More on Hosting

I’m going to start out today by answering two questions that have been asked by a few people regarding hosting and the various plans that Hostgator offers:

Q. 1: “How come the $24.95 Reseller plan gives 24gb of webspace and 250gb of bandwidth but the much cheaper $7.95 ‘Baby’ plan gives 600gb of webspace and a massive 6000gb of bandwidth? Is it is mistake on Hostgator’s web site?”

It did seem odd, but although I thought I knew the answer I asked Hostgator for myself. Their 24/7 live chat facility is very efficient and I had a detailed answer in seconds.

Here is what they said (paraphrased): “The Reseller plans are more expensive (and offer less in the way of storage and bandwidth) because they are intended for people who want to sell hosting solutions to their own clients. The Reseller plans include a lot of extra software and backend support for the reselling functions that are not included in the cheaper general hosting plans. In addition, the Reseller plans allow each domain hosted to have its own CPanel, whereas the general hosting plans administer all domains through one CPanel.”

The support operative then went on to confirm that yes, the low cost Baby plan is the best choice for a person who simply wants to host multiple domains and does not wish to resell hosting plans themselves.

So there you have it – save yourself money and opt for the cheaper – and far better value Baby plan. With 600gb at your disposal you’ll be able to host more websites that you’ll ever be likely to need.
Q. 2: “I just tried to buy the Hostgator Baby Plan but instead of being charged $7.95, I was charged $9.95. Is that right, and why the difference?”

I like Hostgator, and have most of my domains hosted with them, but I don’t like the way they (or a lot of other big companies) quote prices. There is a word missing on their price list: ‘from’.

If you buy the plan and pay for three years up front, then yes, it works out to the equivalent of paying $7.95 per month. But if you actually choose to pay monthly, then the price is $9.95 per month.

Clear? I don’t think so, and I wish they would express it differently. But the reality is that at $9.95 per month this is a great bargain.

Okay, I’m going to buy a Hostgator Baby Plan right now to use with the domain we bought in session three: www.imkickstart.com. I’ll video the process, so let’s hope it is as easy as I remember!

#~#~#

I’ve made a quick video showing the process – but rather than show it here (it is very straightforward) I’ll just put it on the blog for this course when it is set up.

The only thing that confused me, was that I thought the purchase process was finished, and went off to wait for a confirmation email, but nothing arrived. A quick chat with the livechat support person told me that I had needed to log into the Hostgator billing website to pay my invoice – something that for some reason hadn’t happened in the normal run of the sale.

Whether that was my mistake or their system, I really don’t know, but sorting it out took only a couple of minutes and all now seems to be fine.

HostGator: http://www.urlnex.us/hostgator/

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