iWeb Hosting is currently running a special on their dedicated servers. For $69 a month, you can get double the bandwidth, double the RAM and double the disk space as well as free set-up if you purchase at least 3 months of hosting in advance. This award winning hosting company is the home to almost 20,000 sites and has been in business for more than eight years. If you are interested in this package, don’t forget your coupon code: Dedicated 69.
This plan is run on a 2.4 GHZ Intel Celeron Processor, which should be sufficient for most mid-level sites. Under the current special, you’ll get an 80 gig hard drive, 512 megs of RAM as well as 1000 gigs of monthly bandwidth. A remote reboot option is provided free of charge, and you’ll also get spam shield filters for one domain. This is a downside if you were planning on using this dedicated server to run a reseller business, but shouldn’t be too much of a problem for one large site that has only one domain.
8 IP addresses are provided and if you need more, you’ll need to provide justification for your request. Again, most sites won’t require this option. Level 1 Management of your server is included free of charge, and you’ll have the option to upgrade this if necessary. Level 1 includes 15 minutes of software work per month, 1 gig of back-ups, 24/7 emergency phone support and ping monitoring. The next level up is just $25 more a month, or if you really need a lot of assistance with your server, you can purchase Level 5 Management for an additional $150 per month.
You’ll have your choice between CentOS and Red Hat Fedora, or if you prefer Windows, this is available for an extra fee. For control panels, Ensim Basic is provided free of charge, which is fantastic, or you can select CPanel, Helm, Plesk or Ensim for an additional fee per month. Prices range from $10 all the way up to $30 per month, depending on the type of license you require.
Overall, this plan is very well priced and offers a lot of great features and support. You can easily stay under $100 a month for your hosting costs, even with the paid control panels. It’s easy to see why this hosting company continues to remain on top.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
iWeb Hosting
Ecommerce Hosting Considerations
Before you purchase an ecommerce hosting plan, there are many things that you will need to consider in advance. The points below are necessary decisions that will need to be made to ensure that you get not only the best deal, but the best site for your business.
Is Your Database Supported? This is an area that many business owners neglect when selecting a hosting company. You may not be familiar with all of the jargon that goes with website packages, so it is important to check with your web development staff, if you aren’t handling this yourself, to make sure that your current database will be compatible with your prospective hosting plan.
Are There Enough Features Included? Since ecommerce plans cost more than regular hosting plans, you will need to make sure that you will not have to spend more money above and beyond your monthly hosting charges. The ecommerce hosting market is competitive and it is important to shop around before selecting a host to make sure that you are getting the features you need at a price you can afford. You should, at the very least, have a host that provides a shopping cart, SSL certificate, mailing list software and unlimited databases. This way, you can be sure that all of your needs will be met without having to find and pay extra for additional applications.
Will I Have Enough Disk Space? This is an area that many people underestimate. If you plan on having a shopping cart, customer database and a large product catalog on your site, you will need to make sure that you will have adequate disk space to handle these files. Many companies penalize you if you go over your limit and you can actually end up paying more for additional disk space than you would if you purchased a plan that offers a larger amount. It is best to err on the side of caution and get extra disk space than to run low and end up paying more later.
Will I Have Enough Bandwidth? Bandwidth is one of the costliest aspects of owning a website. Popular stores may need quite a lot of data transfer and there is nothing worse than having your site suspended for going over its bandwidth limit. It gives an unprofessional appearance to your store and can cost much more money if you are penalized for exceeding your limits. While simple ecommerce sites may not need a terabyte of data transfer per month, you should make sure that you have at least 10 gigs of allotted transfer in your monthly plan to avoid any future problems.
Will I Have Enough Email Addresses? If your company has more than 30 employees, or you plan to organize your incoming email with several email addresses, you will need to make sure that your ecommerce plan offers more than enough email addresses. These can cost as much as $5 extra per email account if you run out of your allotment, which can quickly add up over time.
These are the most important points to consider while you are shopping for your hosting plan. You will need to weigh what is important for your individual company in addition to these points to make sure that you are getting a hosting plan that can grow with your business and not hold you back.
What Do You Need for Your Ecommerce Site?
Before you end up paying too much for extra applications for your ecommerce site, it is a good idea to do a little comparison-shopping first. You can usually find a web hosting company that offers the features you’ll need bundled in for less money than you would spend adding them on by yourself. Here is a basic list of what you’ll need to run a full featured ecommerce website.
A shopping cart. This is absolutely essential. Most companies offer at least one free cart that you can use for your customers. If you want to accept orders, you’ll need to have a shopping cart. Instead of paying extra for a cart, try to find a host that includes this. Shopping carts can be very expensive, as much as $800, so this is a significant area.
A mailing list. You may need a mailing list application if you plan on keeping in touch with your customers or sending out periodic sales announcements. Mailing list software can also be expensive, so it is nice to have this included with your account.
A SSL certificate. If you plan on processing credit card numbers, you will need to make sure that this process is secure. This is achieved through the use of a SSL certificate, or Secure Socket Layer. These certificates can cost as much as $200, and it is important to find a host that will provide this for you. If you can’t find a host that offers your own certificate, you should be able to find a host that will allow you to “piggy-back†off of their certificate for free.
