I use a dedicated hosting.com cf box at work and a shared account for my adult projects (for now). I have been forced to use php as all of the shared or vps servers I have looked into that allow adult don't have cf set up.
I am fairly green at php and may not be doing things efficiently, but it seems like stuff that I can do in a couple of lines with cf take like 30 in php. I miss CF.
If I get to the point where i will need to buy a dedicated box for my adult stuff then I will most likely buy cf enterprise or set up railo.
As you may have guessed, I am not a big corp.... I'll see my way out...
Best of luck with your endeavors.