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Since this is my first post I hope I'm not posting it in the wrong place.
I'm a freelance designer and just starting out to get some serious clientel. My question is..if you don't offer web hosting yourself and you are going trough a third party (a hosting company) do you have an agreement where it says that you are not liable for any losses, downtime etc.?
Thank you very much,
Chillout. -
- CommentAuthorPettyRider
- CommentTimeSep 12th 2006
I would mimic whatever guarantees you have from the hosting company. -
And make it explicitly clear that you are not responsible for the server, the host is. You don't want the client phoning you when something goes pete tong...
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- CommentAuthorPettyRider
- CommentTimeSep 13th 2006
"And make it explicitly clear that you are not responsible for the server, the host is."
I would disagree. If you are charging a client for site hosting, part of your promise is to put out fires. My father and I run a two-man shop, and a big part of his day involves being on the phone with clients and hosting companies (while I do the occassional design and all the development). -
Ah ok, well it depends how you work it I guess!
We would usually ask the client (specifically their IT dept if possible) to organise their own hosting, providing recommendations if required. We wouldn't charge the client directly for the hosting then, because they would buy it direct from the host.... -
I think it's an important distinction between hosting support and hosting. If you are not physically hosting it, on your own equipment under your own cost, you shouldn't be charging for hosting. I would recommend in the instance of third party hosting, setting a hosting support fee that will cover your time and effort giving technical support with third party hosting.
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In many cases my clients woudn't be able to buy hosting. They woudn't know where to start. I would be able to tell them go to web site A pay for plan B and the rest is my job...but I'm afraid when it comes to renewing the web hosting contract...dealing with emails from hosts they would somehow get "scared". That's why I like to do most of the things myself. But the problem is and if I were to get a reseller account and to "sell" them hosting I woudn't be able to tell them that the data will not be lost, the site will not be down etc.
Sometimes the more you talk/explain things to your client the scarier they sound to them....at the end they will think that you as the designer/developer have no clue. -
- CommentAuthorPettyRider
- CommentTimeSep 13th 2006
If you are not physically hosting it, on your own equipment under your own cost, you shouldn't be charging for hosting.
If you "rent out" a dedicated server and "sub-lease" hosting on it (like a reseller program), then you certainly are hosting it for them, even if the server isn't sitting in your office basement or nearby. -
chillout
I would try to find a balance here. Maybe put in the contract that you are responsible for hosting support, but not responsible for loss and damages or something to that effect. I say this because even if you were hosting their websites yourself and following all the good network rules on backups, computer maintenance, etc. you still have no control over whether another datacenter in your area blows a router and shuts down a bunch of networks in the process or if a regional ISPs network goes down. etc, etc. Lots of the time these things happen and no one in particular can be blamed.
By doing this you can still remain in control of the hosting/support/billing side of things and not feel too pressured to make sure that the host(s) you are using always have their networks up.
kaiman -
If you "rent out" a dedicated server and "sub-lease" hosting on it (like a reseller program), then you certainly are hosting it for them, even if the server isn't sitting in your office basement or nearby.
I didn't get the impression that this was the case. That scenario works for charging for hosting, because that is much different than slapping it on to a shared hosting account. Although, you can still run into many of the same problems running your own dedicated server as you would in shared hosting environment. When you aren't in direct control of your equipment, you tend to be at the whim of other people. That would always make me nervous when I'm charging for a service. -
Thank you on the information. After reading your posts I have gotten an Idea how to manage this problem.
Thanks on your post Kaiman that's something I'm going to do...let them know that I'm there for them...but if something goes down there si "nothing" I can do since the servers aren't in my hands.
Thank you all...looking forword to discussing more topics with you.
Chillout
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