Yes, the pun on Shakespeare is intended. :P

Basically this is in relation to software. I just spent $1,000.00 on software which I could have leased. I looked at it in the way that the lease price for one year is half the price of purchasing so in two years I would pay for the software......

But is this smart? I know the two pieces of software I just purchased can be transfered, but I've been thinking of buying Plesk also and it can't..........

Any thoughts?

of course buying software has nothing wrong.

look at those billing software, helpdesk software, etc, their price are all going up in the past 2 years. purchase it will save you lots of cost in the long run. you are not a fly by night host, right?

i too bought software worth thousands of dollars, but i don't think it's an good idea to buy control panel software.

take plesk as example, we lease it from datacenter, it cost about 20-30 dollars a month, one year is about 250. if you purchase it, it may cost you over 1K one time fee( include some additional features), on top of that, you have to pay 20% of your license worth every year, this is just to keep your license updated, that alone is about 200.

so not worth it.:) my 2 cents.

However, directadmin is a good buy.

Buying does increase your company value actually. Potential investors and clients typically will view you as a more stable company if you have made investements into your company instead of leasing everything. Overall it gets cheaper for you to run your organization if you aren't paying each and every month just to maintain things. Of course there are situations that make leasing a more attractive solution.

I am in the process of getting rid of a bunch of leases we have. It doesn't make sense on the software stuff really since the support fees are minimal after you buy the product. You are just tossing money in the wind otherwise.

To buy or not to buy...
Buy. (Only if it saves money in the long run)
You own things. Your recurring costs go down. Your value increases.
Make sure you can re-sell whatever you buy.

And that is where the issue comes in with software such as Plesk. Fly by night or not, and no matter how much capital you have, there is no guarantee a business will be successful.

Last I knew Plesk licenses were non-transferable. There is other software that is the same way also. Basically is it worth buying this non-transferable software to simply lower monthly cost knowing that if for any reason an exit move is decided you can not transfer that software to someone else?

HostForAsia has some interesting points.

In terms of billing, helpdesk, tutorial, knowledge base software, these can be assets to the company, if owned. Not only do you not have the recurring expense, but they are normally transferrable in the event your business structure fails. But like HostForAsia said, in terms of control panels and other software that may not easily be transferred, it may be best to just lease. I like the point about updating license... most owned license of control panels have a set number of years of upgrades/support and then you have to pay for extension of this. (cPanel for example includes 1yr support, 2yr updates and then it's $200/yr for additional support, and $300/yr for additional updates.)

It highly depends upon you. Can you easily afford to spend the upfront cash to buy the license? Would it be a struggle to pay the monthly fees? When it comes down to it, the control panel lease cost just pennies, and should be included in your monthly expenses for servers (weather leased dedicated, colocation, etc)

To lease or to buy depends alot on the individual case, say for microsoft hosting you don't even have an option. You have to lease their OS's.

As for hardware, I myself pretty much refuse to buy hardware straight but i'd rather lease it. Why? for me it makes business sense.

Say that in a year you revenue $2 million. In that same year you need to invest 300 000 in your infrastructure. Depending on your country and tax structure you will be able to write all off or only some in the first year. For me I would be only be able to write off about 20% the first year. That means that in that year I need to pay taxes for 240 000 dollars that I don't actually have. I don't know about you, but I don't like that too much ;)

Leasing gives me 100% writeoffs and I can spread the cost over 3 years, it lets me budget my funds easily.

As for hardware, I myself pretty much refuse to buy hardware straight but i'd rather lease it. Why? for me it makes business sense.



I was in the same boat, until I decided to investigate going with eBay Poweredge servers. Bad idea. They came in damaged and I didn't feel comfortable putting them in production.

A lease from Dell is the way to go. Capital is something many small hosts simply don't always have readily available.

D

Yes, the pun on Shakespeare is intended. :P

Basically this is in relation to software. I just spent $1,000.00 on software which I could have leased. I looked at it in the way that the lease price for one year is half the price of purchasing so in two years I would pay for the software......

But is this smart? I know the two pieces of software I just purchased can be transfered, but I've been thinking of buying Plesk also and it can't..........

Any thoughts?

You did the right thing.

To buy or not to buy?

Decision has both pros and cons, as discussed below.

1) Leasing or Renting software for dedicated server:-

This has advantage as you dont have to pay any upfront huge cost and it is easy to deal with small monthly rent. Since the dedicated server provider buys this software at bulk license and they reuse license from buyer to buyer as one goes out and new one joins.

This has drawback only when you move your server from one ISP to another ISP for whatsoever reason, if the other ISP do not support or rent you same software, or same version. You have to raise an upfront cost of buying a software.

2.) Purchase the software: -

It is good option as wherever your servers can be, and whenever you move your server for any reason, the purchased copy belongs to you and you can move it along with your hardware anywhere.

Drawback is, you need to pay upfront cost of the software.

- Akash Kava

The only time we lease software is if we're not sure about it, but want to try it out for a few months.

Like one of the original responses said. Buy except for the CP licenses. Not worth buying in that case. We bought CE and Kayako, no need to lease. We also bought Virtuozzo, but that was because our DC doesn't offer leases on VZ.