Why are there so many free or really cheap hosts out there? Are these guys making any money at all or what?

I would think that to offer hosting that cheap you have to have a ton of clients and the clients have to not need very much support, otherwise you would be making very little per hour.

-Chris

yep

I think It always looks like so - but it isn't so. Affordable web hosting providers treat their clients so as expencive ones.

Hello there,

Having a cheap host doesn't mean that the support is lousy. There are hosting companies that offer low prices, because they want to, and still provide the support that clients need. Yes, I can understand that there are MANY companies out there that offer REALLY REALLY low prices, however that is just a cheap way to attract potential clients.

In my eyes, offering low prices, isn't wrong however it is an advantage to the clients, if the business if supplying everything that is needed.

Have a look to if these hosts will be around in 6 months or even a year

Its scarey how many hosts have poped up offering the world for a few dollars. You really need to take a look at hosts who have been around a year or more. They have been around and chances are will continue to be around.

The webhosting market is essentially over-saturated... ironic for me to say that, since i'm a webhost myself... lol

If a cheap host is reselling from a even cheaper host, then they still make profit

I've seen so many $1 and $2 hosts come and go. It's quite simple, before signing up with a webhost, research them. Most of the cheaper hosts are run by 14 year olds with reseller accounts. Most are happy with $2 a month because once they get a few clients they've doubled their weekly allowance. Yes, they may have many clients, but eventually they'll realize they can't survive off the income, nor can they keep up with the tech support required to run an efficient and respected company. The most successful webhosts to date charge the most. There's a reason why.

You get what you pay for.

Some webhosts have low prices because they trying to attract customers. At one time I would have said to stick away from all low priced hosts, but in today's increasingly competitive market paying $3 or $4 a month isn't unreasonable. You just want to make sure your going to get support. Also, always make sure your host has a guarantee or money back policy. It's a bit of an incentive to the host to provide great service.

Even at $3 or $4 for an average package, no real host can afford to pay the expenses associated with webhosting. The "competitive market" you mention is a mass swarm of reseller accounts popping up over the last 3-4 years. The rates are low because they are not a true webhost. They do not have the experience nor do they have the ability to modify your account in most cases. Resellers usually don't last too long.

I also run 2 other businesses and have run my own businesses for over 15 years now. And in one of them I find the same kind of competition there is pricewise with webhosting. That business is mobile DJing. The pricing complaints for DJ's are the exact same as webhosts. Many new DJ's charge rock bottom prices to get the business, but don't have the experience to maintain the clientele. And many who start a DJ business think they will get rich doing it. The same thing happens in the hosting business. Enter with low rates. Don't have the experience behind them to properly run a business. Think they will be a dotcom millionaire. And when they see it does not work that way, they tend to let customer service slide and then we see complaints that we see about webhosts.

The less the startup costs are, the higher "perceived" return on investment people starting the business think they will receive, the more flash in the pan startups there will be. And as long as hosting is something that costs basically nothing to start, the more we will see of Free, $1, $2 and other low priced hosting services

I am a customer as a really cheap host, and I can officially say that I have not noticed any difference in service/support than if I had registered with lets say supanames. In some cases the support issues have been faster, and also the cheap hosts have far fewer customers so they can personally help out the customers. For example, lets say I had a problem installing phpBB, the major hosts wouldn't really help me and just provide some troubleshooting tips, whereas a cheap host like mine, would offer to install it for you and help you get it up and running!

"...and also the cheap hosts have far fewer customers so they can personally help out the customers.."

I'm sorry but you have that backwards. The cheap hosts are the ones that oversell and cram 450 users per server, then try to single handedly take on the tech support of 2000+ users since that's the only way they can make money charging $2/account.

Originally Posted by Amdac

"...and also the cheap hosts have far fewer customers so they can personally help out the customers.."

I'm sorry but you have that backwards. The cheap hosts are the ones that oversell and cram 450 users per server, then try to single handedly take on the tech support of 2000+ users since that's the only way they can make money charging $2/account.

Well the host I have is very cheap and has been running for nearly a year now. He has around 80 customers (yes on 1 server) but small enough to help each on personally. He also has a team of support staff (who are paid) but he prefers to answer questions himself.

80 accounts x $2 each... that's $160 minus roughly $100 for server fee. $60 a month income... you're telling me you can live off $15 a week income?

Its a bit more than $2, but he also has other higher priced packages, so it works out okay, and he is getting new customers every other day or so, so its adding up!

I'm hosting student-forum's sites, and I'm not cheap to the point of overselling, but I have fairly affordable pricing to be able to compete. If you check the site, 250 MB Space with 3 GB Bandwidth is $3. That's a cheap price, but It's not something like 1000 MB Space and 25 GB Bandwidth for the same price . Sure, I don't have 100 clients yet, but you can't do the math as if I'm getting 3 x 80 as my actual profit as the plans do vary quite alot. I do plan on raising the price (for future clients*) by at least 50% within a year or two as I also believe the business cannot expand as it should with that type of pricing, but it's safe pricing.

* Current clients do not get prices raised as stated on the SLA.

No offense to you, but your info shows you as being 19. This is one of the main reasons for the difference in the pricing structure.

And I'm not supposed to take this offensively? How would a 25 or 30 year old provide better service? I don't live under my parent's roof if that's what your assuming. Age has nothing to do with it. HostRocket.com must be a bunch of 15 year olds because with pricing like that, no mature adult would survive.

This isn't 1998 where you can easily charge a good $20 for what a free host offers nowadays. My pricing model is just fine.