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Hetzner's "free domain for life" just cost me $38

Deals & Offers by srelet 6 replies 851 views
srelet

Member OP

#1

So I did my blameless postmortem on this one and the root cause is me not reading TOS updates. Signed up with Hetzner in 2021, "free .com for life with any annual hosting plan." Life, it turns out, is contingent on my plan renewing at the "then-current rate."

Current rate for my "Legacy Starter" is $38/year. Same specs are $12 on their front page. They migrated me to "Legacy" tier two years ago via TOS change. Email? Spam folder, maybe. Never saw it. Transparency from Hetzner on this has been basically zero.

Error budget for my trust in hosting deals: exhausted. Anyone else get hit by this?

Edit: Just checked. TOS update was buried in a "billing system maintenance" email. No mention of "Legacy" tier. Classic.

RAJ

Member

#2

Ouch guys, thats rough. I resell some KnownHost plans and their "free" SSL actually costs $5 install fee every year. Margins are thin already. Any leads on hosts who honor lifetime stuff without gotchas?

your margin is my opportunity
LO

Member

#3
RAJ said:
Any leads on hosts who honor lifetime stuff without gotchas?

No such thing. Server always watching, always billing.

OP should check whois please, maybe domain locked to Hetzner registrar? Help

marcus_qc

Member

#4

Hey folks, gonna be real with you — I ran a "free domain for life" promo at InterServer back in 2020. Super stoked uptake at first Then realized we were eating $12-15/yr per user forever. Changed it to "free while hosted" within 18 months.

Admitting it: we should've been louder about the switch. My bad.

42U and still growing
PO

Member

#5

Hetzner still own the registrar lock or can you transfer out

ST

Member

#6

Same thing happened with my "unlimited" bw plan, they capped it silently

emalite

Member

Lisbon

#7

"free while hosted" — classic

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