What would make you change web host?

[Kerwin]

I've been considering for the last couple of months starting up a web host which offers virtual machines running FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Linux. I have a couple of ideas for unique selling points but what I really want to find out is why you chose the web host you are currently with?

 

[fisicx]

My host used to be a member here on UKBF. Never seen a need to move anywhere else.

FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Linux means nothing to most people. All they want to know is if you host their wordpress or whatever website.

 

[Kerwin]

My host used to be a member here on UKBF. Never seen a need to move anywhere else.

FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Linux means nothing to most people. All they want to know is if you host their wordpress or whatever website.

Fair point. I was going to offer custom management so that people could request a particular service and I would provide it to them with a custom specification that meets their own requirements.

 

[fisicx]

Fair point. I was going to offer custom management so that people could request a particular service and I would provide it to them with a custom specification that meets their own requirements.

Is that something your potential clients want?

 

[WaveJumper]

My host used to be a member here on UKBF. Never seen a need to move anywhere else.

FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Linux means nothing to most people. All they want to know is if you host their wordpress or whatever website.

And how much is it going to cost me and what sort of service am I going to get when things go wrong ........will I get some sort of ChatBot or will a real person pick up the phone

At the end of the day I personally think people would only change providers if they are unhappy with their present, whats going to make you so special that your shine out from all the others

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'd suggest that web hosting is very much an inertia service. People will only act if they are badly let down, or are given an extremely compelling incentive to do so.

I went with LCN almost entirely on the back of a UK (regional number) support line - which was excellent. That's now gone, but

1. I seldom need it.
2. Their live chat is fairly good when i do.

I threatened to leave when they started trying to bolt on sneaky extras to every purchase / renewal. They promptly stopped when I complained

Si in reality I'm struggling to think what would make me want to change

 

[Ian J]

And how much is it going to cost me and what sort of service am I going to get when things go wrong ........will I get some sort of ChatBot or will a real person pick up the phone

At the end of the day I personally think people would only change providers if they are unhappy with their present,

In the 25 years that my site has been online I've changed providers several times. On a few occasions my smallish host has been gobbled up by one of the big boys and the site speeds have slowed right down. Until recently my sites were split between two hosts and one whose service levels had always been good stopped responding to my tickets and the other gave up hosting completely.

All sites are now with one host who is a real person who sorts out my many problems fairly quickly

 

[IanSuth]

Only reason my last company changed was because the host was gobbled up and the new one changed tech so our existing site wouldn't work 100% as before - as we had to pay for some dev work we looked at that point.

As others have said - pricing is all fairly similar (and small in grand scheme of things) so it comes down to things like service and ease of use

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

starting up a web host which offers virtual machines running FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Linux.

As mentioned, what does this mean to the average startup or growing business?

I am just revamping my little hosting business, which is very focused and promoted on the solution it provides, almost no mention of the technical stuff. Remember, most people do not want a server, hosting, datacentres, unlimited bandwidth etc - all they want is a website!

 

[MarketingQuote]

We have been advised to change based on website load speed. We have changed hosts a few times over the last 20 years; now we are on a dedicated server with our web development agency.

 

[fisicx]

We have been advised to change based on website load speed.

Your host rarely has a major impact on load speed. Most speed is lost due to poor site configuration.

Your site is still slow (scores 57/100) so you might want to discuss this with developers

 

[MarketingQuote]

Your host rarely has a major impact on load speed. Most speed is lost due to poor site configuration.

Your site is still slow (scores 57/100) so you might want to discuss this with developers

Many thanks, we are on it

 

[NickZ]

Your host rarely has a major impact on load speed. Most speed is lost due to poor site configuration.

Not my experience. You cannot compare a shared hoster with a VPS and some Ummph, i.e. 4GB Ram.
HDD and SSD make a difference, with NVME I'm not too sure though.

I know for sure that most people would get a benefit leaving mass server, IONOS, Siteground, even OVH.

