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Free trial? How long?
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Free trial? How long?

Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep
edited February 2022 in General

Hello,

we were thinking of implementing on our site the possibility to start an automatic free trial for our VPS Services.

We don't know how long free trials should last. We certainly can't make them last a year like Amazon AWS or Azure and not even 1 month.

So we were wondering if you think a few hours (at most one day) are enough to test the server?

Is there any option?

Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
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Comments

  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Forever of course.

    Free for forever.

    ffs.

  • 24 hrs is adequate I believe

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Thats bad option.. in 24h or even couple hours someone could do lot of dmg on trial :) Its better money back guarantee for 24 or 48h.

    Thanked by 3devp mrTom pan_ia0_net
  • Insane amount of abuse in first 12 hours will drive you mad, pure insane. IP subnet will be tainted beyond redemption.

    I saw oncethat trials run with hourly vps reset. You can start with that. Also limit ports to only ssh. That maybe help you survive few days without being raided.

    Thanked by 3devp mrTom pan_ia0_net
  • @Space_Hosting said: We don't know how long free trials should last. We certainly can't make them last a year like Amazon AWS or Azure and not even 1 month.
    So we were wondering if you think a few hours (at most one day) are enough to test the server?

    I think digitalocean experimented the most with this. They went from credits that don't expire to credits that expire in a year, and now they give credits to new accounts for 2 months. I think if you can't afford to give trials lasting a month, you might be better off not giving any trials. You will attract all kinds of bad customers anyway with free trials.

    Thanked by 2devp pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep

    @LTniger said:
    Insane amount of abuse in first 12 hours will drive you mad, pure insane. IP subnet will be tainted beyond redemption.

    I saw oncethat trials run with hourly vps reset. You can start with that. Also limit ports to only ssh. That maybe help you survive few days without being raided.

    Don't you think limiting the SSH port would make the free trial useless?

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep

    @NoComment said:

    @Space_Hosting said: We don't know how long free trials should last. We certainly can't make them last a year like Amazon AWS or Azure and not even 1 month.
    So we were wondering if you think a few hours (at most one day) are enough to test the server?

    I think digitalocean experimented the most with this. They went from credits that don't expire to credits that expire in a year, and now they give credits to new accounts for 2 months. I think if you can't afford to give trials lasting a month, you might be better off not giving any trials. You will attract all kinds of bad customers anyway with free trials.

    We can give free monthly trials but we believe this is much riskier. In a few hours, you can do far less damage than 30 days. Do not you think?

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Instead of free trial, make it extremely cheap trial. That way people still have to go through payment verification systems and might help to weed out risky ones.

  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep

    @jmaxwell said:
    Instead of free trial, make it extremely cheap trial. That way people still have to go through payment verification systems and might help to weed out risky ones.

    Great idea!

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • @Space_Hosting said:

    @NoComment said:

    @Space_Hosting said: We don't know how long free trials should last. We certainly can't make them last a year like Amazon AWS or Azure and not even 1 month.
    So we were wondering if you think a few hours (at most one day) are enough to test the server?

    I think digitalocean experimented the most with this. They went from credits that don't expire to credits that expire in a year, and now they give credits to new accounts for 2 months. I think if you can't afford to give trials lasting a month, you might be better off not giving any trials. You will attract all kinds of bad customers anyway with free trials.

    We can give free monthly trials but we believe this is much riskier. In a few hours, you can do far less damage than 30 days. Do not you think?

    If your systems are not ready to automatically weed out the crypto miners and other types of abuse, and you are not able to afford the tainting of your IP, you are better off just not doing trials.

    If the purpose of your trial was to showcase the good performance of your servers, people will be in for a surprise when you eventually fill up the space. You don't really want people complaining about how their yabs benchmark deteriorated.

    If the purpose was to make sales, then you do need the longer trial duration so people can setup things and they probably get locked in because it might not be worth the effort to migrate if things are running well.

    tl;dr There's a reason why most providers here don't run trials.

    Thanked by 2devp pan_ia0_net
  • Free plan is always abused. Please consider it seriously.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • @emperor said:
    Thats bad option.. in 24h or even couple hours someone could do lot of dmg on trial :) Its better money back guarantee for 24 or 48h.

    I agree.

    I find it much easier to provide a no questions asked refund for the first 7/14 days.
    It's much harder to spoof payment methods than it is to create 10 trial accounts that require no payment methods.

    I've found that legitimately interested customers are happier to purchase something if they know they can return it if it doesn't end up fitting their needs. Further, you'll usually get good feedback as to why they're asking for a refund - which sometimes you can rectify and actually retain new business.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • @Space_Hosting said: AMD RYZEN 9 5950X | SSD NVME | DDR4 RAM | KVM | 99.99% UPTIME | NO OVERSELLING | No Bandwidth limits | Cheap Prices | BGP Session | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: VPS Starting from €3.69/mo & Dedicated Server starting from €93.99/mo https://space-hosting.net/

    Why oh why does a recent sign-up without a provider tag have one of the longest and most conspicuous signatures advertising their services?

    For a start, get rid of the bold type: this may (or may not) bring the signature down to at most two lines

    But you could get rid of "NO OVERSELLING" and "Cheap Prices" as well

    Thanked by 2FAT32 pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep

    @angstrom said:

    @Space_Hosting said: AMD RYZEN 9 5950X | SSD NVME | DDR4 RAM | KVM | 99.99% UPTIME | NO OVERSELLING | No Bandwidth limits | Cheap Prices | BGP Session | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: VPS Starting from €3.69/mo & Dedicated Server starting from €93.99/mo https://space-hosting.net/

    Why oh why does a recent sign-up without a provider tag have one of the longest and most conspicuous signatures advertising their services?

