And if you don't have a mailto: program, the "Enterprise" and "Education" links do nothing.
To add to your suspicions, the website layout is exactly the same as one of the new bootstrap v4.0 themes, and is just as vague about it's product. (http://themes.getbootstrap.com/products/marketing)
Even the pricing $9, $45 and $119 are the same and the footer text is the same too.
"We’ve been working on Go Analytics for the better part of a decade and are super proud of what we’ve created. If you’d like to learn more, or are interested in a job, contact us anytime at themes@getbootstrap.com."
"We’ve been working on RamGrid for the better part of the last couple of years and are super proud of what we’ve created. If you’d like to learn more, or are interested in a job, contact us anytime at business@ramgrid.com."
Is this some kind of MVP to test the water? Probably not, and just a silly joke...
I absolutely can't stand pages like this. I know it's completely minimal and not really a big deal but this keeps happening.
Show HNers - If I've hit the bottom of the page and I click on a "Features" link, or heck, any link in the footer I do not want to jump back up the page. I already scrolled past it. It doesn't give enough information. Either have a separate page that goes into more detail or don't link in the footer! I'm at the bottom of the page, you're safe to assume I already went past the part you're linking to!
I think it's trying to play in the same space as http://wable.com
That is to say, you pay for a bundle of resources (x cpu cores, x gb memory, x gb disk, x ipv4) at a fixed price. Then, you can subdivide that into however many VPS instances as you want (well, within reason).
As for trusting it, well...it looks like there might not be much of actual service behind the front page. It's possible it's just a tweaked version of this bootstrap theme: http://themes.getbootstrap.com/products/marketing
That said, the Wable business model seems to be popular, and they don't appear to have much competition using the "resource bundle" model.
I've checked out Wable - are there any other providers that you know of that provide resource bundling like Wable? I really like Wable but I don't see an API, and for what I'm doing would have to have an API to control creation/deletion of servers. Thanks!
Looks interesting and a nice landing page, but your main problem will be trust. Probably for that reason needs a lot more detail (datacentre, tech, investments). I'd remove the word unlimited from both plans as it is highly misleading.
An API is probably not going to gain you customers before the above.
Good to see that there's room for some competition in this space!
You are loading two HTTP assets on your landing page, resulting in security warnings for mixed content.
The pricing model is interesting but the wording isn't very clear: what does "monthly RAM kick-start " mean? How does it relate with "Unlimited 1GB or 2GB RAM servers" ?
There really isn't much room at all. If anything, the room is a race to the bottom.
There's room in niche hosting services, like WordPress or Magento, and you can make a pretty penny off it. But your typical shared, VPS, or dedicated? Yeah, good luck competing.
FAQ when signed in:
"Each plan has a maximum capacity for the amount of servers its allowed to create. Due to the significant amount of dedicated resources we provide, we can't literally give you unlimited servers. However, you could upgrade your plan whenever you'd like."
So your marketing page is LITERALLY a lie. Good job.
but isn't it the same with Amazon and all these other "unlimited backup" solutions? They are all literally a lie if you dig deep enough...some cases more deep than others.
Yep. It's a hosting cliche at this point, it's never really unlimited, it's almost almost overselling with a small note in the terms and conditions saying that some nebulous resource limit applies.
It's pretty well known over at Web Hosting Talk. It's one of the reasons services by a certain notorious company called EIG have a poor reputation.
Doesn't make it any more ethical to do it here though. The hosting business may be filled to the brim with sleazy companies and dodgy deals, but you don't need to do likewise in order to become successful.
Edit: I take it back. It seems to be serious and not just a test. I found the creator's LinkedIn.[1]
Previous comment: Probably a landing page to test a concept before the concept is developed. It's done frequently, but this person has done it rather sloppily.
From a self-written description of his previous project:
"I know what you're thinking. FkPaying is a brand new way to watch movies, download books, and download music. I built out a really nice website that's very intuitive and user friendly. Yeah... if you're reading this, the website might have been taken down by the FBI. It was a good run, folks. I hope I don't get taken to jail for this."
