July 22, 2005
Pay a host or run your own server?
The first topic we need to examine is whether one should pay someone else to host their site(s) or lease their own server from one of the many Colo firms out there today.
My view is that if you're only running one or two sites you're probably better off paying someone else monthly or yearly fees to provide your hosting. Just from the financial perspective it really doesn't make much sense to run your own server if you've only got a few domains.
Where is the cut off though?
Well, to put it plainly, I lease my servers through EV1Servers, which is a division of Everyone's Internet. With their Value Series I can usually pick up a server for around $100-120 per month. If I have some time to wait for it, I can usually pick up one of their deals where they have a $1 setup fee too.
These include up to 1,000 gigabytes of bandwidth transfer each month and are pretty stable machines. It's pretty easy to fit at least a few hundred domains on them if you need to, though I would caution you about getting a server for your own use and then going into the hosting business. It can be a huge pain in the arse, plus once you accept a few dozen clients you're pretty much locked into them for life. So don't get yourself into the hosting biz unless you really want to be a host. Forever.
That's kind of the breaking point for me. If you've got enough domains, or have a few domains that are pumping through enough traffic that your hosting is costing you $150 or more per month, then you might want to consider leasing your own server. Realize going into it though, that these figures are for an unmanaged server, meaning it's going to be up to you to set it up, secure it and keep it that way.
It's not all that difficult to do, but if you've never done it before it's all going to be a little bit alien to you. Not to worry if that freaks you out. My next post will be about the stuff I do with all new servers to get them set up and perking. As well as what I do each day to make sure everything is still running nice and smooth.
The only way I would advise anybody to jump to becoming their own host before the $150 barrier is if you're really a techie at heart. If you are, you won't have any issues at all with running your own server. In fact, you may be able to partner with someone else who is spending too much for their hosting needs, where they pay the cost of the server and you get to host your domains on it with theirs in exchange for setting up and maintaining the server.
Don't take the above to mean that you have to be some kind of geek to run a server. You don't. But you can't have an aversion to occasionally get in there and get your hands dirty with command line administration. Again, it's not hard. But it's "different" than what you may be used to.