Server vs Shared Hosting for own clients

[huseyin]

Hello, 

We have nearly 500 hosted clients on 2 dedicated servers. 

From time to time there are moments where a server gets down or has any problem that websites on this server could not be reached. 

These are horrible times. The phone is ringing all time and angry clients are asking for information. The majority is asking to use their emails, downtime for websites are accepted. 

Besides of server problems many clients are contacting us with questions we normaly not should be answering; like setup an email account on hosting panel and/or outlook etc. (as we are the hoster) 

I think about to move the clients accounts to a shared hosting service and inform the clients about their new hoster they should contact in case and to have my freedem to only design websites and not wasting time with hosting issues. But the downside of this could be loosing returning clients. We have long term clients where we renew websites every 3-4 years. 

Wanted to ask the community how do you handle this? 

Do you have servers or independent shared hosting accounts for client accounts? 

Would you suggest to do a step like this? (give up the servers and handover clients to a hosting company) 

Have to mention; The yearl profit of serving hosting to clients is not as high to be an argument to decide either.. 

[asbjorn]

I have a few clients that I work for as a freelancer besides my full time job. So I cannot compare to 500. But I have a preferred shared hosting provider that I use and recommend, based on a few arguments such as it having a great pricing model, being stable and my knowledge of it. Although I have clients with different shared hosting providers if they want that.

I think cost matters for both my business and my clients. If I should run a server, learn enough about server security and stability beside web development, the cost for my clients would be more than they would be willing to pay today. If I had more clients, maybe it would be otherwise.

I mostly handle support inquiries between my client and their shared hosting provider as well.

[kixe]

It's not the same situation, but maybe interesting in this context. I work for a professional association with around 2000 members. Until recently the association had rented a root server to host web content, member management and email accounts for the members.

Now we have switched to shared hosting including all the e-mail accounts. The members now can independently activate and deactivate their e-mail accounts via a ProcessWire interface (API to hoster) and further administrate via the webmailer provided by the hoster. The member management was transferred to an external cloud based service.

Result: lower costs. less work (administration and support). Outsourcing responsibility for security and administration. The members are satisfied.

[LostKobrakai]

If you don't make (enough) money by providing hosting I'd not take on that burden. Providing hosting can be business, but it depends on the bottom line as well as your enjoyment out of doing that job. If neither or both are missing it's most likely not worthwhile.

[pwired]

Quote

Wanted to ask the community how do you handle this? 

I split projects in the use of xml based databases and mysql databases.
With xml everything flies even on cheap crap shared hosting.
I use Processwire for serious projects with decent hosting.

[bernhard]

3 hours ago, kixe said:

Now we have switched to shared hosting including all the e-mail accounts. The members now can independently activate and deactivate their e-mail accounts via a ProcessWire interface (API to hoster) and further administrate via the webmailer provided by the hoster.

Sounds interesting. Which hoster are you using? Links to the api please ? 

[kixe]

@bernhard

https://all-inkl.com/
https://kasapi.kasserver.com/dokumentation/

I wrote a PHP class (SOAP API client wrapper) which is used by the ProcessWire module KasProcessEmail to connect with the API.