Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Opinion: Choose your own package?

[akuo]

Can I just get some opinions from people on companies that allow you to set your own hosting package?

There's a couple of companies out there that let you pick bandwidth, space etc to meet your needs, what do you think of that? Good idea, or would you rather just pick from a few pre-configured packages?

[Neva]

I, personally, would be very happy to see a host where I was allowed to pay for what I wanted and nothing more, provided the price was reasonable.

[Chicken]

The problem: Customers paying for more than they 'use' pays for little things like support and sales. If a package is reduced to paying for space and bandwidth, then usually (everytime I've looked at these), it ends up being more expensive for the same package elsewhere.

Now, more expensive doesn't mean worse, as we all know, pricing is relative when it comes to web hosting. You can find the 'same' package at various hosts, and the pricing will range all over the place.

Any 'pick your own features' plan must include a base price for support, etc., then work from there. Don't forget to include that.

I don't think the model is bad, just that when people start adding it up, it ends up being as much, if not more, than a regular pre-made package, mostly because the host has already gone through this (or should have).

[tazd9t9]

I think a lot of companies probably would let you do this, i know of several companies however with most you may have to email them and ask if they do custom packages!

[akuo]

very true. thanks for your replies people, a few more things to think about before i go throwing my business model out the window

any more thoughts are more than welcome!

[NumLock]

try genius-hosting.com, they let u pay for the exact aount of bandwidth u need.

[Sesran]

We started Ala-carte hosting and thought it would be great, but no one really cared. They just buy the regular linux pre-packages.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[JoeTownley]

Genius-hosting.com offers a "chat w/ rep live" feature but every time I try to contact them a message pops up that says "No one is currently available." So it seems their attempt to reach out to the public is useless.