Everything's on sale! (AKA $99 Virtualmin and Cloudmin starting price)

News
21

Always nice of you, listening to your customers.

mpkossen nailed it (except don’t really double the prices and that I for myself will never buy a month to month “something”- just too much to worry and forget about, and the ugly feeling you are leaking money even if in fact might be cheaper).

We have to be able to split the number of domains as we see fit between servers for tehnical reasons: migrations, somekind of balancing - between ones machines or between multiple providers in the cloud, reinstalling the OS/upgrading the OS/going for another distro, resource issues, and so on.

I am interested spliting between my physical servers and I don’t think you should worry about differences between physical or virtual, or the number of CPUs and stuff. Simple schema, just count the domains, nothing else, start with current prices, see how it goes for you as it is clear your clients will be happy:

10 domains - xx$/year
50 domains - xx$/year
100 domains - xx$/year
so on.

Because I will do that neverthless, anyway, forced but what we mentioned here - I think you have on a regular basis requests for splitting/merging licenses. At least I will issue one soon :slight_smile: So this is a waste of your time.

Also the support requests I don’t think it will grow THAT much: people usually use and trust a small set of technologies and configurations, and it is best practice and common sense to reproduce one if it works fine for you.

Thanks for considering this.

22

Ahhh, start a poll, one time voting between your current and the “per domain/no matter how many servers” schemes for a couple of months - for your registered users!

23

Hi,

It may be interesting, and possible if say you issue a “100 domain license” and when you enter the license into a server it’d give you the option to choose how many domains to allocate to that server…

Next time you enter the same license onto another node it’d then remember how many were delegated to the former node and only allow you to delegate a maximum of the remaining domains to that server.

If at a later date you decide to decrease the domain count on one node, it’d give back those domains to be delegated to another node.

This model would allow for a pricing schema which still requires someone to purchase X amount of domains per license per year, but then distribute the domains over multiple nodes.

Dealing with more support would be the only tricky part in terms of making the price affordable yet still profitable enough to warrant offering multi-node support.

One idea might be to offer a base license for “node #1” then an upgrade price for “node #2”, “node #3” onward with perhaps a decreasing pricing scale as you add more nodes where the more nodes license, the less you pay within a given domain license tier. More money for Virtualmin Inc, but a price that offers greater value to the end user.

In our VoIP business with large clients we offer a sliding scale for the purchase of key resources based on the volume a company commits to.

Cheers!

Best Regards, Peter Knowles TPN Solutions

Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com
Phone: 604-782-9342
Skype: tpnsupport
Website: http://www.tpnsolutions.com


Ask me about my new support plans which include a FREE copy of Virtualmin Pro!!!

24

I am small and hobbyist-like, but help out close friends and family with web hosting setup, etc. It would be great to slowly grow a small client-base to help offset costs. For someone like me (not intending to grow too large really, but you never know), having the ability to spread/split my Virtualmin pro domains between even just 2 servers makes or breaks the deal. Here’s why:

  • I cannot justify doubling (or more) my purchase/upgrade costs just to split to 2 or more servers.

  • I would not dream of running just one Virtualmin server - no redundancy and no quick ROS if something bad goes wrong (read, if I screw something up).

  • I would not dream of using the GPL version for a paying customer. I realize that works for many, but for me it would be like walking a tight rope with no safety net. For me, the pro features are necessary.

So likely, I would not renew my Virtualmin pro license (I know, big spender of 10 domains) because I am concerned about moving forward with attracting a few “real”, paying clients. If I had the safety net (spread domains across 2 or more servers) w/o doubling up-front and ongoing cost, I would be willing to stick with Virtualmin pro indefinitely. Then, as the client-base goes up the money I pay for Virtualmin would scale up as well. If it goes down temporarily, it won’t matter because the base/entry-level cost would be so low.

Maybe there are more like me - pinching every dollar. But if the licensing could scale with me better, I’d stick around indefinitely, and devote more of myself learning the ins/outs of the product.

As far as tickets, one or 10 installs of Virtualmin I don’t think will make much difference. It would seem after one successful install/running the server, it is more/less cookie cutter at that point. I would even be willing to give up tickets e.g. have a ticket quota to help manage your costs with the benefit to me of being a lower foot-in the door/ongoing cost, and installing on more than 1 server. Hopefully, more customers would say they’d agree to that.

Thanks, you guys, for a great product suite. I’ve been a long-time Webmin user for years and years. Love it.

25

I’m about to set up my first “unmanaged” vps and have been hunting around for a control panel. Having used cpanel for the past 15 years, it was almost a done deal, but I was looking for options that might be less expensive.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday evaluating the list here…
http://www.hostingadvice.com/blog/cpanel-vs-plesk-vs-webpanel/
… and was tempted by CentosWP, but still leaning towards cpanel.

Today I was looking at the specks offered by a hosting company …
http://www.mammoth.net.au/add-ons/panels
…and for the first time I came across Virtualmin. So it has taken me a while to find you!

Most of the other products I looked at seemed to have few users, and limited on-going development, so you are two steps up on them already.

Anyway, back to the topic…
First of all cpanel is $200 per year for a vps with unlimited domains, and a lot less if it is supplied by the vps host, so I think you need to update your comparison page.

Secondly, it’s great that you have the GPL version which sounds like it will suit me because the add-ons in the pro version seem more tailored to a reseller host. But at $99 for the first year and less in subsequent years I am definitely tempted.

Third, if you’ve got that many downloads of the gpl version then you need to do some research with those users as to why they are not converting to pro and how many domains they’re hosting.

