The tough decision: Part 1
WARNING: This is gonna be long. Please read it. If you aren’t a customer or are looking to become a customer of ours this doesn’t affect you nor have anything to do with you 😉
We, Hostcrate, have been around for coming up on 15 years on May 4th, 2023. We have always done everything to keep our pricing as low as possible. We have done less than a handful of price increase and that, to me, is impressive with how long we have been around.
Months back (May 13th), I received an email from my data center stating they are migrating us to the Vultr control panel and Vultr billing system by 8/01/2022. They made it clear that the current services we have would not change. Vultr & Choopa are the same brand but were under different brand names.
We have successfully transitioned over to them. However, they have made it clear that ordering any new servers could not and would not be the same pricing/specifications/including add-ons that we currently have on our existing servers.
I would have to deploy new servers under their website with their pricing and specs they have to offer. These servers are not cheap to say the least.
1: They don’t offer management services, at all. I have this currently on our existing servers with them because let’s be real, Lexxi breaks stuff easily so I don’t risk that.
2: They don’t offer unmetered bandwidth. Their server pricing structure gives a specific allowed amount and then anything over that, they charge for.
3: The extras I have like DDOS protection on our existing servers cost extra on new servers. This, to me, is essential with our servers just in case someone gets a wild hair up their butts and try to do such a thing. It has happened about 3/4 times in our 15 years without there being any downtime or effect on the servers because of the protection we had. Let’s face it, people can be mean.
Hostcrate is a business. In order for a business to operate and keep doing business and expand it must be able to cover the expenses in operating costs. I have kept pricing low for 15 years. I have paid expenses out of pocket in order to keep operating because I absolutely love what I do and all my customers.
Friends, customers, and even my loving husband have told me over the years that I shouldn’t sell myself short. That the level of customer support, the hours, the reliability that I give is more than enough reason to increase pricing to where operating expenses for Hostcrate are covered and that it should be also making a profit in order to for me to have a living wage to be able to help in supporting my family especially with all that they see me do/give to running Hostcrate.
So, I have made the decision to do that. I even got the opinions of customers these past few days to see their opinions which they agreed with the above. With the pricing increase, I will be able to deploy new servers whenever needed, pay to hire staff so I don’t over work myself, etc, you get the idea I’m pretty sure.
The pricing structure & specifics will be announced in part 2. Be on the lookout for that in the next few days.
I do not wish to upset anyone and I’m sorry if I have but this is what is best to keep Hostcrate around as I do not wish to retire anytime soon. That is the LAST thing I wish to do. The pricing increase won’t take effect until January 1st, 2023.
Thank you
LustyLexxi Larimore