When you’re running a web development business, one crucial decision is how to manage website hosting for your clients. Should you pay for hosting yourself and bill the clients, or have them set up their hosting accounts? The approach you take can impact your business operations, client relationships, and long-term success.
In this post, we’ll explore the best approach and avoid common pitfalls.
The Basics: Domain and Hosting
Every website needs two components:
Domain Name: This is the address of the website, e.g., example.com. Domain names typically cost around $10-15 per year.
Web Hosting: This is the server space where your website files are stored and served. Hosting costs around $5-10 per month on average.
It’s recommended to buy the domain and hosting from the same provider to simplify the setup process.
Options for Web Developers
There are a few common approaches web developers take for client hosting:
- Buy an unlimited hosting plan and charge clients a small monthly fee.
- Use a reseller hosting account to manage all client sites.
- Buy a separate single-site hosting account for each new client.
- Have clients buy their hosting and provide login details.
While options 1-3 may seem convenient, they come with some downsides.
Cons of Managing Client Hosting
Difficult Client Transitions: You don’t want to work with a client or the client doesn’t want to work with you anymore. Now you have to do the extra work of transferring the website to the client’s account. Which is extra work that you have to do. If you don’t have a clause in your contract specifying transfer fees, you’re essentially doing this extra work for free.
On top of that, there’s always a little chance that something might go wrong during the move, like losing some stuff or the website being down for a while. If that happens, you might be stuck fixing it for free too.
Client Bankruptcy Issues: Sometimes clients go bankrupt. This already happened twice with two of my clients. Then they simply don’t have the money to pay the hosting invoices you send them. You need to call them all the time asking if they can pay the invoices.
But since it’s just a small amount for hosting (a few dollars per month), you can’t make a big issue out of it. For clients going bankrupt, they have much bigger money problems than paying your small hosting invoice. So it becomes a messed up situation where you don’t want to be constantly chasing them for payment.
Client Privacy Issues: One downside for your clients is that their hosting account is owned by you, which means that you have control over their email accounts, including the ability to delete them or change their passwords.
This can be concerning for many businesses since their emails often contain sensitive information and they may not want their web designer to have such power over their emails. Additionally, this means that you could potentially access the personal email of someone like the CEO.
Nickel-and-Diming Clients: If you are managing your clients’ hosting accounts, it becomes easier for them to ask for small favors, which are difficult to charge for. For example, they might request you to create an email account for a new employee or change the password if they have forgotten it.
You can say no, but these tasks only take a minute or two, and you wouldn’t want to invoice your client for such small amounts. However, you may also want to maintain a good relationship with your client, so refusing might not always be the best option. When your clients sign up for their hosting account, it becomes their responsibility, and these types of requests become less of an issue.
The Simple Solution
The best approach is to have clients buy their hosting and provide you with the login details. This way:
- Clients own and control their website data and emails.
- You can easily move away from a client without any migration hassle.
- Clients can switch developers without involving you.
- You avoid issues with unpaid client hosting bills.
Buying domain and hosting is simple but if your client finds it hard just send them a tutorial available online or hop on a phone call and help them to buy. Most clients love learning the process and your relationship with them gets stronger.
Earn from Affiliate Programs
You may think letting clients set up their own domain and hosting means missing out on extra income. While you could charge more than the hosting company and pocket the difference, managing hosting also brings extra work and problems. Don’t worry, there’s a better way.
You can earn commissions by recommending hosting companies to clients. Hosting companies have affiliate partner programs where they pay you a commission when someone signs up using your affiliate link.
Before buying the hosting clients can turn to you for recommendations. You can suggest hosting companies you like and trust. Just sign up as a partner for that hosting company.
The commission you earn from referring clients is often as good as the extra money you could have made by managing hosting directly. You still earn the extra bucks without the hassle that could have come.
Recommended Hosting Providers
For clients and your portfolio site, consider these top hosting options:
- Premium Option: SiteGround (~$10/month) is highly rated and only slightly more expensive than budget hosts.
- Budget Option: Hostinger (~$3.50/month for 4 years) offers unlimited subdomains and a free domain name for the first year.
Conclusion
By having clients set up their hosting and using affiliate programs, you avoid the complications of managing hosting accounts yourself and still earn more.
Your clients have full control over their websites, and you can focus on providing great web development services without worrying about hosting management.
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