Another quickie regarding Cheap Web Hosting


Cheap Web Hosting

Everyone today is looking for cheap web hosting. At the same time you see hosting providers giving the world for $5. So why not go with the cheapest hosting provider offering the most resources?


1. How much does it cost?
Web hosting providers also have to pay for bandwidth and equipment. Servers aren't cheap, ranging from just shy of $1,000 all the way to $20,000 for the cream of the crop. Even those $20,000 have a space limit, especially since hard drives are tough to find over 1TB in size. Bandwidth isn't free as well, and a single server can only put out about 30,000GB per month on a standard 100 mbit network connection. So lets say a host sells 100GB of disk space and 1000GB of bandwidth on each hosting plan. Theoretically the host should only offer 30 plans on a single server, and at $5 a piece it roughly comes out to $150/mo. So how can a host cover server and bandwidth costs and keep staff available 24/7 for support?


2. The Magic of Overselling
To be able to afford the costs and still make a profit hosts start overselling. Overselling is basically selling more than what you can provide. In this case instead of putting 30 customers on a server, they put 300 customers. This is done based on the assumption that no user will use all of their allotted space and bandwidth. Does it work? Absolutely, even the electric company does it, based on the assumption that everyone won't turn all their electronics on at once. This can only be taken to a certain extent before it starts becoming a problem, and the server starts getting overloaded. So what happens if everyone actually used all their bandwidth and disk space? Nothing, because the Terms of Service and Acceptable Usage Policy don't allow it. If you read these two pieces you will find that every host has a clause that mentions CPU and Memory Usage. You will most likely hit these limits far before you hit the space and bandwidth limits.


3. Get what you for!
Unfortunately when it comes to web hosting you truly get what you pay for. By throwing in an extra few dollars a month you will receive a higher quality hosting experience. Your sites will load faster, and essentially you'll have happy browsers. This will also allow the host to purchase more expensive, and faster hardware, and hire knowledgable professionals. It all comes back to you.

Thanks for the article, MrRadic, but something tells me these logical conclusions won't prevent the majority from buying cheap hosting, and the leading positions of Startlogic, Powweb, Omnis and ImHosted in ratings of review sites prove that.

Ultimately it comes down to the buyer. If one person understands it and it helps them, then thats all that matters!

Nice Article, hopefully buyers will read this sorts of articles and understands the logical conclusions. and reconsider their choice about cheap webhosting

Thanks for the Information, very helpful

Good info for those considering "cheap" hosting! Thanks for sharing.

I actually do disagree with this article. Not all 'cheap hosts' are bad. And I actually think they are better because they do not oversell.
Why should a hosting provider offer customers 100GB space and 1000GB bandwidth knowing fully well that they can't use anywhere near that?? It basically preying on people's greed!.

So instead of offering those false plans, they could offer 10GB/100GB and still get their 300 customers.
The only reason companies oversell is because they know people's greedy nature would make them sign up if they see that much space/bandwidth, and hence try to make as much from them as they can before they transfer to another company. It's as simple as that!
Cheap hosting companies who don't oversell would usually have a more personal service with their customers therefore support is usually better.

Now I'm not saying not all cheap hosting companies are good, some are completely rubbish, but at the same time, don't paint all the cheap hosting companies with the same bad brush.
My 2 cents

I don't know... for a little site anyone can go to bravenet.com and get free space and several tools. What do you think?:confused:

The best idea is to go for a PAID service. If you don't you don't really end up with any type of support. It's not about the hosting (disk space, bandwidth)... its about what powers the hosting - support, kb, support staff, uptime.

The only reason companies oversell is because they know people's greedy nature would make them sign up if they see that much space/bandwidth, and hence try to make as much from them as they can before they transfer to another company. It's as simple as that!


I experiencd the exact same process,dreamhost -> other 'everyone say good' -> back to dreamhost

Great postings MrRadic I do agree with you.
But some use the term of turnover B/W so what you don't use you still own.

I actually do disagree with this article. Not all 'cheap hosts' are bad.

I can partially agree with you. There are a few hosts that know how to manage the overselling -- but at the same time they still need to make a profit, so they keep cramming users on each server to take it to its max. Which is ok at first, but what happens when each of these sites starts growing? How much room do they have?

