As most of you already know, many web hosts will offer better prices to those whom sign up for a full year package, as opposed to a monthly one.

Of course it may be tempting to just go with that annual package, but that would be assuming that you knew and trusted the host enough not to burn you.

What do you folks usually do? Do you just try the place out for a month or so and then decide if you want to stay there, or do you just go right for that one year deal?

Hello James,

This depends on what kind of a discount you would get by paying yearly.

Paying monthly until your sure that the host meets your requirements only makes sense. There are too many functions, mods and plugins to know for sure if they can meet your technical needs just by reading their site. Then there is support to try out. After a few months, if everything is up to par, then pay annually. It's not worth the few dollars in savings if you need to move on and you must hope to get a refund to do so.

If you choose a host with a provem track record (which I highly recomend), then they've likely been in business for well over 1 year. Then you shouldn't have to worry about them "burning you". I would base my decision on the discount offered for paying yearly, and my own cash flow... whether I could afford to pay yearly. If the discount is good enough, and I have the money, then I'll pay yearly.

All hypothetical of course.

Well its almost like a pay as you go phone Vs a contract phone. i would always suggest to search for reviews ask ppl who have been with a particular host and if you get good response then go for the annual one , coz it not only saves you some money ..it saves you a lot of headache.

Also , check out how their support is ..coz that alone or the lack of it should be one of your major deciding factors

Support is always a big key in deciding, if they cant do something simple like care about their clients needed they don't really need them, IMHO. I would check to see if you can get reviews of both good and bad things about the company too just to see what bothered other people about it. Depending on what you need most companies don't mind bumping up your plan as they understand testing the waters out first.

I like the low monthly charge for where I'm at with my business right now. Down the road, I may go for an annual payment if things go okay. Financially, this makes more sense for me.

It depends on how much a difference it makes. If it is only a few bucks then I'll go with monthly because it would be easier to just change hosts if I need to.

Thank you for the replies everyone, and I actually agree on post of the points that have been made.

Since I never mentioned my preference before, I will say that I pay monthly until I know how good and reliable a host is.

Unless it's a host run by a friend or a company I trust, i'm not just going to throw down some 1 year commitment without trying it first.

I personally like to pay monthly rather than yearly, one reason is because Im not stuck with them for a year long when I may decide to change hosts depending on their service, another is I often cant afford to pay for a years hosting upfront.

I've always paid monthly for such things as upgraded services until I knew they were worth the yearly fees, and I had such an amount to spend. I don't think I'll do any differently with hosting unless I can completely trust them to not randomly fold and take my money with them.

Surprisingly, most of our clients purchase per year although the savings are the exact same. I think they just confident and trust us. I always pay monthly when it comes to my own purchases of services though beacuse you never know. It might be due to the market we target though.

Oh wow, if most costumers are going right for your yearly plan...you know that you must be doing something right!

I may actually look into your host myself, and see what I think.

As it happens, i'll be looking for a new web host soon anyway

You can pay for the whole period at once,but sometimes some companies have bad service and in this case you will have to ask for a refund from them ( this procedure is sometimes very time-taking)

Thus, it is better to buy a plan for one month at least and in case the service is really so terrible, you can cancel your account or wait till the beginng of the month and move your account elsewhere.

Personally I like the discount the annual charge would provide but that's assuming that I'm already satisfied and planning on sticking around for at least that period of time.