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That's crazy dawg, that you're running a business
You summarizing the percentage numbers and really thinking it's 30-35%?
It's maybe 5% - 8% overall my friend
(just did a small calc on that)
I completely agree with you, the operator should consider sustainability and availability, especially with hosting business model. Thus, price increase is inevitable.
It has been 3, almost 4 years since global leaders (those who currently convene in Davos) foolishly try to stimulate the pandemic economy, sowing the seed of stagflation. So, I have been feeling the pain in the form of smaller bonus.
So, if we consider your numbers are accurate, we will see similar figures across other hosts, right? That means my assumption about deluxhost, which's going to rise prices partially due to higher than expected resource utilization, are wrong.
I can’t speak for anyone else, I can only speak for our own situation/point of view/experience.
That said, I can imagine the pressure on providers that are currently operating multiple locations while also trying to source hardware and expand capacity, because expansion inherently means new acquisitions.
RAM, NVMe, HDDs, SSDs, CPUs, complete servers, cabling, switches, power distribution, colocation space, IP transit — all of these are inputs, and all of them factor into the final cost structure.
What I can say with confidence is that I highly doubt many providers will be able to maintain 2025-era pricing, especially on aggressive promotional offers like those typically seen during Black Friday.
I suspect that some providers who chose not to participate at all in those promotions likely did so because they saw these pressures coming miles in advance.
Will everyone react the same way? Probably not.
That will depend entirely on each provider’s situation and product portfolio, as some services might not see any adjustment and some night see a more heavier one.
What’s important to underline is that these shifts are not driven by RAM prices alone. They’re the result of cumulative pressure across many inputs.
I do hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see very old platforms (like E5-v2) re-emerge in the ultra-low-cost VPS segment as a consequence.
@wingmanDE
THX for the table, I really wish it would be that simple, sincerely I do
Also, speaking in general terms, since this is a high-level discussion, not a breakdown of specific company numbers, ultra-low-margin promo services are extremely sensitive to even small upstream changes.
If a promo VPS was running on a €0.50 monthly margin (and aggressively priced promos often don’t exceed €1 margin), then something as simple as a €0.10-0.15/kWh increase in electricity can turn that service into a net loss throughout 2026. Electricity alone can be enough to wipe it out.
While I can’t detail individual expense lines, I can say this with confidence: a 3–5% increase in core operating costs (electricity, colocation, IP transit) often translates into a much larger hit on the bottom line — easily 15% or more in effective impact — simply because margins at that end of the market are already razor thin.
As a simple example,
~5.5 MWh/moth
That’s +€825 per month, immediately reflected in the next invoice.
Now spread that across roughly 800 services (assuming similar specs), and you’re looking at ~€1 / service / month increase from electricity alone. Once you add colocation, transit, labor, and other increases, it’s very easy to end up at €2–4 per service per month. Imagine the same +€825 for 450 services, the hit is even bigger.
Yes, you may have a contract with your datacenter at €0.35/kWh, but that protection is often more fragile than it looks. If prices rise significantly on their end, enforcement becomes theoretical rather than practical. You can dispute it legally, but that can take years, and by then the business impact is already done.
The alternative — moving to another location — isn’t free either. Migration costs, logistics, and downtime will inevitably result in a non-trivial percentage of customers leaving.
In practice, if you don’t pay the invoice, services get powered off first and discussions happen later. That reality applies just as much to IP transit and other upstream dependencies.
In other words, while contracts exist on paper, providers still have to operate within real-world constraints — and those constraints often leave very limited room for maneuvering when upstream costs move suddenly.
For the cheap VPS ( the usual dog under 10 USD / MO ) depending on the original price, that can mean a 10% increase — or a full 2× price change — simply because the base price was designed for a promotional sale, not for high margins or long-term shock absorption.
That’s the core point I’m trying to underline.
And this is exactly why, in the sub-$10 VPS segment, you’ll see the biggest price hikes and yes, probably the most popcorn as well.
I used the electricity spike purely as an example, since it’s currently the most volatile and visible component in the expense structure, at least based on what we’ve seen so far. ( and this especially valid for the EU, USA has a more fragmented market and it is way cheaper the the EU ).
Also just to underline, this is my opinion based on our experience. Everyone is, of course, free to do their own due diligence and run the numbers themselves.
Cheers folks!, have to access www.go2bed.com
I completely agree with you!