Yeah, seems proud of being taken down by the FBI. I'm not really comfortable with people that take such pride in pushing the limits of the law and it doesn't bode well for the reputation of this current venture.
Wow, really? I might need to report my card "lost" so that I can get a new number. Stripe protects that information from the vendor, right?
Though I doubt this kid is going to try to be that brazen, especially since he is using his real name to do this (assuming this isn't a fake identity).
Might request a new number just in case. I really don't trust this asshole anymore.
I wouldn't be too hasty to call him an asshole. Based on his LinkedIn, I think he's just a kid without any work experience and, consequently, without much understanding of professionalism. "FuckPaying" seem to be not that different from one of us wanting to start some kind of Napster when we were young, and I think a lot of grown HN users are probably PopcornTime users...
He's an "assistant instructor" at at least one school/program, and others. This isn't a "kid" if he's teaching other people.
We can't and shouldn't blame potential fraud on simple "youth" for someone who is obviously of an age that he is teaching other people to do these things.
There's a service behind this, I can confirm it. I just wasted $9 on a broken VPS.
I am not worried about that $9 because I spent that expecting this to be a bust. I've spent far more on stupider things. It'll certainly be the last $9 I spend on this though.
Also both pages under "For those who may sue us". Actually, just all of that section - you need a ramgrid account to view their refund policy (apparently different to the 404 footer one), or "FOR THE FEDS & CO" law enforcement guide/copyright policy. Also the search bar doesn't work.
How about making the counter-argument that maybe all the energy is being spent on making the service good? If you had 50 hours to do something, and you either had the choice of spending 10 of it making your own marketing materials, or 1 of it for making a good looking page with a preexisting work, why not go with 1, if you want to spend 9 more hours perfecting the engineering side?
This isn't specific to HN, you get the same thing on various subreddits on reddit (e.g. /r/science and /r/technology), and probably the same thing on any technically-oriented community forum that discusses new or any tech. HN is great but let's not start a circlejerk around a common feature of any strong community.
I don't think it is a lie I think it is poor wording.
He mentions it is aimed at dev teams to easily allocate resources. I think the packages are you pay for a certain amount of RAM (i.e. 1GB, 12 GB, 100 GB, etc) and you can divide that on to an unlimited number of servers.
So lets say I have a team of 6 people and I buy the 12 GB I can create 12 1GB servers, or I can create 6 2GB servers, or I can create 4 2GB servers and 3 1GB servers.
If I have a team of 10 and I buy the "customize anyway plan" I could have instances that were 1GB, some that were 4GB and others that were 2GB.
You buy the resources but can divvy it up into other instances that make sense for your team (at least that is what I gather).
But if there is a minimum of 1GB RAM per server, and the plan allows for up to 2GB total, then you can literally only create two 1GB servers. I'm not sure how a limit of two equates to unlimited. I was really confused by that on the pricing page.
Nope. I signed up (there's $9 I'm not seeing again) and you can only make 1GB servers. After you make two on the "Personal" plan, you get a message that you can't create any more:
Stop right there!
You have created all of the servers your Personal tier
allows you to create. If you would like to upgrade your
plan, please create a support ticket under the Billing
section or send an e-mail anytime you're ready to
business@ramgrid.com.
Some additional info, for those who are curious. I can't provide any interpretation, but I figured my $9 could help somebody. :)
MotD:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-32-generic i686)
* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/
System information as of Mon Feb 1 14:14:55 EST 2016
System load: 0.0 Processes: 86
Usage of /: 4.5% of 18.32GB Users logged in: 1
Memory usage: 7% IP address for eth0: 158.69.xxx.xxx
Swap usage: 0%
Graph this data and manage this system at:
https://landscape.canonical.com/
108 packages can be updated.
95 updates are security updates.
Your Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is supported until April 2017.
Last login: Fri Jan 29 22:49:53 2016
---
/proc/cpuinfo:
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 86
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU D-1540 @ 2.00GHz
stepping : 2
microcode : 0xffffffff
cpu MHz : 1999.936
cache size : 12288 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx lm constant_tsc eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe
popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch xsaveopt fsgsbase bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms rtm
bogomips : 3999.87
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 42 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
Some feedback for you: I read your webpage and I'm unclear as to why you are better than, or even different from, Amazon.
