Any Reccomendations for a company that will build and host a website for free/cheap

InsideInsurance

gibboking wrote: »

Thanks all for your replies, very much appreciated.

My next question is:

Are there any other or possible hidden costs involved in running a website? I am aware of the domain cost and the hosting but is there anything else?
Also what can or should I expect from the hosting side of things?

Here is a quick example of 1 quote: Set up content Management System and website to include payment option via paypal for subscriptions.

Create xxxxxx related interface.
Set up admin area for easy updates.
Secure the domain name xxxxx.co.uk @ £9.50 for 2 years
Provide hosting @ £60 per annum
Provide training to use the admin area.

Total cost £The cheapest Ive been quoted yet!

I have spoken to this lady and she lives locally to me, and is willing to support me in getting used to managing the website.

But before I agree to anything with any of the people who I have had quotes from.....what questions should I be asking? Bearing in mind that I know how to use the internet but I am totally clueless about all of the jargon behind it.....but I am willing to learn

Personally I would be highly concerned with anyone that recommends a company or product without understanding what you are trying to achieve, what your plans are etc.

Main costs are going to be hosting (though this is a very broad term), if you want a truly secure part of your site you will need a security certificate (an annual cost) plus may also increase your hosting charge, a domain name. There generally arent any more up front costs on that side but in your business plan you need to also factor in advertising costs, payment processing fees etc etc

The setup costs are okish considering your going through a third party who are obviously going to want to take a cut themselves. You can get all the elements cheaper if you do them yourself but that is almost always the case.

Obviously the big part that you havent given is the cost of designing the site, setting up the CMS and any custom code required for the site to function as you want it to. That is where the cost will be if it is being done bespoke.

As the business person you really want to be asking about cost, both set up and ongoing, who will own the site/design, is it a bespoke design or are they buying a premade template, can you see a demo of the CMS, what custom code if any there is, who owns that, how much is future development if its needed, names & contact of previous clients for references, what happens if your site goes down at midnight? what happens if your site goes down whilst they are on holiday?

You should focus on these sorts of "business" questions... I wouldnt be asking if they are using PHP/ ASP.Net/ CFM, or MySQL/ MS SQL, ProgesSQL etc etc as they really are irrelevant other than any prioriary code they use that may create lock in to them (one of my clients paid £30,000 for a site and then when they wanted to move to a new company they found out they didnt own any of the rights and the company charged them another £10,000)

unitedwestand

https://www.snappages.com build it yourself for free very easily just by draggng & dropping things. You get 5 pages & free hosting forever. If you "go pro" you get as many pages as you want plus online file storage for only $8/ month. At the moment you can try pro for free for two weeks.