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Features VPS companies should add
Free/cheap DNS hosting - this is definitely the top of the list because it'd save the resources(namely memory and CPU) that users would otherwise have to use to host it themselves. Yeah third party options exist, but it'd still be nice if VPS companies offered it.
Cheaper cpanel offering - the standard $15 a month is way too high, I know budget VPS providers don't have a "in" like shared hosting giants such as Hostgator, so can't offer at their prices, but something lower than 10 would be nice. Maybe a big discount if a user rents the VPS months in advance, so that cpanel is actually an option. Cheaper the better
A reliable status update page - servers go down, I get it, but all VPS companies should have a 3rd party status update system(other than twitter because it's too limited or LET ;p) where you guys post in detail what happened and what you're doing and the follow up maybe hourly updates along with which nodes are down or up. This may sound demanding, but if you ever ordered a pizza from dominos they have very up to date online tracking system you can follow that shows when the pizza was made, when it left the shop, where the driver is, how long it gets there etc...and that rocks! It's also highly professional. Yeah budget VPS's don't cost much but some users still use them for important things and it would be nice to know what's going on, even if it's not good news, within a decent time frames.
IPv6 - IPv6 World launch has already come and gone, so you should be handing out at least 65k IPs
Free/cheap file backup - hardware prices continue to go down, so share a slice of that awesome with users so that their data integrity can be enhanced.
Free domain - this works nicely for shared hosts, offer a free domain to users maybe if they signup for x number of months and only while they continue hosting with you. Also give users the option to buy the domain from you if they want to leave for a reasonable price.
Allow Tor(entry/middle nodes at least) and proxies(private at least) - Only Tor exit nodes risk getting notices from gov, copyright groups etc.. for abuse, Tor entry/middle nodes don't. All they do is relay encrypted data anonymously, so basically just bandwidth contributors. In terms of private proxies, they have a lot of uses like doing what a VPN does only without the hassle of setting that up, or dealing with some of its flaws.
Allow more distro choices - Giving users only a select few of distros choices(without letting users send in an ISO) or worse, only providing older versions of those distros is frustrating. Especially when everything else fits nicely.
Live chat - I don't personally don't like playing the email game, especially for something simple, although sometimes it makes sense, still, live chat is a beautiful, and efficient way to get things addressed.
Secure checkout - This should be a given, but after it was brought to my attention that not everyone did this, I started checking for it and managed to list a few providers on CVD months ago that didn't have SSL on their checkout...I get SSL certs cost money, but when you're dealing with customers private data it's absolutely critical and I would NEVER buy from a provider who didn't have it.
Be polite - absolutely no reason not to be, some providers unfortunately haven't grasped this simple concept, but I can tell you if you send back a rude response via a ticket i've opened up, there's nothing that'll make me drop your company faster and never recommend your services to anyone. I value good customer service far and above everything else when it comes to hosting, and I imagine i'm not the only one. It also encourages me to share with others my experience. Dealing with companies should be enjoyable or at the very least not miserable.
Better resource monitor - SolusVM unfortunately isn't accurate and is very misleading on memory usage and most likely BW. Also making it accessible via phone app would be great. Lastly I know you providers are using quality stuff behind the scenes, share the love.
Comments
It seems like you want everything for free.
No, I listed many as cheap/free but the reality is this industry, especially this slice of it is incredibly competitive, so adding more value can put one company over the top(and do so without costing them much) so is a good thing for everyone. Really though, these features would most likely make the providers more money on various fronts, so again is win/win.
Besides free domain, I believe Burstnet has everything you listed above. But I guess you don't like to use em eh?
We include dns hosting, IPv6 (a /64 if you request it), and 11 backups (7 daily, 3 weekly, 1 user controlled).
There are seriously VPS hosts without secure checkout? You can get cheap certs for like $7.
@taipres you want both cPanel and ipv6? Then go bug cPanel about ipv6 support, there is nothing we can do about it, until they decide to implement it.
1) Free/cheap DNS hosting -> Yes and no. I'm quite content having my domains independent of my providers, but it would be handy for some.
2) Cheaper cpanel offering -> Price reflects what resellers/datacenters offer it for. Besides, the bulk discount isn't a lot (a few $), so it makes sense for the provider to get a little something back.
3) A reliable status update page -> Yes! While I do think this would be harder on a one man team, it's common courtesy to your clients (I've always liked how Dreamhost updates their status domain Dreamhost Status).
4) Free/cheap file backup -> Buy a $3/m vps to store backups
5) Free domain -> I don't agree with this. While it may be an effective marketing ploy in the shared game. Most people who are buying a VPS already have a domain/s, and are simply upgrading to a more powerful platform.
6) Allow more distro choices -> Most providers will upload a distro within a day or two if requested... In saying that, I've only come across one host that I had problems with. After requesting Squeeze, they uploaded a corrupt version and then told me to use Lenny instead (instead of fixing it)... Needless to say I requested a refund.
