Step 2 of 25 to Building a Micro-ISV: Reliable Hosting
(See also, The complete list: 25 steps for building a Micro-ISV) So, you've got a domain name that works for you (step 1). Now you need a space to host your domain and ultimately your product. This step should take you around fifteen minutes to complete. For procrastinators, this could be around 15 days. ;-). It will cost a little bit of money (it's one of the few steps that does). This was going to be a very short, "bullet points only" entry... it's turned out quite a bit longer... Here we go...
First here's what I think are the salient points on the topic:
- don't host it yourself -- pay for hosting
- don't choose a 'free' option -- pay for hosting
- ensure they have a money back guarantee
- check that the host will allow hosting of executables and zips
- check that you're allowed to have a professional site
- check that you won't hit any traffic limitations yet
- decide what server-side technologies you require
- look for feedback, good and bad
- find an adequate one and sign up. Don't hesitate.
don't host it yourself -- pay for hosting
Fool-hardy people attempt to host professional websites on their own hardware. For amateur and hobby sites this is admirable and hardcore. But when trying to provide a professional product, hosting the website yourself must be attributed to a kind of 'not invented here syndrome' (see also) where you believe that anything outside your control is out of control.
The reality is that a dedicated hosting company with a good reputation will provide a far more robust and reliable solution than you can hope to offer from your lounge-room server. The price for reliable website hosting is astonishingly low as the market is so competitive.
don't choose a 'free' option -- pay for hosting
A lot of hosts offer a free option, as an introductory measure. This free option usually isn't suitable for a microisv because it often has limitations, such as restricted daily bandwidth allowances, and sometimes (less commonly now) includes their ads on your pages.
One more reason why the free hosting doesn't suit you: they often have restrictions saying you can't use this account to host a business. (I assume they do this for legal reasons -- they can't afford to be sued for lost revenue, over a hosting account they've given away for free)
ensure they have a money back guarantee
All reputable hosting companies should offer this. It's not like you've worn out their servers.
check that the host will allow hosting of executables and zips
Ultimately, you'll distribute your product in some binary form -- an executable, a zip or an msi file. Ensure that your host will let you publish these types of files. Similarly if your plans include the distributions of other filetypes, make sure that they're allowed by your host -- mp3's, for example, are banned from many hosting companies for fear of copyright violations.
check that you're allowed to have a professional site
Companies that don't host professional sites will make this pretty clear in their terms and conditions. Just a tiny point to watch out for.
check that you won't hit any traffic limitations yet
"If thirty percent of your visitors download your product, and three percent of the downloads result in a sale... how much bandwidth per month will you need to reach minimum wage? What if I get dugg?"
Really, these kind of equations are not necessary. Currently, companies will offer around 20 gig as their standard, and also offer 'unlimited' bandwidth options. Of course there's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth -- this usually means that the bandwidth limits are high enough that something else would break before you reached them.
A twenty gig download volume should be enough for a MicroISV. In a few years, we'll look back and laugh at it... but for today it works okay. You might like to know what's involved in upgrading to a large limit, in case that (happy) problem arrives in the next few months.
Similarly, the amount of space offered is rarely a problem today. You could probably get by on just 20 meg of space. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a package that gives you so little space. You'll easily find 200 meg of space, and more likely a gig.
In fact many of the issues that were once important when shopping around for a webhost can be pretty much taken for granted nowadays. The host will definitely offer FTP access, they'll have some nice kind of control panel, and so on.
decide what server-side technologies you require
The only technical aspect to your choice of hosting company lies in trying to predict the server side technology you'll need down the line.
At first your microISV website should be very simple. But it may end up requiring software such as:
- Online Licensing Solution
- Forum
- Content Management System
- Newsletter Management System
- Help Desk System
And so on. I started to draw up a big decision tree with all the platform choices I'm aware of [operating system? (linux, windows, etc.) web server? (apache, IIS) databases? (mySQL, SQL Server, etc.)] But really all of that exciting stuff is irrelevant to you, the MicroISV. The level at which you need to get involved is more like: ASP.net or Ruby or PHP? What am I going to need?
I think this will be a fairly easy decision for you: few programmers are truly agnostic about web tools.
So the only real lesson is: even if you start with a static site make sure you've got some server-side pogramming capabilities. Your site won't stay static for long.
look for feedback, good and bad
Personally I use asp.net and 'classic' asp for my websites. Some of the hosts that have been recommended to me include:
If you google for each of these names, you will find a combination of good and bad reports. For example here's some positive experiences and some negative experiences about my host WebHost4Life.
So when looking for references -- don't expect all positive reports. No company can achieve that. Take all criticisms with a grain of salt -- was the webmaster somehow naive or in the wrong?
The most important thing you are looking for is proof that this is a real company that does successfully host websites, and won't dissappear tomorrow.
Find an adequate one and sign up. Don't hesitate.
Choosing a web host isn't rocket science. The most difficult part is having the courage to sign up. By making that step you're beginning to commit yourself to moving forward in your plans. So go ahead -- get this step out of the way and move on.
One last thing:
While I live in Australia I choose to host my sites in the US for two reasons: the prices are lower, and the server is geographically closer to more members of my target market (and therefore potentially faster). If you live on an island you might need to consider the same thing.
What do you think?
Are any of the points above unnecessary? Are there important points missing? Anything you disagree with? Any mistakes (or successes) you've had in the past that are relevant? Feedback is definitely needed.
'Scott Carpenter' on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:29:22 GMT, sez: I went with a US host for exactly the same reasons as you did.
