Ask a Website Design Company ^BETA

30 December 2008
Hi Dave

£300 does sound an awful lot when you compare it to other packages, though do check what the support covers, and whether you expect to need it. Once a site is up and running on a reputable server/hosting package there should be very little support needed - and most packages will provide it free anyway. However, if it includes, for example, updates to your website (and you think you will need them) then it could be more cost effective.

So long as you pick a reputable host the 'service' level shouldn't really be any different. I use Simple Web Hosting who I've found to be reliable and very helpful if there are problems. 123reg I've not heard great things about so do check and get referrals. The main difference if you go elsewhere will probably be your time setting up the hosting account (i.e. registering), and if something does go wrong you'll need to contact them yourself - whereas if your designer is managing the hosting he should do all that for you.

Your designer most likely has a hosting package with somebody like 1and1/123reg anyway which he then sells on in 'bits' (called reselling) - so you could end up with the same server/host regardless of whether you go through him or do it yourself.

If you do shop around, make sure the package meets your needs, e.g. space, number of email addresses, and any scripting or database requirements the site needs to run.

Kind regards

Emma
Clarified Web Design

30 December 2008
Hi Dave,

I agree with Emma, that price seems pretty steep for hosting, and like Emma says, there should be a lot that comes with that price.

That being said, I only host sites that I develop and I do encourage my clients to allow me to host their sites, because I do have full access to my co-located servers and am better able to maintain the sites I host, and I know the capabilities of my server(s).

In the event that a client wants me to develop a site but they want to choose their own hosting, I typically will take a look at their hosting package and see if it has all the elements needed for the sites I develop, if so, then if my client doesn't mind letting me have access to their site FTP information, I am happy to upload their site to their server, (in the event of changes being made).

I never charge my clients for phone calls or if something needs to be addressed on my servers, I handle that for free... however if a client has a site hosted elsewhere, the server maintenance is completely up to them and if I need to adjust anything on their server, or contact their hosting company, I will charge a fee for my time.

So, while hosting should be very reasonable, and any server maintenance should come with that hosting fee, (assuming it's the developers server of choice), you should be able to host your site where you would like, just be aware that for developers maintaining sites across multiple servers is not desired and there may be additional or higher fees for any maintenance to sites hosted on servers other than your developers.

Hope that helps!

Best regards,
Mark Cloyd

1 January 2009
In most cases, designers (including myself) prefer to use their own hosting or hosting services that they know are reliable and convenient for their clients. Designers will generally push their clients to use their choices for a variety of factors, but generally it boils down to how convenient it is for the designer to access, use and learn the ropes. It may not always be the cheapest route, so you can either shop around for a better hosting provider and convince your designer it's worth their time and effort to agree with your choices, ask your designer to find a secondary or tertiary hosting provider that they like and is within your budget or maybe you need to find a designer that works for you and not him/herself! (hopefully it's not the latter, but in some cases maybe the best option for client / designer relations).

1 January 2009
I have always been of the mind that my clients should control both their own hosting and domain names. As long as the hosting company supports the site needs and is reputable I have no issue with clients "shopping around". I do recommend hosting companies that I have worked with and will try to dissuade them from going with companies just because they are cheaper.

Why do I think it is important for the client to control his/her own domain name and hosting? Far too many horror stories of clients loosing their websites and domain name because a relationship has gone south with their developer.

My advise:

Should you choose to go with your designers hosting company,

Be sure to always have a backup copy of your site and data. If the developer is making regular changes to your site have the developer send you a copy of the site when the changes are made. Save this file to an external source. This should include a copy of your database if applicable.

If your site is relatively static and original copy should suffice.

Also, keep in mind how important your domain name is. Always have complete control of your domain name. Where is it hosted (ie Go Daddy), always have the passwords and usernames and make sure that you and not your developer owns it.

That being said...

Your relationship with your developer should be built on trust. If you trust your developer is giving you the best value with hosting and support, then by all means use his hosting. Just be aware, and be safe. And be aware that you do have options. No developer should "insist" on his hosting. It is after all your site, and you should be in control.

7 January 2009
Like most things you pay for what you get and the same is very much true with hosting.

If you company needs 100% uptime, speed and resilience, then you need to pay for it.

Our hosting costs us in excess of £2000 p/m but we do run some very highend solutions.

£300 seems fairly reasonable to me - as long as the solution is being fully managed by the agency and doesn't include any hidden extra charges.

We recently took over a well known restaurant site that we're being charge £900 per site plus extra bandwidth charges that were amounting to £100 + p/m !!

To make it even worth - the agency in question had made sure every graphic was at least 40% larger in file size than was needed and had video file that were over 20mb that should of been optimised to under 5mb

28 January 2009
There are always cheaper options out there - you just need to weigh up the costs for you personally.

We offer our clients hosting (most designers do these days) although we dont charge anywhere near what you are being asking for. In our hosting package we include text changes in the price. Most of our clients find this really helpful.

I think you should find out exactly what is included in this £300 and if it would work out cheaper elsewhere or not. It would be no good going to 123reg and then finding that any changes to text etc is going to cost you £50 a time.

Good luck.

29 January 2009
£300 does sound like an awful lot but I guess it does depend on your actual requirements (which you don't specify, making a judgement difficult).

A standard brochureware site really shouldn't cost you more than £70 per year and that is top end. Obviously, if you require high uptime, huge monthly bandwidth allowances etc then expect this to increase the cost.

Sounds like you are being ripped off though in my opinion.

30 March 2009
If your designer charges his time at a reasonable £30/hr for site support, then you are buying just ten hours of his time per year, even if his hosting costs were free. If support includes server and software maintenance (e.g. for security updates) then ten hours per year seems quite reasonable.

Your actual hosting budget should depend on what your site needs. It it's important that the site is available all the time, and that inevitable hardware and network problems are sorted quickly, then £300 per month may not be enough. The actual "provide a computer attached to the internet" part of hosting doesn't cost much, but providing 24/7 support, redundant and resilient hardware, maintenance, etc. can cost quite a bit. Having someone available at any time of day or night to fix things, and ideally someone experienced rather than a call-centre staff member, is very valuable.

The only time you find out how good a hosting company is is when something serious breaks. The cheap ones can takes days to get your website back on line, the best will sort things out in minutes.

For a brochure site you can get away with paying for cheap hosting. If your business relies on the website being available, then I'd recommend paying quite a bit more. Perhaps you could work out how much you'd lose in revenue and customer reputation if your site was down for 24 hours, and compare with the hosting costs.

5 August 2009
It depends what the designer is offering for £300. Do you get updates, backups and auto renewal of hosting and domains ?

When you go to a main stream hosting company you will be left to sort this out yourself. That is OK for web designers but for ordinary mortals might prefer to pay a professional to look after this for them.

Its important you find out where the hosting is located and who the end game hoster is in case the web designer disappears.