During your search for a web hosting plan, you have probably run across a few companies advertising “lifetime” service. This type of service looks very attractive on the surface as you simply pay a one-time fee and have the assurance that your website will be around forever. Or do you? Regardless of how good such a deal appears, you need to consider various factors before signing your name on the dotted line. So how do you know if lifetime hosting is the right move? By considering these factors. How Long Do You Plan to Stay? The first thing you must consider is how long you will need this particular service for your website. Do you really want to be contractually tied to one single hosting provider for the rest of your life? Sure, you are free to sign up with whomever you like, but once the payment is made, there usually is no way to get your money back. Also keep in mind that this type of service will cost you way more than a measly $10. Before entering into such an agreement, you need to think long and hard about the goals you want to accomplish with your website. If you can see yourself staying with one company for two or three years, this could be worth it. However, there is still much more that needs to considered. What are Your Requirements? If your requirements call for tremendous amounts of bandwidth and disk storage, you may want to strongly reconsider lifetime hosting. Companies that offer this type of service generally only make money from each customer once and that’s it. However, they still have expenses they must deal with on a monthly basis. Because they have to find a way to stay in business, this could give them all the motive they need to minimize and start cutting corners. Obtaining additional bandwidth and disk space can be expensive, so to compensate and reduce this expense, the host might try to cram as many accounts on a single server as they possible can. A classic example of overselling, this could leave your high-trafficked website suffering from performance issues and the inability to grow once all the storage capacity has been exceeded. Is this really a situation you are prepared to deal with? What is the Refund Policy? Since a lifetime web hosting service is likely to come at the result of overselling, the refund policy is definitely something you want to look into; just in case you decide to pack up and leave. Unfortunately, many of companies offering such as service offer no refund at all or have policies that do not work in favor of the customer. The last thing you want to do is determine that the service is inadequate after three months only to find that there is no way to get your money back. Conclusion A lifetime web hosting plan can turn out to be the right solution for the right person. However, the people in this category can be considered a rare breed at best. If you are dead set on paying one price for the rest of your life, take the time out to make sure you are getting what you paid for. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment