Not very clear on this

[RandyO]

This appeared in my cpanel/fantastico admin area, I am not sure I understand what this is about, you are offering 6 free months and then the price goes to 60$ a month per server?

I suppose that anyone that uses this during the 6 months is going to have a problem afterwards should we find that this cost is prohibitive? (our current cost per server is just a bit higher than this now)

Not sure about anyone else but we only have about 2% of our users that use ANY script from fantastico now. That would make this really expensive on a per usage basis.

[Cameron Allen]

Our packages start at $7.96 a month. The $60 a month price is for unlimited installations on a server for pro complete. We have other packages.

[RandyO]

Our packages start at $7.96 a month. The $60 a month price is for unlimited installations on a server for pro complete. We have other packages.Well I don't see how with a couple hundred users per server, I am supposed to offer half a product to them, and when the entire cpanel w/Fantastico suite runs about $12 a month this is pretty pricey stuff. Also it uses 25 Megs of disk space per client user? Are guys charging client access fees to use this and then giving them extra space for the software?

[Cameron Allen]

Well I don't see how with a couple hundred users per server, I am supposed to offer half a product to them, and when the entire cpanel w/Fantastico suite runs about $12 a month this is pretty pricey stuff.
We are developing a new "in the middle" price which will be available soon. Also if you are offering the complete version of Pro to a couple hundred users who are paying you, say $10 a month, then you are making profit. If a you don't have hundreds of clients using Pro then simply buy a smaller package.

Also it uses 25 Megs of disk space per client user? Are guys charging client access fees to use this and then giving them extra space for the software?
I show Pro taking up 9mb's. To cut it down from 9mbs you can delete some of the templates as they are taking up most of the room. Without the templates Pro is around 1.9 mbs.

[demostorm]

We are developing a new "in the middle" price which will be available soon. Also if you are offering the complete version of Pro to a couple hundred users who are paying you, say $10 a month, then you are making profit. If a you don't have hundreds of clients using Pro then simply buy a smaller package..

You know what? My cup runneth over. If you are running a hosting business and can't afford 40 dollars to set up a hundred of your customers (or OH my $20 more to have unlimited licenses) then you need to get out of the business. I may be way out of line Cameron but I in no way want Soholaunch to get the idea that they have to cheap down this product so that everyone and his dog can offer it in a $1.99 per month hosting operation. At that rate I can see that there will be no competitive advantage of offering this package and alot of your more serious customers will bail when something else comes on the horizon.

So while you are getting price feedback from customers new to your software please lodge mine as an older user. If you are going to cheapen down this program take some of the features off the table. Give users willing to pay some incentive. Lots of site builders don't have for example a cart system. Take it off the table and let those willing to pay have it because right now frankly many don't seem to appreciate it and would probably appreciate it more if they got a straight site builder for $20 bucks per server (or less). Then when they get the hang of things (and their customers do) they can come back for some cart licensing. Of course I know you came close to this with the base licensing of $7.96 but I gather that having offered the whole enchilada at once they want the whole package unlimited for the base price.

Bottom line request is - Please hold the line somewhere or there will be no competitive advantage to having your product in use at all and certainly no advantage to those of us who have begun putting money on the table for what others can now come along and have for 6 months free, compete with us for free while complaining how expensive $40 as month will be for them in the future. Give them what they want a cheap stripped down site builder not a middle package that gives them all (or their own selection) of the modules. Just my two cents. If you use sitestudio right now you then have to pay per site for each add-a-cart addon so it works and no ones crying about that (just as long as you leave us older customers license packs the way they are . :) )

[Cameron Allen]

Thanks for your input Demostorm =). My fault for not giving enough detail. By "in the middle" pricing I mean a stepping stone (around $14) for the little guys who don't want to just offer base. All prices would stay the same, with the addition of a new price package that offers a limited number of modules per server for a lesser price. This new package would be available to non-fantastico customers as well.

[RandyO]

You know what? My cup runneth over. If you are running a hosting business and can't afford 40 dollars to set up a hundred of your customers (or OH my $20 more to have unlimited licenses) POSTED BY DEMOSTORM

Well before you get all indignant........... first off, the numbers you are quoting are not even close to accurate numbers, The license reads $60 per server/ per month for full package,($720 per year) The other license is I thought $6 per month? I am not sure what that includes but that is $72 per year, (I lernd me sum math) where are you coming up with $40/$20 charge for a hundred users or more?

Not that I mind spending money on my clients but if you look at the fact that full unlimited licensing is $60 per month per server and you may only have a couple clients using it, then it is way out of line expense wise. I am just doing my homework as any business person should do before committing to any package.

