I just want to know which is better and economical? 1 year? Quarterly? 6 months contract terms for dedicated hostings? Thanks.

Just about every hosting company I've seen will offer 1 month free if you sign up for 6 and 2 months free if you sign up for 12. Or something along those lines - like waving setup fees etc.

So these are going to be the best/cheapest option. If they provide good service, if you don't need to change within a few months and if their upstream bandwidth provider is still around in 6/12 months.

I do not recommend paying well in advance in this market for anything other than a very small account. Basically, I would limit it to a $100 payment.

You owe yourself the chance to make a change if the service deteriorates, and you are subject to the hosts' stability as well as that of his suppliers. There are two many financially unsound companies including many of the leaders to prepay a significant amount.

Many small hosts have built instant profit with annual payments, but the service has deteriorated rapidly as they built the business. And 3 - 6 months into the plan, they had no money coming in, so no way to improve.

Well most yearly contracts I have seen are based on monthly charges and setup fees.

What kind of yearly contracts are you referring to? I don't think anyone would pay a total amount of the entire year's contract right away :)

I have signed a yearly contract for what I consider to be a very good quality custom server [FreeBSD, djbdns etc] and really top quality support with focalhosting.com

But I am paying only monthly and a very low set up fee [60$]

Only time will tell if my decision is wise or foolish! :)

Cheers
Balaji

You'd be surprised at the number of people who prefer to pay a year in advance. If you pay a year in advance you can concentrate on your business and not worry about the money.

Obviously if you pick a dud hosting company it's not good. So do your homework.

They are induced by either no setup fee or by a reduction in cost. Typical example are $9.99 per month or $99.90 for the year. And to me that's ok...if you can afford to gamble $100. However, I have seen plans like this $49.99 per month or $499.99 per year. And to my way of thinking that is much too large a gamble.