Hi:
I'm currently considering signing up for a virtual host that based on reviews/research seems very decent. Only thing that kind of held me back was the footnote text on the sign up page that indicated $6.50/month per gigabtye overage. Is it just me, or is that very high? I've seen $4-5 dollar overages, but not above.

Depends on the quality of bandwidth, but normally it shouldn't be that expensive. The fare price is US$ 2/GB of bandwidth. IMHO

:-)

There are low cost and there are also high quality bandwidth which indeed cost more.

The $6.50 may be fair value if it is quality bandwidth.

If it is of concern to you, you might opt for a higher plan since prepayment usually means cheaper price per gb.

Originally posted by eddy2099

If it is of concern to you, you might opt for a higher plan since prepayment usually means cheaper price per gb.
Thanks. The problem is, the plan I'm looking to go with is already their highest, and it's 22 gig/month for around $30. So the overage cost seems to take a different path as far as cost ratio.

22 gig/mth for $30 is really cheap. You could opt for two accounts and balance the bandwidth load there.

How much bandwidth do you normally use ? You might want to talk to your web host and see if they could work a custom plan to meet your needs.

Of course the price of something only matters if it's plausible you might need to buy it. If it's just "what if", then what if you win the lottery?

Greetings:

We are usually the last company to compete on price, so a lot of times we end up thinking prices we see on WHT as being too low.

This is the 1st time I almost fell over <LOL>, because the price was too high ;-)

We've seen very high quality bandwidth in the $2 to $4 per GB range. $6.50 per GB appears to be very high.

Just an opinion.

Thank you.

$6.50 per gig is high from what I see in general. Most are $2 to $4.

One host I use (which I'll be leaving in the near future) charges $4 per gig but your billed "in 10 gig blocks" if you go over your bandwidth allowance. So if you go over say 2 gigs, it's actually $20 per gig. :eek:

I charge $3. I think that's a fair price...anything over that is gouging IMHO.

Yup I would say that is about 2 times what would be acceptable

Marc, pretty interesting feature (Backup CD) you have especially if someone has a large site and is on dialup. Does that include database's also? I assume it would.

$6.50 is a bit high ... even for high quality like internap/nac/etc

$2-4 is usually what I see even from providers who use very good datacenters (nac, he, burst, etc...)

Did you have other hosts in mind you could maybe look into? There's a lot of good hosts that can easily handle 22 gigs monthly for $30 or less and have 1gig overcharges of < $3.00

although $6.50 does sound a bit high the overall package sounds like a great deal...as long as your happy with your hosting service. i think you should try to increase revenue from your own site cause your are not going to find a package much better than that ......considering your happy with your host~:D

Wow... I can see why I don't do any online advertising...


I charge on average, depending on the plan you get, $7 - $10 per gig of bandwidth... then $15 per gig for overage. I get plenty of business...

It all depends on the level of support you offer, how much you handhold everyone, and your target market. I'm targeting businesses locally and I'm helping them all get online and make more money. If someone buys a 10gig a month plan for $90 a month, I explain to them how I can help them make way more than $90 a month from the website.

I of course also do design work and help them market their site online. I sit with them and help them from day 1. I'm not just a "sign up and put in helpdesk questions" host. I talk with my clients on the phone or face to face.

So again, it truely depends on who you are targeting, because while all of you are calling that price rather high, and mine is over double that, I get business. Just not from WHT.

Originally posted by Curtis H.
Marc, pretty interesting feature (Backup CD) you have especially if someone has a large site and is on dialup. Does that include database's also? I assume it would.


Thanks just one of the little ideas we came up with to be different
Yes it includes entire /home directory databases and password files. We have cds labeled for us that are pretty cool. they have some hologram ones I have been wanting to get but those are 7 bucks a piece and not worth it

Oh yeah.. and just on another note. Seeing as how everyone was amazed at the high price of $6.50 a gig... ..


I can't afford to support 500 clients a month simply making an extra 20 bucks per client per month... If I spend an average of 2 hours a month talking to a client, I've just supported someone at the rate of $10/hr. I have other bills to pay. If I wanted to make $10/hr, I'd be at home depot... not in the hosting business.

This is a business that everyone has really brought down in value. I understand that budget hosting is a must. The 13 year old kid who wants his own website can't afford $50/month... but *everyone* has dropped their prices to meet that because everyone fails to point out why someone should spend the high prices.

I can do 1 of 2 things... 1) charge what I currently charge, or 2) charge a really low price, then bill for support. Honestly, people wouldn't mind seeing a price tag that's high for great support... People do mind paying for a service, then getting charged for help with it.

