Sneaky Web Hosting Fees : The world of web hosting is a cutthroat business. While it’s not exactly a zero-sum game, there aren’t that many customers out there to begin with. As a result, vendors have to compete on every front in order to attract as many clients as possible and retain them for as long as possible.In today’s post, we take you through 5 sneaky web hosting fees that you need to know about and avoid.
Even if you’re new to the world of website administration, these should be fairly easy concepts to understand. In a competitive market like this one, however, companies will go to any length in order to secure their own success by making sure that theirs is the only service worth buying.
1) No-Frills Hosting
If you’re a hosting company, you have to be able to offer your users a simple service that just works. You have one job: to transfer data from one server to another and back again. As soon as you start adding on complicated and unnecessary services, it becomes much harder to justify your price. Now, there is a difference between being a “no-frills” hosting service and being a “free” hosting service. When a hosting provider offers no-frills hosting, they’re promising a basic level of service at a reasonable price.
At the same time, they’re also promising that they won’t charge you an arm and a leg for things like domain name registration or other add-ons that are entirely unrelated to the hosting service itself. Keep this in mind, though. Some hosting providers will offer no-frills hosting while also promising that they won’t upsell you along the way. This is not a good thing. If a vendor is only promising no-frills hosting, then that’s all you should expect to receive.
2) Rebilling and Auto-Renewal
Two terms that go hand in hand, rebilling and auto-renewal are the bread and butter of any subscription-based business. In the hosting industry, however, things have gotten a little out of control. When a hosting vendor tells you that you can “keep your website online for just $19 a year,” they probably aren’t being entirely honest. What they’re doing is offering you a one-time payment of $19 in exchange for an entire year of hosting. Then, they’re hoping that you won’t change your settings or cancel your account before the year is up. That’s not a great way to do business.
In an ideal world, a hosting vendor would have to be upfront about the fact that you’re only paying for one year of hosting at a time. Fortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a world where most hosting vendors will try to sneak in an auto-renewal clause that forces you to keep your account going. Hosting companies will do this because they want to make sure that they keep getting paid. If they let you terminate your account, they won’t be able to take your money anymore.
3) Surprise Domain Registrar Fee
If this is the first time you’re reading this article, you might be a little confused right now. After all, domain name registration is usually a part of the hosting package. So what’s the big deal? Well, it’s all about the fine print. Worst-case scenario, you might end up reading an agreement that says you’re responsible for paying the annual domain name renewal fee yourself.
After all, hosting companies are in the business of making money, and they have to make it up somewhere if they’re offering you a $ 19-a-year hosting plan. Unfortunately, the hosting industry is rife with domain registrar fees.
You can try to avoid this fee by purchasing your domain through a separate provider. If you don’t do that, you should make sure to read the hosting agreement thoroughly and/or reach out to the vendor with questions. If you see anything that makes you uneasy, walk away. You don’t want to sign a contract that forces you to pay for something that you should already be getting for free.
4) Excess Usage Fees
This one is pretty simple on the surface. You probably already know that you’ve hit “excessive” usage if you’re getting charged for it. But what does it mean? A good rule of thumb is that you need to know your site’s average monthly visits. If you don’t know this off the top of your head, you can find it by using Google Analytics.
Once you know your average visits per month, you can use that number to guesstimate how much bandwidth you’re going to use. If you end up using more bandwidth than expected, you might get charged for the excess. This is, in essence, just like paying for your electricity or water bill. You’re paying for the resources that you’re consuming, but you’re not necessarily using them efficiently.
5) Fee for Using Your Scripts
This one is a little tricky. Some hosting companies will happily let you use all of their scripts, applications, and widgets, but others will charge you to host your scripts. If you’re someone who knows their way around code, this might appeal to you. After all, it could save you money by letting you forgo the hosting company’s services completely.
Unfortunately, though, there’s no guarantee that your hosting company will let you do this. If you try to install your scripts, but you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you may cause your site to go down entirely. And, if it does that, you’ll find yourself paying a hefty fee to get it back up and running again. This is a good example of how a seemingly small fee can end up costing you a lot more in the long run.
Also refer to : 10 Best Dedicated Server Hosting In USA
Summing up
Now, it’s entirely possible that your favourite hosting vendor doesn’t charge you for any of these fees. And that’s great. However, you can’t assume that this is the case. If you want your site to succeed, it has to be fast, reliable, and cheap.
If it’s not any one of those things, it’s not worth your time. That’s why it’s so important to choose your hosting partner wisely. Well, there you have it. These are the 5 sneaky web hosting fees that you need to know about and avoid. If you’re looking to host your website, you’ve come to the right place. To learn more, click here >.