I was looking for some input from people.

- where are some good places to host an ecommerce website? I would love to hear some suggestions.
- the main concern in choosing would be to have the ability to grow with the hosting company you suggest. where you could feel safe that when you start getting some serious traffic you will be able to get what you need to accomodate.

Thanks in advance.

where are your main customers coming from? or the main target market?

It depends entirely what you're selling, how you're selling it, and what kind of traffic you have & will be getting. It also depends whether this is a serious business website, or what amounts to a hobby for-fun type site. Do you need reliability? Do you need full support and server management?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.

:D Bailey

If your looking to host an ecommerce website get ecommerce where they host it for you. Its easyer and usualy FREE!

Huh?

Sorry Andy, but I can't make heads nor tails of your post. :(

:D Bailey

- the main concern in choosing would be to have the ability to grow with the hosting company you suggest. where you could feel safe that when you start getting some serious traffic you will be able to get what you need to accomodate.


It's probably best to stay away from the mega-hosts then, as many of them will instantly suspend your account without notice if you exceed your resources. What you want is a smaller, well-established host who will work with you. Start with a small account to test the waters, then step up as the business grows.

Rick

a semi managed dedicated server can be good for this ,
i recommend Pacific Rack

It depends entirely what you're selling, how you're selling it, and what kind of traffic you have & will be getting. It also depends whether this is a serious business website, or what amounts to a hobby for-fun type site. Do you need reliability? Do you need full support and server management?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.

:D Bailey


Ok, well lets get answers for the following criteria please:

1)it is a serious business website, not a hobby
2) Reliability is a key factor
3) Will be selling high end cosmetics and beauty products
4) expecting to have signigicat traffic growth. Example of currently having 20-30 online sale transactions per month, and forecasting around 100 per month within 6 months time. With the ability to grow to have more transactions per month without server problems

You should find someone that specialize in e-commerce host and solution. There are companies out that use both php an other things.
Ask them questions
1.If they support there product.
2.if they work with there client to get what they want.
3.what security do they offer
4.Do they use other things beside php scripts
5. do they over sell there server.

marsd, a shared hosting account will be fine for you... no need for a big overseller type plan either, not only will you not need that kind of bandwidth, but you don't need the kinds of crippling restrictions that come with it. Look for a smaller host which specializes in e-commerce, so they can help you with set-up and troubleshooting of your scripts etc. if you run into problems.

Regardless, you do not need anything like a VPS or a dedicated server. A shared account on a small, quality-oriented e-commerce host will be a perfect fit for you. :gthumb:

:D Bailey

Regardless, you do not need anything like a VPS or a dedicated server. A shared account on a small, quality-oriented e-commerce host will be a perfect fit for you.
100% agree.

For ecommerce you will need:
1) Excellent/Fast support
2) Fast accessible web hosting
3) web hosting with PHP/Perl/CGI/MySQL support
4) Dedicated IP address for your SSL certificate

No you don't want to do shared account then you run into a big security issue. That is one thing a lot hosting companies are doing
an soon as CSI starts push more for security compliance a lot are going have some issue.
so if you are running a ecommerce don't run on share. I am work on
one my clients to have there on server.

PCI compliance is a non-issue as long as you're using a payment gateway and not attempting to process the credit cards yourself. Conversely, if you are processing credit cards yourself, storing card numbers etc. then compliance will be a problem whether you're on a shared host or using your own server - and a badly-managed dedicated server could easily be less secure than a well-managed shared server.

Regardless, you do not need anything like a VPS or a dedicated server. A shared account on a small, quality-oriented e-commerce host will be a perfect fit for you. :gthumb:
Agreed +1.

PCI compliance is a non-issue as long as you're using a payment gateway and not attempting to process the credit cards yourself. Conversely, if you are processing credit cards yourself, storing card numbers etc. then compliance will be a problem whether you're on a shared host or using your own server - and a badly-managed dedicated server could easily be less secure than a well-managed shared server.

Bingo. :gthumb:

PCI compliance is largely rooted in the script you choose to use -- and how it stores data -- so to say 'a shared host is not secure for an e-commerce site' is just not true. A shared hosting account is fine (on a well-secured server) and yet if you use something like stock OSCommerce (and store CC numbers instead of using a gateway), you are not going to be PCI compliant.

The shopping cart script is as much of the security puzzle as the server.

