The HostingPlaybook
A plain-language guide to the pricing tricks, infrastructure shortcuts, and resource deceptions quietly costing you money — and what we do instead.
PITFALL 01 · PRICING
The Discount That Expires with Your Trust
Introductory rates as low as 80–96% off are not generosity — they are a calculated bet that most customers will stay past the renewal deadline rather than endure the friction of switching. The actual business model is the renewal price.
"Get started for just $1.99 / month"
Then: $15.99 / mo at renewal — an 8× jump, billed automatically.
One price. Forever.
The rate you see today is the rate on your invoice next year. No introductory period. No renewal surprise.
| Period | Typical Provider | hzel |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $1.99 | $X.XX |
| Month 13 | $15.99 | $X.XX |
| Month 25 | $15.99 | $X.XX |
| 2-yr difference | +$167.52 | $0.00 |
Illustrative comparison based on publicly observed renewal rates. hzel pricing shown at list rate.
PITFALL 02 · INFRASTRUCTURE
Your Neighbor's Traffic Spike Is Your Problem
Overselling is the practice of provisioning more virtual machines than a physical node's hardware can actually support simultaneously. It works on averages — most tenants are idle most of the time — until they are not.
"Guaranteed 99.9% uptime SLA"
Uptime ≠ performance. A slow, throttled server satisfies the SLA.
Maximum 48 VPS per physical node. Published and enforced.
We set our density limit conservatively and document it. You can hold us to it.
Industry Standard
26/30 slots used
hzel
12/30 slots used
PITFALL 03 · RESOURCES
The CPU You Have vs. the CPU You're Allowed to Borrow
"Burstable" means you receive your advertised resources only when the host has spare capacity sitting idle. Under sustained load — a deploy, a traffic spike, a batch job — burstable allocations are throttled to a fraction of the marketed spec.
"4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM"
Burstable. Baseline: ~0.5 vCPU sustained. Throttled silently under load.
When we say 2 vCPU, we mean 2 vCPU.
Dedicated allocation. No burst ceiling. No throttle cliff. The number in your plan is the number available to your process at 3 AM on a Monday and at 3 PM on a Friday.
CPU allocation over time
Burstable (typical)
hzel Dedicated
Stylised representation. Burstable allocations throttle silently under sustained load.
The Complete Picture
What they say vs. what you actually get
| Topic | Typical Provider | hzel |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Promotional rate, then 3–8× at renewal | One flat rate. No renewal markup. |
| Node density | 150–300% oversold — no published limit | Max 48 VPS per node. Published. |
| CPU / RAM | Burstable — throttled under sustained load | Dedicated allocation. Guaranteed. |
| Transparency | Fine print, asterisks, and addenda | Published limits, plain-language docs. |
| Cancellation | Phone queues, retention flows, delays | Self-serve. Instant. No holds. |
You deserve a host that's straightforward.
No hidden agendas. No surprise bills. One price, published limits, and resources that mean what they say.