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HostMantis - Important Announcement Regarding Recent cPanel Price Increase
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From Twitter it looks like the last time they pushed the big discount codes (70%) was around the end of May. Beginning of June they switched it to 50%.
So they've cut down on the crazy cheap plans prior to this, and the cPanel bump looks like it just conveniently lined up to help them clear the steeply discounted plans off the books.
Prior to the cPanel increase we could manage just fine. The margins were small, but we made it work and provide a hell of a service even at our regular prices. To say this entire scenario has nothing to do with cPanel or we should stop blaming cPanel is laughable.
And we are not denying that with the cPanel increase and this 80% off promotion combined it is unsustainable because that would be a lie. It absolutely is and is the reason for us making the change. We can no longer place enough clients on a server to make it worth it if offering 80% off deals, so it would be a quick race to bankruptcy to continue doing so.
Also to note, no prices were raised on our end whatsoever. Clients are just now expected to pay closer to our normal price than they were previously.
Again, we're not unreasonable and clients can contact us and we will do our best to find something that works best for both of us.
Actually, we slowed down on offers on Twitter because we received a warning from Twitter for tweeting "spam like tweets" and would rather not have our Twitter account locked.
Lmao. I feel like a made a comment a couple of days ago about them offering the dirt cheap reseller plans even after the announcement and they jumped all over me .. it makes since now. Good luck with all the cancellations.
@HostMantis If you were profitable at an 80% discount, why do you need to increase your price by $23 to cover a $2.40 increase in costs? Looks like 10% of the price increase is cPanel, 90% of the increase is entirely your decision. Seems like you could restore your former level of profitability with a $2.40 annual increase. What am I missing?
Although you have not raised your published prices, I hope you know that reducing the discount from 80% to 25% is a huge price increase. If we were paying 20% of the list price before and now we pay 75%, doesn't that mean that the price is now 375% higher, or an increase of 275%?
The 80% discount was supposed to be recurring. Since you changed the deal so much to your benefit, the least you could do is offer those who took you up on your offer a refund on the portion of time they already paid for that they no longer want to use.
If you want to show me you are reasonable, address these arguments. Tell me what I'm missing because so far what you are saying doesn't add up.
If you are a client, you are welcome to contact us and we will do our best to help you.
I had already contacted you and opened a ticket with these questions. I only posted here after I found that you closed the ticket without responding to my request for a refund.
Besides, I think there are a lot of us here who are in the same boat and would all like to hear what we are missing that would make your position seem reasonable.
Does anyone else want to know the answers to the questions I posed above, or am I speaking just for myself?
We do not close tickets without responding to them. Do you have a ticket #?
@kamhighway Like many others, I'm interested in an answer from @HostMantis about the points you made as well. I have 2 services that I purchased during the 80% off promo. 1 Reseller and 1 regular Shared. I checked my account today to find that my recurring price for both services is now approximately 4x the price I was guaranteed when signing up. How does a $2.40 price increase from cPanel make the price go up 4x the amount? Like many have already said, why not just add the $2.40 cPanel increase to the recurring price? HostMantis should still operate at the same profit margin by doing so. That's the fairest way to go about it. Keeps the price in line with what we all agreed to and keeps HostMantis' profit margin the same.
I don't know, if you call effective immediately taking away 80% of a customers essential service feature and offering it back to them for an 800% increase of what they already paid for a year upfront "moving closer to your normal pricing" that's an interesting way to look at it.
I would call that raising the price / cost for the customer substantially. But maybe they teach economics in Michigan differently.
But hey, you also offer discounts "4 life" and it seems that "4 life" means whenever we please to change it. I just had an interesting phone call with the FTC's Division of Advertising Practices about that and your "moving closer to normal pricing" practice. They didn't seem to be very happy about it either.
If you are a victim of HostMantis business practices and the changes they just announced and made use of one of their "4 life" promotions from Twitter I highly suggest getting in touch and filing a complaint with the FTC about it as well.
Here is a web archive link in case they delete / change the Twitter messages:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190703045419/https://twitter.com/hostmantis
If you used a "4 life" coupon that dates back further than May 6th make sure to take a screenshot and documentation yourself.
Your sales Team doesn't seem to have got that message, good to see that I am not the only one you are closing tickets on. Also no longer interested in a refund, this is fun.
Maybe I get to tell a story about how a company bankrupted over refusing a $10 refund next year.
My ticket number is 546888.
