need suggestions on my upcoming host.

[netnub]

TL;DR: Starting free hosting company, I need suggestions and staff member to help maintain it. cPanel server is in Italty, WHMCS and main site will be hosted in USA in SingleHop datacenter, so if cPanel goes down, main site stays up and vise-versa. I considered getting DDOS protection but don't think I'll need it at this time. I have funds for the next few months easily, I plan to get income via ads and donations. What are your thoughts on specs and what plans should I offer without overselling.


TL;DR Specs: 120gb ssd, unmetered 100mbit bandwidth, 4gb ram, kvm, DD: 496 MB/sk


I got myself a vps, with 120gb SSD drive, unmetered 100mbit bandwidth. dd tests run it up to 496 MB/s max is what I've tested this morning.


I'm going to throw cpanel on there and offer free shared, reseller hosting, etc. with cPanel. I'll also be putting WHMCS on a remote server to handle orders, etc.


So, in total I'm searching for ideas, what specs I should offer (Without overselling), etc.


As for billing panel, WHMCS is what I'm planning on using for now, I considered boxbilling since its free but I might expand into VPS market and paid hosting later on in the year. My income will be from ads on the site and donations.


I have enough funds to support the next few months.


I'm also looking for anyone who'd be interested in being a staff member and helping manage it.


In total:


$470 - 120GB SSD, 100MBIT UNMETERED, 4GB RAM, KVM - Yearly


$15 - WHMCS


As for cPanel, I'll start with trial for 15 days then get a full license once I got everything configured.

 

[shovenose]

Good choice to not use BoxBilling. It's pretty bad.

 

[mikho]

Not trying to burst your bubble but thats a hell of a lot of money.


Costs per month:


39 for the vps


15 for whmcs


15 for cPanel


10 for the whmcs vps


All together ~ $80/month


And I guess i've missed something. This should be paid for by ads? What system are you thinking on using? You don't want to use adsense if you are thinking of forcing ads on the users websites.


One wrong site and your whole account might get locked and you will never ever get it back.


A few things, if you offer the hosting for free, no reseller program. You do not wan't someone to make money reselling your free service. Then you could have sold it yourself.


If you are going to force ads on the users sites, then no holding back in the numbers of account you should create. Oversell and do it more then once.

 

[netnub]

Yealy VPS - covered and already paid.


Total monthly fees will run me $30 ($15 + $15)


Mikho: If you read the post you would see I've already got it. I just need to get whmcs, cpanel paid then I'm good.

 

[wlanboy]

So 100GB for hosting space. You want about 1.000 users. So 100 MB space for a user.

Equally shared between webspace, mailspace and mysql space.

You should support more than the normal php+mysql mix. Try e.g. node.js + MongoDB hosting. Or a free redis db for each user.

 

[mikho]

Yealy VPS - covered and already paid.


Total monthly fees will run me $30 ($15 + $15)


Mikho: If you read the post you would see I've already got it. I just need to get whmcs, cpanel paid then I'm good.

I just split that yearly vps into a monthly cost to calculate the numbers. Even if you already paid for it you need to include it in the total costs so you know how much you need to bring in on ads. and instead of calculating it on a yearly basis, it's easier to have it per month since the other costs are per month.

You say that you would have a cost of  $30 / month? will you be running your WHMCS on your shared hosting server? That is a bad idea...

Oh, I did read your first post.. SingleHop for the main site and WHMCS ... did you get that for free ? otherwise that also have a monthly cost.

 

[mikho]

Hope you don't take it the wrong way, I have myself been thinking many times on setting it up and running it and I've been throwing the numbers all over, trying to figure out the cheapest way to do it.

 

[netnub]

I've paid off a yearly hosting package from a company in singlehop datacenter, so thats no issue.

 

[ztec]

This could work if you want to learn how to handle a lot of annoying people. I hope you have fun doing it, that's what counts with these types of projects.

 

[shovenose]

so, I did free hosting. Got a dedicated server, installed cpanel and Softaculous, put WHMCS on a VPS...


The server was trashed to hell within the month.


I got more support tickets asking stupid questions than I get support tickets at ShoveHost (which is a fair amount).


Just don't do freehosting it's a nightmare.

 

[vanarp]

netnub What is your revenue generation model?