Best Hosting for Forums

As I've mentioned before, I'm the anti-guru when it comes to servers and hosting. It seems to me though that forums sometimes have specific needs, in regards to server allocation, when compared to regular websites such as blogs.

When considering a hosting service for forums, what are the key aspects that should be looked at? For example, forums need more ____ than regular websites because ____. Or unlike blogs, forums don't consume a lot of ______.

I'm just trying to get an idea of what makes the perfect forum host.

 

I want mysql access with no restrictions. Some hosting providers limit mysql databases to 100 megs, or your limited to 5 databases - those kind of restrictions.

Try to stay away from hosting providers that over sell, or have bad reviews on sites like webhosting talk.

 

Some providers (servage) even restrict the amount of queries in a given time. For a forum that can be a problem. With Servage I think it's 20,000 queries an hour. Well some tools can blow that in about 5 minutes. Forum hosting needs ram and strong sql servers.

 

I'd add ssh access for working with the database to my list.

 

Lets say an average of 10 queries per page view of a forum. 20,000 / 10 = 2,000 page views per hour.

24 * 2,000 = 48,000

48,000 * 30 = 1.4 million page views per month.

1.4 million page views per month for a forum is not a lot. And that is what that hoisting provider has hard set their customers to?

 

Yes but it's per database. I keep small static sites at servage. I wouldn't host anything large there. I actually have image-host.com there for a while and it runs great but obviously it doesn't use much sql.

 

My requirements:

• Small Diskspace because forums don't really require alot of it.
• large bandwidth because thats a major priority for soo many pages being viewed.
• unlimited mysql databases with no restrictions because of reasons stated above.
• FTP to upload files of course (not all hosts provide FTP for free)
• Unlimited Addon/Parked/Sub domains incase i need to create subdomains for forum modifications or anything.