Go Daddy vs WordPress

[~mama jewel~]

I'm ready to take the leap of starting my own website. I'm a *real* novice when it comes to html coding. I was going to go with Go Daddy's Website Tonight website thing due to its affordability and templates, but someone was telling me that you don't "own" it & recommended WordPress because you'd have ownership.

I am just needing to find something that is relatively easy to use do & affordable. My quilting/sewing business is small (of course, would *love* to be bigger ) but I thought by starting small at first, I could learn while going along.

Any suggestions? I'm hoping to "ask" my hubs for a "website" for Christmas I know I'll need to get hosting and a cart. So far, if I go w/GD, then I'll use their hosting w/Paypal for cart. If I go w/WP, then I'll use their hosting & still go w/Paypal for cart.

I would *love* & appreciate anybody willing to give me BTDT stories/recommendations!!

[Mama Dragon]

I have a client right now that is hosted with the godaddy website thing and it's terrible. It's not as easy as they make it look. Really, none of my clients who've come to me from "website builders" had any luck making an visually appealing and visitor friendly website. I would do the WordPress thing and move up to a real site later on... given the options you present, I think that's the best one.

[Night Owl]

I'll have to agree with Wordpress. I have to add though that if you're making a serious go at starting a business, I'd suggest getting a domain name, a real hosting account and installing the self-hosted Wordpress. That way, you aren't wasting your marketing efforts on someone else's website.

[~mama jewel~]

I do already have my own domain name. Should I find a host first? Any you recommend for affordability/reliability for a very small business?

I'm not stuck on WordPress either... just wondering what would be the best website "maker" or is everyone here either hiring someone to make their website or just really gifted in computer tech & doing it themselves?

[VeezieTG]

yola.com

i don't know if you own the domain or not, but i just paid $19.95 for the year, (plus went pro for $24.95) and got a domain, all this cool stuff, and its SUPER EASY. someone told me papashop. but it took them a WEEK to get up and running. i launched my site in an HOUR!

[~mama jewel~]

I appreciate the info. I'll look into it! Thanks!

[sunshine1793]

My website/blog is wordpress. I am really happy with it because it is easy to learn and use, and it has a simple attractive layout.

[spunk]

Stay away from that Godaddy web site builder thing - it is a mess ... Wordpress is great for people who are learning how to manage their own site because it is easy to learn and easy to modify and update, and even when you get to the point of being an expert, there are still a million possibilities with WP - plus there are so many free themes on the Internet to choose from ... if you are just starting off, you should not pay more than $5-8/month for hosting. GoDaddy is ok, but there are better hosts out there - I vaguely remember a good one that was even like $3-$4/month ... PM me if you need me to look up the companies and I will look them up and post them here ... good luck!

[SunshineJ]

Avoid GoDaddy. Now I do have to say in their support, I received phone calls on occasion from their customer service to check that everything was working all right, see if I had any questions, etc. and the cs rep was always very nice. That was a nice touch, I'll give them that.

Other than the whole sexism thing with their models, I was less than pleased with their service. Yes, they were cheap. As a web designer, I had already coded my site and didn't really need to do anything using their builder, but the problems I had were elsewhere. For one thing, I closed a bank account over Thanksgiving and forgot the GoDaddy billing was associated with it. When my next cycle came around I was notified that the card didn't go through. Totally my bad. With the holidays and such it took me 3 weeks to go to change the information and my site was completely gone. If you don't pay within 2 weeks, they wipe your information from their servers - and they won't restore it. I have never heard of any company that doesn't allow 1 billing cycle to resolve issues like that! So, deciding their tools were a bit unwieldy, I chose another hosting company. It will take 5 business days for my site to be back up. Why? Because, according to the email I received from GoDaddy last week, they want to make sure I really did authorize the domain change, so I have until the 27th to change it back - they REFUSE to release it before that date. I find that to be cheesy and low, and will never recommend them again.

