How do you think the average customer would react to seeing nightly/weekly/revolving backups being an extra service on a hosting account, instead of included? I'm concerned that once you make them think about data protection, they will be turned off by it being something they have to pay extra for.

I haven't offered it before and no one has ever asked about in four years until last week.

I think making clients pay for backups will turn them off. But perhaps doing something like you take backups every other or third day, but make them pay extra for having backups made every day? Still I think it would turn some people off.

You can think of offering "extra" off-server back-ups may be.

You can think of offering "extra" off-server back-ups may be.

That's a better idea IMO. Many customers expect free backups, but a small fee for an extra one is a bonus I'd think.

No matter what a hosting company says, I would never trust them to take backups for me. A smart buyer will take their own backups.

From a host's point of view:
We take daily backups on the same server, and a weekly backup to an offsite server and are willing to restore backups free of charge. All included in the price.

From a customer's point of view:
I personally take regular backups and save them to my computer. Some companies don't back up, only back up monthly (lots of data can change over a month for most websites) and some charge a "Backup Restoration Fee" to restore your data for you.


I'd offer it included but perhaps charge for an extra off-site backup as suggested. Good luck with however you decide to go about it!

I think this may be a great way to draw more revenue. As it stands, when backups are included in the price of the hosting service, the customer generally pays no attention to them, and they are often not guaranteed by the host anyway. By offering backups as an extra service, you are able to derive additional revenues from your users, as well as provide the financial means for a very professional backup solution (including off-site replication).

Backups should be standard, legally its kinda necessary anyway.

Backup for shared hosting, IMO, is 100% important.

Backups should be standard, legally its kinda necessary anyway.
Why is it legally necessary?

Backups should be standard, legally its kinda necessary anyway.


Legally necessary? I don't think so.

--Tina

Backups should be standard, legally its kinda necessary anyway.

No, it actually is not.

Not legally necessary. Not sure if adding it as a extra value added service would have any real benefit.

Most customers expect backups having a extra set of backups would make some customers feel safer. However the savvy customers wouldn't purchase this option and just take regular backups themselves via a script (cron job) etc.

I can't see any real benefit in this instance.

Cheers :)

Keep webhosting simple if you're selling to shared users.

The majority of new customers to web hosting probably don't have any idea what's involved in hosting. They're going to be confused and always wondering if they've done something wrong. Why confuse them with backups being something extra to pay for?

Back up for free, but have the ability to charge when people want them?

Back up for free, but have the ability to charge when people want them?

Let me make sure I understand this correctly: you're saying to backup once a day, or once a week, but give users the ability to order a backup on-demand for, say US$2 to $5?

I have to say, that's a good idea, if that's what you meant. Of course, I liked the other one as well. :P