And glancing at your pricing, I think Amazon is cheaper too.
I'd suggest adding a grid or a bullet list enumerating how you are different.
Also, something to keep in mind -- when launching a new product that replaces the functionality of another, you can't be just as good, or even slightly better, you need to be significantly better to get someone to move. So you should focus on showing why you would be significantly better than your competitors that you're trying to displace.
It looks like they are trying to use the same model as http://wable.com/.
They sell you a monthly subscription to a resource bundle (some # of cpus, ram, disk space, ipv4s) that you can then run as 1 large VPS, or 3 medium ones, or 4 smalls + 1 medium, etc.
Wable is fairly popular because of this approach, and they are relatively unique in doing it that way.
I was signing up and had some questions right off the start. What is included in standard support and how is it different from 9-5 support? You have DDoS protection for $10 extra. If I buy the DDoS protection but others on your network do not, am I still protected from their potential DDoS attacks?
Just a note to the makers of ramgrid -- while many of these comments may be harsh, it is probably not in your best interest to respond in anger/defensively.
This page is a trove of feedback from potential users of your product.
I personally chose a cloud hosting company called INIZ (that I'm extremely happy with) based on comments and a mention on HN -- just trying to let you know, this is your crowd, and they're angry/confused about your site. Find a way to fix it.
Bunnie Huang had a really interesting take on the evolution of the markets. It was just a 30 second quip, a mere nugget falling from the ingot which was the lecture. This won't do it justice but to paraphrase him he basically said (w/r/t Shenzhen where effectively every retailer is selling a commodity, eventually they bottom out in price-competition) - the way that merchants differentiate themselves is via being "the guy" who can provide services in a reliable fashion. He goes to the same guy every time to pick up his 10k spools of resistors to throw into the pick'n'place even if its a few cents more on the bottom-line to the BOM[1] because he has developed a relationship and reputation with those vendors. I've had some catastrophic failures with Rackspace but even with proof of concepts with one tiny 400/mo box[0] they spent easily 12-15 hours with high-level engineers to help resolve some pretty obscure WAS stuff. I'm pretty sure they ended up bringing in software guys to help, or those Rackspace IT guys had some of the most in-depth and wide-range knowledge I've only seen in people like Brad Fitzpatrick[2]. They really went above and beyond - which is why I don't mind paying 4x what an OVH box might cost.
There are so many shitty engineers, shitty lawyers, shitty automotive mechanics, doctors and hosts out there that your market differentiation can literally be phrased in a sentence: "Be just a little bit more competent & reliable than your lazy competition". I'm not the smartest guy, but being dependable to your customers is certainly worth paying the premium.[3]
[0] I've got a lot of equipment with them so I'd expect that kind of treatment if I was operating under my own account but this was off a brand-new account where a speculator bought an energies trading platform from a distressed company. His IT partner didn't have much WebSphere experience so he brought me in, gave me the company card and asked me to get it to work
[1] Even the high priced merchants in Shenzhen are significantly cheaper than what we get at Digi-key and Mouser :(
[2] In that, you'd be very hard pressed to find an engineer who can code "high level Perl" (it was as high level as web-apps went during the LiveJournal days), could write Memcached, could write kernel patches for network drivers, do UI (though things were admittedly far more simple then), all the while taking care of the physical IT ops (see: Coders at Work, for a fantastic account)
[3] And any client you have who doesn't recognize this, you should choose to fire as soon as possible. They don't see the value in the services you deliver and you surely aren't being compensated appropriately.
Since other people have ripped apart your site already I'll focus on the good. I like the marketing towards dev teams, I've been thinking about this for sometime. B2B industries are strong and provide secure streams of money.
I started a virtual server service in the past and of course marketed it as such, unfortunately they're a dime a dozen. Your marketing approach might be the edge you need. The $49/month plan ain't bad either, I might grab that just for myself ^-^
One thing to focus on, I think, is to explain what we'd be getting for a CPU, I use Virtual Servers/Machines for everything..even have a few servers at my house for my development needs. Some are old and still usable, while some are razor sharp off the shelf stacked with the latest Xeon's. What I'm getting at is that I don't really care what's in the thing, but I'd like to know what I can run on it efficiently.