    For a start, get rid of the bold type: this may (or may not) bring the signature down to at most two lines

    But you could get rid of "NO OVERSELLING" and "Cheap Prices" as well

    I was told in the community rules thread that my signature is fine after the last few changes I made. Thanks for your interest.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • FAT32FAT32 Administrator, Deal Compiler Extraordinaire

    @Space_Hosting said:
    I was told in the community rules thread that my signature is fine after the last few changes I made. Thanks for your interest.

    No it is not fine, I never say it is fine now, it is still 3 lines

    Thanked by 2angstrom pan_ia0_net
  • emperoremperor Member
    edited February 2022

    Get rid of NO OVERSELLING | No Bandwidth limits | Cheap Prices | BGP Session | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: VPS Starting from €3.69/mo & Dedicated Server starting from €93.99/mo and you are fine. If you cant see it you have AMD RYZEN 9 5950X twice
    Edit: Also Caps Lock looks bad for advertising.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • @Space_Hosting said:

    @angstrom said:

    @Space_Hosting said: AMD RYZEN 9 5950X | SSD NVME | DDR4 RAM | KVM | 99.99% UPTIME | NO OVERSELLING | No Bandwidth limits | Cheap Prices | BGP Session | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: VPS Starting from €3.69/mo & Dedicated Server starting from €93.99/mo https://space-hosting.net/

    Why oh why does a recent sign-up without a provider tag have one of the longest and most conspicuous signatures advertising their services?

    For a start, get rid of the bold type: this may (or may not) bring the signature down to at most two lines

    But you could get rid of "NO OVERSELLING" and "Cheap Prices" as well

    I was told in the community rules thread that my signature is fine after the last few changes I made. Thanks for your interest.

    As far as I can tell, no one in that thread told you that your signature is fine now. Rather, you told yourself that your signature is fine now.

    It looks like you're spamming with your signature, but I guess that you don't mind this impression.

    Thanked by 2devp pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep
    edited February 2022

    @FAT32 said:

    @Space_Hosting said:
    I was told in the community rules thread that my signature is fine after the last few changes I made. Thanks for your interest.

    No it is not fine, I never say it is fine now, it is still 3 lines

    Hello, sorry I misunderstood. In any case, I have shortened the signature again. From my perspective, it was already two lines shorter and is now 1 line and a half.

    Thanked by 2FAT32 pan_ia0_net
  • LeviLevi Member
    edited February 2022

    Hm, going deeper...

    659 Jewell Road, United States

    Shows me this:

    Can you explain this? Looks like summer host, but it is not summer yet...

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep

    @LTniger said:
    Hm, going deeper...

    659 Jewell Road, United States

    Shows me this:

    Can you explain this? Looks like summer host, but it is not summer yet...

    Hi LTniger, thanks for reporting. Currently, the backup site is working on stackpath as the main source is under maintenance. That street dates back to almost a year ago and had never been updated.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • @Space_Hosting said: That street dates back to almost a year ago and had never been updated.

    So this was your street one year ago ? Yea @LTniger seems like preparing for summer. Also there is thing with you guys who advertise NO OVERSELLING... you dont last long.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Given OP's behavior, the end is nigh.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • yoursunnyyoursunny Member, IPv6 Advocate

    The industry standard is granting $300 credits for one month, for use on everything you offer.
    Technical support can be purchased with part of the $300 credit too (you can charge $65/hour, up to you).

    After that, we shall get one or two small servers forever, but only if we put down the credit card number.
    At least one of the aspects would be severely restricted - you can choose between: only 600MHz CPU, only 512MB RAM, only 10GB throttled disk, only 5Mbps port speed, only 1GB monthly egress transfer.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Seems address changed to this:

    Take a note, it was previously in US. Shadiness level increase...

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • Space_HostingSpace_Hosting Member, Host Rep
    edited February 2022

    @LTniger said:
    Seems address changed to this:

    Take a note, it was previously in US. Shadiness level increase...

    I think I have not explained myself correctly ... The main site is under maintenance, the backup site is online (for more information read https://support.stackpath.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036572732-Settings-Backup-Server).

    The address you kindly (and luckily) reported was an address that has been mistakenly left on the backup (secondary) site for a year (when the site was created).

    We have now updated the address to the current version on the main site.

    In any case, I believe this conversation is outside the scope of this thread and I don't think it's interesting for the rest of the community.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • LowHostingLowHosting Member, Host Rep
    edited February 2022

    I got potential information about Space-Hosting, seems like their old name was "Cute-Hosting" then they closed & re-opened with a new name (why?), it seems that whoever runs it is Italian, so I took the trouble to ask around about it, I don't know more, I hope I have been helpful to someone.

    I did this research because seeing the site and seeing that they have the company headquarters in Italy but without any VAT ID exposed (in Italy it is mandatory to have it on the website, not having it = non-legal business) I became suspicious.

  • JasonMJasonM Member
    edited February 2022

    free trial should be for anywhere between 7 to 14 days with port 25 blocked.
    sufficient to test the vps, network, latency, i/o, and apps installed.

    Thanked by 1pan_ia0_net
  • 1 hour

  • SaahibSaahib Host Rep, Veteran

    There is also other trend, "request free trial" where customer opens account, get it verified then they can have free trial.

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