How much for a decent website

bazzlad

I'm not sure Debbie, I'd love to help, but I've never hunted around that budget range, I've always gone for a decent package split between x websites.

Example - UKhost4U Business package Yearly Hosting Cost: £79.99

Allows 8 domains sites = £7.99 a site, (Domains paid for by site owners).

Company charges £30.

They'd still be making more than 50% profit. (£160.01)

This is why I get annoyed when I hear quotes where people charge £150 + for hosting and there's not even an SSL cert or database in sight!

debbie42

Ah, ok, I see where you are coming from, but there again, I think ed89 has a point too, because there are some naff cheapy solutions out there too! There is a happy medium, I think. I agree that someone charging a few hundred quid for a very basic site is taking the mick, and, yes, I have heard of some companies doing that. There again, it does depend on what you expect for your dosh. Some people would expect 24 hour on-call technical support for their £30 a year. :cool:

bazzlad

True Debbie,
What I like to do is offer the two, I mean, I don't make a decision without the clients permission so I'll explain the options and see what he/she want.

I do see Ed's point, but I fail to believe someone in IT would make the assumption that a Web Company would only host one site per package!
If I was looking for single host packaging for a small site, with no mysql databases needed (though it shames me) I'd recommend One and One.

£2.49 a month
£29.88 yearly

5gb storage, unlimited bandwidth and they are THE biggest hosts in the world - perfect for a set it and forget it website.

(They do have awful, and I mean AWFUL customer service though - an old employer of mine used them - nightmare!)


Just thought - that may answer your post from earlier!

bazzlad

Oh and for £47 a year, you can get 10 mysql databases - still dirt cheap and rock solid.

debbie42

I'm happy enough with the two I've got at the moment. The CS has been pretty good, when I've needed it, though I've not needed the JustHost one for anything other than a mail exchange type of query. PenguinUK are pretty good, and rang me back when it was needed.

Personally I'd rather pay a few more quid to get better service, but it's nice to hear of other options, just in case.

edit:the JustHost price includes SQL databases, though that's only one domain. I think the Penguin one has 1 (maybe 2?) per domain included, too, though I'm only using one on 3 of the 5 sites. It is a good price, I think. I'd rate both, though be careful of some of the extras JustHost try to get you to buy when you sign up.

Pachira

Benson wrote: »

Sorry i didn't really post much information. The website is basically so if people look us up then they will find out who we are and what we do there is nothing complicated about the site, no e-commerce, this is also without the facility to change anything i would have to go back to them etc

The only thing that i could see where costs were higher than normal is that I said i want a slick website not a tacky homemade cheap looking one.

Thank

If the site isn't complicated, you could just try using eg webs.com or moonfruit.com
You can easily create a site yourself that looks pretty professional.
And it costs £nil.

DemiDee

We use Godsweb. It costs £39.99 (you don't have to be a Christian!) and the support is second to none, not that it is ever needed since their control panel is easy enough for even the most non technically minded people (like me) to grasp. I would definitely recommend them, on the basis that we have had unbeastable service since 2006.

gazfocus

ed89 wrote: »

£30 a year for hosting! Is that on a shoestring server in India? Or on a high quality, low resourced (shared server, but not with hundreds and hundreds of other sites on it) rack in the UK?

Again I ask; what kind of service would you expect to receive for £30 a year, £2.50 a month, to maintain your website and email setup. If you are providing services for £2.50 a month I must have missed a trick, that or you have thousands of customers.

I have very good spec servers in the UK and offer hosting starting at £10.99 per year for 250MB which is more than enough for most people so not really sure what you're getting at.

ed89

Maybe I haven't made myself completely clear.

Let's say you do as we do, and lease full high spec servers, and lightly load it with about 40 sites onto them (which is still alot), with all the email, db's and such.

The server is going to cost about £200 a month.

If we put 40 sites on at £30 a year, that's £1200 a year. Not much room to make any money if you pay £1400 a year for it!

So yes, you can quite happily get a good service for £30 a year from one of the large companies in the states that have hundreds of employees. But we as developers and designers prefer to manage our own servers. Why give money to other companies?

It's dog eat dog.

As I said, if any business can't afford £10 a month for managed email and web hosting then I seriously question their ability to run a business.

gazfocus

ed89 wrote: »

Maybe I haven't made myself completely clear.

Let's say you do as we do, and lease full high spec servers, and lightly load it with about 40 sites onto them (which is still alot), with all the email, db's and such.

The server is going to cost about £200 a month.

If we put 40 sites on at £30 a year, that's £1200 a year. Not much room to make any money if you pay £1400 a year for it!

So yes, you can quite happily get a good service for £30 a year from one of the large companies in the states that have hundreds of employees. But we as developers and designers prefer to manage our own servers. Why give money to other companies?

It's dog eat dog.

As I said, if any business can't afford £10 a month for managed email and web hosting then I seriously question their ability to run a business.

Why drag up an old and forgotten thread?

I'm not saying companies shouldn't pay more than £30 per year for hosting, what I am saying is you cannot say anything below what you charge is a cheap rubbish service 'on a shoestring in india'.

We own our own high spec servers and lease space in a datacentre, which is considerably less than leasing full high spec servers. But because we choose to take that route, it doesn't mean that our services are any lower in quality than yours just because we charge less.

We are predominantly a web development company and have fairly recently (within the last 12 months) gotten into web hosting for the exact reasons you stated, but it doesn't mean we all have to charge the same.