I also completely agree with you on that point. But there comes up a simple question to me:
Why are you operating a business like that? I'm pretty sure you're running your business on a mixed calculation base. So the 0,5€ per kW/h is the worst case and the 0,5€ per vps is also the worst case in case of margin.
So your company is extremely vulnerable to every price fluctuation; you constantly have to raise prices to cover your fixed costs, you're constantly losing customers, you have to adjust your prices because you have fewer customers, only to lose customers again, only to adjust prices again, only to lose customers again... And imagine what happens if you also offer poor service (availability, support, and so on).
This is doomed to failure. No wonder customers think it's a rip-off or a scam. In my opinion, this is mismanagement.
Don't get me wrong, but why are you offering prices like you did in the past, "promise" recurring prices or discounts that can't be guranteed for the next year especially in the current world economic situation?
... and please don't tell me, that it was not foreseeable.
Cheers and have a great night!
Plus, most politsters are utterly incompetent and actually created most of the problems. And they do not even care; if needed they just decide to pay themselves more. As a hosting provider they'd go belly-up in record time.
Largely corect .
How hard is it really?
I did move production services away (from netcup). All it took was to transfer everything from one server to another (plus make a backup, but that was done anyway and automatically) and change myserver.com's IP to another IP in DNS.
If such a rule came into place and were enforced the result would be -> price increase, between significant and dramatic -or- hardly any recurring offers anymore.
Reason: If providers are forced to guarantee fixed prices for 5 (or even just 3) years, no matter what, come hell or heaven, they'd be pretty much forced to make prices that, at least supposedly, can cope even with disasters ~ expensive.
In both cases we'd be be off worse, be it due to much higher prices or be it due to no recurring offers.
--- @ all
IMO there is an elephant in the room, namely expectations plus the ugly trend towards even demanding "$7/yr". Usually acting like a mob.
Let's be realistic and honest: @DeluxHost's $5 or even $7 per year offers are hardly tenable, even if they got their servers for free plus even rackspace for free, support, electrical power, and IP costs would hardly be covered!
Yet they - like some others - went that route. And for a good reason: visibility. The hosting market is quite crowded and it's quite hard to earn a place, so one of a few approaches is to simply be dirt cheap. It's not a nice route and also one that likely creates burdens (e.g. working 15 hrs/day like an animal) and problems (e.g. almost no profit, so even a breeze can blow them off the way) - but it's a doable route for people who don't have millions of $ to throw around.
Most importantly though IMO we are a guilty party! by demanding ever lower prices, even well beyond what is barely reasonable.
As one result someone who wants to enter the market sits down, calculates, cuts corners here and there, and finally enters the market with a $7/yr promo.
And soon runs into problems, has to hire cheap support people who of course are noobs or have other weak points (if they were decent and experienced they wouldn't work for a low salary), etc. Plus, of course such a provider is always hunting for cheapest everything, cheapest hardware, cheapest bandwidth, and so on.
That's why one of my major reasons to support DeluxHost is the fact that he at least had reached the point of having understood the problem and his situation and has decided to right things and to become a decent provider, still cheap-ish but decent.
Why in hell should I oppose that? Frankly I intentionally didn't purchase a $7 VPS back then because I, like everyone with a working brain and a bit of experience, knew that $7/yr would turn out to be problematic.
Btw, DeluxHost surprised me positively by actually not providing crappy service. OK, not great service (for that ridiculously low price? are you kidding?) but not crappy. It was obvious to me that they were trying really hard and worked really hard - but caught in a very tight frame they simply had no chance to become a really decent provider.
So, I welcome their price increase. Because their motive isn't greed, their motive is to offer better service yet stay cheap-ish.
Also: they did it the right way, they informed us beforehand and clearly.
And YES, I'm strongly opposed to "ever cheaper!" beyond a certain point. Among other reasons because at the end of the day we fuck ourselves with that.
@jsg
For the tenth time, "politsters" isn't a word. Or, if I'm wrong, feel free to point me to a dictionary.
I think this whole thread is a good reminder why at least for us, we don't try to compete with the ultra low end pricing. I find it better to keep the prices stable but still fair, then grow slowly, rather than have to raise the prices to make ends meet.
It becomes a tiring race to the bottom otherwise, which ultimately costs customer trust in the host and the industry as a whole.
It does seem concerning to push a ton of underpriced deals just to raise them after 1 year though, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt since I don't like to assume, but it comes across poorly to customers nonetheless.
