View Full Version : License requirements for Resellers offering Unlimited Domains
Hi,
What is the License requirements for Resellers offering Unlimited Domains with each domain have its own control panel.
And resller have its own control panel.
I understand Web Hosting Manager and CPanel together provide unlimited controls panels to be offered to resellers.
Correct me if I am wrong, Do I need unlimited nos. of H-Spher licenses to offer (and compete) such kind of services?
Please reply. As I have to compete out there with WHM & CPanel.
Thanks & regards
I think each reseller wastes one of your license.
Each resellers user will waste another license.
So, if you have 50 resellers with 100 users each H-Sphere will cost:
(50 + 50x100) x $4.5 = $22,725 (one time fee) plus $4545 a year (20%) which is $378.75 per month, but I think you have to pay yearly.
When I say user I mean any user that has its own login to the control panel, but 1 user can have any domains.
Each "Account" could be a reseller acocunt as well as end-user (one or multiple domains) account.
What my requirement is:
Unlimited "domain" account for each user (Single Domain) by a Single "Reseller" Account.
And each reseller could offer unlimited "Domain accounts".
How to achieve this?
I saw a couple of sites who are achieving this with CPanel and WHM. Is there any similar implementation for H-Sphere?
The guys out there are selling one "Reseller" Account with unlimited domains "control panel" feature (very cheap!)
If I compete with them using H-Sphere, Can you work out the profit statement?
Is there any way out of this situation?
Is there any "domain account" kind of thing in h-sphere? which could be free, etc.
or
may be a license to offer unlimited domains under reseller account?
Please guide!
One user could have unlimited domains and only eat up one license. Every domain wouldn't have it's own login/pw to a control panel of course.
Originally posted by Flesk So, if you have 50 resellers with 100 users each H-Sphere will cost:
(50 + 50x100) x $4.5 = $22,725 (one time fee) plus $4545 a year (20%) which is $378.75 per month, but I think you have to pay yearly.[/B]
I just wanted to add this in
if you have 50 resellers with 100 accounts each, you probably can only hold 5 resellers per server (500 accounts) .. and with all dues respect, that is pushing it
so 10 servers
ghalman asked about Cpanel .. if you go on a local noc, you can get it at about 50.00 per server, or 100.00 for outside NOC's .. that's either 500 or 1K per month (just for the control panels)
but my point is not even the cpanel vs hsphere pricing, my point is, be carefull how you price this .. offering the reseller to be able to offer unimited accounts can get you bankrupt before you know it, or having 10 servers to manage with a profit margin so slim that workign at McDonald's is more appealing.
Hi,
Need some bench-mark or base-line info for H-Sphere!
Any threshhold that how many domains/subdomains a server can take?
Is there any interface in H-Sphere, that all domains could check their web-mail like webmail.domain.com OR domain.com/webmail (without going into the control panel and check the mail...)
Can all these domain owners use POP account to read their email via some email client?
And things like that.
I agree with CRego3D that we should not give "unlimited domain hosting" out to resellers, but a lot of companies actually doing this. And "resellers" dont care and keep on asking for more!
Even you sell this much to reseller, he is not going to deploy unlimited domains, coz getting this much business for reseller is a bit tough. :)
For high volume or high usage accounts, we can always add value and negotiate.
Please reply to my above questions, and also do a contrast/comparison with CPanel/WHM...
I got a competitor, who is offering this package using WHM/Cpanel. He claims he got 50 resellers on 2 servers and 700 single domain hostings.
What are the limitation of H-Sphere?
Thanks & regards
It's an underlying hardware issue, not a cp issue. Although HSphere probably holds more since most of the processing load is taken by the CP server. You can put as many people as you want on a server, it'll just be slow and people will be pissed. Get a nice supermicro dual piii w/ 2 GB ram and raid 5 and you could host a ton of sites. It also depends on the usage - 1000 sites not transferring much don't eat anything.
My reply is still unanswered. Please see my prev. reply and give me satisfying answers.
.
Thanks.
I´m also in the same dilema as ghalman, actually I´m a reseller for mchost and have over xxxx domains using WHM, i´m making a good profit there but was looking for a solution for customers that requested Windows Plans..
I´m signed 8 days ago.. and I´ve been trying to set plans every which way to see how i can make a profit.. Not only there is the license issue but in windows it seems that the panel sets Disk Space by allocation and not by actual ussage, if get 1gyg of space and the I set a plan for a 100mgs ( for users ) and 10 users use only 200mgs, I can not create more plans ( oversell space, play the numbers game), I have tried every way to create plans that i can compete with other resellers out there and i´m begining to give up, as much as i love the feature of hosting Linux and Windows on H-sphere i can not see a way that I can compete.
