Consumer View On Web Hosting

[Gunny]

Howdy everyone,

I'm wondering what the average consumer seeks when it comes to web hosting.

Specific resource needs like storage type, hardware type, network speeds, allocation, and so on?
Specific panel (cpanel, plesk, direct admin, etc) or panel features?
Specific help/support features like discord or live chat?
Specific company "promises" or motives like environmental sector or "budget orientated"?
Specific Minecraft related options such as integration, forum software, and so on?

Additionally, is there anything you haven't seen before but wish to?

Thanks,
- Gunny

 

[Ally]

Specific resource needs like storage type, hardware type, network speeds, allocation, and so on?

People seeking web hosting generally don't care about specific hardware specs, mostly because if they did, they'd be more deadset on a VPS or dedi, where it would make a major difference.
So long as web-serving hardware can sufficiently deliver content built on modern frameworks, that's all that matters.
Generally speaking though, 10gb of space is more than sufficient for basic websites, and leaves room for backups, storage potentially (this one is iffy).

Specific panel (cpanel, plesk, direct admin, etc) or panel features?

cPanel for web hosting. Always. Sandboxed SSH access.
Expensive but you know. Fun.

Specific help/support features like discord or live chat?

Live chat, tickets or email and potentially phone.

Specific company "promises" or motives like environmental sector or "budget orientated"?

Budget orientated is good if you don't compromise on essentials for web hosting. Web hosting is already in and of itself budget, though. Privacy is what you want to aim for though, 100%. Especially since with web hosting email hosting is a thing usually bundled with it (and sometimes, often, unlimited email addresses). Lol am I planning your business model for you?

Specific Minecraft related options such as integration, forum software, and so on?

I very much doubt you're going to be paying for people's XenForo licences. Or similar software. In any case, cPanel comes with its own host of things you can install easily (Softaculous iirc).

Additionally, is there anything you haven't seen before but wish to?

cPanel pretty much brings all of that together so I mean, not really.

 

[Gunny]

People seeking web hosting generally don't care about specific hardware specs, mostly because if they did, they'd be more deadset on a VPS or dedi, where it would make a major difference.
So long as web-serving hardware can sufficiently deliver content built on modern frameworks, that's all that matters.
Generally speaking though, 10gb of space is more than sufficient for basic websites, and leaves room for backups, storage potentially (this one is iffy).

cPanel for web hosting. Always. Sandboxed SSH access.
Expensive but you know. Fun.

Live chat, tickets or email and potentially phone.

Budget orientated is good if you don't compromise on essentials for web hosting. Web hosting is already in and of itself budget, though. Privacy is what you want to aim for though, 100%. Especially since with web hosting email hosting is a thing usually bundled with it (and sometimes, often, unlimited email addresses). Lol am I planning your business model for you?

I very much doubt you're going to be paying for people's XenForo licences. Or similar software. In any case, cPanel comes with its own host of things you can install easily (Softaculous iirc).

cPanel pretty much brings all of that together so I mean, not really.

Thanks for the perspective! I've been doing hosting for a little while (9ish months) and I'm looking to expand to MCM.

Totally agree on first comment. Just trying to gauge MCMs viewpoint. Most users going with shared web hosting are either small businesses, need something up with only a few bucks, or aren't the most tech savvy. And for most of those cases, they don't really mind hardware - or it goes over their heads. And certainly limiting disk storage is standard. Most websites, if optimized correctly and not using a CMS take up less than half a gig of space. If using a CMS like WordPress it changes, especially if you are plugin happy, but it still usually less than 2gb. And from my experience, web hosting as storage isn't allowed and won't be per a AUP/FUP.

I might start to disagree on cPanel though. cPanel has been standard for quite a while but I think it's starting to get a little aged. They keep increasing prices, it isn't easy to extend development wise, their have been some security risks concerning me, data recovery can be a pain, and without a custom skin (especially with their new glass theme ) it doesn't look great. Their saving grace right now is good support and how widely it's used for helpful resources online. All in my opinion though.

As for privacy, that should be a no brainer. Privacy of an individual or organization is incredibly important. However, privacy only extends so far as the law. Accurate personal information will always be collected for liability and legal reasons but shouldn't be shared.

Absolutely not with xenforo lol. However, installing namelesmc for a user isn't a problem and gauging interest there. There are also a few other forums software that are free and open-source. So I thought that it could be an option for users. Additionally, other web panels also have softaculous, just as in cpanel you need to pay for a license.

Anyways, thank you again! I really do appreciate it Ally.