What do you guys think of unlimited web hosting?

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, I see what you are saying SunnyD, and we're not sure we want to get into that market yet or not...that is why I am putting feelers out there.

We have lost more customers to 'unlimited' hosts then we have gained. Web Hosting is not our money maker, but it is a shame to have such capacity and very, very small usage.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Another thing we were thinking of doing, we currently do off site remote backups, which we don't advertise .. and actually costs a pretty penny.

We might have unlimited with no backups, and unlimited with backups @ a higher price. For some reason we never advertised it too well that way, so that is our fault.

 

[SunnyD]

Yeah, I see what you are saying SunnyD, and we're not sure we want to get into that market yet or not...that is why I am putting feelers out there.

We have lost more customers to 'unlimited' hosts then we have gained. Web Hosting is not our money maker, but it is a shame to have such capacity and very, very small usage.

I'd wonder how many of those customers are actually using any more bandwidth/storage than they were when they were with you, and yet are paying more for the privilege of "Unlimited*" with a company that ultimately has worse performance/uptime/quality of service. :whiste:

 

[DaveSimmons]

Higher-priced companies like ServInt will say up front that they discard the highest single-day peak when looking at bandwidth overages. So the 1-day spike from a Fark link won't result in a massive and unexpected charge.

With them you know ($49 / month plan) you can safely have 60 GB of files and 1 TB of transfer without it being labeled "abuse".

With this new definition of "unlimited", who knows what your limits are? It's at the whim of the hosting company.

Again, that's the viewpoint of someone willing to pay more for better and more predictable service. If you're going after more normal customers who think they can get something for nothing, you're taking the right approach by joining the "unlimited" club.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I'd wonder how many of those customers are actually using any more bandwidth/storage than they were when they were with you, and yet are paying more for the privilege of "Unlimited*" with a company that ultimately has worse performance/uptime/quality of service. :whiste:

Probably a lot, It is a safe bet that 50% of our customers who are on the smallest plan, use a few megabytes of data, and push little/none.

So we might offer small plan for 1-2$ a month, and then unlimited, and then unlimited + remote back ups.

 

[bigrash]

I wouldn't mind unlimited webhosting. Unfortunately, to me, it kinda sounds like a marketing scheme when a webhost says that.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Higher-priced companies like ServInt will say up front that they discard the highest single-day peak when looking at bandwidth overages. So the 1-day spike from a Fark link won't result in a massive and unexpected charge.

With them you know ($49 / month plan) you can safely have 60 GB of files and 1 TB of transfer without it being labeled "abuse".

With this new definition of "unlimited", who knows what your limits are? It's at the whim of the hosting company.

Again, that's the viewpoint of someone willing to pay more for better and more predictable service. If you're going after more normal customers who think they can get something for nothing, you're taking the right approach by joining the "unlimited" club.

If you are going to pay that much, they can get a VPS with more power/capabilities then on a shared platform.

The problem is marketing it.

 

[soulcougher73]

I understand what you're saying. You don't understand what I'm saying.

I'm sick of businesses advertising a product as "Unlimited" then clearly limiting it. If there is any limitation whatsoever, then don't call it unlimited.

Obviously abuse of service means you have some upper limit in mind, hence it's not "Unlimited". Do not use the term "Unlimited" if that is the case.

This

 

[SunnyD]

Probably a lot, It is a safe bet that 50% of our customers who are on the smallest plan, use a few megabytes of data, and push little/none.

So we might offer small plan for 1-2$ a month, and then unlimited, and then unlimited + remote back ups.

I couldn't possibly express how much more appealing this would be. Especially if you can tie it to some sort of easy website builder/template system and market it to mom & pop's.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, we already have a web builder app, so few people use it though ... so much goes away to licensing and people end up never using it, LOL.

 

[Dirigible]

On the one hand, any business that advertises "unlimited" and then limits it is a business I consider dishonest and an adversary. So I don't like your plan.

I see what you are both saying, and this would be for new clients, or those who want to convert.

We are seeing a heavy cut in web hosting clients signing up, and a lot mentioning the fact they are aren't offering 'unlimited' like the other hosts as a reason they are not signing up. Which is why we are entertaining the idea.

Yes, EVERY web host you sign up that is unlimited is an *, putting a clause in their ToS, or wherever that they reserve the right to shut you down for 'abuse'.