All I want is simple.
1) create a master reseller account. 1 License per server like (WHM)
2) create users with their own control panel ( no licence fee for panel user panels, users can not create domains unless i specify).
3) If space of all users is not used, to be able to oversell space ( and traffic ), when i begin to reach my my Monthtly space and traffic treshold, buy more space and traffic from or move to a higher plan.
(this is not to make comparisons) but At my other private labe reseller i´m able to do this, and i´m able to make a profit.
Any suggestions as how can we make a profit? ( dont tell me good service, or add value since most of us do that )
Hi Kran,
Thanks God I could find someone with the same problem I am facing.
How many Master Reseller Accounts you are hosting on one server?
All people out there leverage on unused diskspace and unused bandwidth and Oversell. This is a norm of hosting industry.
On top of that, now every user wants a control panel and not willing to pay for that. And other people are already providing such kind of servcie using Cpanel / WHM and some other solutions.
I am interested in H-Sphere and trying to look out a solution. I am also trying to work out a plan (like you) to make it profitable.
One thing could be that we ask reseller a sum of $6 (4.5 + .90), everytime he add a domain with an account.
If (end customer) dont want control panel, then reseller can add domain name without account.
Reseller still can create ftp, mail users for that particular domain without alloting a control panel. Reseller can also create mysql db, create user and pass all the details to the end user (domain owner/customer).
If this be the case, the issue comes for webmail... where should customer go and check his emails on the web.... He might need the control panel to check the email... OR the other options is he goto webmail.domain.name OR domain.name/webmail.
If this is possible. then we could compromize a little and could let our reseller do some pain taking. :)
Please comment.
Ghalman
ghalman@hotmail.com
I just bought the plan about a week ago.. mostly because of windows Control Panel.. ( By the way I just found out you can not disable the integrated billing ).
I´ve spent a week, creating possible scenarios on an excell table, i´ve cruched numbers, compared about 200 competitor prices to see how i will compete against them... any way you look at it you can not build a big customer base and get a good profit with this schema...
Look a this scenario.:
Lets suppose you have customers that use very little resources like the ones I have, been in south america, most of my customer sites are small and generate little traffic, average purchases ate 50Mg sites and 100mgSites.
WHM/Cpanel ... 1 server 600 accounts price of renting the server $250 * month + $99 server Whm/Cpanel License with unlimited users per server. = $ 349 * 12 months = $ 4,188
Plans are (50Mg 100Mg 200Mg 300 and 500Mg) my 600 users average a $7.00 each per month = $84 per year * 600 = $50,400 less $4,188 Gross Profit = $46,212 Take your expenses and over head you will get at least $30,000 per year ,,,
( servers prices were taken from Mchost.com )
H-Sphere 1 Server 600 accounts = x 4.00 per licenses = $2,400 + $3,000 server rental = $5,400 ( i do not know if the fee $4,500 fee applies here ) But.. having to set harddisk space by allocation will not let you sell the 600 plans.....so probably max you can place 200 (200 x 7) x12 = $16,000 minus $ 5,400 = $11,400 in case that the $4,500 charge applies you´ll get $6,900 profit... I dont think that charge will apply so we will stick with the $11,400 profit. I just don see how to make a profit... If i charge higher prices, i will sell less and loose my actual customer base..
H-Sphere will have to check who their target market will be and take resellers needs into consideration if it wants a big share of the market, several new control panels are coming in the market including the VirtualCp http://www.virtualcp.com I belive H-sphere is a good product but it lacks the flexibility that resellers need in order to make a profit, If costs go higher resellers will have to charge more and get less clients and finally be put out of business, and they will not be able to buy H-sphere anymore, or worse they will move to other company Like i´m planning to do..
One thing for shure has to be done
1) let users disable online billing system
2) fix DiskQuotas management
3) have a control panel for final end users. (just the basic management things)
I can live with the high license cost,, but not with the above two.
just my 2 cents.... hope i did not offend any one it is not my intention.
I need some motivations!
H-Sphere lovers out there, please help me answer all the above questions!
Originally posted by ghalman
I need some motivations!
