My debate with Reseller Hosting Accounts

[Amateur]

Hi all,

I know this is probably a topic that has been discussed in detail before but I would like some advice on my particular situation. I develop about websites for different clients and 9/10 I need to provide hosting for them. So I decided on getting a reseller account because I feel it makes much more sense.

I develop in ASP.NET 2.0 and backend is SQL Server. This is where the trouble begins! For each of my clients I require a SQL Server database but most reseller accounts come with very few such databases.

I have a preference to host in Ireland as I feel its more secure and like to support local industry. However, I find the different in prices between Irish resellers and resellers across the water and in the states extreme and wondering if I would be better off taking the foreign option? it is hard to justify the different in costs. Usually get larger databases, larger disk space and bandwidth.

Blacknight were my preference but the problem I have is that the deals that they provide don't include a sufficient number SQL Server databases with their reseller accounts.

The only other Irish option I found is Hosting365 where I can get 20 control panels and 500MB SQL Server for €40pm + VAT. The problem with this is the bandwidth is only 10GB a month which is not much if you do have 20 different sites on the one plan. Even having 10 sites on it, it would amount to much more than 10GB a month. Hosting365 - Resellers Plans

So know I have different options and need advice on which to go with:

• Go with Hosting365 reluctantly
• Choose a host in the US (eg ASP.NET Hosting, Windows Hosting, Reseller Hosting by JodoHost.com)
• Set up normal hosting accounts for my clients with Irish hosts
• Any others?

Or, my preference, based on speaking to people and their known quality of service, could blacknight put together a special deal for me, for whcih I would be very appreciative.

Rant over!

 

[daviddoran]

I'm sure alot of the hosters in Ireland have great service but unfortunately I too have found that the specs are alot lower compared to US/UK hosts.
I'd like to see Michele's view really.

 

[gary.b]

Yeah - like with everything in Ireland, you pay more for less.

The thing that's keeping me from Irish hosts is the lack of the "small" features that really should be unlimited - like subdomains, ftp accounts, etc.

One thing that VERY few hosts have is a price policy set in stone where everything is precalculated and has it's own "cost" - everything from Disk space & bandwidth to MySQL DBs, Fantastico & cPanel.

I have yet to see a hosting company let costumers make their own hosting packages, adding whatever features they want and charging them accordingly. *Cough*Hint*cough*

 

[Cormac]

Ameuter, are all your clients targetting the Irish market? I would plant the irish based sites on a hosting reseller account provided by an Irish Host and all the rest on a cheaper foreign account (UK,US,Germany)

I'm not sure if that is financially viable for you to have two seperate reselling accounts, that's something you would have to look into yourself...

A friend has used hostdime for their normal hosting service and he found them very good. This is their reselling package - http://www.hostdime.com/services/reseller/ - Lets say 3 of your clients are irish market based, then you could drop down to a more affordable Irish reselling package....

 

[Amateur]

Ameuter, are all your clients targetting the Irish market? I would plant the irish based sites on a hosting reseller account provided by an Irish Host and all the rest on a cheaper foreign account (UK,US,Germany)

Rollo, cheers for your help. 90% are Ireland based, focuses on the Irish markets and target audience are irish people. Hence my preference for a Irish host.

Your suggestion is a good idea and may be something I will have to explore further. Though I would prefer to have just the one reseller account. What you say does make sense though.

Thanks for the link, looking for a windows hosting company though.

Also, thanks to everyone else for there advice, taking it all on board.

 

[davidbehan]

I agree with what you are saying. I develop in ASP and have MSSQL databases in the background on all sites/applications. What I found I needed to do to "fit in" with the reseller limits was to reduce the database space for each of the sites. The databases are limited to a certain size... giving room to grow and I get notification if they need more. This way I grow the space needed by the size of the website and its database(s).

Now, coming on from that... I've decided to get more control over my hosting environment as I was sick of H365 crap about installing com objects and stuff so I've a provisional order in with Blacknight for a nice dedicated server for me to use. Ok, the price steps up a bit but the clients going onto it will be covering the costs so I don't mind too much.

But if you can control the space you give to each client then, that's the way to go for the moment maybe. If a website only needs 5-10mb of space... don't give it 50mb when it will probably never need it. I was able to half my usage by removing unused database space.

And to continue your rant... on both the developer reseller and the gold reseller from H365... the MSSQL space is the same (500mb). This is the main reason for needing to upgrade the account. What's the point of that!!!!

