Best of the ISP-Lists

Fees Fair and Unfair

Members of the ISP-Webhosting list argue amicably over fair rates for webhosting fees. The setup fee for a fully-featured e-commerce server could be anything from about $150 to about $2,000.

[August 20, 2001]

On the ISP-Webhosting list in July, DB asked,

"What do you charge for consulting fees? What's a fair price to pay for a server setup and some support?"

A number of respondents suggested that there's a standard fee:

[JE offered] "We charge $75 per hour for consultation and administration."

[MW agreed] "$75 is pretty much an industry standard. There are some exceptions, like if we are going to be having a steady relationship, or if we're on a retainer with them, and so forth."

Others contended it's not that simple:

[DW noted] "I usually charge my hourly rate ($55-75 per hour) for consulting; these are my developer rates. For server support, we charge $95 per hour. Our setup rates depend on what type of hosting is being done."

[CP agreed] "It depends on the OS, how many accounts, domains, web sites, travel distance, etc."

[NT added] "It depends upon what I'm doing. Server support is $95 an hour; network engineering and support is $120 an hour. To set up this type of system, it depends upon what OS needs loading. If it's BSD or Linux, it might take 15 hours to 25 hours to fully configure, secure, and test the machine. For Windows NT or 2000, about 20 to 30 hours."

Still others felt that some of the rates these respondents had quoted were a little high:

[EH retorted] "You really charge around $2000 to set up a Windows 2000 server?"

[OK scoffed] "I can't believe that admins are getting the same as senior developers. Two to three days to set up a box is too much, don't you think? You're not going to charge hours when the server is passing the load test, are you? There's no actual work being done!"

—End