@HostMantis
why prices are modified right now(for current customers)?
There is a great discussion about this issue worldwide and cPanel has opened surveys to take reviews about the impact of the new prices, could not you wait for the final resolution about this from cPanel?
this seems exorbitant pricing! What if a reseller has 11 cPanel accounts? Why would they pay for the pack of additional 10 cp accounts or $10 per month for 50 additional cp accounts if they'll not be using it. All this money will sit in bank accounts of the host!!
Additional cp accounts should be priced on per account basis!
And for customers of HostMantis:-
1. A promo is a promo, including a recurring promo. It's not a list-price that has to be honored by the host FOREVER. Promo can end any-time with our without notice. Thank yourself the host has given you advance notice that their 80%/90%/70% promos will be ending at end of your billing cycle. **Any serious customer should ONLY RELY **on the 'list price' listed on the site - because that's the price you're paying but you are not charged for it (yet). Why you people are complaining about promos and its reduced percentage? Its within the business ethics the promo/deals WILL BE coming to an end some day or another and that user has to pay the whatever regular price/list price is advertised. In no case Hostmantis has hidden the list price. So it should not be a SHOCK for any of its customers that they'll be paying higher for new orders/renewal henceforth. During initial-sigup you have been notified that the price is $10 and you're paying $1 with promo for it! The price was NEVER $1. So you should have prepared yourself as today or tomorrow, with or without ANY reason a PROMO could end and that the host will slap you with the LIST PRICE invoice/bill (or replace a promo with less discount)
Godaddy offers 99 cents .com and then charges $14.99 or $16.99 on renewals. I've not seen anywhere people complaining that OMG! Now I've to xxx% more than what I paid for the original term.
Yes, if HostMantis would have increased their LIST PRICE (like what cpanel did) AND ended or reduced promotion then you had a right to condemn that we're burnt.
Regarding 200% or 300% price increase on shared/reseller plans:
I don't want to add OIL in the FIRE but the Users should also take a note that THIS price increase in your invoice does not include any improvement in support (like hand-holding). You'll be paying MUCH MORE for no hand-holding in technical issues.
HostMantis said in WHT forum (about their survey) that many of their users still prefer cPanel. Well, it's right in case of every shared host who offers cpanel. Even I'm used to it from the last 15 yrs. But as a web pro, I'll not feel a great impact, except for some early difficulties in adapting to DA or another panel. But rest of the 90% users who are not web pros/developers/coders, etc. but are individuals who have family album sites, bloggers, or brick and mortar businesses (with their 4-5 page showcase site) will definitely find it difficult to move their sites from one panel to another! Instead, they'll pay whatever the price a Host charges. They just don't want to deal with anything technical about the website. -- Such people WILL fall PREY to this exorbitant price increase and THEY'LL HAVE TO PAY. A host will count such people first for their long-term money squeezing goals and then the web pros, as they know web pros can switch to other hosts/panels within few clicks and terminal commands
It's up to the user who wants to stick with a host which has increased the price (of their invoice) and given no added value in terms of Support or to sit there until next price increase!
@HostMantis
Three 3-year reseller accounts. 20$ each - for full three years.
I'm pleasantly surprised that HostMantis managed to offer the current quality of service even with old cPanel prices. Really. Call me naive, inexperienced (I am), but that's my impression / opinion.
These new prices seem reasonable. If I understand it correctly.
I'll be limited to 10 cPanel accounts on each reseller (with 25 GB storage, that's fine if one is using it for actual websites, though no room for overselling now).
Renewal price will be at 25% discount. So, if my calculation is correct:
in stead of paying 20 $ for the next 3 years, I'd be paying 75 $. That is just over 2 $ per month.
Do people insisting on HostMantis keeping the prices do understand that it means bancrupcy and loosing the discount in a way that "hurts" both you and all the hosting company's employees? Sticking with that will give you nothing. You'll have to move to another hosting provider and, if they offer cPanel, pay similar, if not more, than the current HostMantis prices.
My concerns are service stability and security from now on.
Enabling SSH. Until now, it was not safe enough to do. If it's a marketing trick to "give something" now the prices are up - it's not a very good one for me. Was that move a well thought out one?
Same concern with reseller resource scaling. Would LOVE that option. In fact, asked if it was possible a few months ago. And understood that it takes some testing, figuring out resource load / scaling - having no idea how clients would be using it. So the answer "no" was fine with me (went on looking with other providers for that).
Now it's enabled. In what looks like a "forced", not a pre-planned move.
