What is the best web hosting for an online storefront?

Looking for web hosting and sites that will allow a storefront with ease. I will be designing the website. I need something that allows ease of use, customer service, online storefront, shipping costs and database inside. Please no sales reps from companies, only people who have used these sites and know about them. Thanks!

Buy web space from any provider who supports PHP and MySQL and get the free (open source) software OSCommerce. It is made by a bunch of technical guys who want to be able to run their web shops for free. You don’t need to pay anyone to install it, you just upload the code to your website then visit the installation page, and you are not tied in to some third party or an expensive contract.

It supports many different credit card authorization companies, it is multi-lingual, supports tax calculations, shipping rates, mailing lists, and just about everything you expect from a commercial shop.

My favourite feature is you can make a PayPal shop with no costs at all, as long as you have a PayPal account.

I would recommend "Nearly Free Speech" as a hosting company, I’m not affilliated with them in any way but I love their policy of paying for web hosting by the penny. An OSCommerce website installation will cost somewhere between 34 cents and $2 a month, depending on how big your store is and how many people visit it.

What are the most recommended free web hosting sites?

I’m planning to build a website but since geocities free hosting has shut down, I have to find another web host that is easy to use, navigate, has efficient web tools and has faster loading time. Could anyone share any web host sites and their advantages and disadvantages so I can compare which one is the best? Thanks.

Hi galaxyangel_mint,

The criteria you mentioned seem to apply only to
reliable paid hosting.

I don’t know why you insist on free hosting service
because from the business point of view, they
don’t provide reliable server to run your website,
even though you upgrade to become their paid users
later on.

When you face an urgent matter, they can’t help
you instantly since they only provide email support.

But if you’re building a personal website just to
share with your closed friends and family and not
using it as a business platform, then that probably
justifies your choice.

I personally would not recommend any free web hosting
service for my clients who run businesses because
they really stinks. I’ve used several of them when
I first started out, but they failed me.

Again, if you just want to build a non-profitable
website, any free hosting service will do the trick.
But if you intend to go into business, then I would
suggest you to go get a reliable paid hosting service
which is easy to use, navigate, has efficient web
tools and has faster loading time, as per your expectation.

You might want to refer to the website below which
I found pretty useful and helpful for those who
wanted to know which web hosting service works best
for them.

Best of luck!

Wisely

hi friends,I want to start my own web hosting and own web server. how should i start?

I also know (html, .net3.5, sqlser) I wanted to know How the web sites hosted with web server. If I need to run my own business of web hosting, what should I do? I want my computer works as Web Server or web Hosting Server, then what should I implement in my PC?

First of all you have to know that you have long way ahead.

Try:

- apache as webserver

- php, mysql as language and database server.

- cpanel to give the users an administrative panel.

Good luck