Hi all

I'm wondering. For a small web host, does offering large, feature packed hosting at extremely low prices actually put customers off rather than attracting them.

We see the large hosting companies offering hosting at very low prices now. is it worth trying to compete?

i am in a postion to offer hosting at a very low price and I am doing so at the moment. We also offer great technical support etc... BUT, we are by no means a houshold name and i worry that by offering hosting packages at such low prices, i could actually be instilling a degree of suspision into my potential customers.

Although i will probably never be able to compete with the big boys when it comes to volume of customers, i would like to compete in price and i actually have the ability to do so. My dilema is that we are a web design company and are new to the hosting game. We have always provided hosting for our design clients but until now have not offered it to the general public. Developed our technical support skills and offer a great servce, but how does a small company make people have confidence in the service they are buying?

I could put my prices up in an attempt to make people beleive that they are going to get a great service, but when i know that we are able to offer a great service and keep the price down, such a move seems a strange one to make.

We are getting our fair share of new clients, but we are spending a fortune on PPC to do so. I'm not too sure how things will go when we slow the advertising down which we will need to do in a few weeks time.

Do I keep the prices low, or do I put them up? i just don't know. Of course all of my existing customers will get the price they pay when they sign up, i wont put the price up on them, but do i increase the price in the future?

I believe in the web hosting world that we are in now, customers are more prune to flock to web hosts that offer such large extravagent packages, for as little as possible.

They believe companies can actually offer such packages and get away with it when in reality we all know that isn't true.

In some cases, the real smart customers know better than to sign-up with a web host that offers these rediculous plans.

I think a good way for a new company to start out when selling web hosting, is to be honest. It never hurts to be honest

If you have an established company with clients who trust you and pay you the sum to keep your business profitable why should you decrease the price? The principle you get what you pay for is commonly shared. Your clients just should believe they get quality and they'll pay for it.

It is tough, because the more 'sophisticated', or maybe more knowledgable clients, know that you do indeed get what you pay for - but the general public looking to start their first site will always go for the cheapest package, often without researching whether or not they get good service.

If you are providing the good service already, that is what will keep clients with you, and with luck their word-of-mouth will help you attract other clients.

Just a few ideas to please both sides and hopefully attract all kinds of clients is to offer different types of packages. You probably already do this, but if you advertise it as a 'budget' section, with the super low prices you offer now, you'll still get the cost-concious clients. Then if you offer a 'professional' section, with maybe an added level of support, you can charge a bit more and appeal to the more business-type client. You can also always offer specials or sales - make your everyday pricing more in line with higher-profile hosts, and offer sale prices on the smaller or most popular packages to bring in the price shoppers.

Well your question can create numerous responses based on preference and skepticism. When I look for a host, I look for support rather than offerings. That is just my preference. But answering your question, lets use an example. If you go to a site and somebody is selling 15GB space and 25GB bandwidth for $10/month with excellent speeds, would you rather go to a host overselling their servers for less? Sure the over seller might seem fast but as time goes on, those HDD's are going to sill up and loads are going to be strenuous. It basically depends on the income I guess and the server reliability. If you can prove that you have a great Data center, you should be fine.

As mentioned above, you do get what you pay for. My personal opinion is people are beginning to realize this. Finally. The question you have to ask yourself is what type of market do you want to hit. Low budget/high resourse offerings will bring more clients but is it worth it? 100 low budget clients generally = more support requests, more work, etc and say you make 50 bucks/month. A couple higher budget business clients will generally = less support requests, less work and will allow you to offer better support and say you make 50 bucks/month. Would you rather make 50 bucks/month with a couple clients or many? Decide what niche you want and go for that.

Of course everyone have their own opinions on this subject but the thing is with this industry if you just look around you will see Host A offering one LOW LOW price and then the new guy, Host B comes along (usually daily!) going a buck or so lower. Its a constant price war and alot are resellers themselves on a LOW priced reseller account with unlimited domains!

There are just MANY things to factor in: Support, server fees, misc. fees, billing, etc....the list goes on.

May sometimes it would be too cheap for special occasions. But if the company itself is having the same cheaper pricing plan then it should be a noting factor by the host seekers. Good analysis should be undertaken by the host seekers of how the services are provided by the host providers for their pricing plan which is having a cheaper pricing plan, whether they just attracting the customers or really doing good services, gving good support that is24/7 support ect. And other technical factors should also be reviewed with the existing customers of that hosting company.
This makes the fraud companies to be dropped out from the market.

On mine all depends on the company. They can offer you service for the low price and on it they will not spoil quality. The good company will not allow that clients were not happy their service.On it the company will try to keep the advantages.

I'm always a little suspect of a company when prices are low like $3.00 a month. I've made the mistake of joining with a web hosting company that had cheap prices, but lousy customer service.

Well i offer cheap hosting but am more than happy to provide a decent level of customer support to everyone. for example "1 gig space, 10 gig transfer, cpanel x, fantastico for £1" that isnt too bad is it.