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  1. #1

    Best hosting w/ online store

    I'm looking for a fairly inexpensive host and domain registrar that offers some kind of catalog/cart online store.

    I've looked at Catalog.com which seems to offer the best I've found, but the how-to says to be careful with hosting that offers unlimited bandwidth. I don't plan on using "unlimited" bandwidth but i do like not having to worry about it.

    I know very little programming in assembly, C, C++, so I'd like a store that is fairly easy to set up.

    Has anyone used catalog.com's store? I'm looking at their 10/month everything plan. It includes a 50 item catalog, which aren't exactly to my needs.

    I wanted to sell sports team stickers so most products will be exactly the same except for the team name. I've seen that some hosting plans offer variants of each product, and that would fit my needs well since I'll have few products (5-10), but about 230 variants.


    Any suggestions will be very helpful.


    I need:
    domain
    => 100mb space
    => 15GB transfer
    cart/store feature that allows => 20 items w/ unlimited variants
    20 pop3 accts
    cgi-bin



    a plus would be:
    subdomains

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    4,721
    If you look for a host that offers cPanel with Fantastico (a huge number do) Fantastico has two shopping scripts that you can easily install with a few clicks, oscommerce (http://oscommerce.com) and cubecart (http://cubecart.com)

    You could try the "hostquote" link at the top to get some quotes, just mention that's what you need, or have a look in the offers further down the board.

    For your domain, id suggest registering it separately (then if there's ever a problem with one, site or domain, you have control over the other still)

    http://namecheap.com is a good choice
    Hyperconfused (™)

  3. #3
    CubeCart.com looks good.

    I have a question, when I use a store or script like catalog.com's store or Cubecart's script, do i get to custimize the way the page looks? Can I make the page myself then add the products and the links to add to cart etc?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    4,721
    that would depend on the features of the script, i've never used either but cubecart says

    Easy to customize site theme from settings
    I'm sure both can be integrated into your site to some extent, just not sure how well.
    Hyperconfused (™)

  5. #5
    I just saw that CubeCart is free if you don't remove the copyright information?? Would I be able to use it for business purposes and not pay anything if i don't remove the information?


    If I go with CubeCart for 60/year then I'd be looking at hosting for about 7/month.

    I'd still need 100mb+ and 15gb+ bw.

    Has anyone used catalog.com's store?

  6. #6
    use oscommerce its free and totally customizable if you spend some time with it.
    Joe
    www.DollarWebHosting.Biz
    |:| Shared |:| Reseller |:| Dedicated |:|

  7. #7
    Thanks for all the info.


    osCommerce does look extremely nice. I wouldn't mind if it just stayed like the demo one.

    Does it come already like that? How easy is it to install?

    If I plan to use osCommerce, what do I need to look for in a hosting plan? PHP and MySQL? Is that it?

    Has anyone used 1&1 hosting? (www1and1.com)
    I don't like that they don't mention which version of PHP they use, but the prices seem good.

    I have so many questions. For a typical start-up store, generating maybe 50-100 unique hits a day, what should I expect for bandwidth usage?

  8. #8
    I think I've decided on using Catalog.com's $10/month hosting.

    What do I need to make sure osCommerce will work with it? Catalog supports MySQL and PHP 4. Do I need to check for anything else before I seal the deal?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Unlimited bandwidth does not exist. Period!

    This is what unlimited bandwidth means in their conception: http://www.catalog.com/popup_unlimited.html

    10GB is unlimited? I don't think so. Stick to a host that does not offer unlimited space/bandwidth.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Austin, TX
    Posts
    304
    You might want to do a search on the hosting providers you are asking about to find out what other people on this forum have experienced, before you sign up with them. Also search other forums and Google, etc. (Don't limit yourself to WHT opinions.)

    Even if you don't plan to use "unlimited bandwidth", companies that advertise it are being IMO dishonest, so it's a bad sign about their business practice in general. You might want to look at the OSCommerce web site to see what the server requirements are - and if you need to know what version of PHP a host is running, just ask them - sometimes they might have different versions depending on the server or a particular customer's request...
    JC, www.webii.net
    Premium Hosting Services Since 1996
    Custom Development- www.webxess.net

  11. #11
    Yeah, actually I did see that. Although they say unlimited bandwidth and 10gb for scripts or something along those lines.

    Does an online store usually take up a lot of bandwidth in its scripts?

    Originally posted by ldcdc
    Unlimited bandwidth does not exist. Period!

    This is what unlimited bandwidth means in their conception: http://www.catalog.com/popup_unlimited.html

    10GB is unlimited? I don't think so. Stick to a host that does not offer unlimited space/bandwidth.

  12. #12
    Originally posted by Applied
    I think I've decided on using Catalog.com's $10/month hosting.

    What do I need to make sure osCommerce will work with it? Catalog supports MySQL and PHP 4. Do I need to check for anything else before I seal the deal?
    OSC just needs a database and PHP. I have an customer running an OSC site, and uses 30-40g per month, so I'd pick another provider... unlimited does not equal 10gig by a long shot... they should just say its 10gig. I know many online stores that can easily go over.

    find a host with about 500meg and 15-40gig bandwidth that's reliable, there are plenty on here.

    OSC's demo yes it installs like that, and is very easy to use. I've created custom OSC sites with addons such as coupons and affiliate programs as well. If you dont know PHP the addons can be tricky, but generally I think OSC is a fine FREE product.
    Joe
    www.DollarWebHosting.Biz
    |:| Shared |:| Reseller |:| Dedicated |:|

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,957
    Oscommerce is awesome and probably just what you are looking for. I would definetly use it.

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