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I find it interesting how the trend is moving towards charging less per unit resource on the low-end plans; digital ocean gives you more disk per dollar on the

by lsc 12y ago

I find it interesting how the trend is moving towards charging less per unit resource on the low-end plans; digital ocean gives you more disk per dollar on the small plan, while these people give you dramatically better ram per dollar on the low-end plans. The interesting part (and why the pricing scheme that I chose moves in the opposite direction, e.g. you get more resources per dollar as you buy more) - is that while the cost of hardware is pretty linear, there is certainly a support and abuse cost associated with every account, so the lower-end accounts cost the provider more per unit ram to provide.

sloop 12y ago
I think what we're seeing is both: 1) more cut-throat competition to have the lowest advertised price (the ads just display the minimum available price, not the price of a service that actually meets a customer's need) AND 2) once you get a customer on your platform, they are likely to upgrade and/or add more services which will be at the higher price points.
- lsc 12y ago
  yeah, I would assume that 1. would push the price down in general. The trend to discount the smallest plans has got to be mostly 2. It's an interesting strategy; if it works, it would imply that there is more sensitivity to price at the bottom of the market than there is at the top of the market.
visarga 12y ago
They also give you an IP address if I am not wrong, included in the same $0.99/month. Any other host would charge that just for the IP alone.
- lsc 12y ago
  While that is about market rate for a single IP, an IP address doesn't actually cost the ISP much at all. https://www.arin.net/fees/fee_schedule.html#isps https://www.arin.net/fees/fee_schedule.html#isps also, at least until ARIN runs out, it's in your interest to qualify for as many IP addresses as you can, and VPSs are one way to legitimately "show efficient use" of your current IP addresses.
  - petercooper 12y ago
    Your last paragraph is the most interesting thing I've read on this thread. Maybe I'm just being a suspicious cynic, but do you think there could be value in a business trying to qualify for as many IP addresses as possible in the short term so that they could be capitalized on when/if the final IP address crunch occurs?
    - lsc 12y ago
      there is value, but I wouldn't be so cynical. It's really not that hard to fake the "efficient usage" requirement, if that is really what you were after. If you are going through contortions to legitimately qualify for a block from ARIN rather than just lying, my assumption would be that you are doing so for honor, not money, otherwise you'd take the far more efficient route of lying.

by lsc 12y ago

sloop 12y ago

I think what we're seeing is both: 1) more cut-throat competition to have the lowest advertised price (the ads just display the minimum available price, not the price of a service that actually meets a customer's need) AND 2) once you get a customer on your platform, they are likely to upgrade and/or add more services which will be at the higher price points.

lsc 12y ago
yeah, I would assume that 1. would push the price down in general. The trend to discount the smallest plans has got to be mostly 2. It's an interesting strategy; if it works, it would imply that there is more sensitivity to price at the bottom of the market than there is at the top of the market.

visarga 12y ago

They also give you an IP address if I am not wrong, included in the same $0.99/month. Any other host would charge that just for the IP alone.

lsc 12y ago
While that is about market rate for a single IP, an IP address doesn't actually cost the ISP much at all. https://www.arin.net/fees/fee_schedule.html#isps https://www.arin.net/fees/fee_schedule.html#isps also, at least until ARIN runs out, it's in your interest to qualify for as many IP addresses as you can, and VPSs are one way to legitimately "show efficient use" of your current IP addresses.
- petercooper 12y ago
  Your last paragraph is the most interesting thing I've read on this thread. Maybe I'm just being a suspicious cynic, but do you think there could be value in a business trying to qualify for as many IP addresses as possible in the short term so that they could be capitalized on when/if the final IP address crunch occurs?
  - lsc 12y ago
    there is value, but I wouldn't be so cynical. It's really not that hard to fake the "efficient usage" requirement, if that is really what you were after. If you are going through contortions to legitimately qualify for a block from ARIN rather than just lying, my assumption would be that you are doing so for honor, not money, otherwise you'd take the far more efficient route of lying.