[spunk]

Yes - I had a similar issue with them, but they gave me the option of paying $150 to obtain a backup copy from their back ups which I paid for 2 sites ... ouch ...

They also made me pay $100 for not renewing a domain on time ...

I can't stand their ads either .... but they are like the Walmarts of hosting and domain registration so I still use them from time to time tho there are much better choices out there and the other hosts I have used also have that extra level of CS ...

[~mama jewel~]

Thank you!

Thanks for "reviving" this thread & giving this addt'l info about GoDaddy. I agree about the "sexism" thing --really bugs me. Plus, their site is really messy-looking/busy, so is confusing. I am definitely looking into Word Press & other options. Thanks again!

[lisarussell]

But wordpress isn't an "alternative" to godaddy- they're entirely different things. godaddy has hosting & domain server. Wordpress is for building your site. Godaddy offerscoupla-click wordpress installs through the hosting control panel plus they offer several other resources for building your site (like the site tonight, which is what I think you're discussing here)

So it's not a matter of godaddy or wordpress. It looks like it's a matter of "Should I use godaddy for hosting?"

I'm really happy with my godaddy hosting, I pay $6.99 a month and I host 20 wordpress sites, one of which is a multi-user version. Every time I buy a domain, I get a free hosting credit, so I have like 28 free hosting credits, but I don't use them because of the ads (so they just sit there...)

As far as backing up my files, I just use an FTP program and copy the entire everything over on a monthly basis.

I've heard that they give you heck when switching to another company. So far I haven't felt the need to switch. I absolutely do NOT recommend iPower, they're complete crooks. HostGator is popular, but I really had a hard time figuring out how to do a simple ftp connect or understanding the cpanel. Hostgator's customer phone support was useless, but Godaddy's has always been helpful and friendly.

I'm not too fond of the GoDaddy email handling features, I find them confusing to set up, but I have not asked for help either, so they may be easier than I give them credit for.

[Night Owl]

I recommend Reliable Webs for hosting. They're affordable -- and they will install WordPress for you. The owner, Kelly, is a WAHM and she also does designs for WordPress.

I use them for hosting now that I've sold my hosting business and I'm thrilled.

[spunk]

The OP was referring to the GoDaddy Site Builder product and we were comparing their Site Builder product with Wordpress ...

Originally Posted by lisarussell

But wordpress isn't an "alternative" to godaddy- they're entirely different things. godaddy has hosting & domain server. Wordpress is for building your site. Godaddy offerscoupla-click wordpress installs through the hosting control panel plus they offer several other resources for building your site (like the site tonight, which is what I think you're discussing here)

So it's not a matter of godaddy or wordpress. It looks like it's a matter of "Should I use godaddy for hosting?"

I'm really happy with my godaddy hosting, I pay $6.99 a month and I host 20 wordpress sites, one of which is a multi-user version. Every time I buy a domain, I get a free hosting credit, so I have like 28 free hosting credits, but I don't use them because of the ads (so they just sit there...)

As far as backing up my files, I just use an FTP program and copy the entire everything over on a monthly basis.

I've heard that they give you heck when switching to another company. So far I haven't felt the need to switch. I absolutely do NOT recommend iPower, they're complete crooks. HostGator is popular, but I really had a hard time figuring out how to do a simple ftp connect or understanding the cpanel. Hostgator's customer phone support was useless, but Godaddy's has always been helpful and friendly.

I'm not too fond of the GoDaddy email handling features, I find them confusing to set up, but I have not asked for help either, so they may be easier than I give them credit for.

[frontstreetmama]

I used Coffee Cup and I thought it was great! It does WYSIWYG and HTML and easily goes back and forth between the two and I had no problems using it to upload to a couple of different hosts for different clients. Once I decided on the look/colour scheme, it was easy to make a template to use for all the pages for one site. I also purchased their slideshow product and found it easy to use as well.