I had been using Godaddy for years. First they cancel the shopping cart that worked well and forced us into wordpress.
Now in the past 6 months they have increased the hosting by 60%
I haven’t been happy with wordpress since it started. The hodgepodge of plugins needed, the lack of control to the hosting, reliance on godaddy to maintain the website (and claim to fix issues that keep coming back)
The only site I really know of now is shopify.
I would really appreciate some insight on what the people here use.
I am not sure specifically about shopping carts, but I think our owners prefer using Shopify for our website after testing WordPress, BigCommerce, and maybe another 1 or 2 companies. I believe Shopify is our Shopping cart and Payment Processor also.
To be honest, I liked the way our old Monster Commerce (or Network Solutions) site operated. Mainly for the aspect of processing orders and creating products. I think it may be expensive though.
If I started a new website, I would probably compare Network Solutions and Shopify to see how they compare.
We use a local hosting company and OSCommerce for the shopping cart (website). We played with Wordpress but didn’t like that it wasn’t as easy for us to customize to work with our products. We have used OSCommerce for such a long time that updating when needed and creating different functions are not a problem for us. However, not sure it would be something someone would look for if they want a plug and play website.
We use hostinger.com for hosting and OpenCart for our shopping cart. Have been using them for years and very happy with their service. IMHO Shopify is too expensive. They’ll nickle and dime you to death for things that aren’t included that you really need.
I have used PayPal at my standalone websites since day one. I like it because I don’t have to pay a monthly fee. Plus they offer debit or credit card options for those interested.
We’ve also moved to Hostinger, after decades on GoDaddy. But we’ve never done selling from our own account, so can’t comment on the shopping carts.
But as far as supporting WordPress, it’s a difference of night and day; hostinger is much easier, more up to date, and provides for free things that GoDaddy charges hundreds for.
But it is a host oriented toward WordPress; if you hate WP, then it’s not the site for you. But if your problems were just with how GoDaddy handled things, then worth checking out.
I know that when choosing, there are so many unknowns, that it can be overwhelming to decide.
There are a ton of plug-ins, which cover pretty much any scenario you can chose from. Yes, some are expensive, but usually it is based on your expected volume.
But I found most have very low entry points which is great for small firms
I second Shopify. Kind of a one stop shop, integrates easily with other marketplaces and tons of templates if you want to change up the look of your site with just a few clicks.
I used Shopify because it was pretty simple and straightforward, but if I was starting back up, I would certainly look into hostinger. @Best_Handmade_Soaps has been singing its praises!
Which plan do you use?
How do you calculate shipping If you can’t do calculated shipping unless you do the higher end plan?
Any downtime issues? (ironic because my GoDaddy site is constantly down and can’t seem to handle much bandwidth).
Do they have capatcha?
I am probably making the move soon. They are now cheaper than GoDaddy and they have CC processing built in not as an addon.
None that I can recall, ever. So if they happen, thus far they don’t affect me or even hit my radar.
I have used both the basic (currently $29/mo) and what’s now called the “shopify” plan (currently $79/mo). I pay yearly, and there is a “try for free then only $1/month!” special running now; I did a similar deal when I started.
The shipping rates through Shopify have thus far not been significantly greater than my own negotiated account rates, so not being able to connect a third-party shipping app hasn’t been an issue (yet) for my business.