For example I buy the $49/12GB package. Do I get more CPU's if I split it up into 6x2GB vs 12x1GB? Or is that a flat rate item of 1vCPU per machine?
In general, how does the splitting thing work? I guess I buy 12 GB RAM + some storage and then can create virtual machines using it up piecemeal?
If so, I quite like that model: It's not overpriced and splitting everything up into individual VPS is useful, esp. if it comes with an API. A single 12 GB VPS is cheaper, but getting 12 1-GB VPS would probably be more expensive, at least at a provider with an API.
Wow, I wouldn't trust that site with even a single cent, even the prices are the same as the ones on the bootstrap template O.o
I like the name though
Edit: Also the about talks about there's been spent years on this, while the website looks like something slapped together in a couple of minutes at best.
Damn, I always write "would" instead of "wouldn't" ...
I'm just saying, that I don't actually think years was spent on it the product simply because the site is lacking, could be external web developer making it cheaply, I wouldn't know.
"Never experience the hassle of ... while saving a bunch of money"
Wait, you mean that if I don't use your service then I'll have hassles but at least I'll save money? That's how it reads. You seem to expect that people will parse it like this.
(never-experience X) while Y
Unfortunately, most people parse it like this.
never-experience (X while Y)
Try each one out on "never experience burning your hand while cooking breakfast". Do you see the difference, and why the front-page copy might make some people giggle?
Hmmm.. still not activated, and I received an email offering a refund.
Too bad, I was looking forward to launching a server, and running the IP address through ARIN. I suspect the service is just software running atop Digital Ocean or AWS.
The API is interesting; looks more like a natural language versus syntax. I'm actually working on something that would be able to create that syntax for you though it's not something you'd be able to integrate anytime soon however I do see the value in it!
98 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 169 ms ] threadWhere is/are your datacenter(s)?
What virtualization technologies are in use?
What type of hardware is in the physical hosts?
What operating systems are supported?
Minor complaint: clicking "Enterprise" or "Education" in the footer opens up a new mail message. That's not what I wanted nor what I expected.
To add to your suspicions, the website layout is exactly the same as one of the new bootstrap v4.0 themes, and is just as vague about it's product. (http://themes.getbootstrap.com/products/marketing)
Wow. Yeah, that's bad.
Otherwise, re-using a known layout will not play into my purchasing decisions.
Even the pricing $9, $45 and $119 are the same and the footer text is the same too.
"We’ve been working on Go Analytics for the better part of a decade and are super proud of what we’ve created. If you’d like to learn more, or are interested in a job, contact us anytime at themes@getbootstrap.com."
"We’ve been working on RamGrid for the better part of the last couple of years and are super proud of what we’ve created. If you’d like to learn more, or are interested in a job, contact us anytime at business@ramgrid.com."
Is this some kind of MVP to test the water? Probably not, and just a silly joke...
Show HNers - If I've hit the bottom of the page and I click on a "Features" link, or heck, any link in the footer I do not want to jump back up the page. I already scrolled past it. It doesn't give enough information. Either have a separate page that goes into more detail or don't link in the footer! I'm at the bottom of the page, you're safe to assume I already went past the part you're linking to!
I thought the exact same thing and almost mentioned it. That's very annoying to me.
That is to say, you pay for a bundle of resources (x cpu cores, x gb memory, x gb disk, x ipv4) at a fixed price. Then, you can subdivide that into however many VPS instances as you want (well, within reason).
As for trusting it, well...it looks like there might not be much of actual service behind the front page. It's possible it's just a tweaked version of this bootstrap theme: http://themes.getbootstrap.com/products/marketing
That said, the Wable business model seems to be popular, and they don't appear to have much competition using the "resource bundle" model.
2) Virtualiztion technology being used?
