Plans Update 20 May 2024
A BTCPay Server provides a no fee payment gateway for Bitcoin and Lightning payment (including for retail POS and for eCommerce store fee free gateway use with plugins).
We expect to offer BTCPay server accounts as a free attractive add on. We have gone ahead with writing software ourselves for integrating BTCPay server with our billing and customer account software. Registration is automatic for Hostfurl customers who choose to take the option up.
To avoid confusion with our hosting services and make use of the gateway more attractive, the payment gateway service will be offered on a separate domain, litepay.au.
We expect to be able to offer useful information and tips on using cryptocurrency and keeping cryptocurrency usage fees low in our forum. We believe our approach will be helpful for new users.
BTCPay Server use cases are documented at Who can use BTCPay Server? | BTCPay Server.
Plans Update 20 April 2024
Yes we know we are late on delivering plans. Part of this is due to unexpected progress on an additional service that Hostfurl did not intend to include in the initial launch, but now does.
This additional service is a supported, no fee, Bitcoin and Lightning payment gateway with automated invoicing and checkout.
The big breakthrough was proving we will be able to automate provisioning of the service. This means we can keep fees for providing the service very low.
More details follow.
Plans
Within the next few days, Hostfurl will allow a limited number of free plans for customers in Australia for a limited time.
Customer registration is now open from Registration | HOSTFURL. Please tick on box at end to receive further news. Further enquiries can be made on this forum or privately through a DM, or after registering, using the support link.
Customers can apply for one free AU server plan and one free EU plan to allow for comparison.
Plan names start with AU (on a server in Australia) and EU (on a server in Europe.) Digits in the name refer to the amount of storage in GB (Giga Bytes). EU, in this context, does not refer to the EU entity.
The free signups will last for 31 days after paid plans are launched by Hostfurl. Customers can choose to cancel at the end of the free time or convert to a paid plan. No communication back by the end of the free plan time will be interpreted as a cancellation,
Plan Specs
Static web hosting and email hosting is provided (no php/wordpress), with some additional facilities (web stats, email auto-discovery and webform to direct email). Secure shell is provided to allow quick and convenient website update with rsync.
The specs for the free plans are below. The specs are liable to change before launch and the proposed prices listed may change also for similar or same plan.
Prices are based in AU currency and conversions are available in US and EU currencies. The free plans are available to customers in Australia. Please note Hostfurl is required to add a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) for customers in Australia and Hostfurl is intended primarily for customers in Australia. It is not practical to provide GST included unit prices for Australia. Hence GST has to be added to the end for a total.
The main motivation for providing EU plans in addition to AU plans is to allow Australians to have a choice to use a better budget service, if the lag is tolerable.
Points to note is that currently the AU proposed price is three times that of the budget parallel EU price, even with one third of the monthly bandwidth. This means the EU bandwidth spec is nine times the AU parallel plan monthly bandwidth spec per unit price. Payment methods are Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless and BTCPay (Bitcoin),
Spam and virus filtering is included.
Other than that, there is a daily outbound emails per email account and an entire domain outbound email account setting. The intention is to allow small groups or organisations to email their entire email list in one go as a BCC from one email address and to keep sending emails from other email addresses if limit reached. Such limits will reset automatically.
Domain Prices
If a domain needs to be purchased to use the plans, then Hostfurl will allow purchase of .com, .club, .net and .org domains with free whois ‘ID protection’ and a facility to obtain EPP codes.
Unlike hosting prices, domain prices are set in US currency with conversion to AU and EU currency. They will vary every day if you do not view in US currency.
Following are the current AU prices, converted from US currency
Following is extracted from the Order Page for domains:
Domain Name
You must have a domain for web and email hosting to work
You can host with Hostfurl without purchasing a domain name through Hostfurl (acting as registrar) or transferring a domain to Hostfurl.
However, with Hostfurl acting as your registrar:
- Whois ‘ID Protection’ is free
- EPP codes can be requested through Hostfurl account panel
- Custom nameservers are automatically set up
Custom nameservers for your domains at your registrar are ns1.hostfurl.com, ns2.hostfurl.com and ns3.hostfurl.com. A fourth name is optional and is available after hosting setup.
Whether using Hostfurl as your acting registrar or not, you get:
- Control Panel for DNS that does not need to be used if you stick to defaults
- Ticket Support
- Automatic DNS entries for SPF, DMARC and DKIM for email
If you use Hostfurl for web hosting as well as for mail hosting you also get easy and free TLS/SSL certificate set up with Lets Encrypt
If you use Hostfurl for mail hosting only then email autodiscovery may not work and setting up certificates is a little more complex
Other TOS Points
Other points to note that will be included in the TOS (Terms Of Service) is that SPAM email is not allowed to be sent and will lead to immediate email sending suspension for the domain with a request for an explanation and plan of action to prevent reoccurrence. A regulatory body definition of SPAM is at https://www.acma.gov.au/what-is-spam. While it is difficult to be precise, a short version is that SPAM is unsolicited marketing email with exemptions. An industry definition of SPAM is “unsolicited bulk email”. This includes categories of email that regulators would refuse to recognise or prosecute as SPAM. If SPAM is so bad that it leads to an email sending IP address ban, affecting the reputation of Hostfurl and our providers and inconveniencing other customers, then it is possible the suspension will not be lifted. Apart from automatic spam detection techniques, anyone who receives unsolicited email (SPAM) can complain to their provider, in a way that travels up and down chains to Hostfurl. For those acting in good faith, email accounts can be protected from being hijacked by spammers by using strong passwords.