Stupid questions about hosting a website

Pinch-a-Loaf

I'm new to this business of building websites and getting them hosted. I just finished building a site for my uncle's construction company and I got all the info from their hosting company and I logged in to their site and set it up. Right now it's up at www.pbsullivanconst.com.

He got the invoice from the hosting company and I'm trying to figure out if it seems about right or if he's getting the shaft. Since I don't know much about this, looking around godaddy etc... doesn't help much because all I see is like $4/month hosting, which is WAY different than what my uncle is being billed. Should this site cost a lot more because it's a corporate site? What's the difference?

The hosting company charged him a "one-time setup fee" of $349 and they say it will "only be $59 a month" to host it for the duration of the 2 year contract. As you can see if you go to the link, it's just a couple simple html pages, a few pictures, and one flash .swf file on the home page. No forms, no connections to databases, nothing. The folder I have the files for the site in only 1.04 MB.

Need any other info to answer my question(s)? I'm gonna go read about other people's girl problems and I'll keep checking back for replies. Thanks guys.

Rye

What is the company's name? Use Blue Host or Godaddy. My only guess is that you're getting boned for not knowing better. Hosting companies can sniff out people who don't know how much they should be paying and exploit that.

You have to pay for a domain, which is usually anually, then you pay for hosting which can be monthly. Look into their packaging deals and make sure you're not buying some huge amount of bandwidth and space you'll never use. When a hosting company hears "I need hosting for my business", they feel the need to upsell. They don't know if you're a construction company or a social networking company. They try to sell you on the max bandwidth.

embrik

$59 a year is more what he should be paying. It definitely doesn't matter if it's a business or personal site.

Rye

well (I'm not sure if I'm reading your post right), he says he's being billed 59$ a MONTH, not per year. And in truth, bandwidth and server space DO affect the cost.

embrik

Rye wrote: »

well (I'm not sure if I'm reading your post right), he says he's being billed 59$ a MONTH, not per year. And in truth, bandwidth and server space DO affect the cost.

Right. What I was saying is that no one should pay more than $60 / year for their site (plus whatever $ for going over bandwidth allotments) Paying that much a month is way too much.

bagelpirate

That $4/mo hosting is going to be utter crap.

Though, $59/mo is a lot, but he is probably getting full features (PHP, MySQL, Apache, cp, good bandwidth, good uptime, etc...)

Where as the $4/mo is probably bare basic bullshit.

Was that "Set up fee" the website design? If not, you just got ripped off.

www.networksolutions.com - great hosting for a decent price, full features, GREAT customer service/care, very rare downtime.

embrik

I've been hosted by ICDSoft.com for just over 5 years now, and I've been incredibly happy with their service. My site was down only twice in that time, and both were scheduled downtimes of less than 1 hour. I've also contacted their support for a couple of minor issues, which they've responded and fixed within an hour! I pay less than $60/yr since I've been a customer for a while. New customers pay $77 for the year, plus $5 to register a new domain. If I ever switched hosting companies, I'd probably look at Go Daddy, since they offer even more for less, but I have no experience with their uptime or customer service.

Zifnab

How much you should be willing to pay per month should scale depending on what you are looking for. I host through A Small Orange and pay $12/mo for it. I pay more because I want to host with someone that has good customer service, a smallish userbase, very minimal downtime, and who does not oversell. To generalize that no one should pay more than $60/year for hosting is oversimplifying things a little bit. If your site is absolutely mission-critical (which admittedly the OP's is not), then you shouldn't be on shared hosting at all and you're going to be paying a heck of a lot more a month for a VPS or dedicated server.

To get off my soapbox, a $349 setup fee and $59 a month for the amount of hosting that he's going to need is just unnecessary. I'm guessing it's too late to back out, but if it's not, I'd recommend doing so. Any idea what his plan is offering him? Also, try to stay away from multi-year contracts with a new host. I've had great experiences with my host for two years now and I'm still not willing to commit for that long a time.

Fake Edit: It looks like he is hosting with AIBS and has been put on one of their VPS plans, which go for $59.95 a month. AIBS appears to be reselling hosting from WildWestDomains, who is a member of the GoDaddy Group. 10GB disk space, 500GB transfer. He's actually paying a reasonable amount for what he has, but I think that what he has is overkill for what he needs. His uncle would be just as well served with a much cheaper hosting plan through a shared host like any of the ones listed in this thread so far. If it's not too late to get out and host with someone else, I'd recommend trying. He'll be happy with what he has, but I think it's more hosting than he needs right now.

flatlinegraphics

typically what you are paying for with a business plan is support, bandwidth, and email. the server won;t go down, you won't be losing emails because the mailserver is being bitchy, and you don't run out of bandwidth or server space. if there is a problem, there is a support staff.

typically, if a business loses its email system, they are dead in the water. and a plan like this aleviates most of that problem. if your uncle doesn't really need the bandwidth, or the email, or the 99.99% uptime webserver, then yeah, you're paying too much.

i'm also hosting through a small orange for my personal account, and its cheap and hasn't been a problem. at work, i own a box, so if it goes down, i go and kick it untill it restarts.