Bit of a rant

[Nick]

Is it just me or is the hosting industry FAR too cheap now?

I'm thinking of getting a decent spec server with cPanel/WHM purely for hosting friends on, along with my own stuff, but they're not prepared to even pay a bit more for the following:


The server is in the UK (and so are my friends and I)
I will have physical access to the server (as I work as a techy at the DC)
They will have almost free reign over the server and very generous limits


I think the prices are so low because the USA is so well connected, and bandwidth/hardware doesn't seem to cost much over there - in comparison to the UK where bandwidth is a bit dearer.

I think the points I made above should be a good enough reason to pay a little more for hosting, do you agree?

Of course, I'm not desperate to host people, but I used to do it, and I enjoy being a part of their online presence, along with helping them with any problems they encounter, and generally getting to know them better. I made a few good friends last time I was hosting, and I don't really want to give it up just because some hosts charge $1 for 5GB webspace and 100GB bandwidth (for example) - and I can't (and don't want to) compete with that.

[smokie]

I agree but with CP panel you can over sell too. If I had to pick one thing that is a problem it is overselling. So you can make that crazy 500 mb storage and a 50 gigs transfer for $1.50 and dont forget unlimted everything claims and weed out the real bandwith users with there walking papers, lets do the math 1 server 300 domains at 1.50 each = 450.00 US server payment 140.00 thats 310.00 amonth profit.....ah capitalism
I for one cant do that either but I have clients that do want what they pay for, and the get everything I said they would. Uptime in the last 6 months 100% good server response,low server load. I dont cater to the newest and best I just deliver dependability. I dont even activly solict business because of the glut of over sellers out there. I find business in starnge places like local business that want a web presence and good e-mail maybe a data base very small demands but they dont need the head ache of johnny wants to run a bad script that trashes the server. I have a couple on ther own server for that simple reason, I update it and help them when they need help it is not enough to retire on. but one day after several years it may be something. you need to find your nich...

[GordonH]

There ARE ways of doing cheap hosting.
I am going to be doing 3GB disk space and 300GB per month for a low price soon.
It requires massive amounts of investment to do this sort of thing though.
You need big servers and good quality disk drives and lots of memory.
Plus you need to clamp down hard on people abusing processor resources.
I know I can make it work though.

I couldn't do that in the UK though as costs here are higher and customer expectations are higher.

[Chrysalis]

so the above offer is hosted in the us?

[GordonH]

Yes, would have to be US based. It would not be possible to host that in the UK without either:

1. being bigger than we are and joining linx.

or

2. Using cheaper connectivity which may be slower or less reliable.

[Chrysalis]

I think alot of what we seeing in the us is driven by cogent, many americans are percieved cogent is of equal quality to other providers and are happy to use it which drives down costs. Of course you get what you pay for and cogent in my experience is considerably lower standard bandwodth, the stability is better but the performance is poor in particular to europe. There are so many unmetered offerings now almost all utilising cogent in one form or the other and these $10 per mbit quotes are driven by cogent pricing.

Cogent isnt a major player in the eu and hasnt had the same affect on pricing so I think that is one explanation for the pricing differences.