I'd be interested to hear about the "no monthly fees" hosts. I've used doteasy.com a few times. Their hosting isn't too reliable, the reseller program doesn't count all sales, the email server deleted all messages recently, and the customer help desk could be better, but it only costs a one-off $35.

Are there better deals out there?

I've been using Microworld.com (http://www.microworld.com) for over a year and I'm very happy. I haven't encountered any downtime. On the very rare occasions that I need tech assistance, they're prompt and courteous. Also, server speed seems to reasonably fast. They have a $30 one-off fee.

You might try hostyard.com seem to big a good company...

Well think about their business plan if they don't make you pay monthly fees... Their bandwidth bills are monthly, how can they make payments =).

Catalog.com has "free" web hosting if you register their domain name with them. They charge netsol rates though, so it's not real cheap for the domain name.

But no monthly fees.

Originally posted by djpowell
I'd be interested to hear about the "no monthly fees" hosts. I've used doteasy.com a few times. Their hosting isn't too reliable, the reseller program doesn't count all sales, the email server deleted all messages recently, and the customer help desk could be better, but it only costs a one-off $35.

Are there better deals out there?

Just put .com at the end of you thread title and you'll get the result!! :D

catalog.com's free hosting is BS ... they pull you the minute you get any traffic

Hosts without monthly fees are not financially viable. They have to rely on a constant stream of new sign-ups to stay afloat, and if they do not get this... then they are out of business.

Getting you to pay one large amount up front also has "scam" written all over it, from my perspective.

You also have to relise also, they have many options, upsells.

if you get 1000 sign ups for hosting that 200,000.00, if bandwidth is $2000.00 a month, and some salaries,

the model works out just fine.

I have to agree that hosts who just charge a low once-off fee usually aren't based on a realistic business model. I'm not saying that it can't be pulled off, but in general, I'd go as far as saying that it's all a big scam.

have to relize they have monthly recurring clients too.

Originally posted by William
have to relize they have monthly recurring clients too.

Sorry if I'm reading this wrong, but it seems like you're now implying that their monthly recurring clients are subsidizing their other clients? That seems terribly unfair.

Originally posted by Quill
Just put .com at the end of you thread title and you'll get the result!! :D

I used them for a year. They weren't bad, but they weren't so great either.

I had several recurring problems. They always fixed them promptly, but if a problem is recurring, why not just fix it for good? Why should I keep having to request that my control panel be reenabled? Or my ftp reset? It should work all the time, every time.

Also, there servers were using outdated scripts (eg old version of phymyadmin). I asked them to upgrade them, but they refused. Maybe it was because as resellers they couldn't. Or maybe they just didn't want to? Whatever the reason, I used my own disk quota to install more up-to-date versions. Sheesh!

IMHO - their price isn't that cheap either. First a startup fee, then a yearly fee. I would have expected better service for all this.

Originally posted by avara
I have to agree that hosts who just charge a low once-off fee usually aren't based on a realistic business model. I'm not saying that it can't be pulled off, but in general, I'd go as far as saying that it's all a big scam.

I dunno. The business model seems to make sense to me. They are using one-off fee hosting to bring in "real" paying clients.

Microworld has been great so far. I admit that I'm not using a tremendous amount of resources, but so far so good.

Originally posted by avara


Sorry if I'm reading this wrong, but it seems like you're now implying that their monthly recurring clients are subsidizing their other clients? That seems terribly unfair.

No, i`m saying, some people pay yearly, 1 time, or monthly.

You will always get 1 time buyers, if a client cancels "it would be dumb to" but it only gains for them.

2mhost charges $1.50 a month for hosting, on other side of the coin, thats 12.00 a year. VS 200.00 a year..

So a client paying $1.50 monthly justifies??

Beside one-time $200, they also charge $35 annually. :stickout

Now USD 70 /Year

Originally posted by diraja.com
Now USD 70 /Year

I think that demonstrates (once again) the shaky business model that pay once and get an account forever hosts are based on. I also believe that once you've paid, they won't care as much about keeping you as a customer, which may result in poor customer support -- in fact it is in there interest to get rid of you as soon as possible.

Originally posted by Abu Mami

..... Maybe it was because as resellers they couldn't. Or maybe they just didn't want to? ........

I don't think they're a reseller, they claim to have their own NOC! now how cool is that ha?!

