A significant portion of my company's hosting customers are resellers. I like to offer them enough services so they'll stay with us for the long-term. We have a bunch of them who've gone on to their own dedicated servers with us. I'm considering offering VPS as well as bulk reseller accounts and dedicated servers. I was just curious what the people here thought, if VPS will help round out our services and make us more attractive to resellers.

Thanks for any comments. :)

I simply don't understand VPS - pay 1/2 the cost of a server for 1/50th of the diskspace. I seem to have missed the boat somewhere.

Who is offering VPS at 1/2 the cost of a server for 1/50th the diskspace?

Originally posted by I, Brian
I simply don't understand VPS - pay 1/2 the cost of a server for 1/50th of the diskspace. I seem to have missed the boat somewhere.
Ummmm, if you're paying half the cost of a server, then you're probably going to get a LOT more than 1/50th of the disk space, with a VDS.

But yes, you missed the boat. :D

VDS is something I have been looking into..

Problem is still a shared environment, security so the other users WHM root don't see each others domains etc.
Then there's what if 1 wants java and or some other program installed.. these all effect the other users, getting their votes before install would be painful to say the least.

I thinking of offering lower end dedicated instead.. along w the newer dedicated box's.

A quick comparison of plans offered by two of the most recommended hosts on WHT, one traditional bulk reseller, one VPS.

Both plans provide 3 GB data, 30 GB bandwidth, 2 IPs.

united hosting - $34

fluid hosting - $84.95

This is not to knock Fluid, they have a great thing going. The more favorable price comparison is between a fully managed server and the VPS resources offered.

I just don't see how most VPS accounts are a good deal for resellers whose customers are mostly personal and small business sites.

What kinds of things do VPS cients do that require full server control? :uhh:

i rather pay a little more and get the full dedicated server......

Dunno where WHM came into the subject. AFAIK, If you have a VPS with Cpanel, you have to make the VPS first, then install Cpanel on your VPS.

VPS and bulk resellers aren't exactly the same thing. You get a lot more freedom on a VPS. It's exactly the point that a VPS is more comparable to a managed server. A VPS would be something that you'd want if you want more than a bulk reseller, but don't want to go for a fully managed server, and don't want the responsibility of an unmanaged server.

What can someone on a VPS do that you can't do on a bulk reseller account? I can think of a lot, some good some bad.

My understanding of VPS is that with true VPS you can install your own php.ini file, set up apache the way you want it, and basicaclyly have a certain amount of resources that are yours and everything else is like a dedicated.

That is just how I understand it thought.

Quick question, might take things off track a bit but hopefully ya'll can help out.

If i am looking to grab a reseller account but want to myself also offer reseller plans for sale, would it just be a smarter idea to grab a VPS and offer reseller plans? (Possible?) Instead of just reselling the hosts reseller plans...?

Thanks guys

Originally posted by Taylor
If i am looking to grab a reseller account but want to myself also offer reseller plans for sale, would it just be a smarter idea to grab a VPS and offer reseller plans? (Possible?) Instead of just reselling the hosts reseller plans...?

Thanks guys
It is possible to grab a VPS then offer reseller plans, since you will then own a WHM root. Whether it is smarter or not depends on whether you'd like to maintain the server yourself (VPS or dedicated) or prefer someone else to do it for you. Some people like the prior, some like the latter. Pricing comes into play as well.

I think in WHM resellers can't have resellers unless if they have some deal with the WHM root owner to have a slice of the profit somehow (e.g. affiliate or whatever deal)

Who is offering VPS at 1/2 the cost of a server for 1/50th the diskspace?

Do you know of any plans that are not?

I'm not talking managed servers, mind you - but if I were paying out $80-120 for VDS and offered no more than 10 gigabytes tops for diskspace, then I may as well look to having my own server.

Or have I simply checked out the wrong companies? ;)

Yes, I would assume that people comparing a VPS over a bulk reseller account would note that with a VPS you can offer reseller packages.

Dunno why WHM keeps coming into the conversation, as it's not really something that can do a VPS. If you get a VPS and install WHM/Cpanel on it, then you'll be paying yourself for that Cpanel license, if I understand it correctly.

I haven't really worked out what specs to offer for a VPS, so can't really say if it will be $80 to $120 for 10GB of space. Yes, that money would get you a server, but there are other factors to consider. Control panel, support, security, support, network, support. And, if I knew someone that offered a great deal on VPS, I probably wouldn't mention them anyway. ;)

VPS would add another growth option for a reseller. Also consider how many users have a reseller account just to host thier own multiple sites for development.

I still have a plesk reseller account and I have been very pleased with service and support. The only downside is php related. I don't have the ability ot make changes so when working on scripts I have to contact support frequently. VPS could offer an alternative to that.

I would be interested in seeing what you come up with.

Greetings petertdavis:

We offer our resellers the opportunity for bulk reselling as well as VPS; on the VPS platform, they can treat it like bulk reselling if they like putting on anywhere from 5 to approximately 90 sites per VPS depending on the VPS plan.

We've found it really depends on the reseller as to what they like best.

Some resellers want SSH access (which we don't offer on the regular bulk reselling or direct plans) which we make available on the VPS hosting plans.

I believe each type of platforms / methodologies have their place in the market.

Take care.

Originally posted by petertdavis
Dunno why WHM keeps coming into the conversation, as it's not really something that can do a VPS. If you get a VPS and install WHM/Cpanel on it, then you'll be paying yourself for that Cpanel license, if I understand it correctly.
Yup but CPanel on VPS is cheaper than CPanel on a dedicated server. So there's about $30-40 offset there in favour of VPS.

you cant really compare unitedhosting and fluidhosting. no offense to anyone, but internap bandwidth is more expensive, which does reflect on pricing.

the problem with vps is that the vps software is really expensive, so you have to charge a premium for a smaller amount of resources in order to pay off the per-server license.

paul

Originally posted by rusko
you cant really compare unitedhosting and fluidhosting. no offense to anyone, but internap bandwidth is more expensive, which does reflect on pricing.

the problem with vps is that the vps software is really expensive, so you have to charge a premium for a smaller amount of resources in order to pay off the per-server license.

paul

No offense taken. I don't disagree with you. My intent was not to compare these hosts in any sort of meaningful or definitive way. United and Fluid were chosen because I wanted to provide a concrete expample that readers of WHT could relate to.

I made the **cost** comparison because I believe the majority of resellers don't target clients that need the benefits of VPS. If I am right, it would make poor business sense to go with the more expensive plan when marketable resources like bandwidth and storage are comparable.

So the really short answer is it depends on what you need as a Reseller to satisfy your clients. But all in all I would guess VPS are no where near as popular as bulk plans for the very reason stated above.

Interesting topic.

With a traditional reseller account, a reseller will not get a resource guarantee. Hence it still works the way like a shared hosting. One run-away script can consume the whole server resources causing problems to all of your clients. What worse is this may not be one of your clients that's causing problem, but a client of your competitor.

With VPS, at least with Virtuozzo, you get a resource allocation guarantee and one VPS is isolated from other VPS. Thus a problem on other resellers should not cause any problem on your clients since the problems will be isolated to within a specific VPS.

So VPS based resellership will improve your ability to offer a stronger Service Quality Guarantee to your customers, something that definitely worths extra.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the comments. :)