There's an old adage which states that "You get what you pay

for".

In most areas of life, and business, this holds true. Not

necessarily so, however, in the webhosting industry. Often, you

pay too much, and don't get what you pay for.

Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend of

mine.

"John," He said "You won't believe this".

He went on to tell me about a Plastic Surgeon he was

redesigning a website for. This client was paying $600.00 per

month for his webhosting account.

"The incredible thing is" He related, "I can't get the current

host to return my phone calls or emails".

After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find that

there was nothing special about his site that justified his

being on anything other than a basic shared webhosting plan. We

quoted him a monthly rate of under five dollars.

In this case, the client was being raped by an unscrupulous

host who was not only overcharging him, but not even providing

the basic support he needed.

This is an extreme example, no doubt, but it all to often

characterizes the poor deal which most website owners fall

into.

Several years ago, there was no such thing as a webhosting

industry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP's. The

average monthly cost for hosting a website was $20.00 per

month. Often, if you called the ISP with a technical question,

they would tell you to buy a book or take a class.

Around 1996, we saw the emergence of a few "webhosting"

companies. These were companies which were strictly committed

to hosting websites. Using the economy of scale, they were able

to offer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around $10.00

per month. What's more, some of these companies provided useful

tech support which was geared towards meeting a website owners

needs.

Fast forward to 2005 and we now see the emergence of a new type

of web host - the cheap webhosting provider. These are companies

which offer hosting for less than $5.00 per month.

Generally, cheap webhosting providers are newer companies.

There's a reason for this. It's extremely difficult for the

older companies to lower their prices when they already have a

large customer base which pays higher prices. They'd be

slashing their gross, and most companies just can't afford

that.

So how do cheap webhosting providers offer such a low price to

begin with?

Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are

much, much less expensive than they were several years ago.

Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.

Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a different

business model than the older providers. Webhosting is a very

competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to

compete by providing the most tools and features. The problem

with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web

hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients.

Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but

everyone pays for them because they're built into the cost of

the package.

A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give you

the basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups

as an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing up

websites on only those customers who want that service.

This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will I

get competent and fast customer support from a company which

charges me $4.00 per month?

The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes.

Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give you

great service. But not all expensive webhosting providers will

give good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn't

get his $600.00 host to return his emails.

But, with a cheaper provider, the key for the providers success

is customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to please

his existing clients by providing the best support possible.