More plans or less plans: what do you feel is better?

J

JamesCWilson

New member
Some web hosts seem to offer a large variety of different plans or packages, while others tend to stick with only two or three different ones. Which do you prefer personally, and what is your reasoning behind it?

As most know by now, I am a fairly no nonsense guy...so I like to keep things simple and straight-forward for customers, so I only really offer two plans, but I am also willing to do custom plans, for people who may need things to be a little different.

How about yourselves?
 
Offering more plans can get more Customers for you but you should also make sure that you can manage those plans. If you offer many plans and you are not able to manage those plans then it won't be of any use and your Customers will not be happy. Also, if you offer many Plans, the Customers may get Confused as to which one they should choose and may not choose any.

I think offering limited number of Plans would a good option. Instead of Customizing the Plans, try to offer Customers good deal on Upgrades which would be a good thing for you as well as the Customers.
 
Carlowen give's good points. I think you should offer 4 plans at most, so people don't get confuse with all of your choices.
 
I have been wondering the same thing lately. Since a lot of features are on all accounts just space - size differences I have thought about simplifying to a "variable" plan structure like plan a has X GB to Y GB. Plan B has YGB to Z GB and Plan C has Z GB to Zx3 GB to make everything simple. Then just one feature list so not a lot of reading just what resources you need.
I think it would be more simple for customers BUT since I don't oversell like was said above about managing this would create management headaches of it's own; even though I was going to make it so each time you needed an extra GB of whatever "unit" you had to ask support so we could track "sold" space...you would still never know how many would upgrade & when...too complicated.

But I have wondered, we use the typical of 5 plans from "beginner" basic to advanced with multiple domains & a lot more resources for the person that knows what they are doing; but I wonder if all the choices sometimes tire readers and they leave before making a choice where if it was just Plans A,B & C and you get all these features it would be much less reading... but then some big companies like 1 & 1 offer more plans & choices than you can count-and no question they have done well with it so...:confused:
 
Offering more packages gives the potential client more options to choose from, but, offering less packages will help the client decide quicker. Both options have their cons and pros. Depending on what your selling 3-6 options are the best choice.
 
I don't think you need a lot of plans, but you certainly should be prepared to customize any of them. Most of our orders are not automatic, rather negotiated solutions. Of course, we tap our local market very heavily, so our ability to integrate ISP solutons helps tremendously.
 
Depending on the product, we usually have 4 plans for the most part. But we have other hosting sites that have different packages. For example, our regular hosting has 5 plans. We have ecommerce hosting specifically designed around X-Cart which showcases 2 plans, and a 3rd as a budget option. Our VPS Packages we showcase 4 plans. Dedicated servers, we have a number of different combinations - 15+ due to processors etc.

But if you go to any SINGLE page, you'd have no more than 3 or 5 packages, depending on what you're looking for.

We've found this to work for our customers rather than with some hosting companies that list ALL plans on one page. By breaking down what it is the customer is looking for, we can tailor a page directly for their needs.
 
Personally, I hate going to a website that overwhelms me with tons of plans, offers and pages to look at :(. Simple and easy to navigate is the way to go, IMO.
 
We originally offered 3 hosting plans but found the need to change that to a 4 plan offering. Like other companies posting here, Postasite.net also has the ability to offer clients a custom hosting solution.


-chris
 
From my experience, I can say that most customers I have dealt with prefer there being only a few packages available, and anyone who needs something different can always just get ahold of me about getting a custom package.
 
It depends on your offer/market. If your smallest package features 500GB of data transfer, the next step should really be dedicated servers, unless you come up with some other features to define a package (SSL, included dedicated IPs etc).

In the budget hosting market, it makes some sense to offer only 1 package. For other markets, having relatively numerous packages with small allocation increases, could help customers feel like they're not wasting money on things they don't need. Less time wasted negotiating a custom package. :)
 
Well, almost every host will give you the option to customize a hosting package. This is becoming a defualt option now.
 
Hello.:shaky:

:smash:

but..............

BE A RESPONSIBLE PERSON
(AND FEEL GREAT!)

When you agree to do something, do it. If you let people down, they'll stop believing you. When you follow through on your commitments, people take you seriously.

Answer for your own actions. Don't make excuses or blame others for what you do. When you take responsibility for your actions you are saying "I am the one who's in charge of my life."

Take care of your own matters. Don't rely on adults to remind you when you're supposed to be somewhere or what you're supposed to bring. You take the responsibility.

Be trustworthy. If somebody trusts you to borrow or take care of something, take care of it. If somebody tells you something in confidence, keep it to yourself. It's important for people to know they can count on you.

Always use your head. Think things through and use good judgment. When you use your head you make better choices. That shows your parents they can trust you.

Don't put things off. When you have a job to do, do it. Doing things on time helps you take control of your life and shows that you can manage your own affairs.
 
I know back when I was just another webhosting customer, I always liked the hosts that were more straight-forward, without a lot of nonsense or statements worded in(often intentional) confusing ways. Many web hosts honestly don't need to offer more than one or two different packages, besides custom deals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum supporters

Members recently online

Total: 8

Forum statistics

Threads
81,056
Messages
248,685
Members
20,690
Latest member
JohnMuller
Top