recommendations for website builder/host please

betterlife

Hi,
I was wondering if from experience anyone could recommend an online website builder/host, that they have used.
I would like to build a website for my small wedding stationery business, but i have little to no experience at all, so need a simple site with basic programs.
It does`nt need a shopping cart as a customer will submit an order/enquiry form and then i will invoice them via paypal. (normally just taking a deposit)
It needs to have a number of pages so i can add pictures of all my range, about me page, order forms etc.
A good range of page designs, (preferably with vintage inspired?)
I would like to pay monthly, and i need to set up a domain name aswell, so may as well for ease do this with the same company.
I don`t really want to use a free site, as i don`t want it full of ads, and i would prefer not to have the host sites logo footer on my pages.
I`ve already checked out, vistaprint, 1and1, and just host.
any help would be greatful, thank you

cally6008

I use https://www.blackfoot.co.uk and have done for 9 years

UK hosting company
Excellent customer service
Not the cheapest but not the most expensive either
You can pay by paypal

betterlife

Thank you Cally6008 i will go and have a look now, there are so many hosts/builders when you do a search, that your recommendations are much appreciated x

shmeeko69

Even although it comes in for some criticism as being a bit outdated I've used Microsoft Frontpage 2003 for nearly all my sites and built my first one using it in 2009. You can usually get a free download from the reliable and virus free site download.cnet

If you want a straightforward process with quite a few themes to choose from then, you can opt with Wordpress. Most of the details from uploading banners, headers and images to website and affiliate text and links is quite simple and it's usually always Google friendly.

lilian1977

Hi - I use Wordpress's free site, don't need hosting with it. I've bought the domain from 123reg for £7 for two years and then registered it as my primary domain with Wordpress for I think $13 a year.

Have a look: https://www.andrew-gower.co.uk

x

betterlife

great site

goldenbutton121284

Hello! I own a wedding stationery business (check out my homepage) and I used open door media in rossendale (just search in google) to build my site and Pippa is fantastic and has packages to suit all budgets, she also hosts the sites as well. Best investment I have ever made!

Sparhawke

lilian1977 wrote: »

Hi - I use Wordpress's free site, don't need hosting with it. I've bought the domain from 123reg for £7 for two years and then registered it as my primary domain with Wordpress for I think $13 a year.

Have a look: https://www.andrew-gower.co.uk

x

I would not recommend using a free site platform like wordpress, though the one you use with your own domain is awesome.

The reason being is that you then do not own any of the content and could spend years building it up only to have them delete it on a whim.

Get your own domain and hosting; it will cost you about $50/£35 if you go with namecheap and hostgator and keep away from 123-reg, they are bloody awful. Once spent 6 hours fighting with their useless system to get a friends website to display and in the end stripped it out and had a simple one up and running in 5 minutes running wordpress.

goldenbutton121284 wrote: »

Hello! I own a wedding stationery business (check out my homepage) and I used open door media in rossendale (just search in google) to build my site and Pippa is fantastic and has packages to suit all budgets, she also hosts the sites as well. Best investment I have ever made!

I know these guys and used to walk past them every day, they are next to Sophie Lancasters park and while I have nothing against site builders I think it is always better to build your own even if it is a basic one at first because then you get an idea of what is going on; if someone else builds it you will struggle later if Google slaps the internet with another algorithm change.

I must admit your site looks very polished though

chi-chi

https://www.create.net would be my recommendation. Not difficult to use if you can find your way round a basic word processing package and their customer service is very good.

I don't recommend using the wordpress software. The results can be impressive, certainly but you need to be very very experienced or else naturally geeky to be able to use it.

JassV

I've been using http://www.freehostingeu.com/

It does exactly what it says on the tin i.e. free web hosting. I had to purchase the domain name first and point it to their servers. You get enough free disk space and tools to start off with. And when you start to expand you can either pay a small fee for an upgrade.

I've also installed WordPress on it. Its powerful when you get your head around it and tons of video tutorials out there.

Take a look and see what you think.

Good luck.

Jass V
@jassv_ (twitter)

bibi_neko

You can try https://www.weebly.com. They have very straight forward drag and drop components for someone with little to no experience in building websites, including a shopping cart; although they have limited page designs.

If you want something slightly more sophisticated but not have to work from scratch you can use https://www.wordpress.com and purchase site templates for the right look. There's also plenty of support to help you set up your domain and add plug ins.