Domains
Sharing the list of registrars I currently use:
- Godaddy
- Namesilo
- Dynadot
I’m gradually moving away from Namecheap.com because a $15 renewal fee for .com isn’t great at scale.
I purchased GoDaddy’s Discount Club, so domain backorders and renewals currently cost me $10.25.
I pay $240/year for the Discount Club on one account, and $120/year legacy price on another. Decide for yourself if it’s profitable for you. At volume, it definitely makes sense.
Control Panel
Across 10 VPS instances, I still use ISPmanager 5 and 6, but I’m gradually switching back to version 5 because I don’t see any perks in version 6, and paying an extra €12 makes no sense to me.
I’ve accumulated IP addresses from old VPSs, so I just rebind the license IP and run version 5 on a new VPS. So far, I haven’t seen anything more convenient than ISPmanager.
Plus, I set up bot blocking there via Nginx.
I use Nginx + PHP-FPM mode for the websites.
Anyone interested can still buy a LIFETIME ISPmanager 5 license through these guys.
I haven’t found cheaper prices anywhere else either, and I buy all my licenses from them.
Backups
I create backups using my own script, which dumps the database and site files. I consider ISPmanager’s built-in backup tool very weak (plus constant server load and backup bloat), and WordPress plugins are also subpar in my opinion—almost all of them cost money and restoring isn’t particularly convenient.
The only solid option I can recommend so far is UpdraftPlus. You can back up to the cloud once a month. It works fine overall and doesn’t charge money for this BASIC feature.
However, restoring a database dump manually is easier for me. After all, making a backup is one thing; testing a restore and having everything go smoothly is another 😉
I’ve tested it, and everything works fine. I transfer backups between servers using the rsync command. I log into the VPS containing the backup and run:
rsync -avz /root/backup/FOLDER_ON_SERVER_WITH_BACKUP/ root@TARGET_SERVER_IP:/root/backup/backup_folder_name/
Hosting
I’ve come to realize that it’s better to have a mid-tier VPS rather than an overly large and powerful one. A mid-range server with a 1 TB NVMe drive is ideal.
Currently, the ideal option for me is Contabo Cloud VPS L for €17.5 + extra 1.2 TB SSD storage for €3.5.
A solid second option right now is the AX52 from Hetzner.
AMD Ryzen™ 7 7700 processor, 64 GB DDR5, 1 TB NVMe SSD for €70.
It’s neither weak nor overly powerful—just right in the middle.
I don’t know of anything better on the market right now in terms of price/performance.