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finally got the classic "can you help me get my small restaurant business online" question from a friend. I was thinking about suggesting using a VPS + an installable CMS to save some money, rather than dishing out the high cost of Squarespace or Wix or something. What's the best CMS in that scenario? Wordpress or Ghost? Or is there something better for a small restaurant? e: also I know I'd be on the hook if anything went wrong with the server, but my brother-in-law's Ghost blog has been running on a Linode VPS for a few years now with no hiccups, so I feel good about suggesting a VPS
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Aug 13, 2024 18:14
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teen phone cutie posted:finally got the classic "can you help me get my small restaurant business online" question from a friend. Whats the goal for the website? Basic details and their menu? Or online ordering/etc? Also who will be managing the changes/updates? Is it you? Are you going to train them on whatever software it is? I'd really push them to something like a builder that makes it easy, and removes any concerns on your level, unless you really want to help them forever. vortmax posted:OK so I'm dumb as hell about all this. I've got a very simple site for my business. My friend had hosting and handled all the back-end stuff for me. I just log in with cpanel to change the site and handle the email accounts (which are pulled to a Gmail account with POP3). Here are some general steps I hope that help. Step 1. Do you own the domain / have control of it? If no, this is your first step. I'm going to assume you do own it and continue to step 2. Step 1a. you should get the domain into your control ASAP, get it transferred to you. Specifics on this are hard, but you should control your domain name. Step 2. If you want what more or less what you've got right now, you'd be looking for another webhost with cPanel. I believe cPanel has some transfer tools which may make moving easier. Based on which webhost you pick, you might get free ssl via Lets Encrypt, otherwise you'll need to purchase one to keep HTTPS available to the public. You can buy them cheap through resellers. Step 3. Migrate the content / configuration into the new webhost Step 4. Update the DNS records to point to the new webhost You should be done, and new stuff working from the new host.
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Aug 13, 2024 18:25
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That soapbox laundry website doesnt really pass the "bare minimum credible" website expectations IMO. You will get more customers with a wix/squarespace/weebly/whatever site because your business will seem more legitimate. The "high cost" is less than one hour of work per month ($6 for google workspace + <$20 for wix/squarespace). If that website is worth having itll easily pay for itself but making it seem like your business is still open and that you can actually add content to it to support your customers as needed. The ultra ultra cheap option I'd think is just hosting the static site on S3 and then route 53 to point to it. I'd assume that'd be <$1/month but its simply not worth it considering an actually nice website is $16/month and way less work to set up.
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Aug 13, 2024 20:01
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CarForumPoster posted:That soapbox laundry website doesnt really pass the "bare minimum credible" website expectations IMO. You will get more customers with a wix/squarespace/weebly/whatever site because your business will seem more legitimate. The "high cost" is less than one hour of work per month ($6 for google workspace + <$20 for wix/squarespace). If that website is worth having itll easily pay for itself but making it seem like your business is still open and that you can actually add content to it to support your customers as needed. Given that they seem to be lost in general, and relying on cPanel for a lot of extra stuff (like mail), trying to tell them to a static site hosted on s3 seems like a huge leap in expectations and effort required. Does Wix/Square Space include all of the generic cPanel-y stuff like hosted emails? I'm asking because I really don't know. I don't entirely agree with the bare minimum website comment. Its functional, and tells me everything I needed to know about the operation, including links to their social media where I can find updates. A better looking website, I don't think is going to drive much in the way of more people using more of their washing machines. That being said, it wouldn't hurt to make it look nicer, but that is subjective topic all together.
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Aug 13, 2024 20:20
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Rawrbomb posted:Given that they seem to be lost in general, and relying on cPanel for a lot of extra stuff (like mail), trying to tell them to a static site hosted on s3 seems like a huge leap in expectations and effort required. Does Wix/Square Space include all of the generic cPanel-y stuff like hosted emails? I'm asking because I really don't know. Yea agree that S3 is completely the wrong answer, my point was that saving $25/mo is a stupid idea when compared to the value a website brings a business. Forget about cpanel as a model. Square space, and just about everyone else, are going to be google resellers so you get gmail, google drive, etc. Along with that you get a properly setup email so you dont constantly go to spam (if you follow the instructions). Theres plenty of guides out there for moving to theses hosts, because theyre what every other small service based business is doing.
