We’re happy to announce that we’ve added a new message level to our cloudprotect service that is FREE!  That’s right, we’ve added a new low-traffic level (5000 messages per month) that has no recurring monthly fee.  For this level we had to do things a bit differently than our other message level packages … instead of charging the same price for overage messages (free) we’ve had to set a higher price.  So, the first 5000 messages are free and every 1000 messages after that are $0.50.

This package is a great way for someone to get started using our services on a low-traffic domain. And remember, customers can always upgrade the base message level to a higher package.

We’re happy to announce the availability of our cloudprotect Email Protection service account!

The cloudprotect service provides customers with all the power and flexibility of our userprotect service but with a usage-based pricing model instead of per-user pricing. The cloudprotect service replaces the domainprotect and serverprotect account types. Instead of having to choose between a single domain or a single server account, customers will be able to simply choose the number of messages included in their account and will be able to add as many mail servers and domains as needed.

The cloudprotect service will include a base number of messages that the customer chooses. Any messages received in a month that go over the chosen base amount will require the customer to pay overage fees.

The base pricing levels are as follows:

30,000 messages – $9.95 per month.
100,000 messages – $24.95 per month.
300,000 messages – $39.95 per month.
750,000 messages – $49.95 per month.
1,500,000 messages – $89.95 per month.
3,000,000 messages – $149.95 per month.

Each level has a specific “per thousand” price. That price is used to determine the base price for that level as well as for any overages. We don’t penalize customers for going over the base included messages by charging outrageous overage prices.

Here are the “per thousand” prices for each level:

30,000 messages – $0.33 per thousand messages.
100,000 messages – $0.25 per thousand messages.
300,000 messages – $0.13 per thousand messages.
750,000 messages – $0.07 per thousand messages.
1,500,000 messages – $0.06 per thousand messages.
3,000,000 messages – $0.05 per thousand messages.

The more messages per month that are committed to in the base package price, the lower the “per thousand” price is.

Existing customers will have the ability to continue to activate new domainprotect and serverprotect accounts. New customers will no longer be able to activate those types of accounts. Existing customers that would like to migrate existing domainprotect and/or serverprotect accounts to a cloudprotect account should contact support@purity.net for assistance.

This is a follow-up to my previous post regarding our new account type that we’ll be rolling out in a couple of months. I’ve consolidated some of the information into a little more cohesive view of what’s coming.

We’re in the process of developing a new account type that will be replacing the DomainProtect and ServerProtect accounts. We haven’t settled on a name yet, but I’m going to describe how it will work here in hopes of getting some feedback. For existing customers that have ServerProtect and DomainProtect accounts you will continue to be able to use those accounts if you prefer. We’ll also be able to migrate you to the new account type.

Essentially, the new account type will work very similarly to the DomainProtect and ServerProtect accounts in that it will be based on a usage-based pricing model. Instead of having to choose between a single domain or a single server account, however, you’ll be able to simply choose the base number of messages you want included in your account. You’ll be able to add as many mail servers and domains as you need. It will all be about the number of messages that you use.

The new account type will include a base number of messages that you choose and then you’ll will pay for any messages that go over that base amount. Right now, the DomainProtect account comes with 30,000 messages and the ServerProtect account comes with 750,000. There’s a very large gap between the two.

Keep in mind that these prices are not set in stone at this point. What we’re thinking is that we’ll have six starting levels:

30,000 messages – $9.95 per month.
100,000 messages – $24.95 per month.
300,000 messages – $39.95 per month.
750,000 messages – $49.95 per month.
1,500,000 messages – $89.95 per month.
3,000,000 messages – $149.95 per month.

You’ll notice that the DomainProtect and ServerProtect levels (30,000 and 750,000) are both there. There are 2 new levels in between and 2 new levels above 750,000, however, which allow for greater flexibility in choosing how much you pay as your base rate.

Each level has a specific “per thousand” price. That price is used to determine the base price for that level as well as for any overages. We don’t penalize you for going over your base included messages by charging you outrageous prices.

Here are the “per thousand” prices for each level:

30,000 messages - $0.33 per thousand messages.
100,000 messages - $0.25 per thousand messages.
300,000 messages - $0.13 per thousand messages.
750,000 messages - $0.07 per thousand messages.
1,500,000 messages - $0.06 per thousand messages.
3,000,000 messages - $0.05 per thousand messages.

As you can see, as you commit to more messages included in your base account, your “per thousand” price goes down.

So essentially what would happen is that if you go over your included messages, we would figure out how many blocks of a thousand messages you need (i.e. 2437 messages would be 3 thousand message blocks) and then multiply that by your “per thousand” rate for the level you chose as your base rate and that’s how much you’re billed for overages.

This is essentially how we do things today with the DomainProtect and ServerProtect packages, except that for DomainProtect we bill in 10,000 message blocks and the ServerProtect we bill in 250,000 message blocks for overages. The new method will be much better for our customers as it will be much more accurate and will result in smaller overage fees should you go over your base. Plus, because we are not charging fees based on physical servers any longer this makes the solution much more flexible for a lot of our customers.

We’d love some feedback on if we’re headed in the right direction. In our view, this is a big win for our customers since it will give you much greater flexibility to choose the pricing level that works for you as well as being able to mix and match servers and domains using one big bucket of messages.

We’re in the process of developing a new account type that will be replacing the DomainProtect and ServerProtect accounts.  We haven’t settled on a name yet, but I’m going to describe how it will work here in hopes of getting some feedback. For existing customers that have ServerProtect and DomainProtect accounts you will continue to be able to use those accounts if you prefer. We’ll also be able to migrate you to the new account type.

Essentially, the new account type will work very similarly to the DomainProtect and ServerProtect accounts in that it will be based on a usage-based pricing model. Instead of having to choose between a single domain or a single server account, however, you’ll be able to simply choose the base number of messages you want included in your account. You’ll be able to add as many mail servers and domains as you need. It will all be about the number of messages that you use.

On another note, you may have noticed that the last couple of months of reports are showing negative numbers on the last day of the month. We’re aware of the issue and are working on a fix for next month. This issue was due to a bug in our processing of statistics data on the last day of the month, but we know what the issue is and are working to correct it now.

Please note that as of March 1, 2011, we have updated the way we capture and store reporting data to allow for more flexibility and more feature-rich reporting. At this time, you will not notice a change in the reports we present to you, though you will likely notice that they are a lot faster than they used to be.

Please let us know if you run into any issues with reporting data not working properly.

The staff here at Purity Networks would like to wish all Americans a Happy Independence Day!  We hope you have had safe and happy 4th of July celebrations!

We’re also happy to announce that we will be starting beta testing of our new antispam engine in about a week!  We’re looking for beta testers, so if you’re interested, please contact support@purity.net and let us know!  We’ve been testing it on our own domains for a few weeks now and it’s looking great!