Apart from the suggestions above, which seem to be coming from resellers (?) where the bulk pricing suggestions make sense, you could think about removing features from the GPL version - eg give it a 5, or 10 domain limit so that it really becomes a trial version, though still fully functional.

And make the $99 version unlimited domains on one server. To be honest, the 10 domain limit on the $99 version is a real turn-off for me, when I can get unlimited cpanel for a little bit more. I know that I will probably never exceed 10 domains - because of my hosting limitations, it is just a psychological barrier!

I’ll give the gpl version a try - if the pro version was $30 I would already have bought it!

Here’s another idea…

$30 per year 10 domains on one server
$99 per year unlimited domains on one server
…
$whatever unlimited domains on unlimited servers

No idea what your current sales by product breakdown is, but you could easily analyse to see where your customers are coming from. I don’t understand the incremental per domain licencing, it seems to make you very expensive compared to cpanel? If you have such a large user base for the GPL version, and you can get 10% of them to purchase the $30/10 domain licence then I think you’d say goodbye to your income problems?

BTW, it is very hard to find your subsequent pricing, can I suggest you make some reference to it on your catalog page - http://www.virtualmin.com/catalog/19

26

I don’t think they’re changing the existing license structure, but rather adding some options to it. Correct me if I’m wrong.

It should be a choice whether you’d like to spread the domains across servers or now. It’d be a bit strange if existing customers would be “hit” by this move which is mostly being made to attract new customers.

27

What I’m looking for is a lower multi-server (Pro) entry price point - something a bit lower than buying 2 10 domain licenses. Maybe a 5 domain multi-server. The higher-end multi-server options that I think Joe was getting at would also make sense.

28

Hi,

If anyone is looking for some options in the immediate future in terms of licensing, I may have an option that can be offered right away.

I’d be willing to offer those in need a “per-month” rate on Virtualmin Pro with a certain domain limit, and because I’ve been working closely with the “min” team I’m pretty sure we can likely create some short term work around to try and make it work as closely as may be needed.

Remember though, this is a two way deal so while I will make an absolute attempt at working with folks to meet their immediate needs, I do ask you understand that it may not be 100% what you are hoping for… But I’ll do my best.

Drop me a line on Skype or email me to discuss this topic in greater detail.

Best Regards, Peter Knowles TPN Solutions

Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com
Phone: 604-782-9342
Skype: tpnsupport
Website: http://www.tpnsolutions.com


Ask me about my new support plans which include a FREE copy of Virtualmin Pro!!!

29

Geez.

30

Dudes, please stop the sales pitch, the nonsense comparison with cPanel because no one here gives a sh… on that software, and also the useless monthly payments…

The thread was hijacked anyways - it was about an offer… But we all agree there is only one extra step the *min team should take: let us spread the domains, and that’s it.

Also I think they got the message, don’t you?

31

:slight_smile: agreed, end of.

32

Hi,

I was merely offering a short term solution for those who actually wanted an option, despite as you acknowledge the thread was started already offering a great deal. So I guess in retrospect there really is not pleasing some.

Best Regards, Peter Knowles TPN Solutions

Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com
Phone: 604-782-9342
Skype: tpnsupport
Website: http://www.tpnsolutions.com


Ask me about my new support plans which include a FREE copy of Virtualmin Pro!!!

33

Hi Joe,

Existing customer. Could I get a license for Cloudmin to try it out?

I am still confused about how Cloudmin is differ from Virtualmin. Read description and all but still don’t know exactly how it works.

Another question. Can either Cloudmin or Virtualmin run on Google Cloud?

34

Howdy,

Thanks for your interest in Cloudmin!

Since we have a fairly long thread here already, could you start a new one where we can go over your questions? Since you’re a Virtualmin Pro customer, you’re welcome to open a support request using the “Support” link above if you want, or you could ask your questions in the Forums if you like.

Thanks!

-Eric

35

Why don’t you ask the gpl users for a donation. After the setup wizzard and on the system information page with an option to remove the message in the module config. Piwik.org does it this way. It isn’t even annoying. They aren’t a charity either. Even ubuntu asks a donation on the download page.
At the moment you’re giving one of the best host panels away for free.
Even your support is outstanding. The documentation is great and the answer of andreychek and others already helped me out a lot.
The licences are too expesive for me and I don’t need the features. But donating a few dollars a year, why not!? There are probably a lot of people in the same situation.

Beside that, do people even know that their is a pro version and why it is really worth buying? If I login on my control panel I see only one page mentioning the pro version and that is the pro activation page.

36

Pro user here as well, Can I get a Cloudmin license please. Thanks Eric.

Also, I been reading this thread with interest, and most will not like what I’m going to say. Whilst I don’t have any issues with the current pricing arrangements with VM ( I think its cheap). As I business owner I understand one thing very clearly, that is business is a 2 ways street. If the VM team cant make enough money to feed themselves at some stage they are no longer going to be around at that point I will no longer have the required products to make my money and then I will no longer be around.

Now before someone says I can use x or y product, Yes I am aware but the same issues effect these products as well. A company making no money wont be round long.

So besides the x domains on any number of servers mentioned above (good idea). I also think something you should seriously consider is a flat rate price to use the gpl version. $5 , $10 insert your number here once off for a life time. So what if VM gpl goes from 1 million servers to 10000 because a) you wont have to support 1 million winging customers on the forums and b) you will be making a better income.

Because a non paying customer is not a customer :slight_smile:

Regards
Michael

37

License issued, thanks!

38

Thanks Eric

39

Existing customer. Could I get a license for Cloudmin to try it out?

40

Sure thing, all set!