Upgrade Packages

[heronnweb]

I guess like many I was lured into Cat2 by the cheap entry package (11.99 per year I think it was). I guess like many the site has expanded over time... and we've had to increase bandwidth and space on the server...

IIRC the original package gave 250Mb of space and 1Gb of bandwidth,

So what would seem logical would be if I wanted 750Mb of space and 3Gb bandwidth it would cost 3 x 11.99 (at most - as actually the number of support tickets etc is probably not proportional to bandwidth/space). Instead it would seem to cost 7 times that (although I would get 8Gb bandwidth)...

So as this is in the suggestions thread - my suggestion is it should be clearer what the upgrade costs might be for people choosing the basic package... I guess a lot of people don't know what their disk space needs might be in 3 years or what their bandwidth use might be. And the trouble is once you've had good experiences with Cat2 I'm scared to move elsewhere... but the people who make the financial decisions are sending me cheaper packages... think they are getting sick of me saying 'but you wont get the same customer service'... ...I don't think they have an issue with what they currently pay but probably have concerns about what they might have to pay in the future if growth continues...

[Jacob]

Hi heronnweb,

Thanks for the post - it is always great to get feedback.

A few comments from me:

The costs to upgrade are clear - we recently redesigned the site to ensure that - you can find all the costs here:

Catalyst2 - UK web hosting - shared and dedicated managed windows and linux hosting

If you have any queries about them - just let us know.

Secondly - thanks very much for the positive comments around our service.

As regards resources v. cost. Yes, if you just compare them based on just bandwidth and disk space then it does look the way you outlined. If however you compare them on other resources e.g. Email accounts or FTP accounts etc then the story is rather different.

Different users have different requirements and we have done our best to come to a happy medium.

My suggestion would be - let us know what your requirements are and we would be happy to make a suggestion around the most cost effective solution for you.

All the best,

Jacob

[paulredpath]

Hi,

As Jacob says, we are happy to construct custom packages tailored to your needs.

However while we are always reviewing our packages against competitors, *alot* of our 'competitors' massively oversell resources on cheap rented machines, which takes direct control out of the equation, leading to slower support responses and another layer for any requests to go through. Also in these more turbulent times businesses can come and go on a monthly basis!

We own and manage everything related to our services:

- Our racks are direct with the data centre, not through any resellers
- Have built and run our own redundant network constructed from brand new fully supported equipment
- We own all our servers, again brand new and supported by Dell

While this obviously increases our costs over renting a £50/month server and sticking thousands of accounts on it, it has allowed us to build a sustainable and well supported business (over 8 1/2 years now), and as you have kindly noted we do place a great emphasis on support!

Based on feedback from our survey earlier this year we will be bringing in new services soon, and a new billing system to simplify the management of your account. We may also upgrade some packages, and introduce new packages to help cover the 'jump' from the mega deal to the higher ones.

If you have any questions let me know, always happy to help

[BlackWasp]

It would be great to see some intermediate items, for example allowing the use of SQL Express for those who need only small databases but would prefer not to use Jet/Access.

[WhiskyFudge]

Originally Posted by BlackWasp

It would be great to see some intermediate items, for example allowing the use of SQL Express for those who need only small databases but would prefer not to use Jet/Access.

I'm sure Paul will clarify this but I don't think SQL express can be used on a shared hosting environment due to its licensing conditions (and possibly technical limitations)

[BlackWasp]

I know that SQL Server CE cannot be hosted but there are plenty of providers hosting SQL Express.

[paulredpath]

Hi,

I can state we wont be providing support for SQL Express I am afraid. While it would be useful for some customers, we would rather provide a reliable 'full' SQL server hosting service, than a cut down version.

[WhiskyFudge]

As background information. I was wrong about the licensing terms of express (I did a little bit of research). However generally the product is not suited to running in this environment as stated by the sql express team: SQL Server Express WebLog : SQL Server Express and Hosting