H-Sphere lovers out there, please help me answer all the above questions!
geez man, what more do you want, people have showed you some great numbers here
Kran
your math is flawed in one point, you are takign in consideration the first year only .. that is fine if you only intend to be in business for 12 months
HSphere is more expensive the first year, but by the second, you getting it for peanuts, it is a long term investment, where you start seeing the true spoils in the second year (expecially for LARGE volumes)
now for the second part, yes the way resellers are billed currently does not work right, or is economically viable for allot of people, but if you check on Igor's "to-do" you will see quota based billign for resellers is coming, then you can bill on average used instead of total sold :)
If you have 600 clients as a reseller you should have your own servers.
Then this issue does not arise for you as it is a billing issue and not a physical issue. Plus if your average client is paying $7 per month you have a pricing problem which is not the fault of Hsphere.
If you give away your resources you should not expect to make a profit.
Hsphere does not prevent the hosting company from overselling resources, it only bills resellers for the resources they set in their hosting plans. Which is the way I like it as a hosting company.
For example I try to limit each server to 250 one domain accounts, giving each account a minimum of 100 meg combined storage allocation. This means I am allocating 25 gig of storage on a 18 gig hard drive.
But since I own the servers I can do this as Hsphere does not care how much I allocate to each account but bills the account as directed by the free and charged resources of each hosting plan.
My resellers can not do this, they must pay for all resources for which they commit in their hosting plans. I must provide them these resources if their clients use them, so I expect them to pay for these resources.
I also recommend that my resellers charge at least $10 per month for their smaller starter plan and that they try to average at least $15-$20 per month for their client base. I also recommend that they switch to a dedicated server when they client billings exceed $300 per month.
So your solution is to lease your own servers and to have a CPA look at your business and give you a business plan with an adequate pricing structure to earn a profit for your work and investment.
If you read:
WHM/Cpanel ... 1 server 600 accounts price of renting the server $250 * month + $99 server Whm/Cpanel License with unlimited users per server. = $ 349 * 12 months = $ 4,188
I have my own server for those account I pay $250 per month 300Gyg and $99 per Month for panel License.
The reason I want H-Sphere is because I can configure it with windows I can not offer windows at the time, and there is not a good windows control panel out there.
I used to charge minimun $10 per month for my smaller plan as you stated, But was not able to grow or make any serius money with this business plan, mostly because of competition, no matter how good of a service i provided, I was not able to grow with those prices. When I changed my business plan and lower my prices but charged anually instead of monthly I started to grow.
I own a computer company for about 15 years, and always listen to my customers, they want good service at the lowest price, there is competition out there that provides low cost and good service I have to keep up with them.
H-Sphere is a good product, But they have to change a few things, we will be their future customers If they do not listen to Us ( the resellers and Hosting companies) we will look to some other solutions.
just my 2 cents ( I could be wrong )
there is competition out there that provides low cost and good service I have to keep up with them
I sincerely doubt that those who are offering hosting for $5.00 per month are offering good service.
You can't afford to do both. Check and see how many of those competitors are still around a year from now.
We lose clients to these companies, but many come back when they encounter their first problem and can not get support or their site displays so slow due to overloaded servers that their customers complain about the load times.
However the reason I made the initial post is the complaints about not making a profit due to Hsphere licensing fees.
And my response to that is if you undercharge for the services you offer you should not blame the problem of not making a profit on Hsphere's licensing fees.
A Hsphere license costs max $4.50 for the first year or 37.5 cents per month. The second year costs 7.5 cents per month.
If your hosting fees are so low that you can not afford to absorb 37.5 cents per month for the control panel, then as I stated you have a pricing problem and need to talk to a CPA to design a business plan that will allow you to earn a profit.
As a comparison, Alabnaza charges $1.00 per month for an inferior control panel, Sphera Autohost was $3.00 per month. So as far as I can see Hsphere license fees are a bargain.
And we pay for the premium support each month and still consider it a bargain.
Originally posted by ezgoing
A Hsphere license costs max $4.50 for the first year or 37.5 cents per month. The second year costs 7.5 cents per month.
Am i missing something here? I thought hsphere licensing was $4.50 per license per month. Am I wrong?
TechTalk,
Licence fee is a one time fee...
However, if you wish to buy free updates and some other support stuff, you can get for +++
for details, please visit psoft.net :)
Originally posted by ghalman
TechTalk,
Licence fee is a one time fee...
However, if you wish to buy free updates and some other support stuff, you can get for +++
for details, please visit psoft.net :)
Can you link me directly to the information? I am unable to find it
Thanks
http://www.psoft.net/h_sphere2_pricing.html
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