And if we are not careful, we are going to turn this thread into a very unfriendly tangled web of PCI security details, none of which are really helpful to the OP. Yes, PCI is a concern. No, you should not let PCI worries stop your project. It is very easy to get analysis paralysis about this ....... don't go down that road.

Choose a quality host with e-commerce expertise and they will be able to guide you as far as what is a good cart, whether you are PCI compliant, what security measures are in place, etc. This is where your host is your partner and friend -- and where a QUALITY host is going to pay off. :)

:D Bailey

I would suggest you to go for the big names, but do give a check that whether they will suspend your account or they would charge you more for overusage of resources.

Typically, a general $19.95 hosting plan "should" include -

1. 2000 - 5000 mb space
2. 40 GB - 80 GB traffic

Some providers offer unlimited bandwidth, while few cap off to 200 GB per month, on an average its a good amount of traffic, but because of Google and other bots, the bandwidth might get over used.

And hence, I would suggest you to use robots.txt and disable crawling for folders like images and other resources, a good SEO might help on this.

HTH ..

Sorry it is true on the PCI on share. Yes on share account because you are sharing an IP an if one account get comprised then the rest will. Share accounts are the easist way to doing even VPS can to. On VPS do a tcpdump an if you see traffic from other VPS then there you go that is not secured. That is one of the PCI thing that they are push. There was already one be hosting company that got in trouble for it. Share account are not good for e-commerce. on a shared account if one site getting hacked then the rest will an you can get the info while they doing transaction. I have seen it happen.

Typically, a general $19.95 hosting plan "should" include -

1. 2000 - 5000 mb space
2. 40 GB - 80 GB traffic

The "should"s go out the window when you start talking about specialized, quality-based hosting. Often $20-50/month will not even get you 1 GB of disk space, because you aren't buying finite resources like hard drive space, you're buying intangibles like reliability and expertise.

We're really into an apples/oranges discussion now. :)

:D Bailey

you're buying intangibles like reliability and expertise.

Thats where we all make the same mistake, we are always after reliable systems, but until now, I havent found anyone, what about others??

I look for big space so that I can have database and files backups every week, and if there servers fail, i just switch to someone else, and for my clients with dating / ecommerce websites, we run website on 3 different providers, if one fails we just move to second one, the only time spent is the time taken by name servers to reflect the changes.

I would say that obviously there is an error in your process, if you keep "looking for big space" and then have to keep switching around providers because your choices are not reliable.

Your hosts should not be going down.

Obviously there is a problem with your selection process, that you keep selecting hosts that go down so much. You are not picking up on the qualities which predict reliable hosting. Re-examine your criteria to find the flaw that is leading you to poor-quality hosting. You should not need to be round-robining your sites between 3 providers.

:D Bailey

No you don't want to do shared account then you run into a big security issue. That is one thing a lot hosting companies are doing
an soon as CSI starts push more for security compliance a lot are going have some issue.
so if you are running a ecommerce don't run on share. I am work on
one my clients to have there on server.

this happened if the hosting company incorrectly setup the server.
Could you described the "big security issues", please? if every user on server run the their scripts as user instead of nobody or system and each user can access ONLY own directory + all attempts of hacking is blocked by Firewall and mod_security...

Does it really matter where you host an e-commerce site as opposed to a purely informational site?

It does if you are in need of competent support, that's willing to actually look at and resolve your issues. Most hosts are afraid of e-comm and won't touch cart issues with a 10-foot pole...

:D Bailey

I scrolled through the whole thread but there're still no recommendations... anybody? Fair comparisons will be really appreciated!

Was anybody participating in the thread helpful to you? Did anybody seem to know what they were talking about or seem to understand your situation?

That's how I choose companies to buy from (not just in technology): I look for companies whose actions and participation is knowledgeable, informed, understanding, compassionate ........ ;)

:D Bailey

Was anybody participating in the thread helpful to you? Did anybody seem to know what they were talking about or seem to understand your situation?

That's how I choose companies to buy from (not just in technology): I look for companies whose actions and participation is knowledgeable, informed, understanding, compassionate ........ ;)

:D Bailey

Haha I just clicked on your signature. But I've just narrowed down my scope, looking for a suitable local host. I'm from Singapore. :)

Good! Hope your search goes well. :)

:D Bailey

THanks all, good info.. :)