Those dollar hosts

[OwlMan]

Although I have my main server along with some trusted shared hosting accounts for some small personal projects, I always like to have some spare cheap hosting accounts in case one of my shared hosts ever goes down or for giving some web space to friends/family. I've tried a couple of really cheap hosting plans (only $1 or $2 per month) and only one of them lasted more than 4 months.

How has your experience been with those really cheap hosts?

 

[handsonhosting]

Most times - you get what you paid for.

Many of the $1.00/month hosts charge a setup fee of maybe $24 or in some cases I've see the $99 setup fee - be aware of what you're really paying.

For me, I value my hard work and site traffic too much to use low end hosting solutions like that. I'd rather pay a few dollars more and know that the host is going to be around months and years from now.

 

[othellotech]

I always like to have some spare cheap hosting accounts in case one of my shared hosts ever goes down or for giving some web space to friends/family

Nice to know what you think of your friends / family

My experience dealing with the aftermath of cheap-hosts doing their regular vanishing tricks is that the biggest problem isnt
* the sh!te service or
* the outages or
* the lack of (competent) support
that all seem par for the course with "dollar" hosting,

but the effect they have in overall "lowering" of client expectations in what a hosting service is worth/should cost - so the hostees just look for the next cheap one, who last a few months, then the next, then the next ...

 

[neil.studyhost]

Well, we have a small hosting plan that is cheap and is a complement to our outside hosting and more expensive plans, I wouldn't say we are doing it and are just going to disappear because of it...

The reason for offering a small, value plan is that a lot of people only need hosting for a few html pages and images, or messing around with a website, or some even just need it to host a pop3 email account, why sell a plan with a couple of GB and at much higher prices for something they are never going to get the benefit from?

 

[New Idea]

If the resources are very small them maybe a dollar plan could work but the problem is you can't sell it monthly and make anything because the processing fees will make it a 60 or 70 cent plan and you can't make a profit at that if it has much resources.
So usually these are $12 a year instead of $1 a month. So while there might be someone ethical doing it many times they will take the $12 and keep overselling a $79 server and then leave it either performing poorly or whatever. There's just no room for a profit if you have any type support etc. at $1 a month.
So because there's a glut of $59-$79 servers these days (sub $100 w/ control panels) people may do these plans but you are back to issues like support & profit. To have 300 customers so you can make a profit on a $100 server at $1 it becomes hard to support 300 people and still have a profit ...you don't get much of a tech for $10 an hour and that's only 1 hour per day IF you don't make a profit... see how it starts to "not work"?

Really these days it's difficult to get a good plan/service/performance/support for $5 as a "bottom end (and that's very cheap). Although there are tons of offers below that $5 mark, I'd say shop at your own risk below that and only use for non-essential sites or test concepts etc so if it goes down or the host goes away you've only lost $12

 

[neil.studyhost]

well, I wouldn't go as low as $1 dollar a month :shocked:

But as you say, they are priced so that people are more inclined to sign up for a year, we're just starting on online hosting, after many years of design and hosting for local firms, these are charged a much higher price as they are manually invoiced and supported, the online, we are still finding looking at the best pric/package ratio.

 

[handsonhosting]

If I was to start over in hosting, I'd not offer anything below $15/month. You get a different type of clientele when you charge more. Yes you get less clients, but they're loyal clients for the most part. The $5 shoppers for the most part are only around for a few months and then they're gone.

That being said, we do have some of our $5.00 users that have been with us for 5+ years, but the majority of people on the smaller plans are only there for a while before they either upgrade, or move on to another host withthe same price (and less service/support).

I'd gladly have less customers with the same amount of income on a higher level package. Less customers means more time for support for each of them.

 

[PowerDot]

well, I wouldn't go as low as $1 dollar a month :shocked:

So, this mean that you don't care about spending (waste) money...
We host since 2003 hundreds customers how pay only $1.00 per month (paid yearly due the weighty Paypal fees) with a great success for both (clients and ourselves).

 

[HL-Sean]

got to charge at lease $2-$3 min, cause if you think about the paypal/credit card transaction fee's the web host will only make a few cents!

 

[Garry hall]

While choosing hosting services, cost is not only the factor one should look at as if you look towards it only, you might end up getting head ache regularly due to your hosting services.

I think it is also important to check the kind of support, the features, the web hosting space etc. with the hosting package you choose. Also, paying for the setup fee for a shared hosting package is just not acceptable.

 

[rumsfo]

If that is 100MB and 1GB bandwidth I would agree that is $1 but not tons as oversellers offer

 

[innostorm]

Honestly as one of those cheap hosters, we've been around two years and counting. Sure we charge less but we dont skimp out on support. Disk space is cheap, so is bandwidth that we pay for. I don't believe customers should have to pay more for something that is cheap to begin with.

 

[21Roses]

I learned long ago to do thorough research before choosing a host, regardless of price. There are some pretty expensive hosts that skimp on certain vital things just as much as those who run fly-by-night dollar deals.

That said, I'm definitely more suspicious when the price is so low...

 

[thewebhostingdi]

Such type of cheap host does not provide reliability & safety of the server. Their support will be fragile. Hence, spend some more bucks & get the reliable hosting.