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Aug 13, 2024 20:24
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CarForumPoster posted:Get a simple wix site, theyll have instructions to migrate the domain and prob have SSL on by default. You can look up how to migrate from whatever email thing youre using to something like MS or google workspaces. Quite literally the Hotel California business model. You're latched into their business model and pricing the more you entrench. Same for Squarespace.
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Aug 18, 2024 04:26
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nem posted:Quite literally the Hotel California business model. You're latched into their business model and pricing the more you entrench. Same for Squarespace. Yes that's how literally all web platforms work. Make switching costs high is the fundamental model for all things with a high non recurring engineering cost.
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Aug 18, 2024 18:09
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Rawrbomb posted:Given that they seem to be lost in general, and relying on cPanel for a lot of extra stuff (like mail), trying to tell them to a static site hosted on s3 seems like a huge leap in expectations and effort required. Does Wix/Square Space include all of the generic cPanel-y stuff like hosted emails? I'm asking because I really don't know. It's very much this. I don't even know how to use all of cPanel, just what I need. I tried to change the theme once and broke it so bad my friend had to reset it on his end. I already have a Google account for email / Workspace
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Aug 19, 2024 22:54
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vortmax posted:It's very much this. I don't even know how to use all of cPanel, just what I need. I tried to change the theme once and broke it so bad my friend had to reset it on his end. Then use Google pages it's free and stupid simple and it sounds like you already have access
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Aug 20, 2024 00:48
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Anybody got some up to date suggestions for hosting a simple web page? Friend has a small business that just needs basic page hosted with a few images.
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Sep 26, 2024 18:03
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Justaddwater posted:Anybody got some up to date suggestions for hosting a simple web page? Friend has a small business that just needs basic page hosted with a few images. Google Pages is free if he already has workspaces I think. They have templates, idk if they can take a custom page. S3 is basically free, still lets you route domains and have HTTPS. Bit of a learning curve but you can set up a raw rear end HTML page. Wix/Squarespace/et al if he wants a fancier template and additional features. Theres discussion of this use case on this same page.
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Sep 26, 2024 20:09
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Justaddwater posted:Anybody got some up to date suggestions for hosting a simple web page? Friend has a small business that just needs basic page hosted with a few images. I'd push for the wix/squarespace style services, despite their costs, since you won't have to deal with support.
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Oct 1, 2024 16:22
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So, it’s been years since this thread was started and I’m sure the data in the OP is out of date. What is a dirt cheap—and I mean dirt cheap—shared host for one single webpage and, ideally, an email address? Not WordPress or any CMS—it would be one single hand-rolled page. Not even a megabyte needed and likely very, very little traffic. A dirt cheap host but still more or less decent. At just a buck a month, IONOS looks ideal, but they don’t seem to understand ZIP codes with leading zeros and I’m in the northeast where every ZIP code begins with 04*. I would contact them and ask, but they’ve only got a phone number—no email—and gently caress calling anyone.
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Oct 1, 2024 23:07
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Ortho posted:So, it’s been years since this thread was started and I’m sure the data in the OP is out of date.  Imagine using a webhost that is so bad they exclude 10% of customers because of their bad validation.
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Oct 1, 2024 23:46
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Ortho posted:So, it’s been years since this thread was started and I’m sure the data in the OP is out of date. If you just want a cheap linux VPS there are a ton listed on LowEndBox
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Oct 2, 2024 00:02
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Ortho posted:What is a dirt cheap—and I mean dirt cheap—shared host for one single webpage and, ideally, an email address? Not WordPress or any CMS—it would be one single hand-rolled page. Not even a megabyte needed and likely very, very little traffic. A dirt cheap host but still more or less decent. Nearlyfreespeech is basically free if you put it behind cloudflare and enable caching Then use cloudflare email forwarding to gmail
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Oct 2, 2024 00:37
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yep was even gonna mention neocities and a cloudflare email proxy is 100% free
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Oct 2, 2024 02:14
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Ionos, formerly 1&1, aka the firm that would send you to debt collections no matter how infinitesimally small the balance. Neocities or GitHub Pages is your best bet for a basic HTML. If you need anything with logic builtin, Wix/SquareSpace are again a vendor-lock versus going with a provider-agnostic solution built around WordPress that is easily portable if things go sideways. Keep proprietary tools to a minimum for greater leverage.
