Good website builder-hoster which permits many domains?

October 31, 2017 1:23 AM

Hi, I would have expected to be able to find a good answer for this on Google but have not had much luck. I have built and hosted several sites with Squarespace, Wix, etc. and have been very pleased by the ease of use and good aesthetic. However, I need to host a large number of domains (around 10) although many of these require only a couple of pages.

These sites only permit one domain and database per account and monthly fee. So although $10 per month is very reasonable for such a product I would be paying $100 per month even though the actual amount of bandwidth and database space is minimal.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what could work for me?

posted by BigBrownBear to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

How techy are you? Setting up a LAMP machine on a Virtual Server will give you the ability to put up as many websites as you want (within the limits of the virtual hardware, but if you only "require a couple of pages" for each site even the smallest virtual server is probably plenty) for the monthly cost of the virtual server, which generally run around $5 - $10 a month for the basic ones. Since you control the hosting, there's a lot of configuring to get things up and running, but depending on the level of fiddling you want there is either just sticking with a text editor and config files, or go with an opensource management console to handle the more complicated things.

If you're not techy, you may be able to find somebody, like through Craigslist or Fiverr, who will do the setup for you according to your specifications so that you can have the same kind of hosting you're getting with the prepackaged-website people.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:50 AM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love my Dreamhost account, which can host many domains and has one-click installs. You could host a domain, install Wordpress at one click, and then have a site up and running. I find Wordpress to be a great site builder - just choose a nice template and turn off commenting, then it won't look like a blog.
posted by beyond_pink at 5:31 AM on October 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

Siteground has been very reliable for me, and permits unlimited websites on basic plans. Plus they are not part of the conglomerate that owns Bluehost and all the rest.
posted by beagle at 6:07 AM on October 31, 2017

2nd the Siteground suggestion. Their WordPress hosting option includes WordPress Autoupdate. WP updates often and manually updating 10 sites can get annoying.
posted by Jungo at 6:41 AM on October 31, 2017

I use DowntownHost and can host very many domains (possibly unlimited) under one account that costs $16/month. I'm sure there are bandwidth and storage limits but I'm probably at 1% of those with the simple sites that I set up.
posted by intermod at 6:47 AM on October 31, 2017

Siteground has become a favorite lately, so definitely look into that. Avoid Bluehost (they have many many favorable reviews on the web because of their very generous affiliate program, but know that they're effectively bought reviews). I also like Webfaction if you want a little more control.
posted by cgg at 7:41 AM on October 31, 2017

I use godaddy and wp premium shared hosting for £16. I can use up to 5 domains.
posted by cakecrumbs at 8:02 AM on October 31, 2017

Response by poster: thanks for these suggestions. i will investigate!
posted by BigBrownBear at 8:15 AM on October 31, 2017

Is the "builder" function a requirement? If not I use webfaction a lot. And Dreamhost a bit. Dreamhost being a bit better for a non-techy.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:55 AM on October 31, 2017