Hosting for an ecommerce site

Flexible_Friend

I'm afraid £50 a month is a complete rip off! It should be £50 a year.

Look at these prices ....

http://www.dataflame.co.uk/

Why do people always get ripped off by web designers? It's just like taking your car to a garage. If you don't know what you're talking about, you get fleeced.

Once these designers have created your website, I would move it lock, stock and barrel to a cheaper web host. If you don't you'll be paying £50 a month forever.

In fact, I would tell them to stop the project right now!

RichardJohn_2

Ouch! Are you bound to that site build quote? My company would have charged half that!

edit: Not to mention hosted for a year

peanutpie05

RichardJohn wrote: »

Ouch! Are you bound to that site build quote? My company would have charged half that!

edit: Not to mention hosted for a year

Well I guess I am in so much as I have paid 60% already and they have already done alot of the build:(

I've sent the cheq (even though it's not cleared) but I still think it's too late to back out.

I've told them I'm taking hosting elsewhere and they said it's not a problem ... so thats something I suppose

Flexible_Friend

Hosting it elsewhere will save you up to £600 a year, every year. Worth doing. Your new web host can arrange/set up the domain on their servers and can even FTP the entire site across.

PaulK_3

Hosting isn't an issue but you must stamp your foot down a bit with the designers or they will take you for a ride. Make sure you get clear and precise documentation/ instructions, keep all correspondance from them just in case, make sure you get everything that they state you will get and then ask for advice on hosting here as obviously there are people that can assist you in finding a better deal

peanutpie05

Thanks alot you guys ... you''ve been great. I've had an awful day with this .... money is so tight and I'm so scared of it all going wrong (need to feed my 4 little ones!)

Paul ... you are right, and I will def ask some more questions.

On the upside ... from what I've seen so far ... it should be a good site and the designer is very pro-active on the marketing side (lots of advice on how to raise the profile of the site). Also, I'm trying (rather desperately) to console myself that one designer I spoke to https://www.webexpectations.co.uk I think ... said a site would cost me between £7k and £22k :eek: :eek: :eek:
They do build lovely sites though:o

I'm half tempted to say to my designer that I think he is taking the p*** - but I don't thinkthat will acheive anything:rolleyes:

I've taken out a months hosting with i-websolutions and I'll see how it goes ... I'm not tied in ... so ...

I couldn't see how to link my registration (on 123reg) to the hosting (i-websolutions) but I sent an email and they've replied in less than 5 hours which is a good sign. I've paid £5.99 for the month - though I may be able to downgrade next month (just wanted to err on the side of caution to start with and went for one of the better packages.

Now I'm off to see if I can link them up as they have instructed:o

geordie_joe

peanutpie05 wrote: »

Now I'm off to see if I can link them up as they have instructed:o

It shouldn't be a problem, if your host has given you their dns details then you just enter them into your 123reg account and it's done.

ormus

http://www.qiq.co.uk/technology_host.php

try these peeps, well respected, tell them i sent you.
i have no other connection to them, just know they are the good guys.
bit cheaper than your quote!!!

mtm81

Just to add my thoughts:

1) the price of the build - I've seen comments above both postive and negative for the cost to the client. To be honest, that price could be really cheap or really expensive. It's all dependant upon what the site does and how it does it. For example- my company- a run of the mill e-commerce site would be a similar price to yours, however, how does the site handle the orders, can you self-update? Is the site built using a pre-existing piece of cart software, or is it custom built/hand-coded to your specs? What about the design - is this using some exsiting branding you have, or is the designer having to do that as well...

All these factors, plus LOADS more can massively change a price for a site.. so I think your price is good if YOU think it is.. after all, your basically paying for someone's expertise, not an actual product as such.. and I guess you have to make up your mind if you feel their time is worth what they say it is.




However onto the main point - the hosting:

One thing you haven't told us (unless I've missed it) is what coding language the site is built in.. It's unlikely to be built without some kind of database interaction (unless they're using something like Actinic) in which case the site will be using either PHP, ASP,.NET or coldfusion.

PHP will run on just about any type of server,
ASP and .NET only on Windows (stable)
and coldfusion only on a server specifically set up for it.



If theya re using PHP, you would be best off getting a Linux server hosting (the cheapest type generally)... even a company such as fasthosts will offer you a Linux Hosting account from £3.99 per month, with a Windows one (for ASP based sites) for £4.99 a month.


The only other cost would have over and above that would be the type of database they are running.. If the site is in PHP then that would probably be running a MYSQL db in which case there wouldn't be any more charges.. however if the site is running from a MSSQL database your hosting may be slightly more expensive per month..




Sorry if that's confused you! - however all of the above need to be considered..


In short - your site should be no more than approx £7 per month in hosting to get you started!


HTH

James Robson
Patchwork Media

peanutpie05

Hi mtm81

Thanks so much for posting.

I can confirm that the site will be running with php and mysql (the designer asked me to make sure if I got my own hosting that it supported both of these). I have gone for the 5.99 package from these people: https://www.i-websolutions.co.uk . It may be a little above what I need but it is only £5.99 a month, no contract and so far they have replied to 2 of my support tickets in only a few hours .... very impressed!

They have a statistics bar (I expect all host do?) so I'll be able to see if I have bought way more diskspace and bandwidth than I really need and I can review whether I have the right package on a month by month basis.

In terms of what I am getting for my money. Well - so far we have had 3 face to face meetings discussing look, layout and functionality. The store will have the usual category and subcategory set up with extra things like reviews function, related items function, reporting, stock management, accounts facility (place orders with or without account), order tracking facility (linked to Royal Mail) etc.

I started back at work this week ( I work part time for a software company) These people have their own reporting software - they don't touch ecommerce. I did get to speak to someone yesterday where I work and he said that once the site was built I could probably come to him for help or if I needed to make some changes (save me the £100 per month:eek: support fee my current designer wants to charge me). They might not be able to help with everything ... but at least it's a start.

All in all - as I've said before ... I do think I'll be getting a fairly good site for my money. I'm just upset that he's trying ot pull the wool over my eyes with the ongoing costs.

Should I check that I will get my site build on disk? Or is this not really an issue? Sorry if that's a really silly question!!

How much is it to buy your own server ... has anyone done it?