How much would you pay for fully managed?

M

maplehosting

New member
Hi everyone,

We want to hear the community's opinion regarding fully-managed fee and services.

What is a decent fee to charge for the fully-managed portion of a virtual server or a dedicated server?

Please note fully-managed service will require cPanel (which is also an extra $15/Month for Virtual server and $45/Month for dedicated server for the license alone).

Managed service will include:
  • Website Transfer (aka Server Migration)
  • Third Party Software management (installation, configuration, upgrades, ...)
  • Server Optimization & Hardening (From OS to cPanel)
  • 24x7 Proactive Monitoring
  • SSL Setup (does not include actual SSL certificate)
  • e-Commerce consulting, setup and configuration
  • Backup consulting, setup and configuration (does not include backup space)
  • Disaster/Hack Recovery and/or Restore
  • Business consulting and assistance

Also, if you have any thoughts of what else we should add as part of our managed service, please do let us know.

Thanks!
 
If you require a control panel (espeically one specific one)you're not qualified to be called "fully managed." You should be able to manage a server without one. Sounds like you want to be a "hosting manager," or "cpanel manager"
 
Collabora said:
If you require a control panel (espeically one specific one)you're not qualified to be called "fully managed." You should be able to manage a server without one. Sounds like you want to be a "hosting manager," or "cpanel manager"
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback, will take that into consideration.
 
Well, if a company offers Managed services, cPanel is not required at all... although it would be much more easy to manage a cPanel based instance. I would say that the best approach to managed hosting services is to charge a fair price which allows the web host to hire very skillful system administrators. The per hour labor costs are not the same in all U.S. States as well as in Canada. There are also a huge differences in rates in Europe, where the labor costs depend of the country and the physical place of doing business.

I don't think anyone would provide advise on VPS management rates, based on what one has seen on the web.
 
You could get a price for managed hosting from providers website lets say you wanted a vps managed you could but one of the best they have and that would mean you would be getting the best service along with it so but a premium plan and get good service with it.
 
Due to highly competitive market many web hosts do not charge extra for managing the server <self-promo snipped>, so the cost for managed or self-managed hosting services is same.
 
To be completely honest, this depends on the reputation from the company (Softlayer vs {insert new hosts name here}. I would be willing to pay pretty much anything, but you better have some perks backing the price that you are expecting to charge folks.

You also want to look at who your clientele is, we host numerous of businesses, which at the end of the day they are willing to pay us pretty much anything to ensure they remain online, their emails work, and they have a support team they can reach out to at any hour of the day or night.

We find that we do more business locally and everything has to do with appearance / perception. Be sure to have a business plan and have individuals working for your company who want to be there and look forward to expanding the business, as at the end of the day everyone's job is on the line.

Anyways, going a bit off topic. Just be sure to back up the prices that you're looking to offer, don't be cheap, don't be too expensive.

Hope that helps! ^TG
 
Like others have mentioned as long as the reputation and all the services of the managed server are actually being provided and in a timely fashion, I'd be up for paying next to anything.

When you decide on a price make sure to consider your own costs first (sys administrators etc...) and work from there to decide how much to charge for fully managed services.
 
I think that hosting providers should offer manage services for dedicated servers only, and not vps and mostly not linux vps.

Each person that are buying a vps should know how to install and manage it ! - or he should use a standard hosting with standard control panel like cpanel.
 
It depends on what addons come with the managed server. These days hosts include cPanel in their managed server price or would not even include cPanel at all because it isn't needed to manage a server unless the client would like to log in once in a while and do file changes etc and knows how to mess around with cPanel.

Some clients don't need the cpanel or any control panel and some need it or want it. it depends.
 
Most of the webhosting providers manages dedicated server with very low price. They have the team of administrators with excellent knowledge and friendly customer service.
I would suggest you to check their reviews first and uptime report. If they are offering 30 day money back guarantee then it would be added advantage as you can cancel dedicated server anytime within 30 days and ask for the refund if you do not satisfy with their services.
 
maplehosting said:
Hi everyone,

We want to hear the community's opinion regarding fully-managed fee and services.

What is a decent fee to charge for the fully-managed portion of a virtual server or a dedicated server?

Please note fully-managed service will require cPanel (which is also an extra $15/Month for Virtual server and $45/Month for dedicated server for the license alone).

Managed service will include:
  • Website Transfer (aka Server Migration)
  • Third Party Software management (installation, configuration, upgrades, ...)
  • Server Optimization & Hardening (From OS to cPanel)
  • 24x7 Proactive Monitoring
  • SSL Setup (does not include actual SSL certificate)
  • e-Commerce consulting, setup and configuration
  • Backup consulting, setup and configuration (does not include backup space)
  • Disaster/Hack Recovery and/or Restore
  • Business consulting and assistance

Also, if you have any thoughts of what else we should add as part of our managed service, please do let us know.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It is important to understand that as a Fully-Managed hosts you have to basically pretend that it is your server for those who need you to do most of the tasks. You are taking on the responsibility for making sure everything works and runs smoothly. So you could end up managing anything from a basic Centos box to a OpenBSD box to a Windows box. The skills and knowledge you must possess will likely stem far beyond just a basic web panel like Cpanel. If you are not a fast learner or don't think you would be up to the challenge I would first learn before stepping out into those waters.

As for the cost I wouldn't require a person to purchase a monthly licenses on top of the management costs. That would likely make them shy away from your managed service. I have seen management go anywhere from 15.00 on a VPS up to hundreds on Dedicated. It just depends on man power and on what they should expect from your service. Also, how valuable is your time? Will if effect response times to other clients? Are you easily frustrated by repetitive tasks and constant needs? All of these are things you should really consider, as you could get a understanding customer or one who expects things done within a certain period of time. You also have to manage your time.

Hope that helps!
 
Please be sure to specify the limits of fully managed. We've been burned a few times when the limits of the management weren't fully spelled out. Most customers are reasonable, but some want to take advantage and then just cancel afterwards. =(
 
Edgevm makes a good point, there are a lot of management services out there that don't describe all of their services the best. Make sure you explain the limits specifically.

I'd personally focus more on Managing Dedicated Servers over Virtual but that's just my opinion.

Cost though can range so widely due to the amount of experience your business has, the amount of service that's offered in your management, etc.
 
Collabora said:
If you require a control panel (espeically one specific one)you're not qualified to be called "fully managed."
Click to expand...

As a general rule any one who offers "managed services" should be able to work from shell. That being said often times with "managed hosting offers" a control panel will be required as it speeds many tasks up tremendously. It's tool, like any other that helps to streamline a number of processes.
 
edgevm said:
Please be sure to specify the limits of fully managed. We've been burned a few times when the limits of the management weren't fully spelled out. Most customers are reasonable, but some want to take advantage and then just cancel afterwards. =(
Click to expand...

I think in these instances it'd be best to enquire with the host or hosts in question to see if they meet your particular needs. (i.e. ask about things you were "burned" on in the past). Some "management companies" don't support third party software, others will make a "best effort" for common scripts. There are different policies throughout the industry.
 
There are not a standard price for ** fully-managed **

eg. transfer a 10GB php+mysql+nginx website from a old vps to a new vps and configure it to work fine

it will take lots of your time to do so, maybe 3 hours, how much will you charge for this ?
 
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