I've been studying the market lately and all these webhosting providers are offering HIGH bandwidth and LARGE quota amounts for RIDICULOUSLY cheap amounts such as $3 a month.. even with cogent BW, I dont see how its possible to make a profit with that figure unless your doing volume and youd still probably be at low profits.. IMHO its just killing the market

any opinions on this topic?

Chances are that the hosts figure correctly that 99% of the people that buy cheap plans will never use the actual bandwidth allowed - which gives a lot of room to oversell with no risk of not providing what is offered (in fact zero risk if you have a contingency plan)

They offer it, but if you are looking for quality, then those hosts are not for you.

They may give what they offer, but it may be on some old server that is overloaded and crashed every 2 minutes.

The server is a home based, and is on a DSL

No or 1 week wait time support.

Or they lie. One of my latest 3 new clients that joined my hosting were cheated by their old hosts.

One of them started with a $5 but the host added "extra fees" and the total cost went to $25 I think and the server was down a lot.

Another never got the hosting once he paid.

The third person never got the design they paid for (and it appears they are chagrin him every month)

I tell many, many people, the (two) good 'ol phrases
1. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
2. In web hosting industry “You get what you paid.”

Last 2 tips; never join a host that offers “unlimited” things, and check with this and other forums about the host that you are thinking of joining and get some feedback.

Good Luck on your search.

Agreed on the unlimited point - but the rest is a bit general don't you think ?

There may be a greater % of poor performing hosts in the cheaper part of the market - but there are poor hosts that fit your description at all prices ranges. I'd rather get bad service at a low price than a high price.

There are many hosts that offer a good service at a cheap price - a service that matches the needs of people that need only a cheap plan (which is the majority of the market)

There are many hosts that offer cheap plans and also offer very high price plans.

Yeah, I agree it is "pretty general" info, but many people fall for it, as I said my latest 3 clients. And I know many other people who are getting burned by that.

One of my earlier clients moved from a hosting company that provided everything that they needed, until the servers Mother Board died, the company said "Sorry." and that was the end of that company. As I was tolled, 400 people lost their site. The company was fine provided everything, just until they could not afford to fix the server.

My client was one of the people, sadly, who did not have a latest backup.

problem is, most people fall for it.. and say "wow, what a good deal, if this company can afford to do this they must be great", meanwhile the company has a professional looking design and a bunch of made up testemonials.. so it basically kills the market after they see the 'value provider' then go to a host that charges fair but higher prices and offers the actual support and uptime thats needed..

Yeah, Cyberwings was also cheap.....

:cartman:

You gotta just take things within reason. You know that old saying, "If it's too good to be true, it probably is?" Well listen to your Grandpa! The same applies to Webhosting.

yeah pretty much :homer:

Thing is - thats a nice saying an all that - but it doesn't mean anything or help anybody

Originally posted by AceWeb
never join a host that offers “unlimited” things

The only exception being emails addresses, domain pointers, or POP3 accounts (up to the limit of your disk space allowance);) .

It's been mentioned many times before but the people purchasing these extremely cheap offers generally aren't in a position to make a valid judgement about what is/isn't a good offer and what constitutes value-for-money. They aren't experts and most don't have an idea of the true costs of setting up and managing a server, the cost of bandwidth or dedicated lines, and the cost of support staff.

In their defence (the clients buying ridiculously cheap plans) I will say this. In most countries of the world it is against the law to offer or supply goods or services that either don't meet the specification or that the company offering them can't provide. Seems that some hosting companies fly in the face of this law - I guess they would get a fright the minute a savvy user who fell foul of their business practices decided to pursue this. So, if they aren't aware of the real costs, then it isn't unreasonable of these clients to expect to get what they paid for. The law states that they should SHOULD get it.

A ridiculous scenario (so flame me if you want). Imagine if a company offered a car that the advertising said was a Rolls Royce with AirCon, Full Leather, Turbo-charged etc etc. When the client started to use it they found out that it had plastic seats, with a fan on the dash, a 1000cc engine and no turbo-charger (like my own car :bawling: ). That company would be dragged through the courts, kicking and screaming, and the company wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

I'm not saying that all offers can't be met, but it's mentioned so many times that when you start to get close to what some of these companies offer they will cancel your account on some spurious TOS or AUP clause. Maybe one day one of these users will decide to flex their consumer muscles.

Originally posted by NovaW
Chances are that the hosts figure correctly that 99% of the people that buy cheap plans will never use the actual bandwidth allowed - which gives a lot of room to oversell with no risk of not providing what is offered (in fact zero risk if you have a contingency plan)

The host that does that better watch out if an adult site gets on there. They will use that bandwidth and then some ;)

IMHO I would rather go with a quality host and pay a little more anyday. It amazes me that some people will trust these fly-by-nights and put their whole business in jeopardy just to save a buck. Just my .02 cents :)

Of course if you have a business website then it makes no real sense to go with a $3 a month hosting solution - but business websites are only a small % of websites.

For a website to show photo's of the kids to grandmother - then a $3 website is perfect - these people don't need high reliability or high end support - they just want something cheap that does the job.

PJamie,
Yeah, that is why I hope people will learn here about making teh right judgments for thier needs.

Originally posted by Mr.G


The host that does that better watch out if an adult site gets on there. They will use that bandwidth and then some ;)

IMHO I would rather go with a quality host and pay a little more anyday. It amazes me that some people will trust these fly-by-nights and put their whole business in jeopardy just to save a buck. Just my .02 cents :)

yeah, they only need about 250 MB of transfer though, anyone can do that for $2.50 a month...

Originally posted by peteny


yeah, they only need about 250 MB of transfer though, anyone can do that for $2.50 a month...

Oh? Well I can't.

Sure I can pay the bandwidth and diskspace with that $ 2.50 but...

For $ 2.50 I also have to give them support. I have to answer their emails promptly. Two questions a month and the $ 2.50 is down the drain.

Imagine having a server with 500 $ 2.50 accounts on it. Thats a monthly income of $ 1.250. Deduct 250 server cost and you end up with a total net income of $ 1000.- per month.

Ever tried keeping 500 customers satisfied? With 500 customers you no longer have time for your daytime job so that means you have to be home 16 hrs a day and provide support.

So... your only income is $ 1000.- a month for 16 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Because you can just forget about hiring someone to help you (no money remember!).

Dry bread and hard work for you my friend :D

pretty good point.. most people do 100 times that amount of BW and disk space for $5.00 though :o

It's possible to find a reliable, cheap host that provides a lot of space and a good deal of bw. Space is cheap and average bandwidth usage is often fairly low.

It's not possible to find a reliable, cheap host that provides good support and a long list of features. That's where the costs are.

It's possible to find a reliable, cheap host that provides a lot of space and a good deal of bw. Space is cheap and average bandwidth usage is often fairly low.

It's not possible to find a reliable, cheap host that provides good support and a long list of features. That's where the costs are.


Very true my friend....We have to pay more in order to get more...Too cheap gets 1 no where. Moderate prices with excellent back support makes the difference IMHO. :)

sure its easy to get cheap BW, nothing tier1 though

<deleted. I should not do math without my caluclater at this time of night>

Good night Pilgrim
:)