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HostMantis - Important Announcement Regarding Recent cPanel Price Increase
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Damn, my $8 for 3 years webhosting is about to be $30. So happy I paid for 3 years in advance.
Really?
Honestly, if @HostMantis isn't going to answer why their increase is so much higher than cPanels we might as well close this thread as it's nothing but a circle jerk
People are wondering, why is the increase in price much higher than the increase of cPanel and their smart PR tactic is just go say "cPanel started".
Truth is, @HostMantis, you did the same thing as cPanel. The difference is, however, you're much easier to replace.
The nice thing about using a cPanel host is that it is so easy to move to another cPanel host without anyone noticing (especially if you use domains in the form cpanel.yourdomain.com and webmail.yourdomain.com).
But I'm not done yet ...
the best part is where the mantis fucks itself and then bites its own head off ...
Sorry, cheap shot but with all due respect, have to recognize some potential for agonizing reappraisal in terms of PR, reading the mood of the room, etc.
Seemed like @HostMantis was well-regarded up until now ... I've got no skin in this game but hope they'll figure it out one way or another, keeping in mind this bit of insight from @emgh:
No problem with HM, but that price increase is unjustified. Just switching to a cPanel-Account-Based model, would make it way easier and cover the price increase of cPanel. Instead they might have noticed that their business model was unsustainable in the long run and now hope for people to stay or forget to cancel.
Cancel your service now and renew once it’s due.
You even better go for a full refund, as the initial conditions are not met anymore and the renew won’t keep the promised discount.
Enough reasons for a PayPal-case to be decided in your favor in case HM does not let you go.
@HostMantis so when "the coming days" come, we have to pay the unwanted invoice for our reseller account usage even the billing period isn't ended yet?
When will "the coming days" happened to be precise?
Also, important note to everyone:
Login to your cPanel, click on Jetbackup and press the snapshot button. Wait five minutes, drink a coffee or whatever, and proceed to download that backup. You now have a snapshot of everything in your cPanel. There's drama and with that sometimes come rushed decisions. Be safe with your data, especially when it's this easy.
HostMantis current reseller price is just enough to cover the cPanel license costs - calculate for yourself, don't take my word for it.
10 cPanel limit for reseller, 75$ for 3 years, at 0.21 $ per cPanel account (unless they stack over 3000 on one server, in which case it comes near 0.2 $).
It is still just over 2 $ per month.
Previous price was 0.51 $ per month.
Yes, it is a 400 % increase.
But keeping the old price is not sustainable any more - would anyone prefer them going bancrupt after a year?
It didn't take 5 minutes...
All @Hostmantis should do, to counter these pricing is the following =
If Hostmantis is not a partner
1. They should charge $3.00 x 5 , which is $15/Year Per Shared Hosting Plan. This buffers the 80% discount, as it will become $3/Year. This buffers the Paypal fees if any. I'm sure users would prefer to see this change instead.
If Hostmantis is a partner
1. They should charge $1.60 x 5 , which is $8/Year Per Shared Hosting Plan. This buffers the 80% discount, as it will become $1.60/Year. This buffers the Paypal fees if any. I'm sure users would prefer to see this change instead.
What about current plans, as HostMantis is currently running at a lost ?
I believe they should absorb this. However if they can't they can try the below
For Shared Users
Inform users that they need to pay up $1.60/Yr of service they are hosted for ( Pro rated ). Or deduct time remaining for the plan, prorated to $1.60/Yr. I believe most clients will pay the $1.60 Per Year.
Eg. I paid $15/Yr for a 3 year plan. $15-$4.80 = $11.20 . Thats 74.6%. Remove 25.6% from the clients term.
For Reseller Users
They area already going to charge $20 every 10 users.
As far as I can tell, HostMantis has >10 servers, so they should hit the $500 treshold from cPanel to become partner.
They are already making a profit, as every 10 users is only $12/Year.
They should not be changing the price.
I thought you didn't do handholding
I guess they haven't commented on the shared hosting pricing issue yet because they are unable to come up with any sound arguments except the truth which is trying to hide this price increase behind the cPanel price increase.
I also think not changing the regular prices for the reseller plans just goes to show how irrelevant these prices are, it's the discount codes that determine their desired prices.
They told me at at their price point they could afford to offer customer service. Maybe you have to wait until they raise their prices so they don't close tickets on you? Thankfully I already got a refund long ago or I'd be in on this. I've always noticed that the public responses by this host are evasive and don't take accountability.
They will honor the remaining time without price increase. So, why do you want a refund? If you don't like the new prices, just don't renew. That's why some providers do offer 2 and 3 year contracts, to lock the prices.
The issue here is that you raised prices xxxx over the new costs from CPanel. I can understand that you did some calculations on your total costs and want to keep your company on good stand, that's OK. But , even if the price increase of the panel is one of the reasons for your price increase, it is not just that. We can all do the maths...
I totally agree. I have one reseller and two normal accounts. Even with the price increase, the costs of your services is still much lower than most of the alternatives and your services you provide is really really good, even for the new price. I would like to see offering a cheaper alternative (e.g. directadmin or even a free panel), but, that's me I guess...
So, you can easily find another shared provider with prices much lower than today's hostmantis price and to the same quality of services? If so, can you please share with us some suggestions?
Bottom line:
- Did Hostmantis increased their prices much over than the increase of their Cpanel costs? Surely.