A merchant account. If you need to accept credit card payments, you will absolutely have to have a merchant account. Many hosts are now offering this option either through their own service, or by recommending a company that offers a merchant account. Before you select your merchant account, make sure that the payment gateway is supported by the shopping cart that comes with your server.
Site promotion tools. You’ll need to have a way to promote your site through various search engines and other venues. Try to find a server that includes this with their hosting package. It can be difficult to submit a new site to several search engines at once and it is nice to have a utility that can do this for you included with your site.
Database Support. Most shopping carts store a customer’s data in a database, either SQL or Access, depending on the cart and the platform of your server. You’ll need to make sure that your host allows database creation and maintenance, as well as a way to modify this database should the need arise. PHPMyAdmin is a useful tool for taking care of an SQL database and should be included for free with your server if you have SQL database capability.
Now that you have a general idea of what you’ll need for your ecommerce site, you’re ready to add any additional features your business may require and then you’ll be set to start comparison-shopping for the best deal.
Disadvantages of Ecommerce Hosting
Whenever you select a hosting package that is geared towards a specific industry, there are going to be downsides that may not appeal to many consumers. Ecommerce hosting is geared towards online merchants and while there are many features that are necessary to running an online store included with these hosting packages, there are also a lack of other features that may be necessary for other kinds of websites.
If you are not planning on running an online store with your website, an ecommerce hosting package will most likely not be a good fit. Unless you need a shopping cart, or a secure certificate, you might be overbuying a hosting package if you select an ecommerce solution without intending to run an online store.
Ecommerce hosting packages typically cost more than average hosting plans. This is because there are normally full featured shopping carts included with these plans and they are quite expensive. When you pay for an ecommerce hosting plan, you are really paying not only for space, but for these extra features. If cost is something you are concerned about, this is certainly something that will need to be factored into your decision.
Since ecommerce plans include a lot of features for selling online, they are typically not as feature rich in other areas, such as disk space, bandwidth allotments and extra email accounts. Many basic hosting plans offer unlimited email accounts, large amounts of disk space and higher bandwidth limits.
Most ecommerce plans limit the amount of email addresses you can have, which may not appeal to a large company that needs several different email addresses. You might actually be better of purchasing a basic hosting plan that offers an unlimited amount of email addresses and purchasing a shopping cart solution in addition to your hosting plan.
Databases are another area of contention. This is an area of hosting that can limit you severely, depending on the type of database you are using to store your data. If you use Access, you will need to find a Windows ecommerce hosting solution, while if your data is store in an SQL database, a Unix host would be more functional for you. Before purchasing space on any server, basic or ecommerce, you will need to make sure that this important criteria is met, otherwise you may end up with a hosting contract that does not meet your needs, leaving you to pay extra for a solution that will.
Basically, ecommerce hosting plans are for businesses that need ecommerce solutions. While the ability to have a shopping cart and other selling features may appeal to webmasters seeking extra functionality, it is important to look at this practically. There is no point in paying extra for features you may not use, and there are many free shopping carts that you can install on any site.
Web Hosting Information’s Guide to Shopping Carts
If you’re planning on running an ecommerce website, your site will only be as good as the cart you select. Most web hosting companies will provide a number of free installations of the most popular open source carts, but which one is right for you? Here’s a quick guide to the best shopping carts.
OSCommerce ’ This cart is a little difficult to configure, especially if you’re not used to PHP and getting under the hood of an application. However, it is worth the extra effort and offers extensive features such as related item suggestion, which is great for add-on sales, and several modules are available to further extend it’s capabilities. The development community is fantastic for this cart and new modules are constantly being added. Most questions on installation can be answered in their forums.
Zen Cart ’ This cart is a bit easier to install and configure, but you will need basic HTML skills. If your hosting company offers Fantastico or a pre-installation, the process is even easier. One of the better features of this cart is that it is designed with your customers in mind, making it easier for them to shop. With shopping cart abandonment continuing to rise, this is an important consideration when selecting a shopping cart. While it is not as extensive as OSCommerce, this is still a solid shopping cart.
PHPShop ’ While this cart is not as widely used as the two above, the people who do utilize it have glowing reports on its ease of use and functionality. This cart is not often included by hosting companies, but you can download a copy from the website linked above and install it yourself. The process is straight forward, but a little knowledge of PHP is beneficial. You can even get help for your installation right on their site, which is always nice to see. This is one cart to watch as the developers on the project continue to work.
CubeCart ’ This cart is not free and carries a $69.95 price tag. The makers claim that over 1 million copies are in use and it certainly is a popular choice. Many people who prefer XHTML and CSS select this cart for its ability to merge well with an existing site design. Multiple currencies are supported and the template system makes it easy to pick a design you like, even if it doesn’t match your site. You will need to have some knowledge of PHP and MySQL to install this cart and configure it, but once it’s up and running, it’s well worth it.
MivaMerchant ’ If you’re looking to spend some serious money, MivaMerchant is very powerful. Some hosting companies do provide a free installation of this cart, valued at around $995. This cart is truly for an advanced business that needs a high powered solution. If your store has more than 100 products, or if you want advanced maintenance, customer care, and administration features, it’s definitely worth the expense. The company does offer MivaMerchantFastTrack for around $595, that has almost all of the features of the full version and this version would work well for smaller companies that don’t quite need all of the bells and whistles.