Friday 21 November 2008
Website hosting resellers
Website 'hosting' is essentially the space you 'rent' for your website to be housed. This space has to be on a physical server somewhere, which then provides Internet connectivity so that your site is on the World Wide Web. Hosting companies (such as Fasthosts, Easyspace, UK2 etc) own a series of servers, where they rent out space for a monthly or yearly fee. Web servers are very expensive, and technically complex, which is why few companies own them.
Many smaller web companies who offer hosting are actually 'resellers'. Despite acting as if they are hosting websites, they are actually renting a larger space on a hosting company's server and then 'sub-letting' smaller spaces from this.
In essence there is nothing wrong with this practice, as it is easier for clients to deal with their web company for everything relating to their website, and the web companies can organise their hosting accounts and billing more easily. However, in some cases it has turned simply into a way of making money.
The hosting companies charge the reseller web companies certain costs, and the resellers then charge the client more. Although extra cost is justified as they are acting as managers (setting it up, dealing with problems), the amount of time spent managing often does not warrant the inflated prices. A typical Fasthosts hosting plan costs under £50 a year. And yet EC has experienced some clients paying that amount monthly for the exact same hosting plan, but via a reseller.
Another issue is that these resellers cannot fix problems themselves as they do not own or hold the servers, so any problems have to be solved through a long chain of people from the client to the large hosting company. This is time consuming and can cost the client even more.
EC deals directly with Fasthosts to host clients' websites. We do not have a reseller account; we simply set up hosting with Fasthosts on behalf of the client. The client can choose for us to deal with Fasthosts and send them any bills, or we can pass on all of the hosting information needed and let them deal with Fasthosts directly.
We only charge what Fasthosts charge us.
Many smaller web companies who offer hosting are actually 'resellers'. Despite acting as if they are hosting websites, they are actually renting a larger space on a hosting company's server and then 'sub-letting' smaller spaces from this.
In essence there is nothing wrong with this practice, as it is easier for clients to deal with their web company for everything relating to their website, and the web companies can organise their hosting accounts and billing more easily. However, in some cases it has turned simply into a way of making money.
The hosting companies charge the reseller web companies certain costs, and the resellers then charge the client more. Although extra cost is justified as they are acting as managers (setting it up, dealing with problems), the amount of time spent managing often does not warrant the inflated prices. A typical Fasthosts hosting plan costs under £50 a year. And yet EC has experienced some clients paying that amount monthly for the exact same hosting plan, but via a reseller.
Another issue is that these resellers cannot fix problems themselves as they do not own or hold the servers, so any problems have to be solved through a long chain of people from the client to the large hosting company. This is time consuming and can cost the client even more.
EC deals directly with Fasthosts to host clients' websites. We do not have a reseller account; we simply set up hosting with Fasthosts on behalf of the client. The client can choose for us to deal with Fasthosts and send them any bills, or we can pass on all of the hosting information needed and let them deal with Fasthosts directly.
We only charge what Fasthosts charge us.
Labels: hosting, web design