2 hours per month per client is an awfully lot. Maybe look at outsourcing your support, at that point it may be more cost effective

Originally posted by MarcD
2 hours per month per client is an awfully lot. Maybe look at outsourcing your support, at that point it may be more cost effective

It's not really possible to outsource that kind of support. Outsourced support covers basic hosting support, not handholding.

Amen to Lirath.

I think a lot of people see the $$$ and figure they'll go with the best deal. But really you should spend what you think your business/site is worth. Just because a host offers you all the space/bandwidth you could want for $5-10 as soon as you have a problem and need support, you've just cost that company more than you spend on the account. So I think that's why a number of companies throw in those 'extra' charges. Though truly we don't see many clients go over 20-30gb a month. So it usually is not an issue.

As for support costs..
Ideally a hosting company should have such a solid platform that you never have a need to contact support. But even with a great product, you'll still get the 'need help' questions.

lirath....your situation is completely different from what we are talking about, your reselling hosting to customers who you developed webpages for if im understand correctly(great way to make $$$). if that is the scenario of course you should be hiking up the price, if your customer knew how to get webhosting themselves then they would get it for the same price you are paying for it.......:confused:


btw- i found the average price to be around $4.95 a gig, if your making money on your site that is a drop in the bucket!

AGAIN.......you get way you pay for......ANYONE In this business understands that

Ok now that makes a bit more sense 2 hours per month per client is a lot.
But really 2-3 dollars a gig is the highest I would go with. And yes a host can be profitable at $1 a gig.

And yes a host can be profitable at $1 a gig
That depend of how much are you paying per Mbps, techs, billing, etc.

I wont disclosure how much I pay per Mbps but definitely if I charge $1 per GB I wont get too much profit, you have to take in mind another expenses other than the price that you pay for renting your server.

Well, I'm not exactly complaining about the $6.50/gig overage. Of course, I haven't signed up for anything yet. Just inquiring whether it's above the norm, even if it's supposedly "high quality" bandwidth. Another reason I can think of that they would peg the overage cost at so high relative to what you get in their standard packages is that they really don't want people to go over. This means inflexibility to me and my potential growth/needs.

I'm just trying to understand the logic, as it effects whether I want to go with the host to begin with, the overage factor not withstanding that is.

Well, I could be wrong but 22gb for $30 or $1.35/gb assuming no other special features provided is quite attractive. Not sure which host and what bandwidth they are using so I cannot quite comment on that. But I would supposed that as it is, it would have the add-ons and features which you were looking for.

True, most people would not overexceed the 22gb bandwidth, let alone 5gb per month bandwidth but then again, it depends on what sort of files you intend to host and the number of target audience. If you have downloads of media files or streaming files or other huge resources, it might seems insufficient but otherwise more than adequate.

Yes, the high pricing peg per 1gb exceeding the allocation is probably to discourage over users. This could create unecessary spikes and curtails the proper server operations.

Supposed if they got a server which provides for 400gb/bandwidth per month and allocate 18 accounts to it. This will give them a 8gb buffer not to exceed their current plan. If too many of their clients exceed that limit, it would cause unecessary server load and may force them to move some sites over to a new machine. Probably the added cost pegged to the excess bandwidth would allow for them to recoup the cost of acquiring a new server and so on.


Currently, what is your bandwidth consumption like at your current host ? If it is no where near that mark, it might still be safe to sign on. If needed, just get a second account and do an internal url redirect to the new host.

Originally posted by MarcD
Ok now that makes a bit more sense 2 hours per month per client is a lot.
But really 2-3 dollars a gig is the highest I would go with. And yes a host can be profitable at $1 a gig.

I have to completely argue with that... big time.


I pay $2.70 per gig and I'm not on a reseller account.. I've got dedicated servers.

That $2.70 per gig is on TOP of what my server costs me. That is because it is cream of the crop bandwidth. Beautiful network. Guarentees up the wazoo.. you get the idea. You always get what you pay for. I get a really nice server with really fast bandwidth, and I pay for it.

I turn around and put clients on that server and charge them for me to explain to them how they can make their website profitable. I make the website for them, and for my monthly hosting fee, I host them. I don't just throw them on a server. I talk to them about what's going on, what they need, where they should advertise, how to do this, what programs to get...

Now granted, some people know all about it and can figure it out themselves, but they're happy to know I'm just a phone call away 24/7/365...