I have few accounts with them. I am very satisfy with their support. Usually, my question will be answered within an hours. However, they are very inflexible. All their accounts are identical and can't ask some customized features. I think this is the reason that they can keep the price so low.

Two of my accounts are running close to their transfer limit -- 5 gb/month. No problem with the uptime.

Originally posted by cbaker17
You might try hostyard.com seem to big a good company...
Ok, HostYard.com charge an annual fee not a monthly fee, but I'm looking for a good host with no recurring fees. Thanks anyway.

I would be glad to host you with no monthly fee....just my setup would be astronomical....but it would be good for the life of your account....oh...and guess I should warn you the life of your account wouldn't be too long.

Sort of reminds me of the guy who doesn't eat all day...then goes into this diner.

Sign says..."all you can eat for $4.99". So he orders the "all you can eat" special.

Finishes his plate ful....and it was really piled high...Waitress comes over.

He asks for another plate of food. She says no.

He says, but the sign says, "all you can eat for $4.99."

She replies..."and that is all you can eat for $4.99."

I've used nomonthlyfees recently... For about 5-6 months. Oddly enough, they have a "monthly fee" option you can use $15.95 a month I think. Here is my little bit on their hosting:

I used their monthly package after trying their 10 day demo. I used them for about 5-6 mo and moved to a different host (claiming more options)... Big mistake. I've also thought about going back to them. My offline new site is configured directly for their servers, but now I thinknig about going to Aleita or Gearhost

Pros: Good features (php, MySQL, python), great control panel, pretty fast, web-based + pop email. Fast tech support (replies within 1.5 hours at 3AM EST when I did most maintaince)
Cons: Odd business model. A reseller. Occasional problems checking email.

Well, I decided to go with freehostspace.com. The site worked well, but yesterday I got a message saying the service was being ended due to financial difficulties. Looking around for someone else in the bookmarks that I made 6 months ago I see that of the hosts offering service for a one-time fee that also cellhost.net and freehostrus.com have gone the same way, or at least their sites are down. My Doteasy.com sites have worked well for a few years now, although they don't offer php support.

My plan is to bounce the $35 payment made to freehostspace and try one of the following: freehostingweb.com or tranquilityhosting.net. Has anyone experience of either of these that they'd like to share?

Yeah,
Probably a good idea.
Although I think nomonthlyfees has been around for ahile as a hosting company and will continue to be (kind of like a cockroach in that respect), one thing I can tell you after dealing with them... watch out.

There may be no monthly fees, but there are hidden fees, and they're everywhere! They charge you for bandwidth, they charge you for account setup, they charge you for the three square inches on the hard drive that may host your site on a given day, they charge you for e-mail accounts, and any other thing they can think of. In the course of six months with them, I ended up paying over $200 in hidden fees above and beyond what they say they charge. All for unreliable hosting on a Linux box, of all things. Not worth it in my book.

Originally posted by sam.moses
Yeah,
Probably a good idea.
Although I think nomonthlyfees has been around for ahile as a hosting company and will continue to be (kind of like a cockroach in that respect), one thing I can tell you after dealing with them... watch out.



Yes! Listen to the man! He speaks true! :cool:

Originally posted by djpowell
Well, I decided to go with freehostspace.com. The site worked well, but yesterday I got a message saying the service was being ended due to financial difficulties. Looking around for someone else in the bookmarks that I made 6 months ago I see that of the hosts offering service for a one-time fee that also cellhost.net and freehostrus.com have gone the same way, or at least their sites are down.

This should tell you everything you need to know :)

Well seeing it's at least one year later, I'm guessing he knows now. LOL

Originally posted by Incognito


She replies..."and that is all you can eat for $4.99."

Haha that is some funny stuff. Maybe its akin to some hosting providers ToS for unlimited bandwidth ;)

Thread started : 11-19-2001 10:04 PM

This one just keeps coming back doesn't it. Seems to have been resurrected at least twice now :)

Greg Moore

The free host business model
There's always going to be a charge somewhere along the line, the company I'm with is launching it's free host idea next friday. A decent fast functional webserver is not chaep to setup, especially when the server is in a data centre.
The idea that it pays for itself through the sale of domain names, if your looking to host a website with mostly html pages, a few perl scripts and php scripting then go for a free host, if your looking for a MySql database driven site with plenty of traffic then you should go for a hosting plan.
You really get what you pay for.