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We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

thestartupfoundry.com

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Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#41

Post by maguay »

cj wrote: post #11

If you recommend MediaTemple add a disclaimer to stay away from (gs). Their dv service is alright, but gs has terrible performance. I tweeted a few weeks ago that I was switching away from MT (gs) and their twitter support DM'd me admitting that gs "sucks" as they tried to sell me on their DV package. I'm sure many people here would recommend Linode, Slicehost, or Heroku as competent alternatives.

Ouch ... They actually DMed you to confirm your thoughts on (gs)? They tried to sell me on (gs) in a DM message the other day! That's bad...

Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#42

Post by wh-uws »

maguay wrote: post #14

Why MediaTemple specifically? Is there something they provide more/better than other hosts to make them so much more popular among webdevs and creatives? I've tried to figure out how people justify their higher price relative to other hosts like Dreamhost on the simple hosting end to VPS.net on the hither end... I'd really be interested in any insight any MediaTemple users have! Edit: I should mention that I recently…

I use mediatemple.

My setup is the mediatemple for client projects and a linode vps for my own personal playground

I like them because they are like an entry level honda to, for comparison, say the Rolls Royce of one of the more expensive Rackspace plans.

I don't know if anyone else has used rackspace but I had a client who did once. You pay them something like $2000 - $4000 a month but everytime you call them you instantly get a person on the phone that can get you to someone who can help you fix your problem.

With mediatemple you have to deal with a machine answering and wait 5 or 10 minutes but you only pay $200 for the whole year. And the service and knowledge of the support people is comparable.

They also have a great control panel with all of the standard dns configuration, 1 click app installation, administrative stuff.

Long story short they have plenty of things that automate the tedious setup process of building a site and pretty good customer service.

Though I would agree for the more tech savvy go for the free Amazon ec2 instance and scale up from there or invest in a vps with linode or slicehost.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. I know my answer was really general

Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#43

Post by clare »

ElbertF wrote: post #29

Surveys: http://surveymonkey.com/ I'm currently using the free plan for a handful of projects and it's awesome.

In the same line our own survey startup http://www.impressity.com is another free survey option. The surveys are 100% free without limitation. You can set 10 survey questions to private, and the remaining will be public. We welcome any feedback, and hope this can contribute to HN community.

Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#45

Post by timtim »

Those two have not been mentioned yet:

Hosted SVN/Git: http://www.assembla.com/ -> I prefer it over Github.

Real Browser Website Monitoring: http://www.alertfox.com/free-website-monitoring/ -> Once you have your web app running, make sure it really works.

We have been using both for more than a year now. Great services! Both over free plans, too.

Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#49

Post by mutru »

Some of the tools we're using ourselves:

Team collaboration: http://www.flowdock.com/ No matter what are the other tools you're using, Flowdock keeps your team organized and up-to-date. Google Wave done right.

Version control: http://www.github.com/

Agile project management: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/

Customer feedback: http://www.uservoice.com/

Service monitoring: http://www.pingdom.com/

Scalable database: http://www.mongodb.org/

Programming languages: JavaScript, Ruby, Scala

Everyone in the company is using an OS X desktop, and our servers (hosted in several places) are powered by Ubuntu Linux and Chef (systems management).

Re: We’re creating a “Startup toolbox”. What apps should go in it?

#50

Post by maguay »

wh-uws wrote: post #42
maguay wrote: post #14

Why MediaTemple specifically? Is there something they provide more/better than other hosts to make them so much more popular among webdevs and creatives? I've tried to figure out how people justify their higher price relative to other hosts like Dreamhost on the simple hosting end to VPS.net on the hither end... I'd really be interested in any insight any MediaTemple users have! Edit: I should mention that I recently…

I use mediatemple. My setup is the mediatemple for client projects and a linode vps for my own personal playground I like them because they are like an entry level honda to, for comparison, say the Rolls Royce of one of the more expensive Rackspace plans. I don't know if anyone else has used rackspace but I had a client who did once. You pay them something like $2000 - $4000 a month but everytime you call them you in…

Thanks for responding! I do have a couple questions. What type of site are you running on your MediaTemple account? If just a standard website or blog, why MediaTemple over, say, Dreamhost? I would personally compare Dreamhost to a honda and MediaTemple to a Rolls Royce when thinking of hosting, say, a design blog, but that would be solely based on price. For just standard hosting, $97 can get you a year's hosting at Dreamhost or many other similar hosting companies. Do you have any idea what they offer to make it worth double that for basic hosting?

Thanks again for your time and for replying!

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