- Should they do some more discount for the current promos they already sold? I think, yes
- Do they offer a good quality on their service? Really yes, I think that even their "normal" prices are good compared to other big shared companies.
>
Haha, well, can't help you there haha!
Well, luckily both services I have with them are already paid at the old price and renew in April+July 2020, so I have a bit of time to see how things play out, what way @HostMantis will be taking and whether they will return to offering some nice promos.
The service quality and performance is excellent, no doubt. The new pricing policy.. time will tell. As of now I am not very happy about it regarding the shared plans in particular. But as things are now a lot of providers are shaken up so I am really happy to have the benefit of being able to wait and see what happens and then when time comes decide where I'll go.
Doubt that the price is really "locked in" as you are expecting. With that man 2-3y contracts, it would kill HM. Let's just see
Yeah, time will tell :P Anyway as of now they said price will be different on renewal and this also is shown in my cp for the next due date (in 2020).
I just caught up on this thread, and as a neutral who does not have any service with Hostmantis, I think I should say a few words of fairness about the math (and also contract law + general human psychology).
Now, I do not doubt the ability of anyone here to do simple math. However, the math that Hostmantis has to do is not simple math. All the math I have seen are based on a simplistic calculation of the difference between what you are paying now and the additional price increase by cPanel. For a business like Hostmantis, the math is NOT so simple.
The first consideration is that they have to honor the prices of the current billing period by contract law. It seems like they have been selling a lot of plans that are paid yearly or an even longer time period. The longer the time period remaining, the more cost they have to absorb because cPanel isn't going to care about their contracts with end customers. The price increase will kick in soon, and Hostmantis will have to bear the cost of honoring the same pricing for the entire period. I leave it to your own estimates on how many such long contracts they have and how much Hostmantis has to bleed on such contracts.
If Hostmantis charges monthly all along, no problem at all because they can just raise prices the same month as cPanel's price increase to the tune of a similar amount without adversely affecting their bottomline. It is precisely because they are trying to honor their earlier really low pricing that it ended up with a fairly complicated calculation that must factor in how much they are going to bleed through these long contracts and projected number of renewals + new sign-ups to make up the loss.
I am sure Hostmantis will gladly charge only the difference between what it has to pay for cPanel now and what it will have to pay under the new price structure if customers with long contracts to run down are willing to surrender their contracts in exchange for another one that adds on only the difference. However, I am pretty sure all the cheapskates are going to shout that Hostmantis should honor the contracts despite it being out of Hostmantis' hands the sudden price increase.
I suspect for many of their customers, they think it is fair for Hostmantis to bleed to death honoring the contracts even though it is an extenuating circumstance, but it is unfair for them to voluntarily surrender the existing contract to get a new one that accounts for the difference.
All things considered, Hostmantis has to do what it did. It is not just simple math, but the situation involves contract law and also human nature (as long as it doesn't negatively affect me syndrome). Of course, if all their customers can magically agree to waive their current contractual rights, the price increase will not be so steep. I am not holding my breath.
Side note: it would have been a lot easier for them to just hold on until they finally cannot and do an Alpharacks, then restart their business under another name since they are going to lose lots of customers with such a steep price increase anyway, but such a move is obviously completely irresponsible. If you truly are not a dick customer, contact Hostmantis and volunteer to top up the difference on your existing plan the same time as the new cPanel price kicking in. If enough customers do this, I am pretty sure Hostmantis will not have to resort to such a drastic price increase.
^^this, perfect! They have to compensate on the short term to account for future losses on the long contracts.
Exactly. It is dangerous for customers to be locked into long contracts because the provider may go belly up, but it is equally dangerous for providers to be locked into long contracts if they cannot be certain of long term cost stability. This stunt by cPanel is a good case in point.
Economics, the 4 step process: https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/3-3-changes-in-equilibrium-price-and-quantity-the-four-step-process/
But I don't want to pay a higher price myself and sponsor HostMantis and helping them out with paying cPanel licences for their clients who paid 3 years in advance. I gain nothing by doing that.
It depends.
1) If you like the service - that would help keep them in business.
2) You do a good thing for someone, without it being too costly / bad for you. This is personal aspect - whatever works for you.
Your line of thinking, in my opinion (and this is not meant as an insult) plays into the hands of the big companies. Lack of trust and solidarity is contagious and devastating - just like the reverse goes a long way, often in surprisingly nice ways.
Honestly, I kinda of regret posting this. My intention was start a discussion about what kind of Shared/Reseller Hosting price increases we can expect from hosting providers, unfortunately this seems to have turn into a @HostMantis bashing session. Sorry about that @HostMantis, this was NOT my intention.
I am (and will continure to be) a HostMantis customer. The support has been great - I have open 6 tickets since I have been a customer, none of them being open for more then 1 hour. Ever with the price increase, I will stay a customer because of the support.
No reason to shoot the messenger. If you hadn't posted it I would have.
What happens if CPanel reverses course and decides they are not going to do a per account fee due to the backlash? I think this was too quick of a reaction to CPanel's announcement. HM should have sent a warning email to customers saying pricing may change...
I have a reseller account and I'm under my limits so it's not an issue with me for now. The renewal price is 50% more than I pay for a different reseller account with higher specs so I most likely won't renew unless HM figures out what they're going to do with the prices.