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Oct 9, 2024 01:47
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What’s a go to registrar for .com/.org domains that has a DNS API that’ll work with letsencrypt’s certbot to create wildcard certs? Working easily with Microsoft’s Exchange provider is a plus. Godaddy turned off their DNS API for people with fewer than like 50 domains that sucks. I want to switch after being with them for forever mostly due to inertia
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Oct 9, 2024 03:25
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.org, .com to register respective domain. Change the nameservers to whichever integrated DNS provider suits your fancy. Cloudflare is probably the simplest if you can get over their relationship with every three-letter agency you can conceive of... that let's be real: it's 2024.
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Oct 9, 2024 03:55
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nem posted:.org, .com to register respective domain. Change the nameservers to whichever integrated DNS provider suits your fancy. This is awesome... thanks So it's pretty common to split up the registrar and dns SOA nameservers nowadays? I used to run my own dns NS servers back in the day, so I know it's possible... I just moved it all back to godaddy after a while since I didn't have a reason not to use them until now. Say I choose Spaceship.com to transfer the domains to... will something like Cloudflare host the DNS nameservers for free? I guess they get some $data out of the deal, but only who's looking up my domains A/CNAME/SRV/MX records, right? is that enough to make it free? Sorry if this stuff is obvious, if so I'll keep looking/researching. Also, this caught my eye on Spaceship.com's transfer page and made me chuckle: https://www.spaceship.com/domain-transfer-submit/ posted:The .ai registry charges a $140 fee for all .ai transfers. This fee is not imposed by Spaceship and is mandatory by the registry. It will be listed as the price, at the time of placing a transfer order. gotta wring as much out while the bubble is still going strong I guess
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Oct 9, 2024 13:54
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Yes do split up your registrar and DNS provider. I use CloudFlare free for a handful of domains for both pointing records at things, email forwarding to Gmail, and some basic WAF rules to block poo poo countries from some of my things. I've never had issues with my NPM managed letsencrypt certs and CF home self hosted stuff. You get a huge amount for free as a home gamer.
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Oct 9, 2024 14:09
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Aware posted:Yes do split up your registrar and DNS provider. I use CloudFlare free for a handful of domains for both pointing records at things, email forwarding to Gmail, and some basic WAF rules to block poo poo countries from some of my things. I've never had issues with my NPM managed letsencrypt certs and CF home self hosted stuff. Outstanding, thx. I wonder if turning off DNS API (for small fries like me) access is hurting GoDaddy at all… I can’t imagine it’s saving them that much money
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Oct 9, 2024 14:37
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Nope. Long-tail is more liable to move around and drive up support costs. Their brilliant maneuver was to kill email/ticket support in favor of phone support so their support costs become fixed in spite of increasing technological burden. Moreover, phone reps - if they're on with a decent person - want to nurture that connection, which increases customer satisfaction. Who are your best evangelists? Your customers, not marketing department. Closing out that API is good for their business and $GDDY seems to agree.
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Oct 9, 2024 15:43
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I'm finally moving forward w/ my client who wants to change hosts. They have 3 domains, but no desire for a live website. My plan is to get mail hosted via O365 w/ Business Standard license. But what should I look into for hosting the domains themselves? Apologies if this is 101-type stuff. Just seems like maybe some of the more mainstream options are overkill (a la GoDaddy).
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Oct 23, 2024 23:15
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Boywhiz88 posted:I'm finally moving forward w/ my client who wants to change hosts. I wouldn’t use godaddy. How advanced are the sites. PHP html stuff?
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Oct 24, 2024 04:59
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RoboBoogie posted:I wouldn’t use godaddy. How advanced are the sites. PHP html stuff? Bare minimum HTML, and the client doesn't even care about that. They just want the domains and the ability to have something more modern than POP3 support. I like the Exchange interface and I know it, so I figure O365 will cover that part. So I just need a place to park the domains and DNS records, I think?
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Oct 24, 2024 14:13
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Boywhiz88 posted:So I just need a place to park the domains and DNS records, I think? It's suggested further upthread to separate your domain registrar and dns provider, and that might be optimal with vampires like godaddy, but I've been fine having my dns hosted by gandi and now porkbun registrars (I switched when gandi seemed to be going more corporate).
