highpowersites.com website builder & host

dmacbrew

has anybody used these, or had reports?
Based in Vancouver they seem to offer an easy to set up and use product which would be ideal for a small retailing business (& anything else). Very reasonably priced but it`s dificult to find out too much (I haven`t emailed for technical details as I`m not that clued-up), Apparently been operating for two years - owned(?) by a Scott Lindsay.
Would like to know if there are any obvious drawbacks - any help appreciated

Astaroth

1 - obvious disadvantage is they are based in Canada and therefore presumably their servers are too.... most SEO experts would therefore state that if someone was looking for a UK company your site would be disadvantaged for not being in the UK but if you are an international trader with no preference for any country then its not an issue.

2 - consider costs.... they are charging about £9 a month for hosting and your site.... you can get hosting for £3 a month, use oscommerce which is free and buy an oscommerce template for £30.... within 6 months it has already cost you more

3 - quality is totally unknown - their site is fairly bad in my eyes but looking at their "top 30 examples", they arent links to sites so cant see the quality of the code behind, I could only find a single one of them on google and it had a totally different website design to what their page shows and well predates their having been running for 2 years

seaweasel

Actually, most UK hosting companies have some or most of their servers in the US.

Astaroth

Some do... most the ones I have seen give you the choice of where you locate your site.

Obviously resellers are different and "their" machines could be anywhere in the world.

dmacbrew

Thanks Astaroth I hadn`t heard of oscommerce will take a look.
My domain name is registered with and hosted by Easily - they also offer website hosting, is this worth considering or are there better/cheaper options. I need the facility to list (with pictures) several hundred items for sale, with a PayPal payment option. Professional looking and simple to operate.