Do you know how much you’re really paying for web hosting? If you’re not paying the web hosting company directly, you’re probably being overcharged.
Our policy here at Wilson Media Consulting is to set up your own web hosting account under your name and billing information, so that you get to pay for web hosting AT COST. We still take care of everything and help you with any issues you may encounter, but the benefit is that your business gets to save some money.
Reseller Web Hosting
You may be thinking, “I thought I WAS paying for my web hosting directly.” If you’re paying your web designer for web hosting, you’re probably not paying for your web hosting at-cost. Most web designers don’t have the resources to actually host websites (servers, backup energy sources, temperature controlled facilities, etc.). So they will “partner” with web hosts and connect you to that service.
North Idaho web designers may be taking advantage of your small business
Unfortunately, many Coeur d’Alene and North Idaho web developers and designers charge a fee on top of the web hosting cost to “manage your web hosting.” Which honestly means absolutely nothing.
It just means that you’re getting charged for your web designer to become a middle person if you ever have any web hosting issues. They may pitch it like it’s a good idea, but if it’s after hours or the weekend, it can actually create a pretty negative experience for you when you can’t get a hold of your web host.
Here at Wilson Media Consulting, we do things a little differently:
- You get to pay for your web hosting at-cost, which saves your business money.
- If you ever encounter a hosting issue (which is rare), we’re available to help you. If it’s something that takes less than 15 minutes, we don’t charge you at all. If it’s an issue that takes longer, we give you options on how to move forward (we can take care of it or you can try to take care of it).
My monthly web hosting fee includes “free” service, so it’s a good deal, right?
Maybe, maybe not. It’s actually pretty easy to see if you’re getting a good deal. How much service (time) is included with your monthly fee? Does this time “roll over” each month, or are you stuck in a “if you don’t use it, you lose it” situation?
A high web hosting fee (more than $10/month) is only a good deal if:
- you get unlimited maintenance/updates
- you don’t get unlimited updates, but your time rolls over each month so you don’t lose it
If you’re just getting a “free” half hour or hour of service each month, and if you don’t use it you lose it, then you are getting ripped off.
Some web designers will use your “free” time to cover 5-minute questions. Really? They’re going to “charge” you for 5 minutes of their time? Really? We don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
So what should small businesses with website do?
Request that your web designer set up your own individual web hosting plan (not under a reseller hosting plan of theirs) and set up the billing directly to you. This should end up costing you only $7-10/month instead of $25-50/month they may be charging you.
This is such a great article. We didn’t realize we were paying $25/month for web hosting from a downtown Coeur d’Alene web “firm” that should have only cost us $7/month. And we almost never called our web designer for the “free 15 minutes” of service each month.
The one time we DID call, they helped us for 25 minutes and sent us an invoice for $20! Apparently, they applied our free 15 minutes and then charged the extra 10 minutes as a 1/4 hour, which at $80/hour totaled $20.
Looking back over 2 years, we got ripped off over $400 just in web hosting fees. They made it sound like such a good deal, but in the end, they were just ripping us off. Bad Business!!
Just an update from that comment I wrote last year. We took this advice from this blog article and over the past 10 months we’ve saved $180! That was such a quick and easy savings for us.