by akirk » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:10 pm
1 and 1 are okay but be aware that with all of the big companies:
1&1 / Godaddy / hostgator / 123reg / etc.
that there is compromise in the deal - the cost is often cheap up front, but there may be hidden issues / costs - e.g. there might be an exit fee if you ever wish to move your hosting / there might be reduced, or capped bandwidth (if your website becomes too popular it is turned off until the end of the month's cycle), or reduced server cycles (some 1&1 plans are restricted here), there might be restrictions on numbers of email addresses / or databases, it can be difficult to get hold of customer services / etc. etc.
You will also need to manage the website yourself - they will give you tools to do so, but if it goes wrong it can be difficule to get help...
As a comparison, normal commercial hosting might cost you c. £10 p/m + VAT upwards...
but 1&1 can also be cheap efficient hosting if you have simple needs...
if you are planning eventual e-commerce, think carefully about what you might plan to do, and how it would work with your website...
- if just wanting to sell one or two items through paypal buttons or cart, then the hosting is not important
- if wanting a proper full e-commerce system with the ability to take credit cards (e.g. through worldpay etc.) and run a proper order system / stock system / returns / etc. then you need to consider the technology you use very carefully - hosting your own e-commerce software leads to you needing to meet PCI compliance etc. and is arduous, complex, epensive etc. - depending on your needs you may be better looking at one of the mainstream hosted systems such as BigCommerce / Shopify / etc. - you can then run a shop on your main domain, or as a subdomain such as shop.domain.com etc.
Also consider the code - are you writing your website / using something like wordpress / getting someone else to code it? The server software may need to fit with the coding needs - though if simple, this shouldn't be an issue...
I do this profesionally (have my own servers) - so do pm me if you want more help (no committment / charge - just happy to help...)
Alasdair