Now here come the cheap web hosting service providers, offering the best (that is a direct quote) in terms of service for a fraction of the price.  Now isn’t that a sweet deal?  Not really.

Web hosting, as you know is provided by companies who have bandwidth, physical servers, infrastructure and experts who sell the abovementioned features to other people.  Businesses that may not have the necessary expertise and infrastructure outsource their web hosting needs to gain the advantages of the service without the hassle and the huge cost.  And because price is the main motivation for outsourcing, it has become the main selling point of web hosting service providers.

Now an enterprising newcomer to the field of web hosting comes up with a brilliant idea.  Why not offer web hosting services for only a fraction of the usual price?  That would surely increase market share and boost profit and growth.

And it was a brilliant idea.  Clients were enticed and customers flocked to the cheap web hosting service provider.  The competitors were alarmed as they lost clients to the newcomer who boasted the best (again that’s a direct quote) service for much cheaper costs.  The competitors began cutting their prices, too.
 
Now here comes the glitch.  The old timers in the web hosting business were profiting before the cheap web hosting service providers came.  They probably have room for price-cutting but the advent of much cheaper providers meant that they had to cut prices down more than they could afford to do.  So they manage to retain their customers, and they even gained new ones, but the new bulk could not make up for the profits they have lost and stand to lose if they keep up their current level of prices.
 
Overhead cost-cutting now comes into the picture.  Web hosting service providers looked for ways to keep their companies profitable.  So they begin to let go of some of their engineers and technical personnel.  But that move is barely enough.  So they cut back on preventive maintenance.  But it is still not enough.  Finally, they overload the servers or cut back on the number of servers altogether.  Now, that is enough.
 
So web hosting companies adapted and their businesses survived.  They are again in the black.  Business is good.
 
But is it, really?  For you see, with the cut in the number in personnel and engineers who were not superfluous in the first place, customer service went down the drain.  Skimping on preventive maintenance caused more failures and thus more downtimes (that is when you cannot access a certain website you want to access).  Making do with fewer servers or overloading the servers meant very slow processing times and yes, more downtimes.  Thus begins a vicious cycle.
 
Now take a look at the cheap web hosting service providers’ promise of quality service.  Less than exemplary customer service plus downtimes plus slow processing speed hardly spells web hosting at its best.
 
Wonder who gets affected most?  You, who rely on web hosting services to get the information you need when you need it as fast as it possibly can be delivered.  And you, businesses, who rely on web hosting services to build your credibility through the web.  The delays caused by less than satisfactory service are costing you untold revenues in opportunity cost.  Who of your potential customers would want to hang around for hours on end in your site when they can just as easily switch to a less aggravating one?
 
So the next time you think about cutting your overhead by engaging the services of cheap web hosting providers, think again.  Cheap web hosting is generally incompatible with high-end service.  Just scout around for a service provider who can offer good service for a reasonable price.  That’s, in the long run, the better compromise.