Normally a business would see customers under the expression: customers are always "right". There are those extremely rare cases though, where on a public forum you would see some guy stating that: customers are "guilty". This is all perfectly normal, because that guy is just that guy, in a beautiful world where everybody is entitled to their own different personal opinion.
Back on topic: 2026 is already showing itself as a very difficult year, right from the start. Something tells me we will see a lot of providers closing their businesses throughout this year.
It's just another post where he can include @VeloxMedia
In what country you pay 0,5€ per kwh? I'm paying 0,14€ per kwh with tax includedm
For me the core of the issue is: if an offer is posted on Black Friday and it says recurring, it should be recurring.
It ruins the spirit of Black Friday otherwise.
I skipped almost all Amsterdam BF deals, because I have had vps from @DeluxeHost, and has no reason to duplicate location, and now I'm faced with price rising and quality pooring. Thanks for the time, I have 6 month to find something else.
Mh... Good thread actually and I do appreciate the @host_c input.
Regarding delux: they're trying to establish a name by offering really cheap services. That's no biggy, not even given current operational cost only if... You're willing to burn some funds and call it 'marketing expenses'.
The thing is, companies like this are build on these type of clients. They won't gain 'enterprise' clients as the performance of what they're offering is just... below average. You could pay double and receive double performance with established hosts so why stick with the new kid on the block? That's a business plan issue. Gotta think ahead.
I was actually surprised I could order $7/y servers all day any day in 25. There's always a catch though. I rather focus on some of the more established providers dropping a very limited deal and pray to god I'm able to get one. Since those are limited loss leaders, it won't affect the bottom line much, again... Just some marketing expenses.
Yea, getting that limited VeloxMedia was definitly worth it.
Jokes aside, I think you are right. If this budget is offered outside flash sales or any other limited marketing deals, it always brings a compromise with it. You should not expect to be able to host production software, that matters, on such low priced VMs, never. Be grateful if you get a great deal, where you can, but don't expect it.
I appreciate how candid you've been in this thread @host_c. I don't agree with everything you've said, but at the very least you have laid out your logic in a clear manner. I do think that as a community, the constant push for $7 per year deals is counter productive. The concept of "idlers" is honestly kind of toxic from both sides. I think that it's a terrible business practice to assume that some percentage of your clients will never use the service, and I think it's equally terrible to buy a service you don't intend to use simply to have it, but the culture of this community drives both sides to act this way. Personally, I'm never looking for 1c $7 a year deals. I'm looking for bigger plate chicken that is stable and I can use regularly. I think too many people here want to buy a 1c $7 a year deal, use it at max output until they get an abuse complaint, kill the IP reputation, or worse. I also think a lot of providers are banking on the fact that they can sell that 1c $7 deal to 20 of us and only 1 or 2 will abuse it as described, another 2 will use it to some normal level, and the rest will idle it. Anyway, I'm new here. I appreciate the community. I also see that trust is not always something that is expected on either side of the fence in many cases. Thanks to the providers who offer it anyway.
Lol
Rethinking it... There is a way though... Like virmache style. Just don't give a fuck, let people know you don't give a fuck. Make them understand they're buying into crap and make them agree to not make a fuss about it
On topic again : I like how Solid handled one of their last flash sales. Price recurring, but with a 5% increase on the next invoice. Clearly stated when ordering... Host happy, client happy.
It's completely different. I'm just expressing my opinion in this thread, so you know what I'm talking about. Raising prices while the one-year commitment hasn't ended is simply deceiving customers.
Raising the price of a new service, or adjusting prices after several years, is completely different from a company that has only been selling for one year and raises prices.
Checked my first order with them. Its from Nov '24 so it's not like they're targeting plans expiring just before one year after they started selling here.
Like, I could have renewed at recurring pricing.
I disagree. I buy "lifetimes" on Black Friday and those better not be recurring.
(software, not VPS).
I think one concern that most customers may have will be whether Delux can survive another year if most don't renew their services. Because it seems all this dirt cheap vps plans does not seem to be limited and available all year round for the most part.
This means there must be some capital offseting the cost of running the infrastructure which have to come from somewhere.
Raising the prices for both existing and customers while still selling the same plans in other threads just look like a raising capital operation.
I believe the same. Many will not renew their services with this provider. Raising prices like that to existing customers will simply make the customers go away. Besides, things are going south not just for providers, but for everybody - especially consumers who won't get a raise in salary.