Thats where the problem lies.

very good article, well these days there are lots of cheap hosting, but thing is you cant depends on them, like example, their service, up time, customer service, etc etc, so for me i think $4 or $5 hosting is good. dont go under that you might face difficulty later on..

very good article, well these days there are lots of cheap hosting, but thing is you cant depends on them, like example, their service, up time, customer service, etc etc, so for me i think $4 or $5 hosting is good. dont go under that you might face difficulty later on..
:confused::confused: Did you read through this thread atall?
The whole point is you cannot and should not paint companies with the same brush. Dont judge a host until you have first hand experience with them.
Same way you can face difficulty with a small host is the same way you can face difficulty with a large host. And vice versa

quit agree on above post. overselling is concern as well.
not to mention host that can offer $1 or $2 per month hosting, with gigabyte space etc. that is too much overselling.

anyway, for better hosting service, i only choose quality host that are running their business 5 years and above. i felt more reliable stay with them.

quit agree on above post. overselling is concern as well.
not to mention host that can offer $1 or $2 per month hosting, with gigabyte space etc. that is too much overselling.

You can't know if someone is overselling until you actually know the specs of their hardware. We sell hosting for a buck and every server we commission generates around $1000 a month income without overselling. Do we oversell? Not at the moment, but I can easily see how we could oversell 10%-20% if we wanted to without running into danger, but there's no need. Our servers pay for themselves 3 or 4 times over.

When we get to the point that we want to introduce NASes into the mix a single server/NAS combination could generate thousands of dollars in income all by itself. There is a finite limit for a server, though. No matter how much disk space or bandwidth you throw at it sooner or later it will need more processing speed or RAM to function well.

Overselling = not being able to provide the resources you said you would to a customer. In order for you to assess that, you need to know what resources are available and how many customers there are committed to those resources. Notice how there is no money in this equation? Stating that someone is "too much overselling" when the only factor you know is the price point is not a supportable argument.

^^^^
Nicely put man!

My idea is if your going to oversell buy a vps....

you simply just buy the resources as and when they start to run low :D

Or buy a master reseller and sell unlimited resellers, its the master reseller provider who has to make the server run well. :)

anyway, for better hosting service, i only choose quality host that are running their business 5 years and above. i felt more reliable stay with them.

Thank you for the information.

Thnx for that piece of information :)

interesting. thanks for the good article. hopefully many will put it to good use

This is a major topic that inexperience people don't understand. Almost every company I deal with is simply looking for the cheapest deal possible which means they will not host with me because I am "not cheap enough" my simple reponse is similar to this article.

You have to pay for quality, I refuse to oversell my hosting, if I reach the maximum bandwidth and storage capabilities of my servers I simply stop selling, as a webdesigner/programmer aswell as webhost I can afford to loose money if I need to as the website work simply covers all my costs. My customers always come first, and recieve what they pay for, quality but affordable hosting with a provider that does not oversell... unfortunatly some people don't respect or understand that.

It doesn't necessarly mean that cheap hosting providers are bad...sometimes when a web hosting provider offers "cheap" hosting it is just because that they are willing to earn low profits...

Established hosting companies are able to lower their prices, due to the amount of customers they have...

Established hosting companies are able to lower their prices, due to the amount of customers they have...

I believe the term is Quantity over Quality :P

well what is considered cheap? $1-2 I think is so cheap that you can't get good service. A good price is around $7-10 a month.

thanks sir

Great Article,
Thanks.
:)

well what is considered cheap? $1-2 I think is so cheap that you can't get good service. A good price is around $7-10 a month.
Doesn't matter. It's the cost-to-expense ratio that's important. If you're paying 10 bucks for 200 gigabytes of space and a terabyte of bandwidth, they're overselling.

cheap, in the end cost you like a hell...

I also disagree that cheap hosting is all bad, i myself own a shared hosting company with a staff count of 11.

The overheads are low which is where we pass the saving on to our customers, i dont expect to make a million out of my business but as long as it allows me to pay myself and my staff im happy, being a smaller company we care more about our customers and we pride ourselves on doing our upmost to ensure that our customers feel like they're just more than an id in a database.

Dont get me wrong, some cheap hosts are bad, in fact very bad.

But believing that a host is only good if they've been active for 5 years is silly and nieve. if nobody had believed in us at the start we wouldnt still be here just like a lot of other hosts.

I recommend to pay a few more dollars for a better service ( quality hosts that are in business for a long time with online support ). But in case of a simple home page that does not have any server side scripting and will not have a lot of visitors there are a lot of affordable hosting providers out there. ucvhost for example sells 1GB for $1/mo with a decent support.

this is a good article, especially for beginners. thanks for sharing this one. reps left :d