Sneaky Web Hosting Fees : Web hosting can be a competitive business, not exactly a zero-sum game but with limited customers available and vendors competing hard for as many clients as they can acquire and retain as long as possible. In today’s post we take you through five sneaky fees you must be aware of to avoid them and save yourself some unnecessary frustration and wasted money.
Even if you’re new to website administration, these concepts should be relatively straightforward to grasp. Companies in such an intensely competitive industry will do whatever is necessary to secure their success and ensure their service stands out as being worthy of purchase.
Sneaky Web Hosting Fees
1) No-Frills Hosting
As a hosting company, your users expect you to deliver an effortless service. Your job is to move data between servers without adding unnecessary services that make the price unjustifiable. There is a distinction between “no-frills” hosting and free hosting: with former offering basic levels of service at reasonable costs while latter promises unlimited capabilities at unaffordable costs.
At the same time, they promise you no-frills hosting while also promising not to overcharge for things such as domain name registration and other add-ons unrelated to hosting services themselves. It is important to keep this in mind; some hosts offer no-frills hosting while also promising they won’t upsell you during your experience – this should never be done! If a vendor promises only no-frills hosting then that should be all that’s promised.
2) Rebilling and Auto-Renewal
Rebilling and auto-renewal are at the core of any subscription-based business, yet in hosting it has become out-of-control. When hosting vendors advertise “keep your website online for just $19 annually” they might be offering you one payment for 12 months of hosting rather than expecting you to make changes or cancel before that period has concluded – an unwise business practice indeed!
Idealistically, hosting vendors should be honest about the fact that you’re only paying for one year at a time. Unfortunately, however, we live in an imperfect world and many vendors will attempt to sneak an auto-renewal clause into your contract to force you keep paying; these hosting companies do this because letting go of your account means losing income – they need your money.
3) Surprise Domain Registrar Fee
If this article is your first encounter with domain registration and renewal fees, you may find yourself bewildered. After all, domain name registration typically forms part of hosting packages; so what’s the big deal? Well, the fine print could hold some surprises for you: perhaps an agreement stipulates that renewal payments be handled individually instead.
Host companies are in business to make money and they must find ways to cover their losses somehow if they offer you an inexpensive hosting plan of only 19 dollars annually. Unfortunately, the hosting industry is plagued with costly domain registrar fees which must also be factored into pricing calculations.
Try purchasing your domain through an independent provider to avoid paying hosting fees, or read and understand the hosting agreement carefully if purchasing through one. If anything raises concerns for you or causes discomfort, walk away as any contract that forces you to pay extra may cause financial hardship in the future.
4) Excess Usage Fees
On its face, this topic seems fairly straightforward; you probably already recognize when your usage has reached “excessive”, especially if charges for it start accumulating. But to truly understand what “excessive” usage entails you should know your average monthly visits (Google Analytics can help with this).
Once you know your monthly average visits, you can use that figure to estimate how much bandwidth will be needed for you to use effectively. If you end up consuming more bandwidth than expected, additional charges may apply – similar to paying your electricity or water bill, which entails paying for resources you consume yet don’t use efficiently.
5) Fee for Using Your Scripts
This one can be tricky; some hosting providers allow you to use all their scripts, applications, and widgets without incurring an extra cost; however, others charge you to host scripts you create yourself. If you know your way around code well enough to host it yourself instead of paying the hosting company’s services entirely this could save money while offering better flexibility and savings potential.
Unfortunately, your hosting company won’t always allow this. If you attempt to install scripts without understanding exactly what’s involved, your site could go down altogether and incur a hefty reinstall fee; showing how a seemingly small expense can have serious repercussions in the long run.
Also refer to : 10 Best Dedicated Server Hosting In USA
Summing up
While it’s always possible that your hosting vendor won’t charge any of these fees, don’t take it for granted; your website needs to be fast, reliable, and affordable if it wants to succeed.
It’s essential that you make an educated choice when selecting your hosting partner and partner wisely is essential to making sure it will deliver on all these criteria. Here are five sneaky web hosting fees you need to know about in order to avoid them if you’re hosting your website; click here > for more info!