# How Much Are You Paying Your Web Host?



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i just received a bill for $600 for the annual fee to host/administer my web site.

this seems excessive, but i don't know what the industry standard is, or even if there is one.

can anyone comment?

i don't mind paying the fee if it is competitive, and commensurate with what others are paying.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Based on the kind of site you are running, David. That is outrageously expensive. I assume the majority of that cost is for the "administrative" end because the hosting is almost nothing for a site of that size. Give me the bloody ftp and I will update the thing free for you.

The real cool one out right now is Wix. I built one for the business on there and it's a $100 a year. You do all the work yourself and you need zero website building experience. Here is one my Daughter built herself in one afternoon. She knows nothing about websites. http://www.ashtoncitrigno.com/


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2010)

Yea, you're getting taken.

I use Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. for my consulting business: Welcome to Cyklus Cloud Consulting but I don't keep a lot of content up there. The site is running on Joomla (Joomla!).


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## Beatles (Feb 7, 2006)

I use Go-Daddy.com. With my domain name and Web hosting, it's $68.17 per year.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

+1 for 1and1.com, very cheap and probably the cheapest. They are also having a 12 month free promotion right now, no hidden fee's.


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

I use bluehost.com and pay for a few years at a time. Works out to something like 5 or 6 bucks a month. 
The account us pretty much unlimited too. 
I host a forum using the same software as is used here and I have about a half dozen other sites that range from basic to Wordpress based blogs. 
I set up a drupal based site for a kid and let him have at it and he's doing well running it on his own and updating it on a regular basis. He knew nothing about web stuff before then. I purposely gave him drupal because it would force him to learn a little bit about HTML. It worked out. 

Back on point: 600 seems excessive but I guess it depends on what they are doing for you over and above hosting services.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I pay $10.95US for unlimited bandwidth, disk space, hosted domains, emails, plus one hosting plan at Dreamhost. It is based in California and I have had my sites hosted by them for the last 10 years.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Chito said:


> I pay $10.95US for unlimited bandwidth, disk space, hosted domains, emails, plus one hosting plan at Dreamhost. It is based in California and I have had my sites hosted by them for the last 10 years.


Sites like Dreamhost and many more like it are great for small websites and low to medium traffic. I have learned much over the years on how these things work and I still dont know everything there is to know. But I do know that with traffic comes money. There are no host on earth that will allow a huge site pulling huge traffic to operate on shared servers for $10.00 a month, it just does not happen like that. Thats basically why I had to move this site earlier this year, we were just hogging all the resources and my providers at the time had to start charging me for it. So it was time to move on.

But for small websites and low traffic there is no reason to be paying more than what Chito and a few others have pointed out above. Very little data storage and almost no bandwidth. Read the fine print and service agreements on all of these major hosting sites. They will all have caveats in them for any sites that start to hog the resources.

We are averaging about 75 GB a month here now. When we moved I think we were around 50 or so. Grows a little every month


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Actually on my part, and this is not to make an argument, I used to run 10 websites with my account at Dreamhost. 3 of which were adult sites , one of which had a membership bigger than what it is here now. We also had a podcast site too at some point. And one of my biggest concern then was the bandwidth issue at that time. But I never had any issues. BTW, when I started with DH, I was paying a lot more than the $10 I'm paying now. Their plans have changed over the years.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Chito said:


> Actually on my part, and this is not to make an argument, I used to run 10 websites with my account at Dreamhost. 3 of which were adult sites , one of which had a membership bigger than what it is here now. We also had a podcast site too at some point. And one of my biggest concern then was the bandwidth issue at that time. But I never had any issues. BTW, when I started with DH, I was paying a lot more than the $10 I'm paying now. Their plans have changed over the years.


I never argue Chito, I learn. What you are saying is very interesting and an unusual trend if it is true. I did a tremendous amount of searching for a new home for this place and I just kept running into the "but if" scenarios. I actually contacted these guys and they were about the only other one I was wiling to go with.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

I've used PJMCo.ca Canadian Web Hosting from $4.95/Mo Domain Name Registration Canada Web Hosting Canada Services for years. He's in New Brunswick, but he uses Rackspace servers in Texas. Patrick's a really nice guy and gives excellent support. His plans start at $49.50 Cdn/year.

My daughter volunteered to redo the website for her community association. They've been using HostPapa.ca - Canada's Green Web Hosting Choice, Powered by 100% Green Energy - unlimited everything, they even pay for the domain name every year, about $70/yr on a 3 year plan IIRC. The community also wanted to use Wordpress (free blog software) so many of their people can post to the site. I hadn't used Wordpress before, so I tested it with a new site for our band - High Tension Band - Wordpress is pretty slick. I did have to dig into the code to change a few things, but not much. If I can get the other band members to post some stuff, the site will be okay. That community site is West Springs/Cougar Ridge 

The $600 may be reasonable, depending on how much time you require. You should be able to do your own posting with the software available today, you shouldn't need an admin. And there are enough guys on here to help you with any issues you may run into. 

A few years ago, we used to build the sites with code. And have to charge for our time. You don't need to do that today.


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

When you say the fee includes "administoring" the web site, what does that mean? Do they design the site and update it as well? That's the only possible way I could see it costing $600 a year. If that is just the hosting costs, that is pretty crazy. 

I use a local host for my own site and clients I design web sites for. They cost a little more than some of the huge hosts, but I like the personal service I get and I know they have been around for 10 years so I trust them. Even with them charging a little more than the big hosts, none of my clients pay even close to $600 a year for hosting.

As with a few others in the thread, design wise I mainly use Wordpress now which is included in most hosting plans. If you know a bit about code (especially CSS) it's helpful because you can tweak the heck out of it. But even if you don't you can get a great looking site going easily. There are free templates that a nice, right up to extravagant templates you can buy. I generally do the setup, graphics, and template tweaking for clients, then they are able to take over all their own updates. If it is updates/design you are paying so much for you may want to look into something like Wordpress.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...a very old and dear friend hosts my web site. i know he is over-charging me, but i think this is how he makes his meagre living. i'll probably pay him in increments. he does everything - design, update etc.


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2010)

David, if he's doing the design work and the updates then that's not actually a lot of money. If it was just hosting the files for you I'd say look elsewhere but he's adding value that's worth much more than the hosting service.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

I've been using DotEasy (Free Web Hosting & Domain Name Registration Since 2000 - Doteasy.com) for years. All I pay is the domain registration cost (about $25 US a year) and I get free hosting. I think that includes several hundred MB of space plus about 1 GB of bandwidth a month. Also about 10 or 15 email addresses with full POP capability. That included in the $0 hosting. They're super reliable and based in B.C. I believe.

They have other plans for users who need more bandwidth, MySQL, etc. However, I don't think even their top end plans come even close to $600 a year!


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