 

[handsonhosting]

Having low end pricing doesn't automaticlaly mean that someone is going to be cheap on service! You CAN have both, but it's definitely a hard gem to find!

@Innostorm - congrats on being able to tap the market and provide service that customers stay around for. Are you also offering higher-end packages too?

It seems that those starting out under-budget what it takes to run a profit and as such go for lower grade equpment in order to turn a profit. Not EVERYONE is like that, but the majority are. There's still many budget hosts that turn a proffit with both reliable hardware and service (ourselves included), but those types of hosts are not common.

Being inexpensive DOES NOT equal lack of reliability, safety or support. Enough volume on a budget will still allow you to produce excellent service (but we're not talking someone with 100-200 clients here either)

 

[New Idea]

If I was to start over in hosting, I'd not offer anything below $15/month. You get a different type of clientele when you charge more. Yes you get less clients, but they're loyal clients for the most part.
I'd gladly have less customers with the same amount of income on a higher level package. Less customers means more time for support for each of them.

And the very reason we stopped offering $5-$6 packages long ago. We have found exactly what you said... a different clientele with far less support issues and more time for individual service when they do need it.
It also offers the flexibility to accommodate a client with unusual needs without having to move them to more expensive packages. (which usually upsets people) Even though we have never met in person; many clients seem like we know them because they have been with us for years and we understand their needs & what they do.

Of course everybody would love to have the "magic bullet" that will get lots more customers & profits but if you accept the fact that when competing with resellers who may be on "free" reselling accounts (we all know there has been a HUGE influx of reseller type "hosts" trying to make some quick money hosting these days) there's no competing with some of their hugely under-priced & oversold "plans". Even the person posting here happily handling the $1 market; he's already established there so why try to compete-he's happy there and I wouldn't be so to each his own.

We devote our efforts to maintaining loyalty and low turnover with what our "type" customers need & expect. We even started charging for our formerly "free" site builder because it encourages serious customers rather than "hoppers" trying different site builders (and there will always be some support with a site builder even though we say "use issues" are not covered in regular "support" as long as it's working properly)--but you'll have a few who will need a little help getting going, so why invest that "help" time in someone who may leave in a month or two to try some other builder instead of using that time to learn to build a good site?

These days you have to "pick your spot" in the "market" if you are a serious host and not a kid with a reseller plan. How can I compete with the huge ads from 1 & 1 and other hosts with the magazine ads, banners everywhere & such? So I leave them to their own and made the decision to be satisfied where we are... a lot less headaches than changing plans & constantly trying to find that "magic bullet".

 

[Zachary McClung]

And the very reason we stopped offering $5-$6 packages long ago. We have found exactly what you said... a different clientele with far less support issues and more time for individual service when they do need it.
It also offers the flexibility to accommodate a client with unusual needs without having to move them to more expensive packages. (which usually upsets people) Even though we have never met in person; many clients seem like we know them because they have been with us for years and we understand their needs & what they do.

Of course everybody would love to have the "magic bullet" that will get lots more customers & profits but if you accept the fact that when competing with resellers who may be on "free" reselling accounts (we all know there has been a HUGE influx of reseller type "hosts" trying to make some quick money hosting these days) there's no competing with some of their hugely under-priced & oversold "plans". Even the person posting here happily handling the $1 market; he's already established there so why try to compete-he's happy there and I wouldn't be so to each his own.

We devote our efforts to maintaining loyalty and low turnover with what our "type" customers need & expect. We even started charging for our formerly "free" site builder because it encourages serious customers rather than "hoppers" trying different site builders (and there will always be some support with a site builder even though we say "use issues" are not covered in regular "support" as long as it's working properly)--but you'll have a few who will need a little help getting going, so why invest that "help" time in someone who may leave in a month or two to try some other builder instead of using that time to learn to build a good site?

These days you have to "pick your spot" in the "market" if you are a serious host and not a kid with a reseller plan. How can I compete with the huge ads from 1 & 1 and other hosts with the magazine ads, banners everywhere & such? So I leave them to their own and made the decision to be satisfied where we are... a lot less headaches than changing plans & constantly trying to find that "magic bullet".

Well Said. You have a great point on resellers and I am happy to hear you made the chocie to do what you wanted vs. what the budget market was doing. Its tempting sometimes.

 

[HostEase]

Such type of cheap host does not provide reliability & safety of the server.

I can't agree with you.Though the web hosting is cheap ,their server also can be safe.Maybe these web hosting providers just provider limited support or the features of the web hosting is not very powerful.

 

[neil.studyhost]

To come back to this topic. Small dollar packages, some view with a sneer, but, our smallest package is the most popular.

As to support, well, it happens, to minimise that as much as able, we have gone for a Failover configuration, hopefully this keeps support down, we're happy if there is less support calls and I hope they are happy aswell

Its not perfect, but if it can minimise downtime that it does its job.

 

[IkY0294]

Its true if you pay $1.oo for hosting you will get cheap deal. Many small hosts out there offer what they can't afford like lets say, Theres a host offering 10GB DISK and 100GB Bandwidth for 1$ do you think they can afford to do that really? Not many hosts can do that..