7) Live chat -> Not sure if this is aimed at the LEB market, as most big/high end vps providers provide live support along with phone support. In saying that though, a lot of LEB hosts can easily be found via IRC.
8) Be polite -> Agreed. This is pretty straight forward, but I've left a handful of hosts after being treated poorly by support.
9) Better resource monitor -> I believe this should fall upon the responsibility of the user. Installing a monitoring software is basic knowledge.
Alright guys, well I was just throwing out some ideas, it's not an all or nothing list, the ideas are very individual focused and any VPS host that has already implemented some of these(and I can think of a number of them) they rock.
@jeff_lfcvps why your site not in sig? I see it in your name but sig would help with SEO and make it easier to clicky
Do just a minimal amount of research before you ask for things few can offer. I am a cPanel Partner NOC and my cost is higher than you want to pay, hence, few will offer it.
SQL hosting. BuyVM does it of course. It can certainly increase performance across the board.
And the DNS hosting, IPv6, file storage, live chat, private LAN and many others.
:P
Francisco
OR you can try and read what I actually wrote before you start trying to demean people. Let me bold it for you.
" I know budget VPS providers don't have a "in" like shared hosting giants such as Hostgator, so can't offer at their prices, but "
This is obviously referencing cpanel.
Allow Tor - all the headaches of torrents plus child porn. Woo hoo!
And they are a LEB provider. So i guess taipres's wish is fulfilled.
It's more they just don't have enough sold cpanel licenses to get into the higher bracket You could buy some licenses and and just not use them to get into a higher bracket but that seems like a waste of cash if you don't have the demand anyways.
Given how much WHMCS was charging hostgator for licenses I doubt they are getting licenses that much cheaper than $25/m.
Francisco
Just curious as to what most people would do with IPv6 at this point? (I understand you might have a particular use for those IPs.)
http://www.buycpanel.com/
1 – 14 Licenses: $ 15 /month
15 – 29 Licenses: $ 14 /month
30 – 74 Licenses: $ 13 /month
75+ Licenses: Contact Us
1 Year Licenses: $ 170 license fee
doesn't look too bad to me.
Say, "oh, this is ipv6... okay" and then go about their day. In other words, nothing.
KnownHost sells both WHMCS and cPanel for $5/month.
http://www.knownhost.com/vps_packages.html
I don't know if that's a function of some huge volume or as a sort of loss leader. They even apply discount codes (e.g., if you have a 15% off monthly recurring) to those prices.
JaguarPC does cPanel for $7/month, too.
1 – 14 Licenses: $ 15 /month
15 – 29 Licenses: $ 14 /month
30 – 74 Licenses: $ 13 /month
75+ Licenses: Contact Us
1 Year Licenses: $ 170 license fee
Sure, if you got the demand for it I think i've had like < 5 people ask me to date. Everyone else I either scored a directadmin license for, linked them kloxo or something like that.
To get into the $10/m bracket you probably need 300 some odd licenses
Francisco
http://atoomnet.net/ipv6/ipv6-enabled-top-1m-websites/
Lot of big sites support IPv6 already, facebook, google, blogger etc...and as well as thousands and thousands of smaller sites. Also many IRC servers support it already so can connect there under different IP's, or the customer could offer their own IPv6 access to their websites, IRC servers or whatever they're hosting. List goes on as IPv4 continues near depletion and more are giving IPv6 love
Even though knownhost has Leb price, most of their vps's are well priced so they can take the hit.
Entry and middle nodes don't know(can't see) nor care what the user is sending or connecting too. They're blind encrypted tunnels, only the exit node can, which i'm not rooting for as it actually connects to the destination and can see the traffic(if it's not encrypted via SSL or whatever) and hence can receive complaints. Users can operate as strickly entry/middle node and it'll just be bandwidth heavy(though you can set speeds) and use up some ram and CPU of course. Tor is important to help people in china etc...fight suppression, it has a lot more uses that than that, but yeah.
With license management comes headache. A dollar or two profit a month is probably not enough to cover the extra work of "my license doesn't work" tickets and provisioning/changing licenses, etc.
That's one reason why we don't bother offering cPanel through us.
I disagree with livechat. This is just added cost and burden to a low end provider that we dont need. Email and tickets are enough.
What's the difference in cost between answering tickets, and answering questions in realtime(even if you have to get on IRC and cipher through users bad jokes before you find an admin and get it)? Short of not having the annoyance of emails ending up in users spam folders etc...(which is not a plus)
One requires you to have someone working 24x7, which means you pay per hour or salary. The other allows agents a few minutes (or hours) to respond and you pay per ticket. Huge difference.
@taipres, it is a waste of resource, some one waiting for live chat request without doing anything or if it is a 1/2 man's business. Ticket sends an alarm via mail ( smartphone) and providers can get back once notified.
Can be very helpful for sales, though.
Heh, do you really pay per ticket?