Does low cost mean low quality?

[tresfun]

Having been in the industry for some time, i thought i'd ask a question for some of the newer hosting users out there - what are people's thoughts on the relatedness of low price and low quality?

If you go to a suit store and you buy a $99 suit, you generally get a $99 suit that'll last you half way through dinner - does $4.99 hosting mean the same thing? I personally like to venture into the $15 to $20 range when evaluting a host - what are others thoughts?

[HostZone]

There is something fundamentally wrong in my opinion with these very inexpensive hosts. We have a $9.95 plan that well, I consider to be the lowest you can go. Most hosts do over sell, and survive on the fact that a user will never use up everything they are paying for monthly. This is obviously what these very low cost hosts are doing, but to an extreme. They take a major gamble in my opinion.

These low costs hosts are obviously after a high number of clients, they are going to over load servers to no end. I have alot of issues with this personally.

First of all, I and my partners dont want a high number of clients. Our clients are typically screened by us, we talk to them and find out their needs and wants. This relationship we build comes in very handy when problems occur, it helps to calm people down, it helps to know who were dealing with and vice versa. Also, the fewer customers we have the few issues we have to deal with. Obviously everyone wants more customers, but tell me if I am wrong here, does it not make more sense to have one client paying $15 a month then to have to deal with 15 clients at a dollar a month?

Well that is my basic take on it all.

[Hard@Work]

You can pay $20 a month to Host X and $10 a month to Host Y and still get the same level of service (or worse or better). Unfortunately it comes down to the frequency of customer service issues you have and what the company does in response. There is no way to tell without using the service.

From what I've seen with my competitors, the best services are usually recommended by a friend or peer regardless of price.

[crucial.com.au]

I do not believe that price determines the reliablity or quality of a host, there are many hosts out there that charge a lot and you don't get quality service, while there are many others who charge quite a small amount and they give you great service. It depends a lot on the management of the company and where they place their resources.

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[bliksem]

Originally Posted by crucial.com.au

I do not believe that price determines the reliablity or quality of a host, there are many hosts out there that charge a lot and you don't get quality service, while there are many others who charge quite a small amount and they give you great service. It depends a lot on the management of the company and where they place their resources.

I agree. We have a 50 MB plan for $2.95. For some people, that's all they need. I couldn't imagine paying more than a few dollars for a 50 MB plan. What's important is what you do with your customers. Support, support, support! You gotta be friendly. I think prople are fed up with rude support staff.

It's the same thing as Macy's vs Marshalls. Are you paying for the label or the quality?

[pulsetoday]

Too cheap makes a person look Unreliable and Too expensive scares off new clients. Its not just about price but about Psychology too!!!

Actually what the common preception after the .com burst is that you must be very professional and ' corporate type ' if you have to survive. and most of corporates will never provide something at very thin margin.

I have some really good as well as really bad experiences with cheap hosting companies. Most of them turned out to be scams. The best experience ( pleasent ) i have had was with smarterlinux.com (hostmysite) and they are not cheap but reasonable.

What's important is what you do with your customers. Support, support, support! You gotta be friendly. I think prople are fed up with rude support staff.

I will second that

[1PlanHost]

Agreed that support is indeed a primary factor in customer satisfaction. I have been in the hosting business over 8 years and have seen many of the discount hosts come and go. With the price of a unmanaged dedicated server as low as they are today, I believe we will see even more of the extra low prices and overselling of servers. In my opinion it is not good for the industry as a whole since many customers that turn to these low price hosts get burned and then turn very skeptical. It takes a lot of hand holding and re***urance to regain the trust of a customer who has had a bad experience elsewhere. The so called "unlimited bandwidth" hosts are the most troublesome since we all know there is no such thing as unlimited.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[brightman]

I think that it's more important to know what do you need and then to decide how much can you pay ... And do not sign longlasting contracts unless you are sure.
As it comes to the hosting provider - it's better to provide not a great number of services but a great support for them

[dasp]

Low prices does not have to mean low quality, but you should perform your own due diligence when evaluating hosting companies.

There are many ways a hosting company can save on their operational costs. Some have been mentioned here - like overselling accounts on the webserver. But there are others, like:

1. Saving on hardware cost - eg clone vs. brand names
2. Outsourcing customer support can save some money
3. Not paying licensing fees
4. Limiting support hours
5. Not providing telephone support or limiting the support options
6. Lessen adding extra servers for things like Stats or SQL by installing them on the webservers instead of dedicated servers for these functions.
7. Lowering connectivity costs (eg DSL vs T1 vs T3 ...etc.)
8. Going with a dedicated server so not having to lay out server cost overhead.
9. Using an off the shelf hosting automation system rather than developing their own.
10. ...etc. ..etc.

Again, the list above are just some ways that hosts can lessen their operational cost and DOES NOT mean less quality service. These are all things to consider when you are doing your due diligence and you will need to weigh the pros and cons for your website needs.

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[ashish]

I really do think that you get what you pay for, but there is a fine line between paying too much and getting good quality service and paying a justified amount to get good service, i prefer the latter

As far as overselling is concerend, it is one of the worst things that a web hosting company can do. If suddenly the user does use up a lot of bandwidth then everyone is in a LOT of trouble.