Recommended host for domain and simple (maybe WP) hosting

[FarmerPalmer]

I use 1&1 to host my company website (£3.49/year) and email (£1.49/month)

Have done for a number of years and no problems.

Developed website with Microsoft Expression Web, now available as a free download

[Spoiler]

I'd prefer to find a host who will do the hosting+domain together, so she doesn't have to do any setup... if I find A records confusing how does a typical home-business ever get this stuff working?!

Forgot - should have said that if you want a good, cheap host and domain all in one, vidahost do domain registry also.

[Spoiler]

I'd prefer to find a host who will do the hosting+domain together, so she doesn't have to do any setup... if I find A records confusing how does a typical home-business ever get this stuff working?!

Sure, but the DNS setup is usually a one-time thing. I'm sure the 123reg panel is fairly straight forward to add an A record. Figure it out once, set it, good to go. No need to change unless you change hosting provider.

[d000hg]

I'd prefer to find a host who will do the hosting+domain together, so she doesn't have to do any setup... if I find A records confusing how does a typical home-business ever get this stuff working?!

[Spoiler]

Have used 123reg for buying domain names. I would separate out domain registrar and web host provider.

For a cheap, good web host for non-critical stuff, i use vidahost.

For a few "crtitical" company and e-commerce sites, i use a managed wordpress host - WPEngine. Not cheap, but great product/service. Found another one that I haven't tried, but is cheaper (probably still outside the price range you mentioned though) - Flywheel.

I've found with the managed WP hosts, I don't run so many security plugins, as I trust they've "got my back" on the malware and other attacks. So far, no issues. When I ran my *important* site at vidahost, I found I was paying for a backup service, and also considering paying for a malware monitoring service. By the time I added this all up, managed service was the way to go for me.

[Support Monkey]

Still needs a domain, and more than one page. And a blog (I don't get why FB haven't allowed you to run blogs through their site, all the pieces seem to exist for it).

tis true however facebook does seem to be the way to go even if they are selling business to business, just look at all the companies with FB pages now you will never reach the amount of people with a straight webpage that a facebook page can generate

[eek]

tsohost happily do wordpress (1 click install) and multiple sites for £3 a month.

[d000hg]

123reg although to be honest if their not selling on the site I would just start a facebook page

Still needs a domain, and more than one page. And a blog (I don't get why FB haven't allowed you to run blogs through their site, all the pieces seem to exist for it).

[Support Monkey]

123reg although to be honest if their not selling on the site I would just start a facebook page

[TheFaQQer]

hostpost.co.uk

Can't remember the costs, but that's what we use. Plus if you are doing wordpress, then there are loads of plugins that can do ecommerce at a later stage.

There is also an etsy plugin which can be used to showcase the shop.

(Get her to look at Folksy and Craftjuice as well as Etsy)

[d000hg]

A friend wants to set up a blog/site for her fledgling craft business. She doesn't plan to sell directly through the site, but in shops and on sites like Etsy - so no e-commerce requirement. The site would act as a way to post about how she makes things, what she's done, etc - a shop window rather than a shop.

Now that Google stopped the free business accounts, I'd like a recommendation for domain and hosting. It needs to be cheap, simple and easy - she's tech-savvy but not a techy in any way.

She'll almost certainly go for Wordpress, so I was debating the merits of a Wordpress hosting package rather than installing WP on a generic hosting package. But then many hosts will give you 1-click WP installation so what exactly does WP hosting get you for the small amount extra you'd pay?

So far I checked out GoDaddy since I use them for my hosting... looks like £3-5/month is the ballpark for this.