However. I can't make a profit at $1 a gig. I'm not greedy charging what I charge. I'm just trying to make a profit.

in all nonesty , i would never pay 6.50 per gig . I mean , considering im getting internap for 3.00 a gig.....

Since we're talking about "Overage" e.g. you used more than you had contracted the host to provide for you, I don't think it's too uncommon, nor unwise, for a host to charge quite a bit extra.

Imagine what would happen if the host didn't have that "Extra Bandwidth" available for you when you needed it. Consider the fact that the host will/has/had been paying for "unpurchased & unplanned" bandwidth usage just so they would have that bandwidth available for you "just in case" you did go over. This means if you didn't go over they are paying for unused bandwidth and that means unsold bandwidth. So the months that you didn't go over they continued to pay for that extra bandwidth just so it'd be there in case you needed it. If you didn't need it then they ate the cost of having it available each month you didn't use it. This alone would justifiably raise the cost.

In addition to this, the host is much more able to manage their services and ensure availability if they have an accurate idea of the accounts they are hosting. 50 Tiny Packages and 20 Medium Packages and 10 Large Packages == X Amount of Bandwidth Required. However, if those 50 Tiny Packages all use Large Package Bandwidth the numbers become totally skewed. Hosts usually prefer the bandwidth usage is monitored and that the Site Owner upgrades accordingly. This helps the host to manage their services better and allows the site owner to enjoy the lower costs (Hint: package prices are always lower than "Overage" costs for a reason).

Type of bandwidth also plays a roll of course. Our cogent friends enjoy lower bandwidth bills than our UUnet and Internap friends.

And finally, of course the ability to cover many of the extra expenses the host incurs which are not easily passed on to the clients such as the staff, building, hardware, software, taxes et al.

We're stiff on over bandwidth for many of the above reasons, and I do think it's fair. We provide a simple way to avoid the fees of course (upgrade and save a ton) but if you opt not to go that route or are using far more than the largest package permits (hence requiring a lot more of the overall resources on the server) then there is a bit of a fee penalty.

i would never "penalize" a customer . If they go over thier usage or b/w amount , you charge them accordingly . Just because one account goes over , they're usually about 300 other accounts that didnt even use 10% of thier resources . Either way it goes , you're getting money for bandwidth you already purchased or should have purchased . Anyways , 6.50 a gig is robbery

and oh yeah deb , nice post count....lol j/k

i would never "penalize" a customer . I think that needs to be taken into context...

Is it wise for a company to allow themselves to be 'penalized' repeatedly..which often results in going out of business and therefore ending up unable to service any of their clients?

The biggest myth about hosting is that it's all about Phone Bills, Disk Space, and Bandwidth. There is sooo much more to it. Sites that utilize extra bandwidth tend to utilize far more than 'just the bandwidth'. It's hard to charge for the individual CPU usage, or the tech's time to enhance the server to handle the load, or the oncall tech being called in to ensure the latest slashdot affect doesn't harm the overall services. These costs are bundled with a fee that the site owner more easily understands "bandwidth". Either way it goes , you're getting money for bandwidth you already purchased or should have purchased . How much bandwidth do you feel a host "should've purchased" to cover the "Overage" of a client that didn't mention they would require it? Should we buy an extra gig per client and hope that averages out? 2 gigs? 10 gigs? Even having someone around with the ability to quantify what the clients "might use and might cover the costs for" in such a way that causes everyone to come out ok in the end costs money that is "bundled" with the other fees that site owners recognize more readily ;) It never ceases to amaze me how MUCH OVER a single account can go.

Remember: Overage Charges should be Zero for the majority of Site Owners regardless how high the host has them set at. It's just a matter of monitoring your site and being sure you've selected a package that is going to work well for you. Most hosts offer the ability to see your current bandwidth usage to date. If a special event or something is causing it to rise, the time to upgrade or make changes is at that moment rather than waiting until after the bill arrives.

And this gets me past that 666 post count :stickout:

Best bet is to prevent overages to begin with. Size your plan accordingly. An occasional spike to to mention in a majore outlet like TechTV, or Lockergnome, or Slashdot only usually causes a temp spike, so paying a little more that month is worth it. But if you think your site is going to be popular, offering large file or image downloads, etc...you better off buying a plan that exceeds your expectations by a good amount. Better to have too much then too little since it's usually cheaper then the overage charges.

Originally posted by ArtieFishill
...you better off buying a plan that exceeds your expectations by a good amount. Better to have too much then too little since it's usually cheaper then the overage charges.
That is exactly what I do. :D