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Oct 24, 2024 14:35
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mewse posted:It's suggested further upthread to separate your domain registrar and dns provider, and that might be optimal with vampires like godaddy, but I've been fine having my dns hosted by gandi and now porkbun registrars (I switched when gandi seemed to be going more corporate). Thank you for the feedback! So from what I understand based off of your post, and the others up the page, is that something like this: https://porkbun.com/products/webhosting/cPanelHosting with the 10 website option may be in my client's best interest? I would work on getting the domain auth code from the current host, Brinkster, and then move it over to Porkbun? From there, I get them into O365 Biz Standard and setup the DNS as required, along with however many licenses will be required from MS? I feel so dumb when I read this stuff that I start to get anxious that I'm missing something, and worse yet, missing something obvious.
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Oct 29, 2024 21:41
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Boywhiz88 posted:Thank you for the feedback! So from what I understand based off of your post, and the others up the page, is that something like this: I have no experience with cpanel but that all seems correct to me, and an affordable way to get the web sites up and running. Spinning up the microsoft 365 tenants will probably be your biggest hurdle.
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Nov 5, 2024 18:57
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bOoOoOb posted:So, it’s been years since this thread was started and I’m sure the data in the OP is out of date. Just remember that if you go too cheap, you get what you pay for. Figure out a base set of features you must have and then find a host within your budget that checks all the boxes. Places like IONOS won't give two shits if your site goes down and likely has terrible support for $1/mo if any support at all.
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Dec 2, 2024 23:47
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So I hear that my current registrar Gandi has been bought out a while ago, which I found out when I went to renew my domains and saw that they want me to pay nearly 40€ to renew a .com and a .cc domain each for a single year. What is a good and reliable registrar to transfer my things to?
Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Dec 17, 2024 |
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Dec 17, 2024 20:05
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I had no issues with porkbun in the past.
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Dec 17, 2024 20:13
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bOoOoOb posted:So, it’s been years since this thread was started and I’m sure the data in the OP is out of date. I had a super-cheap server with IONOS that eventually crashed. Support was next to useless and wanted me to pay extra to have them go fix whatever hardware issue was wrong. They also repeatedly lied to me about what they had done -- things like telling me that they restarted the server but my shell connection was never interrupted. In summation: avoid IONOS.
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Dec 19, 2024 04:13
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Variable 5 posted:
Also avoid EIG Brands (now Newfold Digital) and I've never heard good things about Hostinger.
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Dec 20, 2024 23:38
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I migrated my domains and DNS from Gandi to AWS a few years ago
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Dec 21, 2024 00:45
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Against possibly better judgment, I went with Cloudflare.
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Dec 21, 2024 17:34
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mewse posted:I've been fine having my dns hosted by gandi and now porkbun registrars (I switched when gandi seemed to be going more corporate). Combat Pretzel posted:So I hear that my current registrar Gandi has been bought out a while ago, which I found out when I went to renew my domains and saw that they want me to pay nearly 40€ to renew a .com and a .cc domain each for a single year. What is a good and reliable registrar to transfer my things to?  They were bought byTotal Webhosting Solutions/Your.Online (I still think it should be Youre.Online, but whatever  ) two years ago:quote:In February 2023, Gandi was acquired by Total Webhosting Solutions, forming a new brand, Your.Online. In June, the company announced drastic price increases, including a new monthly fee for mailboxes previously included for free. Might as well just use CloudFlare at the point, I guess. eightysixed fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jan 22, 2025 |
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Jan 22, 2025 17:41
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OK dipping my toes back into webhosting for the client that led me into this thread. Their ancient host has a file manager interface that appears to only be available by way of Flash. Their FTP connection isn't working via the Windows client or WinSCP. But the webpage is a single ancient HTML file anyway... so I should just grab that and move the domains to Porkbun, have 2 of them just redirect to the main one? While that's happening, I would also register the user with Microsoft for Office Business Premium and see what it takes to get the e-mails setup. Anyone see anything wrong with my broad strokes? Any advice? The e-mail itself is just gonna be uploaded to Microsoft via their utility and the user's PSTs. They've been POP for their entire time on the Internet. Wild. Thankfully the main PST isn't overly large compared to some I've seen.
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Feb 1, 2025 01:34
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Boywhiz88 posted:OK dipping my toes back into webhosting for the client that led me into this thread. You can host static pages on S3 easily, fyi. O365 migration from google was easy, never heard of doing it via uploading PSTs but if ms has an official how to then its probably reliable.
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Feb 1, 2025 16:35
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