Hi, Im posting this little thread on why not to pay on a yearly plan or why you should do it and on what things you should think about inorder for you to know if you should go with a yearly plan...

Ok, So I never really paid on a yearly plan but been on hosting forums for a while now and have seen alot of storys and problems that happen when paying yearly...

So, First were going to go over why its good to pay for yearly plan and then why its not good to...

Well, First off its good because you wont need to think about paying that monthly bill and saving up money for that bill. Also you wont need to take time out off your hands everymonth to pay that bill. SOme host even give you a special promo or a free domain if you pay yearly too thats a pretty good thing..

And now we go the the bad part, Why not to pay yearly..

Well, Heres why you shouldn't pay yearly, First off you can pay that big ammount of money and they can jip you for all that money or they can give you your services and say tha your site is causing cpu high loads and make you upgrade to a vps but heres the catch they will give you a vps for the yearly plan value but the value can be a monthly value for exaple lets say you paid 50$ for the yealy plan but then the vps is 25$ monthly see the catch? you'll be spending more money.

Also thers another way you can not get what you want so lets say you bought every thing now its 3 months into the hosting and just one day you wake up check on your site and its not even there the host shut down or just disapeard there not replying to your emails and they just took you hosting... see?

Now for what you should do befor you should buy a yearly plan, Check the host uptime, Support times, and ask for a download file do basic stuff, even if you need help come to the forum and post on what questions you should ask...


PLease note that there are many many reasons on why you should pay or should'nt pay for a yearly plan.


Other members that are reading this please post below on your thoughs about yearly plans. thanks for everything.

Usually the longer the plan, the cheaper the rate.

If I'm doing a site for a client, the longer the better. If I'm testing, it's strictly month-to-month.

Id agree with Steve on this one, short term to begin with however for bigger or long term projects use yearly or also one that hasn't been mentioned Quarterly, one advantage to quarterly though unlikely but none the less PayPal provide 90 days to my knowledge dispute time for any payment to a business account for a product/service.

As such if the host is a fly by night dispute it via PayPal within that period.. the provider is given 24hours to respond with evidence.. however they will then ask yourself for evidence and then take an impartial decision, I can speak from experience after family falling to the trap of certain ebayers and similar.

Yearly again is an option, simply your best chance for smaller providers is try their monthly packages as long as you see fit, also check how long they have been in business.

The only other advice is as far as a domain goes, even though we are a provider and do provide domains from a developer point of view... always use a domain purchased from an independent party as it can avoid hassle again it is a trust issue on this front, many fly by night providers use domains to tie customers to high fees similar to domain sitting/parking companies in order to free their domain.

I ran across this myself when I was self publishing a newspaper. The host registered the domain name in their name and wouldn't release it. I waited a year and they're were still sitting on it.

There is savings available for yearly prepayment, if you can afford it. It's always good to check and see if they give pro-rated refunds if you cancel before the term is up. Hosting providers can close with no notice, I always recommend having an off site backup of your website available for worst case scenarios.

With regards to yearly payment terms (or longer, we have some customers that pay for 2 years and 3 years in advance), check the TOS with the hosting company. Verify that they are a LEGIT business that has been in operation and have a following and reputation to back up quality services (this should be done with any host), but in the TOS check their cancellation process, or their termination process.

Sites being suspended or terminated for system abuse DOES happen - this is an event that any site that was configured to "X" users and then gets slammed with "Y" traffic is going to run into. We've seen many small websites start out and then expand into much larger operations - if the clients then had to upgrade. But then, we don't offer "UNLIMITED"

In the Terms of Service check the cancellation process and policy. Many hosts offer a prorated refund on cancellations. So if you sign up for 1 year, get the discount, and then choose to cancel after 6 months, they would revert the rate back to the regular rate and refund the balance.

Termination of service for CPU or Memory resources are often handled the same way. Again, it depends on the host, but almost every host treats a spammer differently and opt NOT to refund money if they abuse the system.

There's a lot to be said for the long term signup - it builds a loyalty and with smaller hosts you can build a great rapport with them. Of course, a host makes more money if you pay monthly

I've been the big fish in the small bowl with data centers before, and I've also been the little guy starting out, both paying on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis can be beneficial depending on what you're doing.

Take my gym membership - I'm pretty much committed for the year, so by paying a year in advance (up front) they knocked 20% off the price. Do I believe I'm getting value for my money - sure do! Do I foresee them closing down - not really, they're pretty reputable and have been in business for many years as a national chain. Do I foresee being asked to leave their facility for abuse of resources (equipment, staff etc etc) - not a chance. So prepaying for 1 year and getting the discount is to both my advantage and the clubs.

Hosting companies, are very similar - at least the ones I'm involved with are like that!

Agree. It's usually like that. The longer the plan, the cheaper the rate is.

There's always a risk involved with a host and with annual payments you usually get a discount like people already mentioned, so it can be of benefit to you as long as you trust that nothing goes wrong.

If you're unsure, what you could do is try and find an offer with monthly payments and "get to know" the host. Once you're sure it's safe you can always change to annual payments later.