (even if it was a bit cocky) that you can't really measure performance if you don't have anyone on to stress the resources.

edited

forgot to mention: reviews from customers have been updated 2 the OP, any reviews are allowed as long as they're constructive and informative (meaning you're not saying "hey this host sucks ass, the end") and you are/where a customer for that host

An attempt to get back on topic before drama gets aids.

SerenityServers

I reviewed them in a post similar to this a few months back, but no harm in reviewing them again. I used SerenityServer for about 2 years across 3 or so servers. All of which at some point had an average playerbase of about 40 on a DarkRP server. You gotta give them credit because they seem to be fairly popular when I ask people what host they're using. Pricing is average at about $0.50 per slot, however, they currently advertise 120 slots but actually only allow you to buy 80 unless you contact support. Speaking of support, it's just one guy as far as I'm aware, Mikkel. He runs everything, a one-man show. He's pretty quick to answer tickets however they're not always helpful. He'll often just tell you he fixed the issue without actually explaining anything to you, this can be a bit annoying as if it happens again you need to recontact him ect. Performance wise it's about average. anything over 45 players or so starts to show a hard hit on performance. The service overall is about average. There are better services available, however, they're not awful.

A side note, I still use their web hosting and teamspeak (Till recent). It's all pretty smooth and you can get some good deals on the web space. But this isn't a web hosting review now is it?

ByLunaversity.xyz 🌸at 17th of October 2017 21:00:34

no drama, his point was valid (even if it was a bit cocky) that you can't really measure performance if you don't have anyone on to stress the resources.editedforgot to mention: reviews from customers have been updated 2 the OP, any reviews are allowed as long as they're constructive and informative (meaning you're not saying "hey this host sucks ass, the end") and you are/where a customer for that host

Yeah I will agree with that. But obviously I've done a lot more experimenting around with my VPS other than just raw live player performance and overall was just trying to help; Therefor I see no reason for him to come make a rude remark when my intentions are good.

By[IGN] Skeptic ❄at 17th of October 2017 02:09:51

I disagree with the fact that a VPS isn’t capable of handling a game server. I rent a VPS from ExtraVM which is actually on OVH’s i7 6700k and I have no issues with performance. When it comes to a VPS for game servers, you just have to play your cards right.

I never said a VPS can't handle a game server, though. I said:

[The issue] is that forhigh demandgame servers; VPS wont cut it

I will totally take a step back and admit that part of the statement was focused on Xeon hardware which you say you're not using - so I admit you will be able to handle a decent load on a VPS running on a 6700k. Obviously you'll still have the virtualisation overhead. Here are some graphs on KVM vs Docker performance impact. For the CPU hit Expect OpenVZ to sit at about 200-250.

As you can see, if you're using KVM (or even OpenVZ) the performance hit isn't something to be ignored. For anyone wondering, Crident uses Docker to sandbox servers.

As a side note, I would be weary of people claiming to run VPS on i7's. I've looked into it extensively and it's really hard to make it cost efficient unless they're overloading or basically charging you what would normally cost half the price.

henlo

Hexane Networks (worth noting, I am actually Support for Hexane atm) I've been with Hexane Networks for 3 months now, it's been a sound run. There has only been 1 downtime and that was mitigated quickly and it was out of there hands. My only gripe was the website, but thats had a makeover and its awesome. Support is rapid, I was typically getting responses in 10-15 mintues. Also the addition of their livechat is great. Also their server specification is insane, I haven't seen any other host offering i7 7700k's.

Full spec can be seen here: https://help.hexanenetworks.com/kb/server-specifications

Polar Servers I was with them for 2 weeks. I had a pretty awful experience with Polar, unfortunately. Some of the particularly bad parts being their FTP permissions being set up incorrectly (couldn't delete folders in gamemodes directory), they took a double payment (however this was resolved quickly) also my gameserver randomly dropped. However, there support was pretty fast, so that is good.

Crident Networks I've been with Crident a various number of times, each ranging in length. Crident is a good choice, however I did have some issues with their FTP however that was apparently an issue on TCAdmin's part. My major issue with crident is the support, some of their tickets would take up to 4 hours for a response, whilst this isn't necessarily a major issue, in comparison to smaller hosts I found it quite fustrating.

ByHavasuat 28th of October 2017 16:40:02

Crident NetworksI've been with Crident a various number of times, each ranging in length.Crident is a good choice, however I did have some issues with their FTP however that was apparently an issue on TCAdmin's part. My major issue with crident is the support, some of their tickets would take up to 4 hours for a response, whilst this isn't necessarily a major issue, in comparison to smaller hosts I found it quite fustrating.

Yeah I used them when they had TCAdmin and it was a p bad experience but after coming back to experience their new dino panel it's just 100 times better than TCAdmin in every way.

ByLunaversity.me 🌸at 28th of October 2017 18:50:37

Yeah I used them when they had TCAdmin and it was a p bad experience but after coming back to experience their new dino panel it's just 100 times better than TCAdmin in every way.

You are probably right, I haven't used them since the panel switchover, however I've been told the Support issue is still a major gripe so I thought I'd review them aswell.

