cost/type of hosting for a business?

**tom999** · 8th May 2006

Hi there,

I've got an idea at the moment and I'm trying to get some costs together.

Below is a rough outline of the idea and approximate needs.

The site will allow artists to sign up and sell art to consumers (ebay-esque but fixed price). Artists who sign up will have their own �webpage� in the form inspiredworks.co.uk/artistname with a profile, pictures of the work and an option to purchase. (estimated space needed per member 20MB for pictures)

In addition the members will give members their own pop or webmail address in the form artistname@inspiredworks.co.uk (estimated server space 30MB max) and an online forum and weekly email newsletter

I guess the website will run on some type of database back end, but am unsure of details?

Estimated first year membership is approximately 200, rasing upto 300+ in year 2-3

So total space needed will be approx 500MB for the website (guess?) and 150 members each with 50MB max space = 7500MB

The server will also have to be secure and capable of handling purchases

We are currently unsure of traffic estimates or cost of bandwidth?

I've spoken to a few hosting companies but had such varied responses i'm unsure of whats best. Had answers from your own dedicated server at �750 a month to our business package at �170 a year?

any help, advice greatly appreciated

cheers, tom999

**Dopey Dan** · 11th May 2006

Check out http://www.servage.net/

�5.50 a month 7500MB of web space + 600GB of monthly data transfer + unlimited emails, looks just what you need.

I use them and have had no problems, they set my account up wiithin a hour and I hosted my web site that day.

Dan

**bmuk** · 11th May 2006

There will be a great deal of custom coding to be done. Maybe php with a mysql backend. you'll need to run all the payment side on a secure server etc which starts to get really complicated if you aren't sure how you're gonna do it.

any shared hosting provider would be ok to start with whilst you're playing but once you're fully setup and growing you would want to think about moving to your own dedicated server but that it's self brings problems such as security, maintenance etc.

I would be inclined to decide what coding languages you are going to use and design the technical setup as it seems you have planned everything else pretty well!

good luck