Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Web Host Prices - Website Hosting Packages

[CJSS]

What prices are people prepared to pay and for what sort of packages?
Please post below your ideal: bandwith, webspace limit and price (monthly).

It would be interesting for a mix of what people would like and what people currently pay.

Thanks.

[24x7group]

It all depends the market you are targetting. Is is the budget market or the premium market?
Compare some providers and then you can figure out what are the interesting packages

[pulsemediahosting]

It all depends on who you are targetting. Budget market can be very tight on their wallets while premium don't mind paying a lot more.

If you want to go for budget, look around budget hosting providers and compare their specs and prices. After which you must have a plan as to how you can be different than them.

Best of luck!

[The_Cow]

Research your target demographic then compare the service you're realistically able to give your clients vs your competitors; then price yourself accordingly (of course this must coincide with your costs vs. the profit you wish to make, etc...).

If you're able to provide a lesser service (for example, you personally cannot provide 24/7 support on your own, etc...) than your competitors, no problem; simply price yourself lower than your competitors and dont lie to your clients.

Time to get your calculator out, this isnt something people can do for you.

[HostGamma]

What about unlimited disk space with unlimited bandwidth, for $0.99/mth with 45-day money back guarantee...

[samkak]

its all so relative.so can't write anything specifically.

[systemadminjobs]

Originally Posted by cycomholdings

What about unlimited disk space with unlimited bandwidth, for $0.99/mth with 45-day money back guarantee...

It will work, you will need 1000 clients to get $1000/month, the servers would cost you $800, so you have $200 profit if you do it by your own. If you want a decent life in the U.S. you would need 10,000 clients so you will get $2000 wage per month, however, that's still very low compare with a normal wage in the U.S.A.

[NoSupportLinuxHostin]

Originally Posted by CJSS

What prices are people prepared to pay and for what sort of packages?
Please post below your ideal: bandwith, webspace limit and price (monthly).

It would be interesting for a mix of what people would like and what people currently pay.

Thanks.

There is a wide range. I doubt there is one ideal price or ideal amount of resources. For shared hosting, prices vary from less than $1/month up through $20 or more per month. Disk space varies from hundreds of megs to hundreds of gigs. Bandwidth is anywhere from a gig to hundreds of gigs or even terrabytes of transfer per month. And of course, there are those "unlimited" hosts that each have varying terms in their TOS document to limit the "unlimited". There is no one right answer.

Also, low price does not always lead to more sales. Sometimes high prices seems like a better deal and lead to more sales, if the potential customers think the high price will lead to better service (reliability, support, speed, etc).

As long as your business tries to clearly set itself apart from the rest of the seemingly similar businesses, you can successfully choose nearly any price point you want and probably get at least some customers. By set itself apart, I mean use something other than price, disk space, or bandwidth to define what makes your business different from other hosting companies.

[systemadminjobs]

Originally Posted by NoSupportLinuxHostin

There is a wide range. I doubt there is one ideal price or ideal amount of resources. For shared hosting, prices vary from less than $1/month up through $20 or more per month. Disk space varies from hundreds of megs to hundreds of gigs. Bandwidth is anywhere from a gig to hundreds of gigs or even terrabytes of transfer per month. And of course, there are those "unlimited" hosts that each have varying terms in their TOS document to limit the "unlimited". There is no one right answer.

Also, low price does not always lead to more sales. Sometimes high prices seems like a better deal and lead to more sales, if the potential customers think the high price will lead to better service (reliability, support, speed, etc).

As long as your business tries to clearly set itself apart from the rest of the seemingly similar businesses, you can successfully choose nearly any price point you want and probably get at least some customers. By set itself apart, I mean use something other than price, disk space, or bandwidth to define what makes your business different from other hosting companies.

Unless you offer discount, nobody wants to pay more than what they want. Especially the clients who pay monthly, they can switch to other hosts easily.

[NoSupportLinuxHostin]

Originally Posted by systemadminjobs

Unless you offer discount, nobody wants to pay more than what they want. Especially the clients who pay monthly, they can switch to other hosts easily.

That is really oversimplified. People do not shop on price alone. In fact, most people have a price they are willing to pay and they are actually looking for a company that seems to be tailored for their specific needs at the price point they have in mind. Most people won't simply flock to the lowest price.

[SamBarrow]

Just take a look around at other hosts to get the standard going rates for your market. Find a reasonable price that works for you and focus on your service. Price is not as important as you may think.

[camm]

What I did is figured out the break even for my server and then what I want to make off each server. I have played around with the numbers and I am beginning to think that targeting the more premium customers may be harder, but they will pay off more in the long run and be less of a hassle.

[SamBarrow]

Do that, but be generous with yourself. Unexpected costs will come up, guaranteed. But you got the idea, aiming for the premium market is almost always better. It will be MUCH less of a hassle, you're right.

The hardest customers I've ever had to deal with in my life are the ones on my free web hosting service. That says alot.

[gotlivechat]

Originally Posted by systemadminjobs

It will work, you will need 1000 clients to get $1000/month, the servers would cost you $800, so you have $200 profit if you do it by your own. If you want a decent life in the U.S. you would need 10,000 clients so you will get $2000 wage per month, however, that's still very low compare with a normal wage in the U.S.A.

Whew 10k clients? To manage that many customers and servers I have to imagine costs would eat into that $2k/month.

[SamBarrow]

It's not that simple. A lot of people take raw hosting costs and subtract that from revenue from clients and think wow, this will be easy. You'll leave yourself with a thin profit margin that will get eaten up by other things.

Server management, hardware failures, tech support, software licensing for servers and management software (billing, help desk, etc), the list goes on and on. Not to mention the stuff that applies to any business like accounting/tax services, phone lines, toll free number (maybe), office space (might need it eventually), etc etc. I could go on forever listing the things that will eat away at your profit margin.