ByHavasuat 28th of October 2017 18:56:29

You are probably right, I haven't used them since the panel switchover, however I've been told the Support issue is still a major gripe so I thought I'd review them aswell.

Not sure on support, I've never made a ticket usually just talked to them directly but I've only had about 2 issues and it was mainly cause dino was still in a "beta" stage, but it got fixed fast none-the-less.

ByHavasuat 28th of October 2017 18:56:29

You are probably right, I haven't used them since the panel switchover, however I've been told the Support issue is still a major gripe so I thought I'd review them aswell.

Yeah, I'll admit we're struggling with support because of demand and growth. Ultimately I'm the only guy who does at least 99% of tickets. It's important for me to note that if there is an urgent issue though, it immediately takes the forefront of my mind - it's just non-issue tickets that are having a noticeable impact.

It's an area that's hard for me to tackle, but there are totally plans - and it's totally something I want to improve.

We don't claim 24/7 support or anything though. We never have until we can.

ByHavasuat 28th of October 2017 16:40:02

I haven't seen any other host offering i7 7700k's.

GMC and Crident use them in some newer builds. Ultimately - load balancing will play a bigger role than hardware with shared hosting though. So the CPU doesn't matter if it's 4790k or above.

Personally I'm running my community on a 4790k on our shared game hosting - could have gone for a 7700k. I just know the reality is the difference is so small, if you're worried about it; you should be focusing your attention on the actual server optimisation. Here is a sceptic I was literally talking to before writing this post. Here is someone who might know what they're talking about, also agreeing.

Just took a brief look at the link you posted and I notice the servers running the 7700k are on single SSD's, which is really meh. Disk I/O is way way way more important to a shared game hosting (using ULX esp.) than CPU is, honestly. The game thread locks while reading and writing txt files iirc.

correction: Below I spoke from previous experience. Zare gave me a test server to check out their performance and I have to say the cooling seems much more effective. At least the chips aren't getting as hot, and it's unlikely you'll get thermal throttling on Zare.

Also I can safely assume those servers are with Zare, and I hate to burst any bubbles - but gl;hf getting a Zare 7700k to clock faster than a OVH 4790k with a real-world load.Most other hosts can't dissipate the heat fast enough with theirfan and air-based cooling, so the CPUthermal throttles.They're mainly limited by the fact their servers are built in 1U - so they have very little space to add the kinda cooler you might add to your own PC.Zare are obviously aware of the issue - this is why they (at least used to) take the back plate and/or front plate off the boxes to allow better airflow.The only host that's resolved this is OVH with their water cooling. GMC has some black magic with this, so you can put his Dallas location down as also having resolved the heat problem according to Ertug.

Update: it seems Havasu and Ben are disputing the fact you'll get higher temps and in turn thermal throttling with Zare, so I figure I'll give them a fair test again, since it has been a year since I used them. I'll post some reliable test results back soon as Zare are giving me a free box to test on. Unless I end up going out. You might want to question any test results posted by Havasu, or Ben - as he's the one performing the tests.

Bydrizzy.vip - cridentat 2nd of November 2017 17:44:17

Personally I'm runningmy communityon a 4790k on our shared game hosting - could have gone for a 7700k. I just know the reality is the difference is so small, if you're worried about it; you should be focusing your attention on the actual server optimisation.Here is a sceptic I was literally talking to before writing this post.Just took a brief look at the link you posted and I notice the servers running the 7700k are on single SSD's, which is really meh. Disk I/O isway way waymore important to a shared game hosting (using ULX esp.) than CPU is, honestly. The game thread locks while reading and writing txt files iirc.Also I can safely assume those servers are with Zare, and I hate to burst any bubbles - but gl;hf getting a Zare 7700k to clock faster than a OVH 4790k with a real-world load.Zare (as with p much every host) can't dissipate the heat fast enough with theirfan and air-based cooling, so the CPUthermal throttles.They're mainly limited by the fact their servers are built in 1U - so they have very little space to add the kinda cooler you might add to your own PC.Zare are obviously aware of the issue - this is why they (at least used to) take the back plate and/or front plate off the boxes to allow better airflow.The only host that's resolved this is OVH with their water cooling.*

Apologies for the misinformation regarding Hexane being the only host using i7 7700k, I wasn't aware that Crident & GMC are using i7 7700k's as it isn't posted on your websites (unless I missed it).

Anyway, regarding your claims about heat dissipation issues. Ben ran a stress test/benchmark on our fresh i7 7700k (hosted with Zare) box and it sat around 75-80 degrees, which is hot, but would cause zero thermal throttling (Benchmarked with Aida64). Here is an image for reference:

For comparison, we also benchmarked our i7 6700k (hosted with OVH). That was hitting around 55-65 degrees on average. (the 6700k is clocked lower which would account for lower temperatures)

And finally, here's this:

Pretty sure this is going to be my last response on the matter because I think(?) we've proved our point. (and he is also for some reason using a grammatical mistake to imply that I don't know what thermal throttling is, that shit hurts :( ) "nothing fancy, don't worry ;)"