Oct 15, 2008 03:19 AM
3028 Views
(Updated Sep 23, 2010 09:48 PM)
I got a call recently from yahoo small businesses. They are offering a complete webhosting package for 1999rs. A few of my friend already signed up, as they are doing heavy marketing and calling people com up like crazy(against privacy). Some of my friends have even signed up without even knowing the limitations, just because the price is 1999rs for 5gb space 200 email addresses and domain. While the deal looks very lucrative there are few reason why you should stay away. First of all you don’t get a website but an in house web application with which you can build your site. So it is something similar to geocities or homstead(if you remember this free sites) where you choose a template and then enter your data.
Definitely not a solutions for a professional company or a corporate. Works well for personal websites. So you are going to have a lot of websites looking the same. If you barely manage to send an email then you will be looking for outside help to setup your website. So you will have to pay for a webmaster at least. Lets see the price factor is it really worth it. Lets compare all the features 1 by 1. 5Gb space and 200gb bandwidth This can be availed by any other reputed webhosting company for cheaper than 1999Rs.
You can get it from the top 10 hosting companies for somewhere around 2300-2600 rupees. (they offer around 500gb to unlimited space with unlimited domains and loads of webscripts including site builder) So you can get all of this by paying a little more. The advantage you get by paying a few 100 rupees more is the ability to host more than 1 website on the same hosting account, Which is priceless. Seriously nobody would ever use 5gb space for a website of 10 or even 100 pages(unless you have a lot content) Atleast no small business would. So that means you are never going to use it so you are paying for something you are not going to use. Most of the site builders in these hosting companies come with as many as 15000 templates. So this give you a better choice and avoids your site looking like others. normally they use webapplications like sitebuilder Try out the demo here and be amazed....https://sitebuilder.websitewelcome.com You can see the categories and interface is amazing and this a free with almost all hosting accounts from reputed companies. So the space and the sitebuilder are far more superior in other webhosting companies.
Now coming to the email. The 200 emails with unlimited hosting is hard to beat. Only hosting companies like godaddy can give such emails accounts but they cannot give unlimited space. what they actually doing is just linking the domain with yahoomail service. Now I personally feel that yahoomail sucks. I prefer gmail any day. And I was not able to find out if the unlimited space is "ad free". I doubt it will be ad free. So I would like to direct you to https://google.com/apps/intl/en/business/editions.html Here you can add gmail to your domain for free(ad supported the same gmail you are using) Gmail is any day better than yahoomail. Now feature wise we have cheaper better and superior options. What is the scam?
Sources:https://eukhost.com/forums/f27/yahoo-increased-domain-renewal-price-53 63/ https://yahoobullshit.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/yahoo-domain-rip-off/ Yahoo as of 1st July increased it domain renewal rates from 9.99$ to 34.99$!!!!! This is 300% increase.
The worst part is that transfering your domain is very difficult. Yahoo only notifies you in one single line about the increase in the rate and in the last month. Obviously they make it difficult for you to tranfer the domain and in desperation you either let go of the domain or you "cough" up the 34.99$. 34.99$ by any standards is too high. The highest domain renewal charges from a reputed company has been 24.99$ but it comes with a lot of freebies like hosting. Yahoo is just not bothered about its customers and its reputation. Main thing to remember is that yahoo is always auto renewal. Which means they will charge your credit card anyways.
Many people including the yahoo India salesman put forward this argument "why will yahoo want to spoil its reputation and lose customers?". A simple calculation on one of the blogs showed that even if a small percentage of people who auto-billed by yahoo on this new price would fetch yahoo 130million dollars in profit. The fact is that yahoo domains is in loss, just like the rest of the american economy. This is last minute "cut and run" attempt to rob their existing customers, because there were several limitation in the control panel of yahoo domains which saw customer leavin them anyways. So just because of this above reason I would never trust the yahoo company. Dont fall for that "such a big company would never risk its reputation" especially not from an american company. https://motherjones.com/news/feature/1977/09/dowie.html Read about the ford pinto scandal.
Yes the great ford company which was started by the great henry ford. In short the Ford Pinto had a flaw which caused the cars petrol tank to explode due to its small size. Ford company never recalled the car and/or added a steel barried between the tank and the engine because the cost of doing that worked out more than the cost of people suing them after they died or were burnt from accidents in the pinto. The Ford company placed a few dollars before human life. I had to include this because many put forth argument these days about such things. So my advice stay away from this "offer". I have taken a domain from yahoo years ago at 2.99$ and had to let it go as I was not able to tranfer it on time. yahoo makes it very difficult for you to transfer the domain. I did not want to pay the 34.99$. I am very stubborn that way(you guys should know me). I said hell with it.
Luckily the credit card on the file had expired otherwise yahoo would have charge me anyways. The worst part is that many people who had succesfully tranfered their domain well in advanced were still charged renewal charges from yahoo on their credit cards. there are numerous complains with the FTC and also petitions filed against yahoo online. Always take a domain from a reputed registrar like godaddy.com enom.com and directi amongst others and keep the control with. their prices and renewal charges have always been the same from years. Take hosting from reputed companies that do not ask you to tranfer your domain to them, in this case you can change your hosting any time you face problem with them.
