Other than “dont’ use Godaddy”, what do I need to know? I’ve never owned a domain or had a website of my own before.
- Domain registration/host recommendations?
- Web hosting recommendations? Should I mix #1 and #2?
- Website template creation suggestions? Have fairly simple needs like service offerings and contact forms but want something without rotating construction cones.
- What else should I consider? Security? e-mail?
- Am open to all-in-one for the above, just would like to understand tradeoffs, what to look for/avoid.
TIA
A lot of things, which is why you need to do your own research. Chatgpt can answer pretty much all your questions.
I’m impressed that you found a way to give an answer less helpful than ‘just google it.’ Where do you think chatgpt (and google) get their knowledge?? Threads like this one.
You should als mention the country. Helps if you’re a business and not just looking for the cheapest. And maybe get a all-in-one solution if you don’t want to set up and maintain mail yourself.
hetzner.de uberspace.de all-inkl.com netcup.de inwx.de are some I use or used.
What’s the type of business? Are you just needing a contact page, or is it an online store?
I recently went with square space and I’ve been pretty impressed with it, but it wasn’t cheap. Google around for signup codes.
For domain registration, check out porkbun or namecheap. Email you can use proton or Google workspaces.
- porkbun. Real solid and no-nonsense. If privacy is your main concern, maybe check out njal.la.
- Depends. If what you said is all that you need you don’t really need a web hosting service. Static site sounds to be enough.
- Cloudflare Pages + something like Hugo(highly recommend, if you are comfortable with using command line tools) will be basically free and solid.
- Depends. Ask freely here!
If you create accounts on various sites with an email address on your new domain keep a list of those. If decide to let the domain expire you need to close the accounts beforehand, otherwise someone else can get access if they purchase the domain.
Also you will likely be playing for the domain forever, so just register/renew it for 10 years, maybe you’ll also get a discount.