3) Hardware + Customer Density [ I'm guessing its commodity 32GB nodes with 1 TB disks based on your configuration offerings ]
4) Bandwidth costs????
https://i.imgur.com/QTpBGJT.png
An API is probably not going to gain you customers before the above.
For a cloud hosting company, there are few basic essentials:
* Support - live, tickets, email, phone etc.
* DevOps work
* Marketing
* Documentation
* and more...
I'd be little hesitant if everything for so called "cloud hosting" company is done by a single "I".
For a cloud hosting company, there are few basic essentials:
* Support - live, tickets, email, phone etc. * DevOps work * Marketing * Documentation * and more...
I'd be little hesitant if everything for so called "cloud hosting" company is done by a single "I".
You are loading two HTTP assets on your landing page, resulting in security warnings for mixed content.
The pricing model is interesting but the wording isn't very clear: what does "monthly RAM kick-start " mean? How does it relate with "Unlimited 1GB or 2GB RAM servers" ?
There's room in niche hosting services, like WordPress or Magento, and you can make a pretty penny off it. But your typical shared, VPS, or dedicated? Yeah, good luck competing.
FAQ when signed in: "Each plan has a maximum capacity for the amount of servers its allowed to create. Due to the significant amount of dedicated resources we provide, we can't literally give you unlimited servers. However, you could upgrade your plan whenever you'd like."
So your marketing page is LITERALLY a lie. Good job.
edit I'm assuming they are trying to convey that you quickly can spin instances up and down?
It's pretty well known over at Web Hosting Talk. It's one of the reasons services by a certain notorious company called EIG have a poor reputation.
Doesn't make it any more ethical to do it here though. The hosting business may be filled to the brim with sleazy companies and dodgy deals, but you don't need to do likewise in order to become successful.
Is this supposed to be scam or a joke?
Previous comment: Probably a landing page to test a concept before the concept is developed. It's done frequently, but this person has done it rather sloppily.
1. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondecastro
"I know what you're thinking. FkPaying is a brand new way to watch movies, download books, and download music. I built out a really nice website that's very intuitive and user friendly. Yeah... if you're reading this, the website might have been taken down by the FBI. It was a good run, folks. I hope I don't get taken to jail for this."
Yeah, seems proud of being taken down by the FBI. I'm not really comfortable with people that take such pride in pushing the limits of the law and it doesn't bode well for the reputation of this current venture.
Though I doubt this kid is going to try to be that brazen, especially since he is using his real name to do this (assuming this isn't a fake identity).
Might request a new number just in case. I really don't trust this asshole anymore.
We can't and shouldn't blame potential fraud on simple "youth" for someone who is obviously of an age that he is teaching other people to do these things.
I am not worried about that $9 because I spent that expecting this to be a bust. I've spent far more on stupider things. It'll certainly be the last $9 I spend on this though.
Even the pricing area and the footer text are 100% just a copy.
There is certainly not functional hosting service behind that, but maybe it a vehicle to test the water and collect emails of potential customers...
This is why I love HN. If it is not authentic, you quickly get found out. OP, why didn't you at least edit the page and make it your own?
He mentions it is aimed at dev teams to easily allocate resources. I think the packages are you pay for a certain amount of RAM (i.e. 1GB, 12 GB, 100 GB, etc) and you can divide that on to an unlimited number of servers.
So lets say I have a team of 6 people and I buy the 12 GB I can create 12 1GB servers, or I can create 6 2GB servers, or I can create 4 2GB servers and 3 1GB servers.
If I have a team of 10 and I buy the "customize anyway plan" I could have instances that were 1GB, some that were 4GB and others that were 2GB.
You buy the resources but can divvy it up into other instances that make sense for your team (at least that is what I gather).
MotD: Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-32-generic i686)
---/proc/cpuinfo:
output of top: output of df: Ownership info from nslookup for the IP range:https://www.ovh.com/us/vps/vps-ssd.xml
And glancing at your pricing, I think Amazon is cheaper too.
I'd suggest adding a grid or a bullet list enumerating how you are different.
Also, something to keep in mind -- when launching a new product that replaces the functionality of another, you can't be just as good, or even slightly better, you need to be significantly better to get someone to move. So you should focus on showing why you would be significantly better than your competitors that you're trying to displace.