 

[fisicx]

Not my experience. You cannot compare a shared hoster with a VPS and some Ummph, i.e. 4GB Ram.
HDD and SSD make a difference, with NVME I'm not too sure though.

I know for sure that most people would get a benefit leaving mass server, IONOS, Siteground, even OVH.

I said a major impact. Site analysis almost always points the finger are the site configuration. Once fixed there is a smaller performance penalty which means the site will load faster irrespective of the hosting.

I agree if you are sharing a server with a zillion other sites then you will be slow. But that is becoming less relevant these days.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I have found most of my bottlenecks come from the (WP) install. A server might affect speed, but this is marginal, if local (or really set up bad!)..

 

[NickZ]

I have found most of my bottlenecks come from the (WP) install. A server might affect speed, but this is marginal, if local (or really set up bad!)..

You install a prestahop next to WP and a shared server will convert into a snail.

A video replay needs about 3 GB RAM to run fluidly, a shared server is not perfect for those still people insist in saving money at the wrong end.

 

[gpietersz]

I think people saying generic shared hosting is highly competitive and people are unlike to switch are right. However, there are niches.

I think there are niches. Not saying any of these are what you should do, but they are examples of the sort of thing you should brainstorm for.

• I used to use a Python and Django specialist host for Django sites for myself and clients. You are not competing with the mass of PHP + MySQL sites. Can you do a good job in some niche?
• Margins in managed hosting are good and most hosts offering do a cookie-cutter job. maybe doing it properly is an opportunity? That said, it might not be so profitable when you take into account the time taken to do a good job. Also, even with this, target a particular stack.
• All the above is particularly true of managed VPS hosting
• Although I have moved most things to VPSs and a dedicated server, I still have sites on one shared host, Nearly Free Speech. They are cheap for small sites because they are pay as you go, and their system scales well for big ones as its distributed - they were doing cloud hosting before it was called cloud. They also support a lot of different languages and have a lot of custom systems. They use FreeBSD.

Some of the above are similar to your "custom management" idea, but I think you should target users of a particular stack unless you can think of another niche.

 

[Kerwin]

I think people saying generic shared hosting is highly competitive and people are unlike to switch are right. However, there are niches.

I think there are niches. Not saying any of these are what you should do, but they are examples of the sort of thing you should brainstorm for.

• I used to use a Python and Django specialist host for Django sites for myself and clients. You are not competing with the mass of PHP + MySQL sites. Can you do a good job in some niche?
• Margins in managed hosting are good and most hosts offering do a cookie-cutter job. maybe doing it properly is an opportunity? That said, it might not be so profitable when you take into account the time taken to do a good job. Also, even with this, target a particular stack.
• All the above is particularly true of managed VPS hosting
• Although I have moved most things to VPSs and a dedicated server, I still have sites on one shared host, Nearly Free Speech. They are cheap for small sites because they are pay as you go, and their system scales well for big ones as its distributed - they were doing cloud hosting before it was called cloud. They also support a lot of different languages and have a lot of custom systems. They use FreeBSD.

Some of the above are similar to your "custom management" idea, but I think you should target users of a particular stack unless you can think of another niche.

I haven't used shared hosting since 2010. As soon as I found out about Linode I ended up handling all of my hosting manually on rented VPS instances. It so much more flexible than shared hosting and I think works out cheaper as well. $5 a month for a VPS is pretty hard to beat.

 

[gpietersz]

I haven't used shared hosting since 2010. As soon as I found out about Linode I ended up handling all of my hosting manually on rented VPS instances. It so much more flexible than shared hosting and I think works out cheaper as well. $5 a month for a VPS is pretty hard to beat.

Agreed. I think the same applies to generic VPS services too. You do need something niche or added services there as well.

The one shared host I still use is a bit of an exception as its just a few dollars a month for two sites, and it was a convenient way to just let someone else handle that.