Web server lease pricing has been one of those things that web site owners have come to rely on over the past decade as being fairly flat, meaning the marketplace rarely showed pressure to increase prices substantially. In fact, when the growth of such companies was at a zenith, the pressure was to push down prices for customers.
Those days seem to be over.
Web server companies face a lot of pressure, and not only from competitors. Prices of electricity, real estate, and expertise are more noticeably increasing the past few years. Expanding needs in security and in capabilities are more prevalent. The best web server companies spend more on customer support today than they have in the past. In the past few years we’ve seen three hosting companies we use raise their rates substantially, one while being acquired by another company, another after receiving additional financing from a stock offering. The investment marketplace could be pursuing higher revenues for server hosting companies.
You can make an argument that you are getting more for your money, and often that is true. But the buy-in requirements have gone up.
End result, prices have been increasing, sometimes substantively. It’s a good idea to monitor the pricing that your hosting company is selling packages for to new customers, particularly if you’re on an annual contract that locked you into an earlier rate. We’re not big fans of running our domain registration through the same company we’re buying our hosting from, either… it’s just another thing to disentangle if you decide you want to move to another provider due to a price increase or service failure at some point.