What does it take to start web hosting company like DigitalOcean or Vultr?

wpspeedster

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I am an affiliate marketer and learning web development and I have some experience with VPS servers. I tried a VPS package from DigitalOcean and Vultr months ago, I have no comment on their service but for their platform, it is really good, I can control my VPS hosting and configs easily. What does it take to start out a company like Digital Ocean or Vultr?
 

CyberHour

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Hello wpspeedster,

You want to become VPS reseller right? If this is the case then you can find a provider with a whitelabel (important!) reselling program and start selling on the go .
It will cost you just a domain name , SSL , Billing manager (Blesta/WHMCS) and a lot of SEO hardwork.

What we do with our resellers under our reselling program is:
- We are giving lifetime discount coupon starting from 30% or more discount (depending on the amount of active servers).
- They start their own brand with their own billing system (Blesta/WHMCS)
- Once they receive order, they place exactly the same order under their account with discount , we are sending the VPS details to the reseller and he forward it to his customer.
- Resellers cover all technical tickets they receive and escalate/forward to us in case there is an issue that he can't resolve alone.
- We are giving access to the Virtualizor Panel from where the reseller can manage/configure/ reinstall/ stop/start/restart the VPS(s) that are under his account.

We are billing the reseller account automatically or semi-manual .
Most of our resellers prefer to place a deposit but is optional.



And finally you have to be motivated because hosting is not the business from which you can become rich overnight!

If you have more questions , please don't hesitate to ask :)
 

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wpspeedster

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wpspeedster
Yes their affiliate program is more attractive and encorage members and users join to promote their packages for getting commission.

But I also am caring about their platform which allow us control our droplets and configs for VPS or cloud hosting

for example

droplets.jpg

How to have the platform like theirs? do they develop it or its just common platform for hosting providers?
 

VirtuBox

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I am an affiliate marketer and learning web development and I have some experience with VPS servers. I tried a VPS package from DigitalOcean and Vultr months ago, I have no comment on their service but for their platform, it is really good, I can control my VPS hosting and configs easily. What does it take to start out a company like Digital Ocean or Vultr?
The hardest part to start a company like that, is to build a cloud infrastructure. You have the choice between several platforms (OpenStack, Proxmox, CloudStack, etc..) but that require to start with 3-5 dedicated servers and a private network with a lot of bandwidth.
It also require to buy or to develop a complete program to work with your hypervisor API. So that's a lot of money and a lot of work.
 

Mujkanovic

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Mujkanovic
So, these companies are using custom code or program that developed by their team?
I thought they are using free and open source or at least paid script to build their platform.
 

CyberHour

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wpspeedster your question was "What does it take to start out a company like Digital Ocean or Vultr?"

Now you are mentioning affiliate, there is hug difference between affiliate , hosting reseller and hosting provider.
Since you are an affiliate marketer you know that with affiliate you get SINGLE one-time commission for each signup .
Referral tracking works with cookies and there is a risk of losing your commission because the user that you had refer can signup from a different device / delete history / cookies before opt-in or signup after 2-3 months (when the cookie will have expired) .

With reselling hosting when you receive an order you make profit no-matter-what. And you will continue making profit with each renewal from this customer.
Needless to say that as a reseller if your customers are happy they will bring you more customers and the SHOW GO ON.

Where with affiliate no one from your previous referrals will refer someone to your affiliate link to opt-in for the service.


What you see in the screenshot is custom inhouse billing system like WHMCS/Blesta

Cheers
 

Aree

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I am an affiliate marketer and learning web development and I have some experience with VPS servers. I tried a VPS package from DigitalOcean and Vultr months ago, I have no comment on their service but for their platform, it is really good, I can control my VPS hosting and configs easily. What does it take to start out a company like Digital Ocean or Vultr?

That is a big question which requires big answers.

First, you have to a big amount of money. To build a server system like Digital Ocean, you need to have the money to either buy the actual servers or rent the servers. Either way it involves a lot of money.

Two, you need to have a lot of experience. To manage just one vps takes some experience. Just knowledge is not enough. You must have the experience to be able to handle all contingencies. Now, multiply that with hundreds of servers, any number of which may be facing a problem or a multitude of problems at any one time. So you need to have a lot of experience to get this done.

Three, you need to have a lot of perseverance. Anything on that scale doesn't happen overnight. Even if you have the money and the experience, you still cannot succeed in just a very short time. It will take time and a lot of perseverance to achieve success on that scale.

Hope that helps to answer your question.
 

David Beroff

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I think to build and grow a web hosting company like DigitalOcean or Vultr, you need 5 to 10 years or even more than that.
They are really big hosting companies and need more time to build teams, servers, support, departments...etc..so to become a big hosting company you must be from a small hosting company first. :)
 
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