While the thought of always paying as little as two figures per month for hosting is definitely appealing, you should expect to outgrow a certain hosting plan at one point or another. Every webmaster out there wants more traffic and the more traffic you receive, the more you'll have to pay for hosting.

But What If I Don't Upgrade?

There's only so much a cheap shared hosting plan can do for you and, once you start receiving a lot of traffic, you can count on at least one of these two things happening:

1) your hosting provider will kick you out and, even if it may sound crazy, they're not doing absolutely anything illegal: read their Terms and Conditions carefully and you'll find out yourself that there are certain clauses which basically allow them to show you the door whenever they feel like it

2) your server will run incredibly slow or will crash extremely often

The two consequences are anything but a dream come true. If your hosting provider kicks you out because you don't want to upgrade, your website will basically stay offline until you find another host. On the other hand, if your server ends up being very slow and crashes a lot, you can count on your website being offline quite often and, even when it will be available, the experience of your visitors won't exactly be very pleasant.

Let Your Host Help

Once you notice that you've outgrown your current hosting package, contact your hosting company directly and ask them for an opinion. They do want you to continue taking advantage of their services, so it's in their best interest to help you find a good solution.

A responsible hosting company will basically suggest a couple of packages which would work well and let you make the final choice. If you were taking advantage of a shared hosting package and didn't see a dramatic increase in traffic, a Virtual Private Server will probably do. But if you've noticed some explosive growth and have every reason to believe that things are only going to get better, going dedicated would be the smart thing to do.

How to Negotiate?

If you've been a customer for a long time, that puts you in a position to negotiate some good deals. Once you contact them, most hosting providers will not automatically throw their best offer at you. You have to be smart about it and negotiate: let them know that you are looking into a lot of other options as well and tell them that you're interested in finding out what their best offer is before making your final choice.

While you shouldn't expect a spectacular discount, the offer you will receive will probably help you save quite a bit down the road. Assuming that a company you've worked great with in the past offers you a nice discount when upgrading, it should be obvious that sticking with the company in question is the best thing to do.