most important features for Hosting business

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additional points

Mia_ said:
1. Good Support
2. Redundant Network
3. Longevity
4. Good Communication
5. Wide variety of products and services
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With above point, understanding on aspects including service quality, responsibilities, performance metrics, penalties and commitments
 
in my opinion these are the most important ones:

1. Good/Fast Support
2. Uptime
3. Hardware
4. Network
5. Reliability
 
In order of importance

1. Stability
Obviously, the most important thing is that the service is stable. Any provider can experience issues - but how often that happens is what's important.

2. Performance
I expect my services to run fast - and so performance comes second in my book. I expect providers to invest in new, proven technologies that give a performance advantage.

3. Effective & Experienced Support
Support is obviously important - but not as important as stability or upime. When it comes to support however, I expect them to solve issues effectively, and show experience. Whether they respond to a CTT in 5 minutes, or 1 hour is not important - it's that the response is of value.

4. Backup plans & established routines
Things go wrong - and when they do, I want a provider to have established routines for how to handle that, and a plan already in motion. I don't want that to be improvised.

5. Solid IP reputation
SPAM is an issue for almost any provider - but there are ways to deal with it, and I expect my provider to take that responsibility.
 
MightWeb-Marcus said:
2. Performance
I expect providers to invest in new, proven technologies that give a performance advantage.
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But for providers to do this sometimes means they have to increase plans as new technologies cost money. I think this is why some providers don't do this as they have in their terms they won't increase prices, so they would end up losing money.

This is what we don't have this in our terms, If we need to increase costs due to new technology etc. then we will give all clients at least 14 days notice of any increases
 
easyhostmedia said:
But for providers to do this sometimes means they have to increase plans as new technologies cost money. I think this is why some providers don't do this as they have in their terms they won't increase prices, so they would end up losing money.

This is what we don't have this in our terms, If we need to increase costs due to new technology etc. then we will give all clients at least 14 days notice of any increases
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Upping the price on plans is fine in my book, as long as it's only done for new customers. Existing customers should not have to be affected by a price change due to new technologies being implemented. A better way around that (in such scenarios) would then be to implement the technologies on a new node where you place new customers, and price it as a separate product. That way, you can offer incentive for existing customers to upgrade, rather than force the price upon them.
 
Here is a my checklist of features I wish to have in Web Hosting provider:

  1. Excellent, Responsive and Knowledgeable Support team. Telephone, Chat and Ticket support on 24/7/365 basis.
  2. Simplicity of system, easy control panel and Dashboard GUI.
  3. Redundant network. Stable and fast Web servers with highest Uptime and latest hardware specifications.
  4. Easy upgrade options and Wide variety of products and services.
  5. Most affordable price.
 
MightWeb-Marcus said:
Upping the price on plans is fine in my book, as long as it's only done for new customers. Existing customers should not have to be affected by a price change due to new technologies being implemented. A better way around that (in such scenarios) would then be to implement the technologies on a new node where you place new customers, and price it as a separate product. That way, you can offer incentive for existing customers to upgrade, rather than force the price upon them.
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So you should not pay any increases on your utility bills or vehicle insurance or home insurance.

Things in life will increase, as long as you give current customers at least 14 days notice of any planned increase
 
We do adjust our prices to reflect the changing market situation, but we warn our customers beforehand and the other side of the medal is that we update our component pool regularly. Thus said, people who started their projects with us 4 years ago and paid $100 for a server, still pay around $100, yet the hardware was updated not half a year ago and it cost them nothing.

I think features like these are what really matters in hosting business.
 
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MightWeb-Marcus said:
Upping the price on plans is fine in my book, as long as it's only done for new customers. Existing customers should not have to be affected by a price change due to new technologies being implemented. A better way around that (in such scenarios) would then be to implement the technologies on a new node where you place new customers, and price it as a separate product. That way, you can offer incentive for existing customers to upgrade, rather than force the price upon them.
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So after 10 years in business you are going to have many different server setups. Sort of unfair on your clients and your employees that have to provide sales/support. An incentive to upgrade for "new technologies" won't sell with your average guy. If it works, he will keep it so don't expect a near 100% upgrade rate :).

Better to look at trends, price things reasonably so you can eat a price increase. In most cases a reputable provider would be able to lock clients in but if an increase is absolutely needed, plenty of notice is key.

Little off topic: I recall my phone contract provider forced an increased bill / new monthly rate on me citing increased costs for the reason. Fast forward a year or so, a family member of mine works in a partner company meaning I was entitled to a 30% discount (way less than I was originally paying before the increase) :/ - Only increase if you have to as obviously in this case, they could have easily eaten my costs.
 
sevenclouds said:
I doubt whether 24/7 support would be offered.Once emergency happened in mid-night,would support still solve your problem.
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Yes if you have good support. I can contact my server admins anytime day or night and have issues fixed.

They have even fixed issues before i have know an issue arose
 
1. Support is always the most important.

2. Secure servers

3. Uptime

4. knowledgeable administrators

5. Easy to get around the Control Panel
 
1. Price - it will be the first thing that most of the customers will look at.
2. Resources - how much he can get? Maybe he will get more for a lower price in another hosting company. Think about resources carefully.
3. Uptime - this is very important for those who are selling products and etc. A small downtime might cause a huge loss.
4. Management - what OSs he can use, what control panels he can install and etc.
5. Location - in which locations he can get the service. The more offers there are, the bigger chance he will get his server nearer to him.
 
Reliability and Good, Fast Efficient Support is the most important. When you have this everything else falls into place! Of course price could effect everything, so pricing needs to be reasonable. If you're looking for budget hosting you shouldn't expect a lot though.
 
5 Important Features

I'm going to be a bit more generic on purpose. I think the big picture matters.

1. Reliable servers that you have control over. If you actually control / have root access it greatly increases your ability to modify / upgrade hosting solutions.

This decreases support requests. Most customers I talk to don't want to ever have to talk to support. But if they must, they of course want it to be available and timely.

2. Longevity is important too. Nobody wants to trust their website to someone who might be gone tomorrow. 10+ years seems to be the unwritten agreement that most customers will trust.

3. Easy to use services and easy to modify services. Nobody likes forms or complicated processes. Things should 'just work'.

4. Wide availability of offerings. I think being able to offer shared, VPS, and both Windows and Linux goes a long way.

5. Some kind of guarantee that if expectations are not met, the client will be treated fairly. Sometimes things do go as planned. If that happens, I believe clients should have a golden parachute / guarantee that their funds won't be wasted. Nobody likes that feeling.
 
Hostrica said:
2. Longevity is important too. Nobody wants to trust their website to someone who might be gone tomorrow. 10+ years seems to be the unwritten agreement that most customers will trust.
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I don't agree with this as everyone has to start somewhere and we all don't start with 10+ years experience.
 
Everyone is repeating each other offering the obvious. Here is something new and different: How about simplicity? Get rid of the confusing array of multi-tiered quota based hosting plans. Get rid of forcing the customer, who probably does not know their exact needs, to choose among differing baskets of hosting resources he/she likely does not understand.

Imagine the poor customer comparing a couple to a few hosts each with 3 or 4 hosting plans and prices. Now imagine the customer simply comparing the hosts described in above posts instead.
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I think all a customer looking for hosting wants to know

If they host with you will their website stay online and if needed will someone be available for them to reach out for help.

they will want to know how much space they are going to get.

Most will not understand Bandwidth, FTP or MySQL etc.
 
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