Indeed, but as I've seen from another web hosting oriented community, a client bought a year in advance and the host decided to sell out during his first month, him losing all of that money as they would not give him a full discount.

But it's really down to if you want to take the chance and pay for a year.

It goes without saying that any host that your going to give a 1 year advance payment to, you better be pretty darn sure that they will still be around a year from now. Even if the price is insanely good, you still want to pick a host that's worthy of your trust.

I don't worry too much about a one year contract but some of the more insane ones at five or ten years, well who would really do that? I don't see how anyone could have that much confidence.

Ouch, that's too long, I'm not sure I've seen any host give out contracts like that.

I actually have seen a few web hosts that offered huge contracts like that for crazy low prices, and unsurprisingly enough...they went out of business loooooooooooooooong before the contract would have reached it's end. Like anything in the world, if it sounds too good to be true...

Another problem I have seen with long term accounts is a client gets nailed with a TOS violation. So often the web hosting company will not refund the remaining balance after an account is suspended due to a TOS violation.

We still think in the same way: "It depends on the price and on the relationship" with the supplier/client.