Today I just came accross a post by Darren Rowse where I just found out that WordPress.com is now offering free “VIP” hosting which is not available to the public, only high profile bloggers with lots of traffic. The hosting package is pretty nice, with some features including version control, SSL, etc. What really struck me though was the price, $500 setup fee and a $250/month hosting charge. I find this extremely steep, and Darren is already suggesting that it’s being criticized by the blogging community. I don’t doubt it!

For example in comparison, the hosting package that I’m offering through my company is similar, except that you don’t get version control, and of course the bandwidth and server load is not balanced (which I have some serious doubts about how they really do this myself), but I do install WordPress, I setup Askimet for you, I setup your domain, I’ll install one theme and a plugin or two (within reasonable limits). I also don’t force you to put a “Powered by…” link on every page on your website, or force you to put statistic hooks so that I can know your metrics.

I also only charge a $20 setup fee, and $100/year for hosting (that includes 200mb of disk space and 10Gb of bandwidth). After that, the second domain is only $50/year. I charge a little more than the really cheap hosting services for the same bandwidth, but that’s because I provide a higher quality and more reliable service. I also refuse to overload the bandwidth on the server! That’s something I personally really hated when I first started out, so I refuse to do that. I’ll charge a little more instead since it’s worth it, trust me I know from experience! Downtime, or an unresponsive server, is money lost. By the way, if you’re interested in getting a hosting package from me, you can contact me directly at: steph@followsteph.com

Anyways, it really struck me as an expensive hosting solution. For that price, I’d be ahead just getting my own managed dedicated server. It would cheaper and I’d have more power and options!