They sell you a monthly subscription to a resource bundle (some # of cpus, ram, disk space, ipv4s) that you can then run as 1 large VPS, or 3 medium ones, or 4 smalls + 1 medium, etc.
Wable is fairly popular because of this approach, and they are relatively unique in doing it that way.
This page is a trove of feedback from potential users of your product.
I personally chose a cloud hosting company called INIZ (that I'm extremely happy with) based on comments and a mention on HN -- just trying to let you know, this is your crowd, and they're angry/confused about your site. Find a way to fix it.
i'm in the infrastructure business.
people are incredibly, incredibly cynical about infrastructure, because there are so many bad hosting companies out there. even the good ones are bad.
also, people expect top tier services for free or close to free. you can thank amazon for that.
your #1 challenge will be to overcome trust issues.
There are so many shitty engineers, shitty lawyers, shitty automotive mechanics, doctors and hosts out there that your market differentiation can literally be phrased in a sentence: "Be just a little bit more competent & reliable than your lazy competition". I'm not the smartest guy, but being dependable to your customers is certainly worth paying the premium.[3]
[0] I've got a lot of equipment with them so I'd expect that kind of treatment if I was operating under my own account but this was off a brand-new account where a speculator bought an energies trading platform from a distressed company. His IT partner didn't have much WebSphere experience so he brought me in, gave me the company card and asked me to get it to work
[1] Even the high priced merchants in Shenzhen are significantly cheaper than what we get at Digi-key and Mouser :(
[2] In that, you'd be very hard pressed to find an engineer who can code "high level Perl" (it was as high level as web-apps went during the LiveJournal days), could write Memcached, could write kernel patches for network drivers, do UI (though things were admittedly far more simple then), all the while taking care of the physical IT ops (see: Coders at Work, for a fantastic account)
[3] And any client you have who doesn't recognize this, you should choose to fire as soon as possible. They don't see the value in the services you deliver and you surely aren't being compensated appropriately.
I started a virtual server service in the past and of course marketed it as such, unfortunately they're a dime a dozen. Your marketing approach might be the edge you need. The $49/month plan ain't bad either, I might grab that just for myself ^-^
One thing to focus on, I think, is to explain what we'd be getting for a CPU, I use Virtual Servers/Machines for everything..even have a few servers at my house for my development needs. Some are old and still usable, while some are razor sharp off the shelf stacked with the latest Xeon's. What I'm getting at is that I don't really care what's in the thing, but I'd like to know what I can run on it efficiently.
For example I buy the $49/12GB package. Do I get more CPU's if I split it up into 6x2GB vs 12x1GB? Or is that a flat rate item of 1vCPU per machine?
If so, I quite like that model: It's not overpriced and splitting everything up into individual VPS is useful, esp. if it comes with an API. A single 12 GB VPS is cheaper, but getting 12 1-GB VPS would probably be more expensive, at least at a provider with an API.
> We are the first to do this.
Have cheap prices? Not really a selling a point.
> We care about not only the privacy
"the" is unnecessary here
> we guarantee that our interface is top of the notch
The expression is just "top notch"
> so that you could easily spin up and deploy new servers
"can" easily spin up
> every month you'll receive discounts and other prop
What is a "prop"?
I like the name though
Edit: Also the about talks about there's been spent years on this, while the website looks like something slapped together in a couple of minutes at best.
I for one like it, and would rather have my a company of this nature spend years on their product, rather than their website copy.
I'm just saying, that I don't actually think years was spent on it the product simply because the site is lacking, could be external web developer making it cheaply, I wouldn't know.
Wait, you mean that if I don't use your service then I'll have hassles but at least I'll save money? That's how it reads. You seem to expect that people will parse it like this.
Unfortunately, most people parse it like this. Try each one out on "never experience burning your hand while cooking breakfast". Do you see the difference, and why the front-page copy might make some people giggle?I don't think this is acceptable in 2016.
Too bad, I was looking forward to launching a server, and running the IP address through ARIN. I suspect the service is just software running atop Digital Ocean or AWS.