Shared hosting providers - to own or to resell infrastructure?

[HostColor]

Hi there,

You'd find many complaints about HostGator or other Shared hosting companies these days. Those used to heavily oversell within the last 4-5 years. It was full of treads and posts describing them as "the best" at the time. In fact they have never been there! Unfortunately the capacity overselling has become an issue in other niches of the hosting industry as well. You'd see many to oversell computing resources in the OpenVZ VPS market, for example. In Dedicated server and Colocation niches some providers are heavily oversell capacity (mostly bandwidth) and underbid the market.

I'd understand that any small company that uses 3rd party dedicated servers to provide Shared Hosting, still could be considered as a reliable provider, despite not having control over its infrastructure. However I really think that when consumers buy web hosting services (even if they do Shared), it is quite important to consider few things - a web host to:
- Use its own Autonomy System (and probably own IP space)
- Run BGP and has two or more upstreams
- To own the infrastructure (or part of the infrastructure - networking equipment and servers for example)

As this means to be a discussion not a statement, I'd like to see your opinion. What is the challenge for Shared providers from technical perspective? Do they try to establish themselves as independent entities or they'd rather work as Resellers?

PS: We are capacity provider, os I think that our best interest is Shared hosts to buy from us. It should be different from consumer perspective, shouldn't it?

 

[spenchev]

The problem is mainly in the clients... If the client wants a reliable and stable ( NOT cheap ) service, he will purchase it from a stable provider ( it does not matter if it is small or big ). Only insane people buys service from hostgator, mochahost, goddady, etc..... They totally oversell their service and there is no even 90% uptime. But as I said, the clients are not looking for a stable service, but for a cheap and cheap service cannot be stable.

 

[Sister]

I really think that when consumers buy web hosting services (even if they do Shared), it is quite important to consider few things - a web host to:
- Use its own Autonomy System (and probably own IP space)
- Run BGP and has two or more upstreams
- To own the infrastructure (or part of the infrastructure - networking equipment and servers for example)

As this means to be a discussion not a statement, I'd like to see your opinion. What is the challenge for Shared providers from technical perspective? Do they try to establish themselves as independent entities or they'd rather work as Resellers?

If a new host is starting out, how it can hurt for them to resell from a larger provider if the latter has reliable infrastructure in place? Not only that, but wouldn't starting out as a reseller for an established provider connote a kind of respect for the larger players in the industry?

 

[HostSailor]

The problem is mainly in the clients... If the client wants a reliable and stable ( NOT cheap ) service, he will purchase it from a stable provider ( it does not matter if it is small or big ). Only insane people buys service from hostgator, mochahost, goddady, etc..... They totally oversell their service and there is no even 90% uptime. But as I said, the clients are not looking for a stable service, but for a cheap and cheap service cannot be stable.

Don't agree with you, cheap services CAN be stable, I'm sure you aren't offering cheap services that aren't stable.

 

[skywebsitehost]

i have always recommand premium service than their so called cheap trash always giving you notting but trouble

 

[dreamtera]

in some cases most leading providers also do oversell even if they are selling in high prices.

 

[easyhostmedia]

If a new host is starting out, how it can hurt for them to resell from a larger provider if the latter has reliable infrastructure in place? Not only that, but wouldn't starting out as a reseller for an established provider connote a kind of respect for the larger players in the industry?

I agree, if you are starting out, best getting a reliable reseller account, build up a clientbase and reputation, even if it means trying out a few reseller accounts ( i must have tried about 6 before i found a reliable one which i was with for 4 years building up a good client base) i was discussing with the host about taking out a VPS, but then things went downhill fast, first a hard drive failure and it took the host 3 days to reply to my tickets etc and they accept their fault and said they would change my IP and move me to another server. OK i gave them benefit as these things do happen. 2 months later the same thing server went down again 3 days they contact me saying another Hard Drive failure and that they would again change my server, then nothing another 3 days past and no contact, lucky i had backups, but some angry clients and some lost clients. So i decided to look for a VPS, but did not want to jump at the first one i saw, but then again i needed to get my clients sites back up ASAP, so while i was looking for a VPS i found a reseller account from a reliable host that i could upload the backup too and at least save what clients i still had left. the host knew i would only be with them for at most a month as i explained the situation to them. i found a VPS and after 7 years i am still with them and have several servers now

