There all custom hosting packages available already on just about all major hosts. Also, even on the small hosts giving them a call they are willing to jump through hoops to keep you on. They even sometimes do it on there dime if you ask nice.

How can you develop a decent payment plan on an "ala carte" style selection system?

Like Kevin says; it has been done.

There's a reason that hosting choices are limited. The a la carte method cannot be reasonably priced due to the infrastructure that's required. Think of the database licensing, the OS licenses (Microsoft, as an example, doesn't give that away for free). You will also need reliable hardware, 24/7 OPS, security/anti-hacking technology, not to mention the cost of the bandwidth. Open source may not be the best answer either, there are other costs involved beyond the "free" price tag. And not everyone is willing to have their business systems rely on open source.

This type of offering would be an excellent target for black-hat hackers.

In spite of what I just said, if you can put together a more focussed shopping list of what you might start with, I could see potential for this idea.

I think you are talking about something else PeeJayEl. Since when did hosts limit your choices? They all seem to let you pick between what OS you are going to use. That or pay extra for anti virus protection and what not.

Kevin,

I not I'm implying that hosts limit your choices, I only used MS as an example. Hosting companies will do whatever you want, but there is always a cost associated with those options.

However, you still need to have the infrastructure in place to support the variety of OSes , databases, AV and spyware etc that your clients are requesting and the expenses associated with them.

The OP was looking a cost effective way of choosing a web host. The idea works well for the enduser, I was just pointing out the backend issues that need to be handled -- and they aren't cheap.

Have you checked out http://www.bluehost.com? They seem to have a wide variety of services AND they seem quite reasonable.

What else would you need?

The hosting business is very cut-throat. If you want something flexible getting a virtual priviate server is now very cheap. Note that amazon EC2 would offer this sort of pay-as-you use solution even though it might be harder to setup. Have you looked at nearlyfreespeech.net? they seem to have implemented most of your idea as I understand it.

Also the shared hosting plans that are mega-cheap (but rely on over-subscription) are always going to look very good value for money. Your idea might have a hard time attracting customers.

The problem is most of those things that web hosting companys offer you cost them nothing. They are just hooks to attract you, so to put a $ value on them is hard.