How much should you pay for web hosting? Does it matter if my site is hosted in the US? Just what is hosting anyway?

One of the first steps in getting on line for the first time is obtaining web hosting. Web hosting is the renting of server space where you place your web site. You need hosting so other people can see you site on the world wide web. Most businesses let whoever designs the page sort out the hosting, which is fair enough as it makes things simple.

The problem is that you often don’t know how much you should be charging for something you may be a little hazy about in any case. This makes it very easy for people to overcharge.

And once people start actually paying 5-10 times what you it should be, what incentive is there to lower your costs? Very little.

Pricing

To be frank, you should be charged no more than $10 p/m for 99% of small business or personal websites. For everything. Forget extras.

Why then are major Australian companies charging up to 5 times this amount for basic hosting accounts with limited features. If you are paying $50 p/m for hosting, you are paying the bandwidth of 100’s of other customers, making hosting one of the biggest cash cows around. So for every $50 p/m paid, the next 100 are pure profit.

Major international web hosting companies offer hosting for under $10 p/m. This is with 24 / 7 support, unlike the overpriced Aussie companies. When I was discussing this with a friend when he asked ‘So I assume that the companies that charge an arm and a leg offer better support?’ Dead wrong. It’s the other way around. Get charged less, and get better services. Go figure.

Extras

‘Suck them in with cheap hosting, then make them upgrade’ This is the mantra of many hosting companies, with some notable exemptions. But here the large Aussie host rorts the customer even more than is usual once more. Want to have another domain name? Want more (or in some cases 1) emails? Want to run a database? You need to upgrade mate!

Being forced to upgrade in order to run a database is wrong. It’s like buying a car, then finding out that the wheels wont turn unless you ‘Upgrade’ Almost every site in the world uses a database these days. We are not in 1996 anymore…

Business vs Personal

Most people who start a website hope to make some form of money with it. Having cheap reliable hosting is a must when a budding entrepreneur, a stay at home mum, or hobbyist looking to start a website. If I had chosen certain Australian companies when first starting building my own websites, I would have been looking at over $100 p/m! All I was able to get for $6.96 p/m with 24 / 7 support.

The Australian server myth

Although it may make people feel good, server location has no discernible effect of the majority of the website people visit. Unless you are a large website with large traffic, or your were sharing large files to people in specific locations, you would not be able to tell the difference, even if you had a stop watch. The main cause of slow loading pages are images that are too large, slow (to many) scripts and poorly coded pages, not server location.

In any case, the price should be the same wherever your server is based.

Don’t get ripped off

If you feel your are being overcharged for web hosting you should ask you company what you are getting for your money. Unless you are getting high traffic your costs should not be more than $10 p/m. Web design companies have been getting fat of this rort for years. It is time people said ‘No more’ Charging 2 -5 times the going rate is not on.

Your designer should be able to use which ever host you like. If they insist on you using their hosting only, run a mile. It is a fair bet they have subsidised the design work with highly inflated hosting charges.

For a few more opinions you can see a thread I started at WebhostingWorld.com, the largest hosting forums in the world, which has some great opinions from others. Click Here

Filed under: Hosting, Small Business, news, the future
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