Website design, hosting and domain name. Where did you go for all this?

[Randy Red Bemont]

I am in the thinking process of having a website again for my woodworking shop. I had one back in the 90’s and it worked well even though I didn’t know how it (the website) all really worked.

I’ve looked at many sites and I like how they now can do your domain name, have a website builder to use and can host your site all at one place. For example, I’ve looked at GoDaddy and their introductory rates total about $13 monthly for domain name, website builder and hosting. This jumps up to about $20 monthly when the introductory rates expire. A nice feature to have would be an online store where you can purchase right from the website but is not a necessity.

Who do you use for this? How are their rates? I want to be able to add pages, content and pics myself whenever I want to.

Any info is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Red

[roger wiegand]

I've been using ICDSoft https://www.icdsoft.com/hosting/usa for the last 15 years or so for hosting, email, and domain registration. Starts at about $6/month, but cheaper when you buy by the year. I've never noticed any downtime in that entire period. Online support is terrific, response time to a ticket submission is usually minutes.

I've never looked at their canned websites if they have them, as I use local web design software (FrontPage, then MS Expression web, transferring over to something like Rapidweaver for the Mac now) and upload the product to their server when it is ready.

[Brian Henderson]

I've been using HostGator for years, they do it all, you have complete access and I think it costs me about $80 a year.

[Jay Nossen]

New user here. Former general contractor, now an engineer. I hate that my first post is about web design, but hopefully you will believe I'm not spam. I would avoid GoDaddy. I used them for my company site up until 2012 and did not find their site intuitive (there are other issues also, but this is the most important). I don't have a specific recommendation (other than avoiding Godaddy), but I would look into Squarespace. I tried Squarespace back when they first came out and was relatively impressed. From what I've seen, they are even easier to use and have more options now.



https://www.squarespace.com/

[Bert Kemp]

I use wix for my website builder and Hover for my domain name. I think they run me about $75 per year for both 15 for Hover and 60 for an upgraded website. Both easy to use. You can work and change your website anytime you like. Hover points wix to my .com website .

[John Goodin]

+1 on avoiding godaddy. I have heard bad things from several friends. I have also heard great thing about host gator for the hosting part but nothing about web building.

[Scott Pierce]

It depends on what you want and how much work you want to do (or whether it is wiser to pay a "professional", though not all budgets allow that).
I would avoid the "package bundle" deals though, and I'd avoid GoDaddy like some others have said here. Nothing wrong with GoDaddy, and they've got great commercials, but there are cheaper options. I would look at domains and hosting separately.
For your domain name, I used to recommend 1and1 until they raised their rates, and now recommend internetbs.net which is $8.49 per year for a .com (if you can find a name you want that isn't already taken). The key is to get your own domain name.
For hosting, I've had a website with totalchoicehosting.com for many years and they've always been good. They have monthly or yearly pricing. But there are lots of hosting companies out there. I would just go with one that's been around for a while.
And as for your website, you might use software to design your own and then upload it via FTP, or you could get a designer. It's not that hard to make your own website, depending on what you what. I used Frontpage (no longer supported but I think still available) long ago to make this website (which I think looks fairly good even today) and still update it with Frontpage through FTP. For static websites it's pretty easy, but if you want a blog or online store, that's more complicated.
I would just look to keep all the monthly costs commitments down so if your grand dreams take a while to come to fruition, your website doesn't cost you that much in the mean time.
The most important thing is that there are LOTS of options. But I would do the domain and hosting separately, and decide whether you want to make your own website (which is possible but requires more hours of your own time) or pay someone else (which is easier but requires more money, and then costs you when you want to make changes and updates).

[Prashun Patel]

Squarespace

[Mike Null]

Guys who build their own websites remind me of what is said about lawyers who represent themselves. If you're really serious about a website find a pro. There is a huge difference.

[Mike Henderson]

I use DreamHost. No problems over about 10 years and reasonably priced.

Mike

[Bradley Gray]

fatcow.com for hosting. $99/ year. I started with Dreamweaver, moved to iweb. Now I'm switching to Wordpress - open source and dynamic.

[Tom M King]

My Wife and I have been using Yahoo Sitebuilder for probably as long as it's been available. It costs about ten bucks a month for unlimited space. We each have hundreds of pictures, and forget the number of pages. The last time I looked, it was still the highest rated DIY site one. We don't need to promote what we do to the largest possible audience, but just have somewhere for people to go to see what we do. It's pretty simple to operate.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I use Inmotionhosting for hosting and domain registration, I use an Joomla open source content management system. I have been totally pleased with Inmotionhosting, I don't believe you are going to find they are the cheapest (about $130 year), but their support has been very good and they communicate upgrades and planned outages with their customers ahead of time. I mostly use my site as a online resume of my work, much easier, more effective and cheaper than having to produce physical media.

[Randy Red Bemont]

Some great info here and I do appreciate it. Keep it coming. What I did last night was secure my domain name since it was available. Now I can look at all the above listed sites and see what's offered and cost. Thanks and keep adding to the list if you have more thoughts.

Red

[roger wiegand]

If you're really serious about a website find a pro. There is a huge difference.

Yup, about $20,000 to start with, going way, way up. If your business depends on it then, yes, absolutely you should hire a great pro and budget a significant amount for a great site. I've found that for few hundred bucks I can, when I put effort into it, do about as well as the kind of pro that charges you a couple thousand to fill in a cookie cutter template. Also plan on hiring a really good photographer-- most websites would benefit more from having found a better photographer than a better web designer.

At least woodworkers often have some basic sense of design, so it's not quite so far a leap.