They’ll even move all your files across and buy your old contract out.

For smaller customers like me (bloggers, web designers etc), considering tech support is just as responsive as AN Hosting (20 – 30 minutes to fix problems), and both their bandwidths and uptimes are faboo, the only difference they would notice is the price. It seems overkill to pay such extraordinary fees per month just for shell access if you don’t need it.

Its a shame Pair.com are so stingy with disk space on their most expensive shared package. $50 a month is hefty for just 4,000MB space. What is the space to them? It hardly costs them anything to give some extra breathing room to their highest-paying customers. I think at the moment I’m using more space than that (and growing) to host my site, dev sites and other friends sites so the thought of being charged even more than $50 a month each time I need to add a few more gigs is a bit scary.

I also don’t think they should charge a setup fee when you’re already paying premium for the privilege of hosting your site with them, but then that’s totally up to them.

All that said, all hosting companies go through changes in staff morale and performance, so if things ever go pearshaped with AN Hosting over the years and they give me hassles I’ll know who to move to (if they are still going strong by then.)

Thanks also for posting about Pair Dan – I am sure there are other readers who absolutely need shell access or dedicated hosting but don’t know where to turn. I’m sure for them the high fees are totally worth their peace of mind. I’m no developer, so for my requirements and budget right now, its not a good match.