Margin Notes

You cannot price a fixed retainer on a cost that moves

Written for anybody whose client price is fixed for a year while their supplier's price is not — which is most agencies, until the second invoice arrives.

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Straight answer first

Buy from a supplier whose renewal figure equals its joining figure, because a fixed monthly retainer quoted on an introductory rate is a margin that expires on a date you did not choose — the Launch plan and everything above it renews at the price it was ordered at.

This is the least glamorous item on any due-diligence list and the one that most reliably decides whether a client list is profitable in year two. Teaser pricing does not merely cost you money; it costs you the awkward letter explaining why a fixed price is going up.

Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 4 August 2026

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The teaser-rate model runs on inertia. It is priced on the assumption that most people will not move house over a tripled renewal, and that assumption has held for years because for a single site it is usually correct.

It is not correct for a reseller. You are not one customer with one inconvenience; you are a business whose cost base moves under a price list you have already published to clients. The inertia the model relies on is precisely what you cannot afford.

The arithmetic that breaks in month thirteen

Quote a client a fixed monthly figure covering hosting, updates and support. Buy the hosting on an introductory rate. In month thirteen the supplier cost rises while your revenue does not, and the gap comes out of the only flexible line in the arrangement, which is your time.

Multiply that across a client list and it stops being an annoyance. Twenty accounts whose cost rises on a schedule you did not set is a repricing exercise across twenty relationships, all of which have to be conducted at once and none of which you initiated.

The fix is not negotiation. It is buying on a price that does not move, so the only variable in the retainer is the labour — the thing you can actually control and measure.

Where teaser rates hurt a reseller specifically

Staggered anniversaries are the worst of it. Accounts opened across a year renew across a year, so the increases arrive one at a time and never as a single reviewable event. That is administratively expensive in a way a single-site buyer never experiences.

The domain side does the same trick with different mechanics. A name registered cheaply renews at the registry-driven rate regardless of what the hosting does, so a bundle that looked coherent at sale becomes three different renewal behaviours in year two.

Add-ons are the third front. Certificates, backups and mail sold separately each carry their own renewal logic. On these plans SSL, mailboxes, daily backups and migration are inside the plan price, which removes three separate renewal conversations before they can start.

The repricing letter nobody wants to send

If it has to be sent, send it early and name the reason. Clients accept 'our supplier costs have risen' considerably better than they accept a silent increase discovered on a bank statement, and considerably better than they accept a reduction in service performed quietly instead.

The letter is also a churn event, which is the real cost. Every price increase is an invitation to shop around, and for an agency the loss is not a plan fee but the whole retainer that sat on top of it.

The way to never write it is to buy on flat pricing and set your own review cadence deliberately — annually, on your terms, for reasons you can explain — rather than reactively, because somebody else's introductory period has lapsed.

What to check on a pricing page before quoting anybody

Look for the renewal figure printed next to the joining figure, somewhere you can screenshot. Look for the word 'introductory' and whatever follows the asterisk after it. Look for a setup fee, which should be nothing and here is.

Then check the things that are not prices but behave like them: whether upgrades apply in place rather than as a repurchase, whether migration in and out is charged for, and what the per-active-user arrangement on reseller tiers means as the client list grows.

Finally, take the screenshot. A pricing page is the only supplier commitment you can preserve at zero cost, and the day you need it will be the day the page has quietly changed.

Two hands shaking on the 30-day money-back guarantee

Why we price this way

Flat pricing costs us the acquisition auction and buys us customers who stay, which suits a catalogue sold largely to people reselling it. We would rather be chosen for the second year than won on the first.

It also removes an entire category of support conversation. Nobody has ever opened a ticket about an invoice that matched the one before it.

The renewal figure equals the joining figure
No setup fee on any plan
SSL, mail, backups and migration inside the plan price
Upgrades applied in place rather than repurchased

Why Hosting Seller

On every plan, as standard

A cost you can build a retainer on

The renewal figure matches the joining figure, so the only moving part in a fixed monthly price is the labour you control.

No staggered anniversary problem

Accounts opened across a year do not produce twenty separate increases across the following one.

