I came across the German version of 1and1 hosting the other day only to find that there vps plans were much much better and affordable then the english 1and1. For instance there vps 1 plan costs $30 (24euro) And they give you a guaranteed ram of 256mb, while on the other hand the German 1und1 give you 1,024mb ram all at the small price of 20 euros a month. Like what the hell, how come the english speaking countries get ripped off with less ram and end up paying more for it?
because 1and1 is big company and maybe sometimes it can not control all of their operation.... or maybe it is just a marketing trick...
which is why you have to do your research , dont just settle with something you see right away,not always the best, and what the OP shows is a perfect example. do your research and look around!
Sometimes (often) there is a "rip off" element but there is usually more to it too. The actual price of RAM is unlikely to be the issue, but things like costs of connections could make a big difference. From what I can gather, costs of bandwidth in Germany and the Netherlands is much much less than it is in the UK. The more RAM that is provided, the greater the performance potential of the server is, and the greater the potential use of bandwidth. All bandwidth is oversold (they couldn't give away 3000TB or unlimited connections if it wasn't) but the risks - or potential real costs - are much greater in the UK due to the higher cost base. There will be other factors at play such as local tax laws, employee costs, available hosting infrastructure, datacentre space, rent & rates. For instance, we host some of our servers in a DC is the north of the UK. Bandwidth costs are over 5 times are much as London prices, floor space (for racks) is more expensive, and power is more expensive. The overall costs are approx 7 times London prices, and with a large proportion of the costs differences down to variable costs like bandwidth, if we want the servers in the north to compete with companies whose servers are in London based purely on price, we take a greater risk if we provide similar resources at similar prices, and the profit potential is much less per server or GB of bandwidth used. So, that's why resources, costs, and other factors vary, even with the same company operating in different geographical locations.
1and1 or any other hosting company could move some English servers over to Germany if they wanted to give more to the customer but they wont becasue right now there milking them.
You're correct. They could but that isn't their policy. I'm not defending them or how they operate, I was just explaining why there is a difference in price or resources when the company operates in 2 different countries. We have a massive disparity in costs within the UK between different datacentres, so its no surprise when there is a difference in costs between countries.
Your last comment was very helpful. Thanks I realize that there will always be the milking process when it comes to relatively new products but it seems Germany have it right by keeping there resources cost low. Its a pity the rest of the world cant take a leaf from there book.
There are two kinds of RAM. Virtual and real. Virtual looks much more interesting. Some companies show they real RAM. Also, there are burstable RAM, it allows you to get more RAM for short time period.
There are could be different taxes in different countries and that can influence on the web hosting prices as well.