The web hosting in Ireland is really strange. The prices vary so much that if you do not shop around you have a chance to pay more than double for the same service.
Imagine that you want to write a blog like this one (wwwJobsBlog.ie). Who would you choose for web hosting it from the Irish web hosting companies.
The requirements are very simple. You need a Linux hosting with the Php and MySql support, and the ability to install WordPress. If you need to upload it with FTP it is OK, but if it is available in their control panel, that is a definite plus.
Irish Web Hosting companies consist of those who:
1. have their own data centres and their servers in them:
1.1 Hosting365.ie
1.1 Digiweb.ie
2. have servers in someone else’s data centre
2.1 Blacknight.ie – servers in www.dataelectronics.ie
2.2 Novara.ie – servers in www.servecentric.com
2.3 IrishDomains.com – servers in www.dataelectronics.ie
3. reselling the space on someone else’s server. That is usually your local web designer.
So here goes the pricing for hosting the WordPress package:
|
Hosting Company |
TOTAL |
Hosting/year |
.ie domain/year |
| €65.90 | €39.95 | €25.95 | |
| €69.18 | €39.19 | €29.99 | |
| €77.99 | €42.99 | €35.00 | |
| €140.00 | €70.00 | €70.00 | |
| €168.00 | €99.00 | €69.00 | |
| €218.00 | €149.00 | €69.00 |
All the prices above are from the web sites that the links are provided in this article. All the prices listed do not include Irish VAT of 21%.
The cheapest package is from Hosting365 the total is €65.90 (+VAT) The most expensive one covered in this report is the offer from the IrishDomains.com that is: €218. Therefore the difference in the price of web hosting in Ireland can be more than three times. The suggestion is to shop around while you are choosing your web hosting provider.
Support is the other important web hosting issue besides the price. Here is the checklist:
1. if there is a phone support number on the web site
2. if the phone support is included in your package
3. is the phone support number a free 1800 number
4. is the phone support the 1890 and it states that it is a local call price number
5. call the support on the phone and see how long will it take to get to a person
6. ask a question to see if a support person understands you and is showing a willingness and knowledge to really provide support.
5 replies on “Web Hosting”
The cost of domain names charged by some of these and other providers is so varied. .IE domain names are so cheap and affordable, from as little as €21 now compared to the €100 + vat some hosting companies charge. I have to give a mention to blacknight.ie for bringing domain names and hosting costs for any company no matter what size to a price that you would not even blink at when it comes up for renewal. As a percentage of your marketing costs it is tiny even for a small company.
Hosting365 .ie domains – http://www.register365.com are now just 21.95 per year.
Also, if you are adding broadband providers like digiweb, why not Eircom and BT ?
Support really is the most important thing – once you find a couple of good suppliers that have similar specs / price. The one thing also to consider is the support times and support methods. While phone is useful, I think email and live chat (like IM) can be better at times as it allows the support technician a little more leeway in getting engineering resources to help out and fix things – better than waiting on hold on the phone. The other thing is send a support request in a 11pm and see how long it takes to get a response. Some providers are 24×7 – which can be useful !!
Thanks for the mention :)
We’ll reviewing our pricing again very shortly – keep an eye on our blog
Michele
Interesting to see an old comment there about Hosti365’s attitude to support.
So on Monday Register365 announce that they are withdrawing their free phone support from those on shared hosting in 7 days. We’re told we can still call – just at a euro per minute rate. We of course have other options like free live chat with someone in Krakow or we can enter the email ticketing system. Neither of which will provide very meaningful immediate feedback. Hosting/Register365 say it is to increase the efficiency of support but I am left wondering who this new efficiency really benefits.
Having had a plethora of support issues, some of which remain ongoing with little sign of resoluiton, I took exception to this move and decided to start a petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/h365 in order to try and get Register/Hosting365 to reverse this.
Not wishing to be underhand in any way I posted a comment to their blog informing them of same with a link to the petition. Amazing as it may seem, they actually removed the petition link from the comment without informing me despite the fact that Aidan McCarron finally engaged on one of the ongoing issues I am having exchanging several emails with me throughout the course of the day.
The issue in question was one I had brought to the attention of Stephen McCarron back last June just after the big outage having gotten no resolution from normal support channels. At that time he undertook to follow up the issue – he never did.
If the management can’t follow up on issues how are we to believe that those they manage will?
What is the value of providing a comments section on a blog if you censor the comments to your liking and then reply to them without actually engaging with the poster?
There is a very interesting discussion on this going on on Enterprise Ireland’s e-Business mailing list at the moment. I would recommend anyone interested in this area to have a read.
It seems to me that in the last year there has been a move in Hosting365 to shove all the shared hosting cutomers over to Register365 with no free phone support while keeping the more valuable co-located and dedicated hosting customers with Hosting365.
When I brought my clients to Hosting365 (and yes, it was ‘Hosting365′ I brought them to despite the fact most are on shared hosting plans) there was no such distinction. Now those shared hosting clients are learning a good lesson on the importance of their support to Hosting/Register365..