Fewer renewal conversations

SSL, mailboxes, daily backups and migration sit inside the plan price rather than each carrying its own renewal logic.

Nothing added at setup

No joining fee on any plan, which also means no fee that can appear at the moment you cancel.

Upgrades in place

Moving a client up a tier is a change to the account rather than a repurchase and a migration.

A review cadence you choose

Buying on flat pricing lets you review your own prices annually for reasons you can explain, rather than reactively.

Price Tags Compared

How we compare with the household names

Typical sign-up and renewal prices across the market, set next to ours — the second number most comparison charts leave off.

What Hosting Seller charges and what it includes, lined up against three rival hosts
Line item	Hosting SellerBest seller	Typical big-brand host	Typical budget host	Typical loss-leader
Entry price / mo*	$2.42/mo	$4–$6	$2–$4	$1–$3
Price at renewal / mo	$2.42/mo	$10–$15	$8–$12	$4–$6
Renewal price on the entry plan is unchanged
SSL on every plan
Site migration included
The entry plan uses NVMe storage
Entry plan gets a backup daily
Live human support, 24/7

*The number in our column is the cheapest plan on our shelf, priced on an annual term and pulled live from the very catalogue that feeds the pricing page, so it cannot drift out of date. Other columns show the ranges shared hosting tends to advertise inside each bracket: introductory rates that normally ask for a one-to-four-year commitment, then climb once that term expires. Naming individual competitors and printing their prices is something we have stopped doing. A figure we cannot re-check on the day you read it has no business sitting in front of you. So compare us with whoever you are genuinely weighing up, and read the renewal line first. That line tells you more than the headline ever will.

First Steps

From choosing to live

1
Screenshot the pricing page before you quote
It is the only supplier commitment you can preserve for nothing, and the day you need it is the day the page has quietly changed.
2
Model year two before year one
Take the renewal figures, multiply by the term, add every extra you would genuinely need, and compare that total. Headline rates reorder themselves immediately under that sum.
3
Set your own review date
Decide annually, on your terms, whether your client prices change — and never let a supplier's introductory period decide it for you.

In the Box

Packed with every plan

The renewal figure printed next to the joining figure
No word 'introductory' and no asterisk on the plan price
No setup or joining fee on any plan
SSL, mailboxes and daily backups inside the plan price
Migration in and out carried out at no charge
Upgrades applied to the account in place
The per-active-user arrangement on reseller tiers stated up front
Invoices downloadable from the client area for reconciliation
Auto-renewal switched off as a toggle rather than a phone call
A company registration you can check independently

Across the Counter

Things people ask us all the time

Why does a teaser rate hurt a reseller more than an ordinary buyer?

Because your revenue is fixed by a retainer you already quoted, and because accounts opened across a year renew across a year. A single-site buyer meets one unpleasant invoice. A reseller meets twenty of them one at a time, none of which arrive as a single reviewable event, while their own prices stay where they were.

What should I check on a supplier's pricing page before quoting a client?

The renewal figure printed beside the joining figure, the absence of the word 'introductory', whether setup costs anything, whether upgrades apply in place or as a repurchase, and whether migration is charged for. Then screenshot the page — it is the only commitment you can preserve for nothing.

How do I handle a supplier price rise I did not anticipate?

Tell clients early and name the reason. 'Our supplier costs have risen' is accepted far better than a silent increase or a quiet reduction in service. Understand that the letter is a churn event: what you risk is not the plan fee but the whole retainer sitting on top of it.

Is a higher flat price better than a low introductory one?

Over anything longer than a year, usually. Work out the thirty-six month total with renewals included and compare that. A flat price also tells you something about the supplier's intentions: they are planning to earn the second year rather than to recover it from people who cannot face moving.

Moving your site to another host? Start with this checklist.

A step-by-step order of work for a move your visitors never spot: which files to copy first, how to carry email across without losing one message, the right moment to repoint DNS, and the two mistakes behind nearly every hour of downtime people ring us about.

Quote a retainer on a cost that stays put.

The renewal figure matches the joining figure, nothing is added at setup, and upgrades apply to the account in place.

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