Companies offering lifetime hosting
- Thread starter Leo
- Start date
Leo said:
Yes,
But then what? You have to pay employees, Taxes, Dedicated Servers. And other costs that are MONTLY, if you just bill someone for $200 and you have 10 clients, you got $2000 ONE TIME. But your MONTLY expenses are $6000.
What will you do by then? - It is an interesting question, however only scammers (don't take it personal) offer that kind of stuff.
It isn't necessarily a sustainable business model, as Francisco pointed out.
Plus, say you're the customer on one of these and you decide to switch providers (for whatever reason). What do you do if the host has something in the contract that says "no refunds on lifetime hosting accounts"? Just accept the loss of however much money and move on? If you paid less than $50, perhaps...but then again, perhaps not.
What happens when, like banks do, the host limits "lifetime" to be "20 years", and a customer uses up those 20 years...then either loses their account or has to pay again? There will be some angry, peeved consumers. Yes, sure, this would be 20 years from whenever - but the principle still stands. Saying "lifetime hosting" and then limiting it isn't completely kosher.
And then there's the scenario when a host offers lifetime hosting and either: a) goes out of business; or b) sells to another company that decides not to honor the "lifetime" agreements. The hosting industry sees quite a bit of this, and not just among the small fry. HTTPme recently changed ownership - and they were not a fly-by-night or "scammer" operation.
Plus, say you're the customer on one of these and you decide to switch providers (for whatever reason). What do you do if the host has something in the contract that says "no refunds on lifetime hosting accounts"? Just accept the loss of however much money and move on? If you paid less than $50, perhaps...but then again, perhaps not.
What happens when, like banks do, the host limits "lifetime" to be "20 years", and a customer uses up those 20 years...then either loses their account or has to pay again? There will be some angry, peeved consumers. Yes, sure, this would be 20 years from whenever - but the principle still stands. Saying "lifetime hosting" and then limiting it isn't completely kosher.
And then there's the scenario when a host offers lifetime hosting and either: a) goes out of business; or b) sells to another company that decides not to honor the "lifetime" agreements. The hosting industry sees quite a bit of this, and not just among the small fry. HTTPme recently changed ownership - and they were not a fly-by-night or "scammer" operation.
Not really feasible, I'm afraid.
It is good for say getting a few clients when you start up, however it isn't good long term - you won't last long, or too long.
One example
You have 1,000 clients each pay, say, $1,000. Now you have $1,000,000 gross. You now take away $450, and $55,000 - Now you have $944,550 after credit card charges (from 2CheckOut). Server prices can range from (in total) $3,125 per month with an excellent completely managed provider, to $600 per month with an awful provider who claims to be managed yet isn't. Let's take the $3,125 (as it will be my next provider) and they are completely managed, so it's easier for you to deal with your clients.
Currently you have $944,550 and it is supposed to last you "until your clients die" as it's supposed to be life-time-hosting. The cost for all the servers per month is $3,125 and you are working alone dealing with client requests. True, the $944,550 will last you a long time - however it won't last longer than about 25 years providing you've enough money in the bank to feed yourself, and pay all the house bills and so on for 25 years.
It's good for quick gain, however it's not a reality. Maybe say twenty clients - just to bring some in. However, anymore, and it's a problem.
It is good for say getting a few clients when you start up, however it isn't good long term - you won't last long, or too long.
One example
You have 1,000 clients each pay, say, $1,000. Now you have $1,000,000 gross. You now take away $450, and $55,000 - Now you have $944,550 after credit card charges (from 2CheckOut). Server prices can range from (in total) $3,125 per month with an excellent completely managed provider, to $600 per month with an awful provider who claims to be managed yet isn't. Let's take the $3,125 (as it will be my next provider) and they are completely managed, so it's easier for you to deal with your clients.
Currently you have $944,550 and it is supposed to last you "until your clients die" as it's supposed to be life-time-hosting. The cost for all the servers per month is $3,125 and you are working alone dealing with client requests. True, the $944,550 will last you a long time - however it won't last longer than about 25 years providing you've enough money in the bank to feed yourself, and pay all the house bills and so on for 25 years.
It's good for quick gain, however it's not a reality. Maybe say twenty clients - just to bring some in. However, anymore, and it's a problem.
Yes I agree very bad Idea and most of these aren't charging $1000 they are asking for $50 to couple hundred so they are really gonna be hurting but they will do like all the others and just disappear. I love picking those customers up, they are tired of being cheated and are more mature in their host selection by then, well almost always.
Unfortunately that's very true. If say a company charged between $1,000 and $5,000 for life-time-hosting - it's more feasible, however isn't really a reality. If you charged $5,000 per client and did have say 1,000 clients and then took the cheaper provider - you could probably do it. You'd have $4,724,550 to pay all the servers bills and so on. If you put that in the bank, you'd collect a lot of interest for your own living expenses: Say the interest rate was 5% (it'd be more, but for example), you'd then get just under $20,000 per month - meaning you'd even be able to use the more expensive provider, and still have money left over to feed yourself and have other pleasures. So, when you start charging like $5,000 - it can be possible, but when you're that rich do you still want to work? And it is very unlikely you'll get 1,000 clients all willing to pay $5,000 for life-time-hosting.
imported_Alex
New member
If I was the customer, I would not beleive that they: a) can stick with the price (lifetime wise) and b) there are no assurances that the company would stick around.
Being the provider, I would never offer lifetime hosting as mentioned above, customers seem to be wary about those offerings (at least what I've heard through threads like this)...
I actually heard of a provider that had an offer to this (not lifetime but some ridiculous number like 50 yrs or so) and he had about 10-15 clients, took their money and sold them to another hosting provider offering lifetime plans for dirt cheap. He kept the majority of the money and the company that had the customers went belly up (as they could not support the demand).. Customers will almost always loose on this!
I can understand that we, as providers are a business, but ethics should take the role on this...
my $.02
Being the provider, I would never offer lifetime hosting as mentioned above, customers seem to be wary about those offerings (at least what I've heard through threads like this)...
I actually heard of a provider that had an offer to this (not lifetime but some ridiculous number like 50 yrs or so) and he had about 10-15 clients, took their money and sold them to another hosting provider offering lifetime plans for dirt cheap. He kept the majority of the money and the company that had the customers went belly up (as they could not support the demand).. Customers will almost always loose on this!
I can understand that we, as providers are a business, but ethics should take the role on this...
my $.02
Hmmm... It'd be interesting to see if there'd be any clients willing to pay $5,000 for life-time hosting. It'd only be about 20gb bandwidth per month with 2gb space though - Not a lot of bandwidth, or space for that amount of money, yet it is possible to offer life-time-hosting with clients paying $5,000 in total.
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