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  • #43363
    zibizibi
    Member

    Hi everyone,

    I have a cheap shared hosting package. I charge $50 a year for website hosting and maintenance. But I reckon updating WordPress regularly entails work, so I’m considering charging more.

    Also, I offer 1 year free hosting and maintenance. How do you manage this issue guys and how much do you charge?

    #128079
    TheDoc
    Member

    I don’t manage client hosting and I’ve recommend this approach to everyone. It’s not worth the hassle.

    #128088
    demersdesigns
    Participant

    I agree with @TheDoc. Unless you charge enough to make it worth potentially getting calls at all hours of the night when the site goes down, it is not worth the hassle. It is good practice to suggest hosting services that you trust and even work out a site update/maintenance agreement, but I would leave the hosting support role to the hosting company themselves. Just my 2¢.

    #128089
    Alen
    Participant

    Less liabilities, the better.

    If I was managing client hosting I would most definitely charge way more than $50 a year.

    #128099
    croydon86
    Participant

    All these responses are very common in the industry, however, I host all my client websites (and other clients who have had their website done elsewhere) and it has gone pretty smooth so far. It is a simple reseller package from a reliable host, I have made a lot of money compared to the actual work involved.

    I can understand the increased responsibility but there is good money to be made here.

    I’ve been doing this for a bout 3 years now and not once has any of my sites gone down. Reliable hosting companies are key to this being pain-free.


    @zibizibi
    hosting and maintenance are two separate things. I offer 4 hosting packages, the basic hosting package alone costs around $50 a year. Maintenance should be worked out on a hourly basis.

    I offer clients either a fixed maintenance agreement (fixed monthly costs per year) or charge them on a pay-as-you-go basis at hourly rate.

    #128117
    rosspenman
    Participant

    @zizibi If you’re reselling hosting from another provider, a lot of them have a way to auto-update WordPress. I know [Dreamhost](http://dreamhost.com) does.

    #128118
    Alen
    Participant

    @rosspenman although it’s nice that many hosting companies offer One Click installs and automatic updates to WordPress, I would still elect to manage it my self. What if you’re using plug-ins that when WordPress updates become incompatible?

    #128121

    Heres our prices for a hosting:

    Standard Hosting $89.00 a year on a VPS server .

    $169.00 a year on one of our dedicated servers for more media intensive or larger websites with alot of database query sites. This includes a unique Cpanel Login for IT Deaprtment.

    No website maintenance included here only hoisting and basic server management, this also includes server security.

    We offer a monthly website management package that includes hosting. This is the option we encourage our clients to get if they don’t have an IT Department or thrid party company they contract out to. These packages include weekly site backups, Spam Bot protection , custom .htaccess files, and whatever else is required. These prices vary from $29 a month – $250+ depending on the customers needs and budget.

    This is only for APACHE Servers, IIS Servers our priced differently. I would also point out that this is more of a guideline for us, being that each customer has unique needs.

    #245653
    Tashi
    Participant

    Sorry to revive an old thread, but I’ve been researching this topic lately and wanted to chime in with my own 2c. I really think that hosting websites for clients and having ongoing support agreements with them can be one of the easiest ways for web developers to earn somewhat ‘passive’ income.

    Let’s say you charge a client $100 a month for hosting and on-call. Sometimes you’ll need to do an hour or two of work, but some months you may not have to do any work at all. That $100 is completely passive. I recently heard a web developer on the Treehouse forums say that he actively encourages all his clients to host with him and this revenue stream has grown to 40k a year for his business, and a lot of that is ‘passive’. It also helps him weather the storm when fewer clients are coming through.

    Just my 2 cents. The trickiest part of this is managing recurring billing and invoicing for your ongoing hosting and support agreements. Full disclosure: I’m working on Biru, a tool to make this easier.

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