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

I agree, if you are starting out, best getting a reliable reseller account, build up a clientbase and reputation, even if it means trying out a few reseller accounts ( i must have tried about 6 before i found a reliable one which i was with for 4 years building up a good client base) i was discussing with the host about taking out a VPS, but then things went downhill fast, first a hard drive failure and it took the host 3 days to reply to my tickets etc and they accept their fault and said they would change my IP and move me to another server. OK i gave them benefit as these things do happen. 2 months later the same thing server went down again 3 days they contact me saying another Hard Drive failure and that they would again change my server, then nothing another 3 days past and no contact, lucky i had backups, but some angry clients and some lost clients. So i decided to look for a VPS, but did not want to jump at the first one i saw, but then again i needed to get my clients sites back up ASAP, so while i was looking for a VPS i found a reseller account from a reliable host that i could upload the backup too and at least save what clients i still had left. the host knew i would only be with them for at most a month as i explained the situation to them. i found a VPS and after 7 years i am still with them and have several servers now

Interesting story. How did your remaining clients take it when you told them about a double migration (Current -> Temp reseller -> VPS)? Not including the first migration.

Do you have multiple VPS servers at your current provider or dedicated servers?

 

[easyhostmedia]

Interesting story. How did your remaining clients take it when you told them about a double migration (Current -> Temp reseller -> VPS)? Not including the first migration.

Do you have multiple VPS servers at your current provider or dedicated servers?

my remaining clients were fine with the double migration as i fully explained the situation to them.
i have multiple VPS servers with several providers now

 

[packet3]

Hi there,

You'd find many complaints about HostGator or other Shared hosting companies these days. Those used to heavily oversell within the last 4-5 years. It was full of treads and posts describing them as "the best" at the time. In fact they have never been there! Unfortunately the capacity overselling has become an issue in other niches of the hosting industry as well. You'd see many to oversell computing resources in the OpenVZ VPS market, for example. In Dedicated server and Colocation niches some providers are heavily oversell capacity (mostly bandwidth) and underbid the market.

I'd understand that any small company that uses 3rd party dedicated servers to provide Shared Hosting, still could be considered as a reliable provider, despite not having control over its infrastructure. However I really think that when consumers buy web hosting services (even if they do Shared), it is quite important to consider few things - a web host to:
- Use its own Autonomy System (and probably own IP space)
- Run BGP and has two or more upstreams
- To own the infrastructure (or part of the infrastructure - networking equipment and servers for example)

As this means to be a discussion not a statement, I'd like to see your opinion. What is the challenge for Shared providers from technical perspective? Do they try to establish themselves as independent entities or they'd rather work as Resellers?

PS: We are capacity provider, os I think that our best interest is Shared hosts to buy from us. It should be different from consumer perspective, shouldn't it?

Many Years ago we used to be a shared hosting provider but we wanted more control over our services and to be able to offer different products without always using a third party.

I think shared hosting is fine if you are just staring out or don't have the expertise to have a VPS or Dedicated server.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

my remaining clients were fine with the double migration as i fully explained the situation to them.
i have multiple VPS servers with several providers now

Glad to hear it, I assume you still hold some of those clients then, even now?

Hopefully something similar doesn't occur in future .

 

[easyhostmedia]

Glad to hear it, I assume you still hold some of those clients then, even now?

Hopefully something similar doesn't occur in future .

I still hold all the clients that i retained then, i even managed to pursuade a few that left to come back.

 

[EnveraHost]

I would agree on getting a reseller account to start off with, just for the purpose of understanding cPanel and any further basics. However if your providing a slow service then it's more than likely that your customers will just leave.