Cheap Webhosting – Is it for You?

There’s an old adage which states that “You get what you pay
for”.

In most areas of life, and business, this holds true. Not
necessarily so, however, in the webhosting industry. Often, you
pay too much, and don’t get what you pay for.

Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend of
mine.

“John,” He said “You won’t believe this”.

He went on to tell me about a Plastic Surgeon he was redesigning
a website for. This client was paying 0.00 per month for his
webhosting account.

“The incredible thing is” He related, “I can’t get the current
host to return my phone calls or emails”.

After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find that
there was nothing special about his site that justified his
being on anything other than a basic shared webhosting plan. We
quoted him a monthly rate of under five dollars.

In this case, the client was being raped by an unscrupulous host
who was not only overcharging him, but not even providing the
basic support he needed.

This is an extreme example, no doubt, but it all to often
characterizes the poor deal which most website owners fall into.

Several years ago, there was no such thing as a webhosting
industry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP’s. The
average monthly cost for hosting a website was .00 per month.
Often, if you called the ISP with a technical question, they
would tell you to buy a book or take a class.

Around 1996, we saw the emergence of a few “webhosting”
companies. These were companies which were strictly committed to
hosting websites. Using the economy of scale, they were able to
offer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around .00
per month. What’s more, some of these companies provided useful
tech support which was geared towards meeting a website owners
needs.

Fast forward to 2005 and we now see the emergence of a new type
of web host – the cheap webhosting provider. These are companies
which offer hosting for less than .00 per month.

Generally, cheap webhosting providers are newer companies.
There’s a reason for this. It’s extremely difficult for the
older companies to lower their prices when they already have a
large customer base which pays higher prices. They’d be slashing
their gross, and most companies just can’t afford that.

So how do cheap webhosting providers offer such a low price to
begin with?

Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are
much, much less expensive than they were several years ago.
Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.

Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a different
business model than the older providers. Webhosting is a very
competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to
compete by providing the most tools and features. The problem
with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web
hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients.
Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but
everyone pays for them because they’re built into the cost of
the package.

A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give you
the basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups
as an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing up
websites on only those customers who want that service.

This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will I
get competent and fast customer support from a company which
charges me .00 per month?

The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes.

Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give you
great service. But not all expensive webhosting providers will
give good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn’t
get his 0.00 host to return his emails.

But, with a cheaper provider, the key for the providers success
is customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to please
his existing clients by providing the best support possible.

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