Hi and thanks for asking for clarification here.
The new plans allow for as many dev sites as you can fit in your allotted space at each level. Effectively, this is unlimited. Some users use MODX Cloud to build more sites than they host in Cloud. This is even easier now that you can download Snapshots and Backups right from the Dashboard without opening a support ticket. The basic plans covers the local and offsite storage of automatic nightly Backups and any Snapshots or additional manual backups you make.
To launch a site live when you're ready, you'd purchase a custom URL. Why do we charge extra for live sites? Because they typically see more traffic than development ones, and consume more resources. The basic custom URL purchase allows you up to assign up to 5 URLs to a single MODX instance, for things like .com and .net versions of a URL, or common domain misspellings. The larger 25-URL option was made available at customer requests to handle sites with
lots of URLs assigned to them; they're not very uncommon. "Domain packs" are not shareable across individual MODX Cloud instances.
MODX Cloud isn't aiming to be in the same category as a self-managed VPS or most control panel hosts that have to support pretty much anything under the sun. It is tailored to MODX site builders, and has a few things that are not entirely common except for other specialized hosting platforms like Pantheon (for WP and Drupal … $25-$100 per individual site) or WPEngine (for WP … starting at $29/month for one site). Both of these examples limit the number of Page Views you can serve per month, starting at just 10K. We don't limit page views in MODX Cloud.
We strive to make MODX Cloud a good choice for people who prefer to just build vs manage infrastructure. For example, we recently rolled out free SSL testing for sites on the internal Cloud URLs—you get to test under SSL without having to buy a certificate ahead of time for when you develop. Some cPanel and other Cloud hosts don't even let you have SSH access, and its also hard to get things like Compass/Sass running for front end workflows. MODX Cloud supports SSH logins/SFTP and Compass/Sass if you were curious. We also strive to point people in the right direction when they have MODX-specific implementation questions in support tickets.
MODX Cloud lets people that are either not technical—or just simply tired of putting on a DevOps hat—do things that normally take time. You don't have to worry about security updates for the core stack, and updating MODX itself—after taking a manual backup of course through the dashboard with a few clicks—is another few mouse clicks away. You can find some hosts that will also do this for you for MODX sites, too, but the vast majority don't target their offering to the unique needs of MODX site builders.
If you choose to host in MODX Cloud, the Basic plan is the most affordable until you hit 3 sites, where the Pro plan starts saving more due to the lower price per live site with custom domains. We went this route based on customer feedback and not wanting people to be constrained by running out of dev sites during experimenting or testing changes on Snapshots of sites.
Behind the scenes, we've been hard at work on a new billing system that will also allow us to do things like make per instance and per account upgrades available. For example, you might have a site that needs extra resources like additional PHP workers, or you could add more storage or a private server allocated 100% to your projects to your account. In the coming weeks we'll be able for everyone to transition off the legacy billing platform onto the new one and access the current pricing and new functionality that will be coming on the new plans.
In the end, MODX Cloud won't be for lots of people, and that's OK. Others find it invaluable and useful, and that's even better! We'd love to have your support and to help you get the most from MODX.
[ed. note: rethrash last edited this post 8 years, 8 months ago.]