IT professionals across the US and UK have been left confused and annoyed by the web hosting price war that has left many to stay with existing providers due to worries over security and customer service.
A survey carried out by Pier 1 Hosting to find out the effect price has on choosing a web hosting provider found that 80 percent of those IT professionals surveyed aren’t willing to compromise on security for the sake of lower prices. In addition, upwards of 90 percent aren’t prepared to sacrifice customer service in order to benefit from lower prices and it’s a trend that doesn’t surprised those at Peer 1 Hosting.
"In the age of heightened cyber threats, the boom in e-Commerce and also the storing and dissemination of data by thousands of organizations, the role of hosting in many businesses has never been more important. Whilst cheaper hosting has an appeal for some who are motivated by price, the research shows that speed, service, and security are a priority for many IT decision makers who are not willing to compromise on their web hosting business," Toby Owen, VP Product at Peer 1 Hosting said.
60 percent of UK respondents said that the hosting price battle was "not to be trusted", "confusing", or "annoying". Both the US and UK respondents were in agreement that the most important factors when choosing a hosting provider are "security" and "customer service", and when asked about speed half stated they wouldn’t settle for a slower connection if it was cheaper.
The survey also asked "How likely is it that a price cut from another hosting provider would cause you to change hosting provider?" 23 percent said it was "highly" or "somewhat" likely whereas 43 percent admitted it would be "extremely unlikely" or "unlikely" to make them change.
Peer 1 Hosting’s survey fielded answers from 300 US and 250 UK based IT decision makers with the sole remit to gain a clearer understanding on the web hosting market.
Image Credit: Flickr (Phil Whitehouse)
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