Should I pay annually for my hosting?

To err is human. And there are so many instances when you can learn from the mistakes others committed. I would say, ‘No you should never pay for a year, and rather emphasize on monthly payments’. If you pay annually, you are getting struck with a host for 1 year. A monthly payment is your safeguard against any kind of contingency that might take place. It’s your defense against those greedy hosting companies that want to prosper at your expense. It is your defense against any kind of poor performance issues that might take place in the middle of year.


I know there are sweet bargains for annual or bi-annual payments. But wait for a second and think over what you might end up with. I know that we all fall for the 'SALE' syndrome, and end up paying more than what we would have paid otherwise. Let us discuss a few situations that might cause you to regret your decision of paying for the entire year upfront. All these can be case-studies for you to take into account before deciding on paying for your new hosting account.

- What happens if your host disappears in the 5th month? And you did not even get a chance to backup your accounts. Learn from mistakes of other people. Case in point would be, Bliksem Hosting (www.bliksemhosting.com). BH had great reviews, and some really cool deals for annual payments. Nobody expected them to disappear with the money of customers. But the truth is that they did disappear without any giving any inkling to their customers. End-result was that people lost money, data and a lot of peace. And since BH was one of the hosts nobody thought would go out like this, this particular experience can come to haunt anyone. Think of the value of your time that you would otherwise spend in trying to pursue a fallen host. Time is Money.


- Your host is sold off to another company and the new team is unable to keep up the good work of your original host. Case in point would be, Sonata Web (www.sonataweb.net). It used to be a good, reliable host as long as Terry was at the helm. After a few months of being sold to Synergy Blue (Andy Wu), the quality of support declined, servers went offline for extended duration and people started losing money. If you had not paid for annual term, you would be much more proactive in moving to a new and dependable host. Another case in point, DIY Hosting was sold off and even until now, Simon is waging a struggle to get the company back and stem the rot.

- Your site suddenly grew, and your present host cannot match any of his offerings to what your requirements are. This is the time to upgrade, and the time to move to a VPS or a dedicated. Won't your decision be swift if you had monthly payment schedules? Or would you rather wait for your old host to settle your account on pro-rata basis and refund your sum. It might not be so easy after all. And there would be some hosts who won't even issue a pro-rata refund.

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