Does anyone use a 3rd party web server host for your LMS?
Apparently, our IT department was unable to install Moodle onto our own server and I think we may have found a way to utilize Moodle on a 3rd Party Web Server, but I would like to know your experiences.
It really depends. How many users at once? I have 175 students and 42 courses and we use Hostgator. Works great. The only thing is someone will need to make sure they do backups of the SQL database.
This is going to sound like a very ignorant question....why would the web hosting site need to have a limited number of users? It seems that would be applicable for the LMS?
Chris, to answer your question, we would be providing access to our LMS to provide training for about 400. Of course, they would not all access the courses at the same time.
Different hosting situations offer different "shares" of an actual machine. Cheaper plans give you a portion of hardware and connection. The limit isn't really the number of user accounts, it gets hairy with the number of simultaneous users. You'll quickly exceed some of the cheaper plan's limits if you have tons of people hitting the site.
I've used Fatcow, MediaTemple, and SiteGround. All are pretty easy to setup and offer a range of support plans. I think SiteGround and Fatcow offer EZ setup wizards for configuring Moodle on a site as well. I pay $109 for 2 years of Fatcow hosting with one of the budget plans. I wouldn't trust that level of plan for more than 50 peak simultaneous users. Even then, hiccups would be had.
Sure. Any dedicated plan would handle that many and more. Higher cost, though. The Moodle forums would probably be a good bet for getting scaling / balancing advice.
At my previous job, we had used Fatcow and they were horrible and provided horrible customer service to us. The applications were slow and really had trouble making things work. We also tried iPage with the same result but Hostgator has been awesome. I am running three different sites and I do not see any problems. Just my experience that I wanted to share with you.
Rackspace Cloud Servers could also be a rather cheap and highly scalable option for you. Needs more careful setup and planning than your average VPS plan though.
My server instances are quite small so I do weekly images of the whole hard drive, which are stored in the cloud. If anything goes wrong, I'd be able to restore that image, with a couple of clicks more-or-less.
If your database is on localhost, then you'd probably be better off writing a cron-job through the console.
However rackspace does offer what they call "MySQL cloud databases", which are hosted remotely (i.e. not on your cloudserver) and can be administered through the Rackspace control panel.
Keep in mind I am using the Rackspace service in the UK cloud, so there may be some differences compared to the US, although probably favoring the latter service, if any.
You do have to be quite experienced in setting up Linux Servers though, and have some background knowledge on TCP/IP, Port forwarding, and web servers like Apache, lighttpd, or nginx, plus whatever else your LMS requires (e.g. an application server like Tomcat).
However, once you get everything secure and running, I don't think you can beat the service, even from a value standpoint.
The best web server for LMS is those having the ability to deliver functionalities with ease of use. The high configurability, robust learning management, and affordable monthly active user pricing model.
Personally, I have experience with below 3rd party hosting providers;
DomainRacer: Top performing LMS Hosting + Instant Training Set up
LearnDash: Affordable Online course builder with Limited Configuration
Thinkable: Word Class Support but Lack of Full Learning Automation
Currently, I am using DomainRacer Tutor LMS hosting for my e-learning portal. Really it delivers an enhanced and enjoyable learning experience for learners. It has the guts to Train any audience, anytime, anywhere.
DomainRacer LMS is a powerful, award-winning solution that uses the best combination of Rapid deployment and integration. Including task automation for tracking and reporting.
12 Replies
It really depends. How many users at once? I have 175 students and 42 courses and we use Hostgator. Works great. The only thing is someone will need to make sure they do backups of the SQL database.
Hi Chris,
What kind of plan are you on with Hostgator to manage 175 students?
Thanks
This is going to sound like a very ignorant question....why would the web hosting site need to have a limited number of users? It seems that would be applicable for the LMS?
Chris, to answer your question, we would be providing access to our LMS to provide training for about 400. Of course, they would not all access the courses at the same time.
Different hosting situations offer different "shares" of an actual machine. Cheaper plans give you a portion of hardware and connection. The limit isn't really the number of user accounts, it gets hairy with the number of simultaneous users. You'll quickly exceed some of the cheaper plan's limits if you have tons of people hitting the site.
I've used Fatcow, MediaTemple, and SiteGround. All are pretty easy to setup and offer a range of support plans. I think SiteGround and Fatcow offer EZ setup wizards for configuring Moodle on a site as well. I pay $109 for 2 years of Fatcow hosting with one of the budget plans. I wouldn't trust that level of plan for more than 50 peak simultaneous users. Even then, hiccups would be had.
Steve, would you trust one of Fatcow's larger plans to accommodate, say, 100 simultaneous users?
Sure. Any dedicated plan would handle that many and more. Higher cost, though. The Moodle forums would probably be a good bet for getting scaling / balancing advice.
At my previous job, we had used Fatcow and they were horrible and provided horrible customer service to us. The applications were slow and really had trouble making things work. We also tried iPage with the same result but Hostgator has been awesome. I am running three different sites and I do not see any problems. Just my experience that I wanted to share with you.
Hi Carrin,
Rackspace Cloud Servers could also be a rather cheap and highly scalable option for you. Needs more careful setup and planning than your average VPS plan though.
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/pricing/
Carin,
If you go that route, I can help you set it up.
Alexandros- How would daily/weekly database backups work with Rackspace?
Hi Chris,
It depends on the setup.
My server instances are quite small so I do weekly images of the whole hard drive, which are stored in the cloud. If anything goes wrong, I'd be able to restore that image, with a couple of clicks more-or-less.
If your database is on localhost, then you'd probably be better off writing a cron-job through the console.
However rackspace does offer what they call "MySQL cloud databases", which are hosted remotely (i.e. not on your cloudserver) and can be administered through the Rackspace control panel.
Keep in mind I am using the Rackspace service in the UK cloud, so there may be some differences compared to the US, although probably favoring the latter service, if any.
You do have to be quite experienced in setting up Linux Servers though, and have some background knowledge on TCP/IP, Port forwarding, and web servers like Apache, lighttpd, or nginx, plus whatever else your LMS requires (e.g. an application server like Tomcat).
However, once you get everything secure and running, I don't think you can beat the service, even from a value standpoint.
Hope this helps,
Alex
The best web server for LMS is those having the ability to deliver functionalities with ease of use. The high configurability, robust learning management, and affordable monthly active user pricing model.
Personally, I have experience with below 3rd party hosting providers;
Currently, I am using DomainRacer Tutor LMS hosting for my e-learning portal. Really it delivers an enhanced and enjoyable learning experience for learners. It has the guts to Train any audience, anytime, anywhere.
DomainRacer LMS is a powerful, award-winning solution that uses the best combination of Rapid deployment and integration. Including task automation for tracking and reporting.
Thank You...!!