On the other hand, you do want to stay in business so I understand considering it.

Any chance you can do something like "Our Almost Unlimited package. Unlike the other guys, we don't lie about our services. But you'll almost certainly find the only limits are your imagination of how you can use it. For full details, click here," and basically just make the limits what you were going to call abuse? Keeps you honest. Gets a dig at the slimy competition.

I might be dreaming though. People might really only care if it says "unlimited" or not. :|

 

[ViviTheMage]

HA, yeah, that is clever ... might be a good idea to put a spin on it!

Want to be our PR guy

 

[Dirigible]

HA, yeah, that is clever ... might be a good idea to put a spin on it!

Want to be our PR guy

Only if that means hookers 'n' blow 24/7 and none of that dreadful "work" stuff.

I'd still be a bit nervous it'd be too many words, instead of just an "UNLIMITED! SUPER CHEAP! YOU BUY! DURR HURR!!" blurb, but figured I'd at least throw out the idea.

 

[dighn]

I specifically picked a metered host b/c I don't trust unlimited hosts. I want a number that I can trust. I had an account that got disabled due to "abuse", probably just because an app I wrote years ago got posted on some site somewhere and there was a bunch of downloads, or some jerk who I was sharing the server with blew the quota for the entire server.

Now I use StableHost which has clearly outlined transfer quotas.

 

[Crono]

Don't do it. The only "unlimited" I trust is unmetered. Don't offer unlimited unless you truly can allow a customer to use as much bandwidth as he/she wants.

Otherwise just offer much higher bandwidth options at appropriately higher plan rates.

<- customer

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, probably a good idea ... migiht not be worth the hassle of the unlimited crowd.

unmetered/unlimited is always up for debate too!

 

[xanis]

I tend to associated "unlimited" with poor quality. From what I've seen and heard (and from my own experience) it's usually true.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I tend to associated "unlimited" with poor quality. From what I've seen and heard (and from my own experience) it's usually true.

Yeah, same ... I am thinking it might be a bad idea, and we'll just deal with the lingering crowd, and not lose our rep over it!

 

[lxskllr]

Yeah, same ... I am thinking it might be a bad idea, and we'll just deal with the lingering crowd, and not lose our rep over it!

Why not scalable plans with clearly defined terms from minimal use to the extreme? You can promote yourself as the honest provider, and give examples of how other companies use hidden caps, and undefined terms.

 

[xanis]

Why not scalable plans with clearly defined terms from minimal use to the extreme? You can promote yourself as the honest provider, and give examples of how other companies use hidden caps, and undefined terms.

This. I think A Small Orange does this fairly well; it's pretty clear what you're getting for the price. Oh, and their website is pretty nice too.

 

[KlokWyze]

The reality is that there is no such thing as unlimited. As soon as 1 user utilizes all the shared host's resources that server will go down.

My previous employer had "unlimited", but most customers understood the limitations or simply never went anywhere near any sort of operational limit.

I think unlimited really refers to a max monthly transfer limit or storage space.... typically.

 

[sdifox]

You might want to consider monthly tiered metered service. so say you sign up for tier 1, you exceed tier one into tier 2 territory, that month you charge tier 2 price.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Why not scalable plans with clearly defined terms from minimal use to the extreme? You can promote yourself as the honest provider, and give examples of how other companies use hidden caps, and undefined terms.

I would hate to pick on companies, because that is how they do it....I would rather educate them on what unlimited generally means.

 

[ViviTheMage]

This. I think A Small Orange does this fairly well; it's pretty clear what you're getting for the price. Oh, and their website is pretty nice too.

Yeah, I have followed them over the years, they've definitely moved up much faster then we have.

 

[lxskllr]

I would hate to pick on companies, because that is how they do it....I would rather educate them on what unlimited generally means.

I don't mean specific companies, but just the general techniques used.

I don't know a thing about what you do, and the costs involved, but I'd try to be as friendly as possible, especially if you can do it with automated tools. If someone goes over bandwidth for their tier, fire off an automated email letting them know. If they only go over a bit for a given month, keep them on the lower tier, but suggest they move up. Not sure what to do if they totally blow through capacity, but if you could afford to keep them on what they paid for that month, then force a raise for the next, it would probably promote goodwill.