Ongoing Hosting and License Fees - why so much difference…?

On the face of it - it looks simple...

One company quotes much more per month to host your web site than the "Special deal..!" hosting that you see advertised on a banner add.

So isn't all hosting the same...?

The short answer is "No Virginia - all hosting services are not the same..." You need to get the hosting service provider (HSP) to details what is included in their monthly fees.

Some charge for traffic to your web site - actually the amount of electrons that get "pulled" from your web site when someone visits it. This penalises you for having a popular web site - or even worse if someone does some great Search Engine Optimisation for you - it costs you again...!

Some charge for space on the host machine - so if you wanted to have some PDF product information sheets alongside lots of good product photos - you may find yourself having to pay more.

Some do not include web visitor statistics - you can't manage what you can't measure - so good web stats are a must...!

Some charge for extra email aliases for your staff or for each and every phone call or email support request.

Be careful with the really cheap providers overseas as some of them have alternative revenue streams by "selling your details" to other parties. This can be a real pain for a new domain name to receive SPAM straight away - and is very difficult to get out of once these folks have your email address.

At e-c we have a flat rate hosting that includes unlimited bandwidth and disk space as well as all the other items listed above.

All our hosting is also a license fee that allows you access to the "Easy Content" toolset - and updates that occur to the basic e-c system - free of charge - a great way to keep up to date with the latest developments in Content Management Systems.

We also offer free training with our regular User Group meetings around the country and free unlimited email help... Let me know what you think below...

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