I love big web hosting companies releasing new plans to challenge their competitors. Larger storage space. Fatter bandwidth. More “unlimited” features. Bigger bang for your buck. Arose your competitors, “beat these if you can!” So when I saw Site5 announced their new web hosting plans on their blog, I was very excited to see what they have in offer.

But from the plan comparisons — especially comparing to the old plans they have (if you can still locate them on Google cache) — it was actually a bit disappointing.

The new “Starter”, “Advanced” and “Platium” are actually slightly more expensive than the overseded Superhosting™ “Basic”, “EXTREME” and “Unleashed” plans. Yes you do get free setup if you pay month by month, but most people I know would rather keep the saving by pre-paying for at least one year.

So with price hikes if you expect extra features, right? Indeed the “Start” plan has gained double the storage + bandwidth, “Advanced” plan now has 36% more space and 25% more bandwidth and “Platium” — no change at all for 50 cents more you pay every month!

Then it also comes with more limitation on their MultiSite™ Full Websites Included feature. You used to be able to host and manage unlimited number of sites on the highend plan “Unleashed”, but it has now been limited to 5. You still can have unlimited add-on domains, via cPanel’s hacky work around. I guess probably way too many people abused it by reselling those multisite accounts.

So what do I get out from their plan change? Huh?! That seems to be going backwards in this very competitive market, especially when they themselves do not have the best reputation for stability.

Surprisingly, I have not seen any outrage from their community forum. Would that be censoring at work?