Mr Site and building a website

judygarland

Has anyone used "Mr Site"? I'm looking to be build a website and thought this software would be ideal. Read up on all the info and perused their example websites before using the activation code. I've tried to find the templates from the really snazzy ecommerce sites they use as examples and they do not exist. As I bought the pro version I presumes these would be on there.

I've emailed them on their feedback email address and it has bounced back. If you want to use their helpline, it's a premium rate 090 number.

Not impressed at all.

DoA_2

Hi,

I'm always wary of these types of site-builder sites because you don't know the reliability, robustness or expandability (if that's a word) of the underlying code or architecture.

IMHO you'd be better off looking at an open source (free to use) platform such as Wordpress or Joomla. The open source part means they're both free to use and crucially anyone can see all of the code for the underlying architecture (not the underlying code of your individual site).

This has 3 key advantages:

1) It's entirely free to use (as I've already mentioned).

2) Open source is generally cheaper to implement & keep up to date because you have thousands of developers writing plugins & extensions for things like templates, payments & shopping carts. Most likely, whatever you need your site to achieve has already been written & is already fully tested, reliable & available.

3) If you do need something unique developed, you have a pool of thousands of developers to help you / commission them to write it for you instead of only being able to ask Mr Site's developers.

4) Your site will end up looking much more unique (and therefore professional) as a result .... if you use a sitebuilder type service, inevitably you'll receive (however heavily customised) a pre-written template site. These stand out a mile away to a savvy internet user.

ps. I'm a software developer / website designer.

judygarland

DoA wrote: »

Hi,

I'm always wary of these types of site-builder sites because you don't know the reliability, robustness or expandability (if that's a word) of the underlying code or architecture.

IMHO you'd be better off looking at an open source (free to use) platform such as Wordpress or Joomla. The open source part means they're both free to use and crucially anyone can see all of the code for the underlying architecture (not the underlying code of your individual site).

This has 3 key advantages:

1) It's entirely free to use (as I've already mentioned).

2) Open source is generally cheaper to implement & keep up to date because you have thousands of developers writing plugins & extensions for things like templates, payments & shopping carts. Most likely, whatever you need your site to achieve has already been written & is already fully tested, reliable & available.

3) If you do need something unique developed, you have a pool of thousands of developers to help you / commission them to write it for you instead of only being able to ask Mr Site's developers.

4) Your site will end up looking much more unique (and therefore professional) as a result .... if you use a sitebuilder type service, inevitably you'll receive (however heavily customised) a pre-written template site. These stand out a mile away to a savvy internet user.

ps. I'm a software developer / website designer.

Wow, Joomla looks brilliant. Just started working through a few tutorials. Can I put together the website and then use my own hosting service? Am I tied to Joomla in anyway? I've signed up for a 30 day free trial. Can I use it to build my website and then move it to my own hosting provider before the trail ends?

steve1980

Mr Site is basic, yes they offer 3 different "levels" but for what they charge is really not worth it.

Depending on what you want to do, ie. basic website, ecommerce etc there are plenty of plans out there which are half the cost of Mr Site for a hell of a lot more features.

I looked at their Pro package and they are only offering 600mb web site space! That's nothing! You are also limited to 99 pages! How can you limit a website to only 99 pages, especially an ecommerce site that could have double that amount of pages.

Support....or lack of and if things go wrong you have to phone an 0901 number, nice!

I have taken over many "Mr Site's" because of the huge limitations that they have.

Unfortunately you've found out the hard way. Hopefully you can get some of your money back.