Hi Ror's:

Recently there was discussion at the Saturday meet on Ruby on Rails
hosting. So, i spent sometime trying to collate some data.

Here is the tabulated information.

(Assuming: a user is signing up for one year).

HostGator $9.95/month
Site5 $8.95/month + $49.95 (setup)
Lunarpages $9.95/month + $2/month (shell access)
Bluehost $9.95/month + $30 (setup)
Dreamhost $9.95/month + $49.95 (setup)
Joyent $45/month (starts at)

When hardware costs have plummeted and hosting business is fairly
commodotized, the average RoR plans seems to be $10/month.
There is an additional setup fee in most cases !

Is the customer paying dollars for
mostly RoR hype + $1.0 (for hosting) + $1.0 (for manual setup labour)

What is the reason for this kind of pricing ?

What is so different or unique about RoR hosting requirements ?

What are the gaps or weaknesses in the current models ?

Any insight related to cost model, infrastructure
will be greatly appreciated.


thanks
Saifi.