Godaddy No More

Last month I took a good hard look at my godaddy.com website, the main host for Traykon.com. I was behind several versions on a few of my applications. I tried to update my mediawiki extension but quickly discovered that both the MYSql version and the PHP version were far below the minimum requirements. In order to upgrade my Sql for security, I was going to have to either buy a much more expensive package or move to a new host. The same story applied for upgrading PHP for stability.

To give an example, I needed to have at least MYSql version 5.5.8 but the highest godaddy had available was 5.5.6, which I had upgraded to just a few months ago. For PHP, I needed at least version 7.0.13 but the highest Godaddy would allow me to go was 5.6 of which I had long ago upgraded.

To me this was unacceptable. My image database (Coppermine) was supported but I had to remove it to a free service (irony) because of server load a year ago. MediaWiki was no longer supported and I had an version that was not only no longer supported but one that wasn't compatible with mobile viewing. Also a horrendous hit was that Wordpress now required PHP 7.3 for the necessary security upgrades. I was unable to export the Wordpress postings to preserve that information over the last 2+ years. There was nothing I could do to upgrade the application to continue using it either.

Faced with these facts (and a few other things I was unable to do with the website due to outdated architecture) I decided to remove my Traykon.com website from Godaddy.com. This was not an easy decision. I have had that site hosted with them since spring of 2006. Aside from the Traykon site, there were also 3 other websites that piggybacked off of my main host package. I was using only about 6% of my available resources but I was unable to get the full use of the site. Facing reality, I could no longer justify the $150 a year for hosting when the website was not capable of meeting my needs.

So here I am today. I have decided to split my site over a few free hosts for the time being. I am looking at two different host sites to see which one offers the reliability and features I need while remaining affordable. I am keeping my domain registered at Godaddy this year (I have to renew in 2 weeks) but the site itself has to move on.

More information as it comes available.