My advice, if it's of any use to anyone:
Up until now, IMO, HostMantis was a provider that offers surprisingly good service for the price. I think your prices are still not very high, especially for entry plans.
You made a mistake (not thinking far enough ahead) with your old deals and offers.
Own it. No shame in making mistakes - only those who don't do anything never make them.
"We screwed up. Got a bit greedy to get more clients with unrealistic discounts. Here's our long term strategy and pricing plans. Sorry for not honoring our current deals. We've done this and this to prevent that from happening in the future."
Just make sure the service stays as good as it is. Now is not a very good time to introduce new, most probably (correct me if I'm wrong) untested options.
For the customers:
Make backups and look at other options, in case you think pricing is bad, or are no longer happy with the service for the price. We all took a risk betting on the old prices to offer long term service quality - I was surprised it was good even with old cPanel pricing. We were wrong.
I did opt for reseller scaling on one account, interested to see what it looks like, but would be happy to see the SSH and scaling options revoked, until tested.
Dear @LET,
please tell me if changing invoices during mid term is ok? Is this legal? And by legal I don't mean customers (I'm not one of them) should sue HostMantis. I'm asking if this behavior is supported by other Providers and/or breaking Don't be a Jerk rule.
Thanks.
It's poor phrasing, but technically they're raising prices at the end of your current contract/agreement. You'll pay the new price on renewal (if you stay).
It sucks but.. anyone who offers shared/reseller hosting will be doing this in the next 2 months unless they charge enough already to eat the fees.
Side note: I love how in my cancellation email they offered me a 60% promo code to stay, but it didn't seem to be attached to any products I tested it on.
They messed up. Alternative (if they honor the current deals) is bancrupcy.
I wouldn't be happy to see that, even if it "is their fault" - nothing to gain from that.
Writing this with three 3-year reseller accounts with HostMantis - paid for just over 2 months ago. 20 $, comparing to average pays in my country, is an equivalent of at least 80 $ for a US / EU customer.
If HostMantis tries to honor that now - they'd be out of service within a year.
Have sympathy, patience and backups.
That's legal as long as he push the prices up for the next invoice and not the current term.
He also could just cancel your account if is not do-able or profit-able based on cPanel new rules. And for this to be legal he would have to refund whatever time was left.
Most providers include a ToS clause saying they could end your service at any moment for any reason.
grats @HostMantis!
man up and hold on to your decision throughout the heat.
if you survive this, your business might be saved. though your (cheapskate) customer base might decrease quite noticable and your reputation might get a few dents in the end you'll continue with a finally sustainable pricing model.
everything after that hopefully will be serious business out of the loss leader market.
That makes a world of difference, that's how it should be. I mean, cPanel did exactly that and everyone is happy
/I will stare out of the window, such a beautiful day.
Review my previous comments in this thread to get my actual opinion on it... but yeah, not against any laws/LET rules/etc - just destroys credibility with your customers (on the Shared plans).
Vote with your wallet
HostMantis shared (non-reseller) hosting price changes (yearly)
Plan List-Price Old (-80% coupon) New (-25% coupon) IncreaseEntry $ 16.48 $ 3.30 $ 12.36 + $ 9.06 (+ 275%)Starter $ 24.88 $ 4.98 $ 18.66 + $ 13.68 (+ 275%)Advanced $ 42.88 $ 8.58 $ 32.16 + $ 23.58 (+ 275%)Expert $ 66.88 $ 13.38 $ 50.16 + $ 36.78 (+ 275%)Well, part of the game is that they've also reduced any recurring discounts from {90%, 80%, 70%} to 25%, which I imagine accounts for a good part of the above.
I have a reseller with hostmantis. Even though I dont like price rise, I think i'll stay with them.
I have been using hostmantis for more than 2 years. I have used cpanel for more than 20 plans. It is cheap and high quality and stable, but the cpanel license price and hostmantis new offer have forced me to escape. I have taken the initiative to cancel all products.
Hostmantis is a great cpanel hosting provider. In the future, I hope we can also cooperate in trading.
What do you hope to trade?
I think that's a loose translation of "I hope we can do business again".
Sorry, my description is wrong.
Yes, I mean, I hope that I and hostmantis can trade again in the future, even for other businesses.
@HostMantis make sure to install CustomBuild in DirectAdmin. It really makes a difference!
Best luck
thumbs up to HostMantis for exploring the alternatives despite the challenges.