I don’t know if you have bothered to look at your Fantastico logs but I have maybe 6 to 10 scripts per server that clients are running.(and using) It just is not that popular with my users.

Also, most sites become more and more static as time goes on, so the need to maintain the wysiwyg editor becomes less of a need or concern. The more dynamic sites are run by guys that really don't need any type of site editor.

Considering that most clients already have some type of page editor, Dreamweaver, FP, coffee cup etc. how many are going to run this software?

Lets be optimistic and say 10, that is 6$ per account per month, (fee is recurring monthly from what I can see in license agreement) Maybe you get 30$ a month per account, I sure don't but if I did, then yea I can afford a lot more in the way of services.

Second, how do you know how many are going to be using it? you sure don’t want to be paying for unused licenses either. If you cant understand what I am trying to figure out, then save your comments, I need real answers from the guys that know, not some guy jumping me about legit concerns on holding costs to reasonable levels.

Also the question about disk space is also legit, I checked the full install and it weighs in at 25 megs or there about. So that is another concern that I find more than legit, at 25 megs per install that is bigger than a lot of websites. 9 Megs is a lot easier to swallow anyway.

[demostorm]

Actually Randy I owe you an apology because I by no means meant to imply that your single comment could make my "cup run over" and it really was not meant to be directed at a single person but the context certainly made it so. Please accept my humble apology. I'm sorry. It was just the last pricing complaint I had read and I had and have a very real concern that those who see the value in this software are about to get a raw deal by those who haven't seen it (yet) and keep pushing Soholaunch to cheaper and cheaper packages.

Try to put yourselves in our position. People who already have been paying for this and loving it can't be too inspired that they now have to compete with other hosts who get it for free three and six months. I personally also can't be inpired (if the product gets too cheap) that this product will do anything for the bottom line profitability of a hosting operation..

The cheaper this product is the more you will see it in cut rate hosting packages. Does anyonw even realize tht the pricing now equals about 20 - 40 cents depending on how many sites you have. The one area of hosting that hasn't been decimated by this bottom floor pricing is shopping carts. People still pay reasonable money for carts. Sure Oscommerce is free but many people hate working with it and the market is full of successful cart providers who are charging nicely for their system. Wouldn't you like to break out of $6 per month hosting? Rest assured pay next to nothing for this and you won't.

[demostorm]

I think that maybe new comers would benefit from a better understanding of this app. It takes awhile at present to appreciate its power. Once you stop take a look at things a new understanding emerges.

I see Soholaunchas much more than a site builder. It has a decent and improving cart built right in. It is not a standard Fantastico app. Almost all fantastico apps come as an addon to a site and its predominant central web pages which by and large customers have to build themselves (or get a template). Thats usually the one area Hosts provide nothing for. Soholaunch is about the home page and the web space which ARE central to the site. All your customers who don't use Fantastico still need web pages. CMS systems are the closest thing Fantastico had before Soholaunch but you can't get a good looking page without learning how to delve into PHP scripts and you certainly can't just drop items wherever you want and thats why you are seeing little use of CMS fantastico apps (mambo being my favorite).

There is still a HUGE market for those who do not want to buy dreamweaver, Golive etc and do not want to learn HTML. These are people running real businesses (particularly Family and SOHO based small businesses) who believe it or not are still hiring Web designers to help them rather than leave their core business to build a website. Many of them are willing to pay $20 - $50 per month for it and are DOING SO RIGHT NOW.

So yes if you are planning to just stick it into fantastico and not promote it as a store builder and ecommerce solution then you aren't going to get anything much out of it but if you are prepared to market it for what it is then you could but then how can you turn around and justify the time doing so when the guy down the datapipe is offering the same thing for free because he got it nearly for that?

My pricing is right. Its $40 per 100 licenses on that packages. Yes you can go higher for unlimited but you can switch at any time and if you are just going to offer it through Fantastico and you have such a low participartion in it then there would be no reason to go to the next level. I understand your perspective just understand mine. It seems in the long run your perspective will win out as Soholaunch seems to be going in the direction of making up pricing by way of volume. I can hardly blame them since they are hearing more from those who want it as cheap as possible rather than those who were willing to pay the higher rates and try and derive profit value from it. Give the people what they want. In the end we'll both see a net increase in profitability of zero because the market value of Soholaunch to the customer will be zero after everyone will be forced to offer it for free just to compete.

[demostorm]

And as if to underscore that point I now see a soholaunch hosting package being offered for $3 per month. :eek:

[rurbaniak]

And as if to underscore that point I now see a soholaunch hosting package being offered for $3 per month. :eek:


:rolleyes: It's frustrating. Oversell, oversell, and oversell. Thats all I see, and it's hard to compete with someone's prices like that. BUT, you get what you pay for...