Pricing your hosting plans

Take what your plan costs a month and divide it by the number of accounts you can realistically carry — not the maximum, the realistic figure, because the last 20% of a plan is uncomfortable.

That is your floor. It is usually a surprisingly small number, which is why resellers underprice: the disk is nearly free, so it feels like everything above cost is profit. It is not.

The real cost of a customer is attention. A customer who asks one question a month is costing you an hour you could have billed elsewhere.

So the test is not "does this cover the disk" — it is does this cover an hour of my time. If a plan does not, you are paying people to be your customers, and the cheapest customers ask the most.

• Being the cheapest. It selects for the customers you least want
• A cheap first year and an expensive renewal. It works once, then they leave and say why
• Monthly only. Yearly is better cash flow and far less churn
• Too many packages. Three is plenty; ten means you cannot remember what anyone is on
• Never raising prices. Review annually, raise for new customers first, and tell existing ones well ahead rather than surprising them on an invoice

Entry

One site, enough space for a normal business website, email on the domain. For the customer who needs a brochure site and nothing else.

Standard

Several sites, more space, more mailboxes. This is where most customers should land, so price it as the obvious choice.

Top

Everything, plus whatever makes you distinctive — a staging copy, priority support, a yearly review. Sell outcomes here rather than gigabytes.