How to compete with the US
Late last week we launched a new web site - phew! You’ve no idea (actually, most of you probably do!) how much hard work goes into creating a new site from designs to content. More importantly, we spent a long time discussing the new hosting plans and features.
Typically Irish hosting companies have provided a fraction of the specifications of our US counterparts, for comparable prices, and that’s probably driven a lot of Irish web hosting abroad - and to a point, rightly so. Obviously we think you should host your site in Ireland - so you can MEET your hosting provider, CALL on support during office hours and SPEAK to a real person that can help you.
BUT … we realised that it’s not enough to tell people they should host in Ireland because it’s better for their business; price / feature comparison’s were not in our favour. That’s changed now.
In fairness to the Irish hosting market, the resources just aren’t there to provide the same level of service as the bigger US hosts. And also in defence of Irish hosting companies, many international hosters vastly OVERSELL their infrastructure, making feature promises that would be impossible to keep should they be tested.
As I’ve said, that’s changed now. Wanna know why? We’ve built our own data centre. (I’ll upload pics in another post … my shaky phone cam quality doesn’t do it justice!) That means that we can offer really low prices and deliver on the features we promise. And yes, it costs us less than our competitors, but we’re passing these benefits on to you, instead of profiteering and buying company-Ferraris 
So as of last Friday our new plans are competitive with US hosting plans - both on features and on price. Oh, and we also provide free, FREEPHONE support (during office hours) to ALL customers … even the ones paying 3.75 a month!
I hope this equalises the Irish & EU market a bit with the US, and of course I also hope it helps us continue to grow and get EVEN MORE competitive!
We’d love to get some feedback on these new plans and prices. Is it enough? Is it more than is required? Have we matched the price/feature set well? If you’ve any suggestions on plan specifications or individual features you’d like to see … please tell us!
The whole goal of this blog is to get YOU to TELL US what you want. We do our best to use our crystal ball, but wouldn’t it be great if our customers helped us do better? And from a customer point, wouldn’t if be great if you could tell suppliers what you wanted and then (within reason!) get it? We think so.
March 9th, 2006 at 9:05 am
The new site is great guys, and the new plans mean I, for one, will be moving all my US based hosting home!
March 22nd, 2006 at 11:10 pm
>TELL US what you want
don’t charge EEC people VAT! you could* do this by funnelling the business of all your customers whose addresses are in the EEC through a non-EU company, for example a US corporation.
*subject to the relevant legislation, one must identify the line between tax avoidance (legal) and tax evasion (illegal)
March 27th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I applaud you for reducing your prices - fair play to you.
However, I have been a customer with you for several years. Each time the prices have dropped, I’ve never been informed and my monthly charge stays the same. Often it’s several months before I spot the reduced prices, then I have to manually chnage my account to take advantage of the new prices.
It’s a kick in the teeth for loyal customers to keep charging them the old higher prices whilst new customers get a better deal.
Surely the new, lower prices should be automatically applied to existing customers?
March 31st, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Ambrand … funny no one has ever said that to us before! I see you’re point - although the majority of our customers are businesses so can claim the VAT back. For peronsal hosting a 21% reduction would be nice - although an Irish person buying from an Irish company for a service provided in Ireland - seems to be ‘evasion’ to me not charging the VAT!
Hi Alistair - unfortunately that’s a legacy of our system - we can change plan specifications but in order to take advantage of them you have to manually upgrade in your control panel. As far as not communicating, I am working on this, and apologise for not working closer with customers in the past. But rather than just pushing out a quick newsletter, we’re trying to put something together than will actually provided a lot of value to you.
Many thanks for your feedback!
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:16 pm
I have to say, I’m shocked at how much you’ve cut your prices. I had until now planned to move all of my sites abroad. Will have to reconsider now.
April 19th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
You have a very good plan, but it could be improved by adding cPanel and more scripted programs in addition to WordPress. (perhaps by including Fantastico).
I just opted for the free blog site for http://geekisles.com, but my other sites are on a US based host.
I did write a glowing review for your free blog promotion. I think you deserve credit for this innovative and valuable service. When my geekisles site grows beyond the 100mb limit of the free offering, I may choose to convert to a paid plan from you. Something to be said for GeekIsles being hosted in Ireland.
Best of luck, Larry
May 14th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Great website! Bookmarked! I am impressed at your work!
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