Because demanding, pressuring the business to offer discounted price under certain circumstances is practically a coercion.
Then, "But, they did offer the deals, right? That means they consent". However, it was made under duress where they couldn't make rational decision, thus abusive. Similar to abusive circumstances where GF kept bringing up "Do you choose X or me".
And since this forum could be seen publicly, I think it ticks the "public humiliation" box.
“Eeh? The whole thread’s drowning in $7/y posts, but you’re too broke to toss even one VPS into the kiddie pool—scared you’ll deadpool before the year’s up and have to refund our pocket money, oji-san?”On the other hand, event hypes did flamed customer into FOMO state and puchasing deals they don't really need. Because of the fear of missed opportunity
"The price will go back to normal tomorrow"And to make it worse, the people who leave are likely to be the very people who are barely using resources: idlers. Meanwhile, people who are abusing (or simply heavily utilizing) the resources are more likely to rationally decide that it's still a good investment. The result is a loss in profit that doesn't even free up that many resources.
You're not wrong... the 3 I just cancelled at next renewal weren't/aren't doing anything, lol.
If the VPS is running smoothly, it could still be considered good value even after the price hike.
But my VPS is plagued with problems.
It's already not good value as it is.
Thinking about raising prices now is a hundred years too soon.
No. It is not a coercion. It is about holding your part of the deal. When you say "recurring", but you change your mind right before very first "recurring", then it is no longer recurring. There is no coercion, just part of a deal from the provider's side.
No. There are no decisions under duress. Nobody is constraining a provider to do things they don't want. If someone does force a business to do something they don't like, then the abuser should go to jail because forcing someone is illegal. But advertising an offer on your own website as provider is no constraint. Meanwhile let's not forget that this provider advertised their special offers almost every 2 weeks, since March 2025.
Your personal life is not my business. Deal with it. You lay your bed, you sleep in it; but it is not anyone else's concern.
This forum is just that: a public board for discussions; nothing more and nothing less. If you regard this board as some kind of humiliation box which gives you discomfort, here is a logout door: 🚪
yes. DeluxHost can survive another year if they again bring in such unsustainable deals in black friday megathread or other offers here. It's we, the users, have to avoid such scams buy ignoring such deals if they again bring in. Remember, users have a weak memory. After 10 months they'll again have a FOMO and buy from DeluxHost or any new host ready to mint money before sending out mass emails of price increase with another new reason invented.
I agree 100% with you on that. Assuming that X% of customers won’t use the service is a bad idea, regardless of what statistics or historical data might suggest. The only sane approach is to plan for 100% usage and size resources accordingly. Anything else is essentially betting against your own customers — and that rarely ends well.
I also appreciate the words. And likewise, I appreciate the fact that you (and others) didn’t necessarily agree with everything I said. That’s exactly the point of a debate: to share different opinions, experiences, and perspectives, and hopefully learn something in the process.
As the saying goes:
"If you find yourself in a room of 100 strangers the chances of you not getting along with 1 of them are quite high" -
True, this is a public discussion board. People will agree, disagree, debate, and sometimes clash. That’s normal. ( well most of the time clash + popcorn, but that is fine also
)
If you do not like it, just pick another door/operator/provider/thread.
Now, back to the usual question.....
Any dealz???
Cheers fellas!
Thank you for your explanation. I hope your company and the rest of the host find new way to combat rising cost, while offering low prices. I don't mind using E5-v2, afterall I used avoton for years.
Let me explain, @jsg was referring to the behaviour of asking ultra-low-pricing that's below the at cost price (or at least that's what I thought). With enough people asking or to conform with the group/society expectation, the hosts may feel compelled to do this kind of loss making deal, though they may not feel like it. Or won't do it under normal circumstances e.g outside of BF.
Although there's strong connection between the first payment and recurring price, what @jsg addressed is different matter.
On the other hand, I understand what you're saying. It's a deal with the same price for renewal. If it's not recurring, then the promise is broken.
But, the customer also agreed upon this ToS 7 Nov 2024 version
Google cache shows the §7 hasn't been changed at least by 12 Aug 2025.
Current version:
So, they could do so. It's a failure to honor the agreed recurring price. But, at least it's not a deadpool.
PS: @AlteredParadox , they might go after your $1/y deal
This is ridiculous, we're talking about adults doing business.