I recently needed to get one of my projects going on a decent server for testing. I looked around and found Webfaction.com. So far its working out well. They allow you to install applications that you need in your home directory. They also have the usual web software like Drupal and Joomla. I use a lot of Python and have installed a bunch of packages in my home lib folder using easy_install. They actually have a bunch of useful libs already available. The gcc compiler and tools are readily available and Webfaction.com let you build and install more apps (in your home directory). MySQL and Postgresql are available too.
