Static Comparison
For static* Webs (nothing but HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, PDFs, etc.), ASNET's new pricing is pretty much the lowest out there, and it still comes with all the standard advantages of doing business with a small company, like free phone support, month-behind billing, etc. Here's a comparison (based on publicly available data as of 2009-01-07) between ASNET's Static platform and some of the competition:
| ASNET Static (munchkin) | ASNET Static (base plan) | ASNET Static (multigig) | GoDaddy Economy Hosting | Yahoo! Web Hosting | 1&1 Beginner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Rate: | $1 | $2 | $4 | $4.99 | $11.95 | $3.99 |
| Setup Fee: | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $25 | $0 |
| Minimum Term: | 1 month | 1 month | 1 month | 2 months | 3 months | 6 months |
| Web Space: | 100MB | 1GB | 10GB | 10GB | unlimited | 10GB |
| Monthly Data Transfer: | 256Kbps (about 80GB) | 1Mbps (about 350GB) | 2Mbps (about 700GB) | 300GB | unlimited | 300GB |
| External Account Required: | No | No | No | ? | Yes | ? |
| Phone Support: | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Email Support: | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Multi-Protocol IM Support: | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| No-nonsense ToS: | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Notes
Static platform: The ASNET Apps Static platform isn't quite 100% static. It has built-in formail functionality, for example, so you can have a "Contact Us" or "Get a Quote" form that'll forward inquiries to your email. It's also possible to do some rudimentary password-protected sections, and some other things that are a bit hard to classify as "static." Technically, the platform is only static in the sense that it has no back-end database.
Yahoo! New Customer Offer: Yahoo! is currently running a promotion offering no setup fee and $8.96/month for the first three months, but only if you're not already hosting with them. (If you're unlucky enough to be hosting with them currently, you'll have to move to a competitor for a bit (or at least make a credible threat to that effect, presumably) in order to take advantage of Yahoo!'s offer.) Compare that to ASNET's everybody-automatically-wins policy, where all existing $10/month static platform customers are automatically benefiting from the new $2/month pricing at their next renewal, with no action required on their part.
Yahoo! Unlimited Policy: "Unlimited" disk space, data transfer, and email storage is explained in some detail here. For more detail, they say you'll need to go through their ToS. Judging by their "In most cases" wording, you're best off reading through their ToS before deciding to go with them.
Yahoo! Account Requirements: Yahoo! requires you to sign up for a standard Yahoo! account (with its own ToS) before you can buy hosting from them.
1&1 Billing Cycle: 1&1 charges you for a "billing cycle," which they define as 6 months, up-front. If you cancel before the "billing cycle" is over, they give a partial pro-rated refund.
Multi-Protocol IM Support means that you can find somebody to help you on all of these networks: AOL IM, ICQ, Yahoo! IM, MSN Messenger, Jabber/XMPP (e.g. Google Talk), and IRC.
No-nonsense ToS (Terms of Service) means that somebody who reads the advertising material for the relevant service won't be surprised by anything in the fine print of the actual Terms of Service.
Crunch the numbers, do your analysis, and ask the relevant companies for their up-to-date policies and fee schedules. You'll quickly come to the realization that overall, the ASNET Static platform is by far the best solution for static content.