 

[mneylon]

We're currently reviewing our reseller hosting offerings, so if you contact me directly with your wishlist I may be able to sort something out for you

(use my michele@blacknight.ie email)

As for custom plans .... That's something we've looked at more than once in the past and we keep revisiting it...

Sorry if I'm being vague, but I just got off a transatlantic flight, so my brain's a bit fried

Michele

 

[Amateur]

We're currently reviewing our reseller hosting offerings, so if you contact me directly with your wishlist I may be able to sort something out for you

(use my michele@blacknight.ie email)

As for custom plans .... That's something we've looked at more than once in the past and we keep revisiting it...

Sorry if I'm being vague, but I just got off a transatlantic flight, so my brain's a bit fried

Michele

Cheers Michele, dropped you an email earlier.

 

[bearaman]

Looking for a good hosting reseller package and what's available at Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Web Hosting by HostDime is far and away better than what Web hosting Ireland, hosting ireland / irish web site hosting Ireland / domain registration, dedicated servers, colocation - Blacknight Solutions: Blacknight Solutions or Welcome to Ireland's largest Hosting Company - Hosting 365 are offering. If most of my clients will be from the Irish market, what difference does it make where I host? I assume there's some technical reason it may hurt me but I just don't know it. Anyone care to explain?
Thanks,
Bearaman

 

[Cormac]

The response from the server will more than likely be slower if it's located in the states and you won't appear in google.ie's search results for Ireland unless you use a .ie domain name.

 

[hosting365]

It also depends on what you need from a reseller plan. All of our shared hosting plans (3.95 or 9.95 per month) provide unlimited databases and multi-site / domain hosting, even with unique stats, settings, emails, etc. You only need to buy a 'reseller plan' if you want to become a mini hosting company and give full featured or branded control panels to your users. If you are designing your own sites for your customers, simply buy a hosting plan and put 5, 10, 20 or more sites on the same plan at no extra cost.

 

[mneylon]

If you are designing your own sites for your customers, simply buy a hosting plan and put 5, 10, 20 or more sites on the same plan at no extra cost.

That's not exactly wise advice

What happens when they want to login to add new emails etc?

 

[hosting365]

Of course that's why I said 'It depends on what you need'.

Many designers 'do everything' for their clients, including setting up email accounts, etc. For them, that model works well and saves a fortune. Lots and lots of our clients do it.

The only way to offer feature rich hosting is a reseller plan, or better yet, your own server running your preferred control panel.

 

[mneylon]

Fair enough

The problem we ran into was that some people were using shared accounts for reselling and gave the clients login details! The clients weren't overly impressed!

 

[hosting365]

or customers who want us to support the 20 clients they have in a plan they pay 3.95 a month for Oh yes, we see lots of fun stuff

 

[mneylon]

or customers who want us to support the 20 clients they have in a plan they pay 3.95 a month for Oh yes, we see lots of fun stuff

Oh yes !

 

[CiaranR]

I moving a reseller account over from the us. I recently go a tour of the Digiwebi data centre and was quite impressed by their setup, on the back of that I was think of purchasing this Digiweb web hosting, domain names, colocation and dedicated servers

I would have to give stephen a shout to find out the finer details of the account but it seams to be an almost unlimited (in terms of domains sub domains etc) reseller account for €30 a month.

Anyone know any other Irish plans to match/beat that.

 

[hosting365]

That's basically just a giant hosting plan (I use the term giant loosely, as for 29.99 you're limited in the number of databases you can use, which is most typically the limiting factor these days).

It's not a 'reseller' plan as such - ie: you wont get a seperate login or control panel for your users.

Compare with Register365 which is 1/3rd the price, and comes with the same amount of disk space, more transfer, unlimited databases, and the same basic functionality.

(you can also tour our DC if you like

 

[bearaman]

So, to sum up, it is cheaper to buy a hosting reseller plan from a US based company. HOWEVER you will not be listed in Google if you don't have a .ie domain and it will be slower connection.
Does that sound correct?
Since many of the sites I browse to are based in the US, surely slow download times are a very small issue?
I'm going to be setting up a small web design business and with a reseller plan so I can sort out my clients with hosting and the web site, which makes sense. Can I also get discounts on registering domains?
Oh yea, one final question. When I buy a reseller plan, who supports my clients with technical issues, the host company or me?
Thanks,
Bearaman

 

[hosting365]

With a reseller plan, you support your clients. They are your clients, not the hosts (as such).

Some providers offer domain discounts (or just very low prices in the first place) for resellers.