I'm starting to work with clients on Zope-based solutions, but don't yet have a good answer as to how best to host domains that use Zope. What are some of the pros and cons of these solutions that people on the list have found:

* Custom Zope hosting (say, by exposing a part of the ZMI using a VirtualHostMonster) * Virtual Linux or BSD hosting where you install Zope yourself, probably with limited root access * Any other kind of arrangement folks are using that don't involve setting up your own ISP :-)

What works well for folks, and what have people found to be best buy for themselves and for their clients?

I've gone through the list of Zope Solution Providers, but this doesn't really tell me how to choose between them, or if I should be looking for something more general than any of them.

The options as I understand them, in rough order of cost. * Zope folders. Part of somebody else's Zope instance. You are bound by the products installed in the master system, and maybe their domain. Examples: zope.org, FreeZope. * Zope installations. A lot of Zope installations running on somebody else's machine. Install your own products via FTP or a web script or elsewise. Probably easy to get yourown domain working. Examples: many Zope hosts (no names come to mind at the moment.) * A remote system. You get shell access to somebody else's machine, possibly running a BSD jail or chroot or something. Set up your own Zope (it's not that hard!) Upside: you get filesystem access, and can do pretty much anything. Downside: you get to do pretty much everything. And no Zope support from your ISP. Some (rackspace) can give you a dedicated box. Examples: most high-end ISPs. * A preset remote system. Similar to above, but someone else has setup a Zope environment and provides automated facilities for management of the surroundings. Examples: iMeme * Cohosting, self-hosting. Set it up on your own machine, and bring in a T1 or SDSL, and go buy a big UPS. Or ship that machine off to some ISP to be cohosted. You can do everything software-wise and hardware wise. Of course, again, you have to do everything hardwarewise and software-wise (although the ISP may do some monitoring.) Examples: every ISP on the planet, or maybe your bedroom. Depending on the site, I usually go one of the bottom two. Here's a neat little matrix of my recommendations: Very-Low-cost, low-traffic, low-reliability, low-hassle: self-host with your desktop over your regular connection. Medium-cost, low-traffic, high-reliablity, medium-hassle: self-host with your own machine+UPS over a dedicated symmetric line. Or co-locate. High-cost, high-traffic, v-high-reliability, high-hassle: bring in a leased line and build your own server room. Or co-locate. (And go talk to some VCs while you're at it!) Very-Low-cost, low-traffic, low-reliability, low-hassle: get a shared or free Zope-host. Low-cost, medium-traffic, high-reliability, low hassle: get a dedicated Zope host. Medium-cost, medium-traffic, high-reliability, low hassle: get a dedicated Zope host to set up a dedicated machine. High-cost, high-traffic, v-high-reliability, medium hassle: get a dedicated Zope host to set up a cluster for you. High-cost, high-traffic, v-high-reliability, low hassle: get someone else to do it for you (and even this is debatable.) Note that there are many combinations that don't exist, such as anything with low-cost and high-traffic, or v-high-reliability and low-hassle. If there's more than one solution to the situation, let money, politics, or physical control decide. --jcc