Starting my own web hosting company

[avi]

I am thinking to start my own web hosting company. And I'd like to start small. I already have got a Dedi & a VPS, installed CentOS 32bit & started learning. However I find it too hard. So I have decided to go with reseller hosting in beginning. Once I learn, I can provide dedi.

But I have to make a wise choice here. Indian hosting companies are (in)famous for providing not-so-good service. So if I decide to provide great support, then I have to keep high pricing.

HostGator has the top notch service & they charge 4000 INR / year, with their basic plan with a .com domain. Though they provide unlimited space & bandwidth, but it's not in reality. And they come with restrictions too.

On other hand, one of the cheapest available hosting provider are HostSo. They charge 967 INR for their basic plan + .com domain. But they are so so famous for being worst. Their 200GB space is a big joke. There could be few satisfied customers, but no. of angry are lot more. And their tech support is, youknowwhat.

The saying, you get what you pay for is exactly right.

But I don't want to charge high prices for hosting. So I was thinking to give cheap hosting [somewhat hostso charges] but no support. It must be surprising for you guys when I say No Support. But sometimes I think, do I need really support ? I am with hostgator from past one year. Only once in beginning I contacted them. And NEVER !

If I provide 99.99% uptime & provide support in beginning like domain registration / nameservers etc, but with cheap hosting. And I will be totally providing support for server side errors.

This kinda of hosting for tech savvys & nerds who know how to handle their stuffs. Who already have a hosting experience but need good hosting at low prices.

So what do you say guys ? Thanks for reading

 

[NDragger]

Sounds good, but how did you got this idea of starting your own web hosting company ?

Here are my $ 0.02

What i would like is affordable hosting, reliable service and if support is concerned provide free premium support for one month then start charging from the next month.

Within one month anyone can learn how thing works if not then pay for support

Good Luck

 

[avi]

Sounds good, but how did you got this idea of starting your own web hosting company ?

Already have few own sites running. But I am paying lot because I don't want to go with unreliable ones. Have always searched for such host which is reliable but cheap. But I don't think there are such hosts.

I have also worked in support system for some host [just ticket system] In my experience of 5 months I always got tickets which are totally unrelated & independent to hosting

-How to install Wordpress

-Images not loading

-Adding youtube vidoes etc

There were hardly any tickets related to server issues [like memory limit, cpu usage etc]

There are few hosts too which are good & considerably cheap, but they don't accept money which is more comfortable for us Indians. They always require CC.

Here are my $ 0.02

What i would like is affordable hosting, reliable service and if support is concerned provide free premium support for one month then start charging from the next month.

Within one month anyone can learn how thing works if not then pay for support

Good Luck

It'd be very cheap hosting. Like very cheap

So I'd doubt people who are looking for cheap hosting would ever go with premium. Also it'd be very tough to good support for all. Cheap plans = More customers.

Either I can lie & say I am gonna provide 24x7 chat support, 30 mins ticket response & never provide them

[which maximum of Indian hosting companies do]

Or be transparent, let the customer know in the beginning itself that this will no-premium-support hosting & get limited customers who know how to handle everything. Ofcourse, there will be support for server side issues.

Thank you for replying man

 

[TEUser2K1]

what do you plan about security ?

like DDOS, Virus, hacking, etc. ?

 

[avi]

^Yes, it will be secure & firewall enabled. Few other security measures will be

-Cloudfare CDN plugin [for fast & secure]

-Denying IP addresses you specify

-Password Protected directories.

And if shit happens, then I have to give support & restore the account.

 

[Neo-N]

And if shit happens, then I have to give support & restore the account.

^^ Do remember that shit happens all the time!! If anything can go wrong, it will!!

My only doubt is how do you manage to reach the target audiences i.e. tech savvy people and nerds?? Are you gonna explicitly state that on your page or what??

BTW, Good luck with the proposal.

 

[avi]

^^ Do remember that shit happens all the time!! If anything can go wrong, it will!!

My only doubt is how do you manage to reach the target audiences i.e. tech savvy people and nerds?? Are you gonna explicitly state that on your page or what??

BTW, Good luck with the proposal.

In beginning through forums & facebook

If people are happy with my services then they will surely recommend to their friends

and thanks a lot !

I am gonna give a beta testing, next week for few people & get some feedback. Also I don't want to oversell & and not gonna sell it to anyone just like that

First it will be only for TE & other forum members, then I will expand

 

[challapradyumna]

Support is not an issue because all tech savy people can handle the stuff on their own and non tech savy people have softalicious for installing popular frameworks . It's the speed and uptime that matters. Also what plans are you planning to give??

 

[avi]

Support is not an issue because all tech savy people can handle the stuff on their own and non tech savy people have softalicious for installing popular frameworks . It's the speed and uptime that matters.

Exactly.

Also what plans are you planning to give??

I will reveal them with my site launch

I am also thinking to provide Zend Framework which is one of powerful open source framework for Web Apps and which is mostly unsupported in cheap hostings. It will attract web devs like you

 

[challapradyumna]

I am also thinking to provide Zend Framework which is one of powerful open source framework for Web Apps and which is mostly unsupported in cheap hostings. It will attract web devs like you

OT , Thinking of learning Zend but without any strong knowledge of OOP , i'm just in a yes/no condition .

 

[Gaurish]

Hosting is a competitive & is oversaturated market. I am not saying that you should not start with your hosting company but just keep this in mind while entering.

Incase you have decided to bite the bullet, This wiki would help on what,why & how of web hosting business.

Good luck

OT , Thinking of learning Zend but without any strong knowledge of OOP , i'm just in a yes/no condition .

At this point of time, I would advice you against Zend because the current version of ZEND is outdated. Zend Framework 2 the next version of Zend would be soon released. Currently zf2 is in beta.

So either start with zf2 or my personnel fav symfony2