One of the most crucial decisions an online-only business can make is your hosting company.  A lot of businesses make the mistake of choosing on price and put less focus on things like network speed, uptime, and support.  After a long drawn out process we finally decided upon The Planet.  Their network is super quick, servers are solid, and their support is phenomenal.  They currently have two divisions:  Planet Alpha (dedicated hosting) and Planet Northstar (managed hosting).  The division you choose really just depends on your individual business needs.

Much like with everything else, The Planet is not perfect, however.  Gripe #1:  their Live Chat has a gatekeeper that asks for your query and username/password.  Fine.  Then they forward you to someone else who also asks for your query.  Why is the question not forwarded to the next person?  Gripe #2:  Extra RAM is gasoline expensive.  A stick of Ram costs between $30-70 on average as a one-time expense.  The Planet will charge $70-80ish per month for extra RAM.  Talk about high profit margins.  Pricing in general is a little… pricey.

Here’s one of their most expensive setups currently:  Dual Xeon 5405 - Monster Dedicated Server

And one of their cheapest configurations currently:   Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz Dedicated Server

Aside from our few gripes we’ve been nothing but happy with The Planet’s hosting capabilities.   Highly recommended as of the date of this posting.

About The Planet

“The Planet is the worldwide leader in IT Hosting. Ranging from dedicated servers to enterprise-class managed hosting. We serve more than 22,000 customers from six SAS 70 Type II certified data centers. By providing world-class networking, the latest technologies and expert support, we enable our customers to successfully grow their businesses.”

About 3tailer

“3tailer is an online retail customer operating several niche sites.  To learn more about 3tailer visit our about us page.”

Original review found here http://www.3tailer.com/ecommerce/the-planet-hosting-review-we-like-em