If you look carefully at the fine print you will find some Australian hosts are simply resellers for a US based server anyway!
'marek' on Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:07:25 GMT, sez: Thanks for a very interesting series. I'm eagerly awaiting steps 3 and 4, having just spent a few days looking for a website content system I could use out of the box or with minimal modifications for my small, upcoming shareware shop. All the content management systems, from simple blogs to full-blown CMS platforms are based on a chronological display of latest articles. I thought there had to be something that catered to ISVs, but nothing so far. It looks like I'll be weaving my html by hand yet again, which is something I very much wanted to avoid. I'm very interested in hearing your suggestions, hope you have something php/mysql-ish in mind.
'Andrew' on Tue, 20 Feb 2007 05:02:43 GMT, sez: Nice post, I'm liking this series - thank you.
A few points of my own, formed through bitter experience:
If you're running a company site that you want to make money from, steer clear of 'bedroom' hosting companies. These are the one-many-bands that run the company from their house (check the company address) and rent server space from other providers. For that matter, if the company doesn't list an address and phone support number on their site - don't use them.
These bedroom companies make up a huge segment of the hosting market. They see one person doing it and think 'I can make a load of money, how hard can it be?' In my experience with companies like this, they simply cannot provide the support you need. They have to sleep sometime, and depending on where you are in the world, this will always be the time that your site goes tits up. I've had to wait a full working day to get my site back up before because the person running the hosting company was out for the day(!) Never again.
So learn from my experience - go with a large hosting company if you value your site, and your sanity. I've been using a bigger player for over a year and while it costs probably 50% more, it's absolutely worth it.
Which brings me neatly on to: don't just go by price. I've tried maybe 7-8 hosting companies over the last 7-8 years. Without exception, the cheaper companies have been the worst (including WebHost4Life, sorry). Again, if you value your online business - pay a little more for better service.
Think about it this way: if you had to hire someone for your company, do you go with the cheapest or most qualified and experienced person you can afford?
Finally, I would say *definitely* look for feedback and heed it if the overall vibe is bad. Especially more recent feedback that might indicate the company is going downhill (*cough* ASPnix *cough*).
'Nicholas Hebb' on Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:08:03 GMT, sez: One thought on the tech platform a microISV goes with... Many (most?) microISV's start off with shared hosting. If you go with a Windows host and IIS, you are very likely to have limited access to the IIS configuration. there have been a number of times I needed to do something, such as a 301 redirect, that the easy answer was "add this to your htaccess file", only to find there wasn't a viable alternate in IIS that I had admin rights to setup.
If I were doing it all over again, I would go Linux/Apache all the way.
Side note: I switched from webhost4life because of service issues. They often had bungee techs - one would pop in and try to resolve the problem. I'd email them back and get another tech. Another tech would answer my follow-up email. I once had 6 or 7 different techs on one ticket, and I had to re-explain much of it each time because they didn't go back and read the previous emails. Too frustrating.
'Andrew' on Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:35:24 GMT, sez: Hey mate, following a similar approach to yours, I found a hosting company and signed up without trying too hard to compare with others since at the end of the day there are about a gazillion of them and I just don't have that much time, but I ended up with dot5hosting and I have found that sometimes emails that I send get rejected because dot5hosting.com is on certain blacklists out there (eg "bl.spamcop.net"). But I agree that rather than procrastinate for ever and a day, you need to commit and then maybe learn from a bad experience...
'Sergei Podbereschi' on Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:06:10 GMT, sez: We are based in US, and host with AIT. It's a pretty big company, 800 number and all that. But we got in trouble when experiencing traffic jumps (due to our seasonal ecards). With a company of that size, the problem is that they have too many layers of tech support. So when your server goes down, most of the time they just restart the services. Even if it happened 5th time on that day. Then it takes forever to escalete it through all the levels, untill you really get to somebody who can solve the problem.
I was just writing lately on our blog about it: http://theoworlds.blogspot.com/2007/02/about-all-mighty-gods-of-hosting-in.html .
Anybody else hosts with AIT?
'Matthew Purdon' on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:34:28 GMT, sez: I just wanted to add weight to the post that Andrew made.
I have tried several hosting outfits, and the only real difference between a good one and a bad one that you can see without actually signing up with them is phone support. 24/7 support and Live Chat and you are probably going to be a very happy customer (which basically means you have nothing to complain about).
I have recently signed up with aplus.net and been very happy with them.
Good luck.
PS: Change your password immediately after getting your welcome email. Sometimes it's eery how fast your account is compromised.
'lb' on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:34:42 GMT, sez: great comments guys!
it looks like support is definitely worth mentioning in more detail.
it's such a hard thing to know ahead of time how good the support will be.
and even based on other people's feedback it's very hard to know what the support will be like. for example Nicholas had bad tech support from webhost4life -- whereas i found them really helpful.
lack of ability to configure IIS is something to be aware of. if you're on the windows platform these limitations are pretty much a given unless you have a dedicated server -- and a dedicated server is not something i'd recommend for a microISV.
by the way -- i see that Nicholas (comment a few up above this one) is the brains behind 'flowbreeze' flow chart software that lets you create flowcharts in excel with absolute minimum effort. i saw this when it was mentioned on larkware a while back. Very Cool Stuff!
lb
'lb/' on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:26:03 GMT, sez: http://www.ixwebhosting.com/
recommended by http://sebastienlorion.blogspot.com/
'Unsecured Loans' on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:52:07 GMT, sez: You got some really interesting points here, I like to way they sound. I couldn't agree more, hosting companies make big money from running this business. Thank you also for the tips and the relevant statistics.
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