HostMySite Releases Beefier “Professional” VPS Plans… BUT!
HostMySite, arguably the most popular and most highly spoken of ColdFusion hosting provider now has what it refers to as their Professional VPS offering -- in addition to their previous offerings. And here are the specs of note:
- RAM: 2gb Guaranteed -- previous options: 512mb or 1gb
- Disk Space: 100gb -- previous options: 10 or 22gb
- Bandwidth: 800gb / month -- previously: 400gb
- SQL Server: Standard -- previous options: Express or Workgroup
- Setup remains free (currently, through the month of July, according to the site.)
And what does this new professional VPS cost? $3,228 per year, if you pay for a full year in advance, or $3,468 per year if you pay monthly. Now, before I get to complaining, let me say that I understand first hand that running a business is about making money and you can't just give your products and services away.
For every hosting account that they give away to various community sites (ie: User Groups get free hosting), they have to pad a little bit into their pricing to make up the loss. And you also have to pay your employees -- which I'm sure they have quite a few, to keep their reputation for excellent customer service -- and your own bills, and make a little bit extra. That's just how businesses work.
But here's my gripe. $3,200? Are you freaking kidding me?
An Enterprise license costs $7,500. And there's hardware, redundancy, electricity, and internet connectivity to think about. So you know, maybe for someone who needs that sort of hardware, bandwidth, and storage capacity, it's not such a terrible deal. But from what I understand, their "plus" VPS plan with 1gb of ram is just barely manageable, and the few people I've spoken to about it don't think they could manage with the 512mb of ram in their ever-so-slightly cheaper VPS plan.
But what about those of us who would like the performance of a VPS (as compared to shared hosting), but don't necessarily need 800gb of bandwidth or 100gb of storage? How about a "doesn't suck" VPS plan, that has:
- 1.5gb ram
- 5gb storage
- 10gb bandwidth
- SQL Server Express (which, need I remind you, is absolutely free?)
What would something like that cost? I'd like to see it at the same price as the "plus" plan ($169), if not the standard plan ($116). It seems pretty simple to me: Build machines with gobs and gobs of ram, and reasonably sized hard drives; instead of the other way around.
in ColdFusion | Community | 4 Responses 2008-07-02 14:26
Adam!
Thanks for the thoughtful post. First I want to let you know that we have been actively looking at expanding our VPS offering and this is the first expansion of that. It was primarily based on feedback from our existing customers who wanted something that had the capabilities of our entry level dedicated servers without the cost. A similar configuration as a dedicated server is above $500 a month to give you some perspective.
The major cost are CF Enterprise, RAM and Support. Transit and HD space are almost inconsequential compared to the these.
I have sent on your post to our VPs of Marketing, Sales, and Product Management and given that you are local would love to talk with you in more detail about your feedback. I am also going to reach out to the local CF community as well to get additional feedback. As you know customer feedback is greatly appreciated and valuable to us to be successful.
Enjoy your 4th of July,
Tim Dodd
Account Executive
tdodd@hostmysite.com
Toll free: 1-866-399-4678
Direct: 302-224-4532
Support: 877-215-4678
http://www.HostMySite.com
Currently, I have a dedicated box with The Planet. I pay $150/mo for 512mb ram, a Celeron processor, 80gb hard drive, and I get a 10mbps unmetered line through Cogent. Their support is... well, it's there. Sometimes they respond instantly, sometimes it's a few hours. Whatever the case, they don't actually monitor my server, I have to report any problems.