I wonder ...

accuurrtt

accuurrtt

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Has anybody started your business from a dedicated server or VPS? If yes, what features did you take into consideration?
 
Wouldn't be a very wise idea unless you have real cash to spend on advertising on a wide scale to get you enough clients to cover expenses..

I'd start off with a reseller, then a dedicated server..or you can bridge both with a VPS...

You won't even need a dedi to start with..you'll have A LOT of space and bandwidth which won't be used if you're planning on starting out small
 
Caro's right - start with a reseller. $20/month vs. $100+/month. You can run for at least 5 months on the reseller plan compared to 1 on the dedicated plan.
 
hostfrog started from a dedicated server. However, I most cases you should cut costs and start where your business is comfortable at.
 
Hello,

Depends on the budget that you are going to invest into your hosting business. If your budget is small then I would request you to start with the hosting business with a reseller account to that you can save money to invest in the advertising part. but of course the reseller account has restrictions.

Thank you.

Regards,
 
When I started out I was faced with the problem that reseller plans were designed to give the house the advantage so to speak. Unless you find some little niche in the internet which hasn't been invaded by other web hosts, it's going to be difficult to compete with much larger hosts that can offer 10x more space and bandwidth as you.

For this reason, my first server was dedicated. It took alot of marketing to turn a profit, and to be honest I still came up about $40 under the first month.

You can try it on a reseller, in fact you probably should, but you may want to get a partner/investor and split the cost of a dedicated server.
 
It really depends on what your startup budget is and how much advertising/how many clients you think you are going to bring on at the start. If you know you are going to get enough clients to make it worth having a dedicated server, then that (or a VPS) may be a better first step so you don't have to put your clients through the hassle of transferring their account when you upgrade from a reseller to a dedicated server.
 
It's always wise to start your small business from the reseller hosting. Earn money and get good experience.
 
I'll go with the crowd on this one, and suggest a reseller account. Why would you start your business in the red, unless you knew you would get clients within the first month in order to cover costs? None of us knew how many clients would sign up.

Times have changed, and these days, reseller accounts provide a very good value.
 
Well it all comes down to versatility along with budget. In a reseller account you have restricted options for reselling, you can only sell plans under certain restraints. When you purchase a VPS or Dedicated server you can customize it to how you feel it would best fit the customer needs and requirements. You can have the packages how you want, with the limits you want. You also get the chance to play with configurations before you actually place customers on the server/VPS. A lot of hosts have lost customers from moving from a reseller package to a VPS or Dedicated server due to trying to configure the server, having it go offline frequently while customers are housed on it. You do not want to be testing for example firewall settings on a box, locking yourself and everyone out then end up waiting an hour plus paying a fee for a datacenter to log in single user mode to disable it while housing customers on the server. Especially when that mistake can be made more than once.

Also, make sure to do proper calculations and try to keep from overselling to badly. Just because a dedicated server is on an unmetered plan doesn't mean unmetered bandwidth should apply to all customers, there would always be some customer abusing the service and ruining hosting for everyone, also another reason to go with VPS/ Dedicated over a reseller. You have control on if a customer gets suspended over the main host suspending your reseller account or customer accounts because the accounts under you would be spamming or using to many resources. There are a lot of benefits to using a VPS or Dedicated. Of course though you would have to know how to run the VPS and Dedicated unless you purchased a managed service. Spamming is a bad thing so it would be a good idea to keep an eye/remove customers who attempt it rather than get a shared or dedicated IP blacklisted. Most VPS hosts will stop the VPS if the IP gets blacklisted and notify you after, or firewall it off so pretty much all services with the exception of ssh is blocked, data centers may notify you to fix the problem then if it goes on for longer than a day or so pull the server.
 
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I started off co-location. Mainly because I had the budget, but there you go. Start how you want, if you have the budget, go dedicated, if not, go reseller. VPS are a waste of money, the RAM is overpriced, so skip it and go for a low range dedicated if you must.
 
I disagree with the not using a VPS server and going straight to dedicated from a reseller.

If you have the budget and the know how to manage a full dedicated server than that is the best way to start your business as client moves are hard on them.

With VPS prices being as low as they are a great place to start. A good reseller plan will cost you more than half of what a manged VPS costs.

The reason I say start with a VPS is because moving clients around from reseller accounts is not as easy as it is wihen you have full root access.

The easier you can move a client around the less painful it is for them and the happier they stay. This is of course the end goal.
 
I started with hosting on a multi-domain plan, then to a reseller account then to a dedicated server. It works for me all these years.

Starting a web business on a dedicated server is relative to your needs. Big businesses that needs better server resources and can afford to pay more than $100 per month will consider that expense cheap. However, for the average joe who is just starting his web business and who still has to learn the tricks of the trade, this maybe an overkill.

At the end of the day, its all about costs charged to your business which affects your bottom line month after month. If you can afford it on the onset and justifies the expense with revenues, then you are just fine. Otherwise, a shared or reseller hosting is recommended as a starting point.

Hope this helps.
 
The problem with VPSs is that the environment can be oversold, just like in a shared hosting environment. Too much overselling, and you end up with the side effect: overloading.

Personally, I would not use a very small or very cheap VPS as a basis for my future hosting business.
 
ldcdc said:
The problem with VPSs is that the environment can be oversold, just like in a shared hosting environment. Too much overselling, and you end up with the side effect: overloading.

Personally, I would not use a very small or very cheap VPS as a basis for my future hosting business.
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I agree and the same would go for reseller accounts. If you do go with a vps or reseller account make sure you get a stable reputable provider. That said if you do not have experience managing a server I would suggest you start with a reseller account and when you can afford it get a vps as well to learn management basics
 
accuurrtt said:
Has anybody started your business from a dedicated server or VPS? If yes, what features did you take into consideration?
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VPS's memory prices are very expensive, if you need that sort of power go straight to a dedicated/co-lo.
Many people probably have started with dedicated, because they have the budget, in either case, dedicated or reseller you still need a budget for advertising, otherwise it's going to be a long haul. You have to spend money to make money.
 
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