# Website Builder - Hosting



## Optionbaby (Sep 7, 2011)

I am new to building a website. Any opinions on Magento Go or 1&1. Any advice would be appreciated.


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## printingray (Apr 4, 2012)

I suggest you Prestashop easy to handle and customize. This is also open source please get it from your hosting panel.


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## Silky49 (Aug 1, 2012)

I'm using JustHost.com. They have a drag and drop website builder that comes with mobil website integration. I use Storenvy as my "Store". Its pretty easy stuff. Not terribly expensive. I got my domain free for 12 months and paid $45 for hosting.

Storenvy is free. They charge $5 a month to host your store with your own domain.

iwillstandout.com is my site, for an example.


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## dmfelder (Oct 25, 2008)

I kind of depends on what you're using the site for. If you're selling pre-fabricated product or bulk orders, most site builders will suffice. If you're selling one-off, print-on-demand items (i.e., DTG / direct to garment printing or sublimation), you'll probably want to look deeper because of all the product permutations. 

(Image management can quickly become tedious if you have a ton of options.)

Best wishes.


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## Optionbaby (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks for the advice, we will be selling apparel, auto stickers, etc.


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## Bowden (Oct 11, 2012)

Hosting is for the most part all the same. You just want to know if you need more space to grow that your hosting can do that for you without any downtime. As for site building - there are so many open source options but you might want to go with one that offers you the most FREE add ons until you get familiar with the process. Joomla, Wordpress and the like will do well for you.


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## alstephen (Jul 21, 2011)

I agree with some of the others. I been playing with many different cart solutions, both free open source and lite versions to try out. I like what I saw with store envy, may do some research there.
It all depends on what you are expecting and how involved you need. A simple cart (open cart, presta, will do) or even wp ecommerce. I have one in woocommerce but may switch it since some of the images are not scaling right for thumbs. But with a free/open source you are limited in some cases hat support you can locate.

I was really liking the Magento version (not Go) but the tax calculation didn't work. I changed the value in the DB but it never took. 

Just some of the things I tried and played with.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

alstephen said:


> I was really liking the Magento version (not Go) but the tax calculation didn't work. I changed the value in the DB but it never took.
> 
> Just some of the things I tried and played with.


Make sure you reindex, and that all your taxable products have their tax option set to "taxable goods"


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## alstephen (Jul 21, 2011)

I did it just continued to use the old value. I probably missed something but it was weird.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

When that happens I usually reindex and it solves the problem. Weird.


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## decotools (Sep 14, 2012)

Magento is an extremely robust system that can be configured to do just about anything you'd want to do with an eCommerce site. It's actually what is used by the GAP/Old Navy/Banana Republic company on their site. With that level sophistication comes complexity. For selling a relatively small number of items (<100 designs) Magento is like killing a fly with a bus. It'll do, but it takes a little more effort. With Magento GO they have tried to streamline it, but in the end it's the same.

1&1 has been a major player in hosting forever. As previously stated, hosting is a commodity these days (all basically the same). Just stick with one of the big boys.


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## cryptkeeper (Apr 26, 2010)

IMHO magento go was a major flop. I have developed 6 Major magento shops (100k+ a month in my opinion) and I would not even consider magento (if I was not a developer) unless I had 10-15k to jnvest in it with at least a dedicated server. 

Otherwise I would go with shopify. I have not setup a site with them, but according to their documentation and promises, I believe they would be the company I would go with if I had to setup a ecommerce solution.


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