Shopping for a Host

I’m looking for a host for an ecommerce site. I'd like to ask a couple questions if I may.

1. Do you have to use the Miva merchant or can I use another solution? I was looking at Paypal Pro. If I understand correctly I can accept major CC’s and paypal, and let them do all the processing for a nominal fee. This sounds too easy, and way cheap compared to the other solutions I’ve been seeing.

2. On this forum I saw the http://www.dreamhost97.com/ link and I’m a little confused. If I use this code when signing up, I get $97 off the price when pay? I was going to pre-pay for one year (to avoid the setup fee) and use this code. So during the initial signup I get billed $97 less?

3. Is there a ‘sitebuilder’ type software here? I noticed a few places had them. That would work better for me as I’m only going to be selling a few (less than 20) things and I want a very simple and easy design. I’m an IT person so the technology is easy, but I’m not much of a programmer/designer.

4. One of the important things I’m looking for is the ability for the user to submit custom text that will carry over into the order/cart/checkout process. Is this as simple as it sounds?

Thanks for any help or advise anyone can offer. One of the things that I like so far about DH is this forum. Many of my other questions have already been answered by searching it.

1. I don't think they even offer Miva anymore, but probably still have Miva sites hosted from when they did -- but ZenCart is in the one-click installation section and you can always install the cart of your choice on your own.

2. Any $97 code will give you $97 on yearly plan -- if that's how the user set them up. They can assign a different rate to each plan. I just put the max on all of them, which ranges from $50 on the cheapest monthly plan, up to $97 on all 1 & 2 year plans. So, even on the cheapest monthly plan, it's still like getting free setup.

3. No, but depending on the cart you use, I'd imagine you would mostly be using their "add products" section, or adjusting the look & feel with code mods or templates/themes. There are free editors out there like Nvu, or commercial ones like Dreamweaver, where you can create the sites on your computer then upload them via FTP. But most shopping carts are their own websites that you just add products & categories to.

4. If it's not part of the cart's functionality, you can always add mods, change code, etc. Doesn't sound like that would be a problem.


Edited to add: I forgot to mention that I tried Miva here years ago and didn't like it. And at that time, DH had some problems with it and couldn't get help from Miva, which led to a lot of Miva users having days of downtime.

Carts like Zen, osCommerce, etc... have a huge following and if you can't get help here, there's probably nothing you would ever need to know that a quick Google search couldn't bring up.

Heheh, that is my site!

Yes it gives a $97 discount in your first year, like Seiler said, and like his codes give.
The only difference is who referred you. The discount is the same. Just check the final price DreamHost send you.

I'm redesigning my site and add more info. Thank you for reminding me!

As for the shopping cart, the most famous open source and free scripts are OsCommerce and ZenCart like Seiler said. They are good, and used by thousands of shops around the world. And there are hundreds of free mods and addons for them :)

DreamHost $97 discount code: 97promo «« Check other codes on DreamHost97.com
All money from 90promo was given to Santa's Helpers Charity

I also forgot to mention.... a promo code will also override a referral link, or if you enter someone's email as a referrer.