Hosting Then and Now
Way back in the day, I had to wait 2 months to register a domain AND pay $200 bucks a month for hosting. The features offer was extremely limited and there weren’t even any control panels or fancy scripts like they have these days. Look how hosting companies are charging and what they are offering in return. Thousands of gigabytes? I wish! In 1996 I had to pay $125 per GB and THAT was a bargain!
Since then, economies of scale set in and the prices for PC’s, internet and bandwidth have dropped through the floor. There was no ONE reason for this. It was a multitude of reasons. One factor was that the PC and chip manufacturers were getting bigger and faster and every 6 or so month there would be a new release and in effect rendering the previous product obsolete. This couple with cheaper ways to create hardware has ended up bringing us a market of $200 PC’s (brand new). Even the MAC has dropped in price, though more expensive than the average PC, it still went down to an affordable price point.
Webhosting has led to new businesses
That was hardware, but what about the bandwidth? As unpopular as it is, we owe the falling bandwidth prices to 3 major events. The first being the rise of adult pornography on the internet. The rise of bandwidth usage at this level dropped the average price by more than 50%. This along with the “dot bomb” and carriers going chapter 11 left, right and center forced bandwidth providers to sell bandwidth at rock bottom prices or face the consequences of gong out of business. Even now, the bandwidth industry is still very cut-throat. Of course, lastly those bright individuals that foresaw the need for a fiber-optic foot print like Qwest who laid these strands along side railroad tracks at the same time they were being built and therefore expanding the network from coast to coast.
Due to the easiness to become a web host, it has led to new businesses en mass entering the industry, but as fast as they enter, just as many fail and ultimately leaving a few bruised souls who thought they were getting a good deal. Finding the right host is another topic for another day of discussion.