Price as indicative of quality?

[brian]

When shopping around price isn't a concern - it's the perceived stability of the hosting company and the accessibility of customer support.

Warning bells go off as soon as I see hosting plans that are just too cheap - I expect to buy a decent reseller account for around $15-$25 USD in the USA, or £15-£25 for a decent reseller account in the UK.

So when hosts offer lower than that I wonder just how stable the hosting can be.

However, even saying that, I've been surprised by lower prices from some established hosts - UH-Hosting and Hostroute come to mind as pricing below expectation.

But as a general trend, can price really be indicative of quality? Or is it a factor that simply needs taking into account within proper context?

[monaghan]

Bottom line is costs, you can get cheaper by cutting costs, this is usually achieved by cutting corners, generally cheaper hosts will put more load on a box than a more expensive host (not always true, some will charge a lot and still overload )

You see so many hosts these days offering 24*7 support on $1 packages, when you take out the PayPal fee and the server cost, I can't see how they can have anything left over to pay quality support staff.

We manage costs by going for a mid-range (usually 2.4-3.0GHz) system and putting a sensible number of accounts on it.

Best bet is to simply ask the potential host about their setup, if they're running a viable business model, then this should be obvious from the quality of the reply you get.

If you have the framework in place and can scale up well, then of course you can offer much better quality at the lower price, but you then run into being a number on the balance sheet rather than Brian from Web Hosting World.

Difficult call to make though, gut feel plays a big part, not always reliable though.

[triumph]

Price can certainly be an indicator, but it really depends on what you need. One of my hosts I use has a very low-level re-seller package that I have been fairly happy with. When I first signed up with them a year ago they had some issues because they had people setting up free hosts and everything else on there as they offered unlimited domains.

Once they put in some moderate restrictions on domains, and utilization things have been very smooth.

The unfortunate flipside is higher prices do not necessarily equate to equality. You can overpay for some pretty crappy webhosting service

[etali]

I've had good and bad experiences at both ends of the pricing spectrum, so I have stopped paying attention to price as much as I do to user recommendations.

When I'm considering a new host I google them, and look for positive and negative remarks from users. A few negative remarks won't put me off - there's always people that will find fault with anything, but if the overal trend is slating a company then I will avoid them.

If its mostly positive, then I take that as a good sign (unless they're all 1 post wonders on hosting companies, then I start thinking they're all shills...)

One of my current hosts is $8 a month for an account that allows 3 domains. I'll be upgrading to their proper reseller account soon, which is $15 a month.

[MasterMind]

I believe price is not always and indicative of reliability.

I went for cheap once, 1GB webspace, $1.99/m Linux hosting and downtime was matter of all nights, with worst support service. Server located in the USA

I got recently another bargain hosting 1GB, $1/m Windows hosting, and the servers is 97-99% up, but no support service at all.

However in my experience I have face same problems with downtime or lack of support from hosting/resellers services which cost ranges from $10 to $20.

I have seen that it's better indicator find out how long a company has been in business and googling for feedback that hostees post throughout different forums.

[paperclip]

Many times it is, and definitely worth looking into in a case by case basis. Higher price won't always mean higher quality either, heck, look at cadillacs

[MasterMind]

Excellent point of comparison

Absolutely true, and keep in mind another factor, whathever is good for someone might be useless for another pip.

[paperclip]

Exactly! I have seen free hosts that provide better service than paid hosts. I have seen expensive clothes that aren't worth a dime, same with shoes, etc.

[reviewer]

It varies. Godaddy.com is famously cheap but I find it's not bad - the only bad part is the order process and their website is very cluttered with about 1,000 different offers and upsells.

[OpticEmpire]

TBH i think with hosting - like many things you get what you pay for.

How could you expect great support and services when you only pay a few dollars. a company just cant run on bread crumbs

[mtajim]

Price generally tells you a lot about the hosts. Sometime hosts lower down the price dramatically to increase sales but in that condition they also lower down the quality and services in host

[wantingawebsite]

I agree with the you get what you pay for bit But i think that they way you think with cheap must be crap i dont always think it is. There is nothing i can't stand more than seeing a customer struggle so i personally try and help when i can. I recently dropped my reseller pricing (not intended to advertise just so you understand my point)

2gb, 50gb band for £7.95 a month - that was from £9.99 pm. The reason i dropped because i saw other online packages out there that offered more at the £9.99 - so it made sence to me to price this package more competitivly and so that you are more realistically getting what you pay for.

The way you all seem to think above is that if its cheap it will mean lower quality, just reading that sparks some anger inside me lol as hosts that dont offer good services put of others such as yourselfs from thinking that paying a low price wont get you good support/ services and other elements that make a good host.

[monaghan]

Pricing needs to be sustainable pricing. Dropping prices to match others who may or may not be offering sustainable prices is not such a good idea. If your business model allows you to sell at a price, pay the bills (support staff, servers, corporation tax, VAT etc...) and make a profit, then the price is obviously right.

If you reduce the price, then potentially the sales volume will increase, however the support burden may well also increase at a higher rate than before as the lower prices can attract those less competent who then need more support time making your costs per customer higher.

While this increase in support may not be a big issue to the smaller 1 man operations who are doing hosting as a sideline (not a dig at anyone here as I don't know your business ), this increase in support can take your time away from social life or school or more importanty spending time on other areas of your business.

Competing on price alone is not a good idea as someone will always offer more for less

Just my 2p

[wantingawebsite]

Very true i agree entirely on what you just said It took time to decide on that price change. Hosts that are constantly changing their prices up are down is a sure sign of them being unstable and may not be reliable.

[aquariancore]

The netfirms.com/max deal is an exception. There are no strings and it is only $10 for the year. It runs out on 2-28-07 so if you have got an idea to play with the money is worth it. . If the idea pans out you upgrade or change domains.

[paperclip]

Not everyone has the same overhead. Even with the same equipment, just the different amount of people, location costs, and even the knowledge of the masterminds behind the operation can bring prices down without affecting quality.

[webme]

I do not think price has a direct relation to quality of service given by webhosts. There are many cheap webhosting today. Why do they offer cheaper hosting? It is because the options/features are lesser yet still can accommodate the needs of their customer. Webhosts are getting smarter. They find ways to market their services so they lower down the prices yet maintaining quality service.

[monaghan]

The problem with cheap hosts is that they are often "kiddie hosts" and don't care about the future as long as they can make a few £ pocket money.

A good cheap host will have automation and use this to reduce costs and pass this saving on.

Some of the better known consumer brands also offer low cost hosting and if you beleive the reports you read, they often suffer from under investment in their support capabilities.

My advise would be to go with a mid-priced smaller host who's been in business for a number of years and who ideally doesn't focus 100% on web hosting. This way you're more likely to be dealing with a non-geek who can relate to your actual needs.

[wantingawebsite]

lol non-geek

Although reviews on hosts are not always accurate its worth having a look for some to get some info before you drive in and buy.