[akaDruid]

Hi forum,

I'm looking to switch my hosting from another provider as dreamhost offers more features I want, but I'm not sure which plan I will need.

I currently run have 3 domains. Two are just used for personal websites, the other is one I created as a favour for a church. The combined bandwidth and disk space usuage at present is well below the rate offered by DH's entry level offering.

However, I wish to create a new domain and a new website for a friends shop, and will need all the facilities for processing credit card orders online. Does this mean that the 'Strictly Business' plan is a requirement, or would it be more cost effective to start with the 'Crazy Domain Insane' and buy seperate componants such as the SSL certificate and static IP address? Is everything I need available seperately?

I was thinking of starting with a 2 year plan, but wouldn't be able to do that for the top level plan, if that makes any difference to the calculation.

[Raz2133]

Quote:Does this mean that the 'Strictly Business' plan is a requirement, or would it be more cost effective to start with the 'Crazy Domain Insane' and buy seperate componants such as the SSL certificate and static IP address?

If price is the primary consideration, then I would suggest purchasing the Level 1 plan and just adding the required extras, it will still be cheaper than the Strictly Business plan.

The Level 1 'Crazy Domain Insane' plan is $7.95/month, when pre-paid for 2 years, the unique IP address costs $3.95/month and the SSL certificate would probably cost around $125/year, for a total of $535.60 for the two years, still a lot less than the $1534.80 cost of the Strictly Business plan for the same period.

Of-course, the Strictly Business plan does include some things that are not available with the Level 1 plan, such as 5 support callbacks/month, VPN acceess and Miva Merchant etc. Only you can decide whether these extras are worth the extra cost.

Mark

--
Save $50 on DreamHost plans using PRICESLASH promo code (Click for DreamHost promo code details)

[akaDruid]

To be honest I can't imagine using the support callbacks, VPN, or higher bandwidth etc. Does that mean that the Miva merchant package is not required for offering online credit card payments?

Presumably I can increase the hosting plan at any stage.

[Raz2133]

Quote:Does that mean that the Miva merchant package is not required for offering online credit card payments?

There are many commercial and freeware e-commerce packages, the vast majority of which will install fine here at DreamHost. One such package, Zen Cart is offered as a 'one-click install' through the DreamHost admin panel. I am not sure whether Zen Cart supports credit-card payments by default, but I imagine there would be an add-on or plug-in to provide that functionality. Another option would be to use a PayPal account with Zen Cart, this would also enable credit-card payments.

Quote:Presumably I can increase the hosting plan at any stage.

Yes, upgrading your plan is extremely easy and done entirely through the admin panel, without any downtime or inconvenience. Here is a quote from the relevant admin panel page;

If you up/downgrade or change rebill period:

# there will be no downtime for anything.
# feature changes happen immediately.
# your plan's billing start date changes to today.
# any pre-payment left over is credited towards the new price.
# there is a $49.95 one-time set up fee if you pick a monthly billing cycle.

Mark

--
Save $50 on DreamHost plans using PRICESLASH promo code (Click for DreamHost promo code details)

[nathan823]

If you are doing business online, try dedicated hosting. It gives you reliable and fast connection.

Otherwise, any level will do. You can also start with level 1. The server space and bandwidth will increase 16GB/week

Save $97 (max discount) on dreamhost by using promo code: 97CRAZY.

[Serpentine]

Contrary to the post above, dedicated hosting is only if you disparately need a fast, reliable server for something other than a basic website. The difference between the shared Level-4 plan and dedicated (in price) is gigantic, even though the amount of bandwidth and disk-space that they offer is exactly the same.

You'd probably want to stick with shared for now.

[Raz2133]

Quote:If you are doing business online, try dedicated hosting.

I agree with Serpentine, a dedicated box would be a total overkill for a few personal sites and an e-commerce site for his friend's shop. A Shared hosting account should be fine for his needs and will probably be a whole lot easier to administer too.

Mark

--
Save $50 on DreamHost plans using PRICESLASH promo code (Click for DreamHost promo code details)

[anonymous2]

Strictly business is probably overkill.

CDI with addons and zen cart is probably the way to go.

--
Cut the code, it's their birthday: 9999 => $99.99 Off

[Serpentine]

To continue from what Mark said, the "Strictly Business" plan already comes with some very expensive E-commerce software, which you pay zero for.

And if you don't want that, then osCommerce is good enough anyway, with enough room in the 200GB plans. (you'll find that many amateur e-commerce sites have this tendency of having just around 50GB of web-space, whilst DH offers an astounding 200GB. Honestly, there is nothing better.)

[akaDruid]

Thanks for your help, I have now set up my DH account!