Hosting providers
Whether you intend to use nopCommerce out of the box or you want to make changes to the code, eventually you will need to host your website so that the public can visit your site and buy your products! Hosting providers literally host your website and provide a way for users to get to your site. nopCommerce can be hosted with almost any provider that uses Windows-based servers.
Choosing a hosting provider is an important decision. There are a lot of factors that should be considered before selecting a provider. First and foremost, you'll need to ensure your provider offers Windows hosting and one of the supported operating systems and databases, and has ASP.NET 4.5 with MVC 4. In addition, the following factors should be considered:
- Uptime: A good provider should guarantee 99.9 percent uptime. Uptime simply means that your site will be up and running and available for users. If your site is consistently down or not available, you won't sell many products.
- Support: Look for providers who offer 24/7 technical support. Ideally, you want 24/7 phone support, but sometimes this can be hard to find. Look for a provider who offers phone, e-mail, and live chat support.
- Cost: For the most part, Windows hosting is relatively inexpensive. Choose a provider who offers annual or semi-annual discounts.
- Dedicated IP address: Most nopCommerce installations will require an SSL certificate as you will be processing credit cards. Check with your provider about the cost of a dedicated IP address for your domain, as it should not be a very high cost.
- Backups: Ensure your provider offers backups of your installation and database. This can either be automated backups or manual, but you will feel safer knowing your data has been backed up.
- Growth options: As your site gets more users and you make more sales, your site will need to grow as well. A good provider will offer options for growing your site, from more disk space to more database space. This would also include moving from a shared server to a dedicated server.
You can visit the nopCommerce website to view their list of Premium Partners. These are recommended hosting providers, all of which guarantee that nopCommerce can be installed and run on their servers.
Note
Real world
Most providers offer shared hosting options at around the same price with 99.9 percent uptime. Because of this, support and growth options play a very important role in your decision. If your site goes down, you'll want to make sure that you can contact your provider immediately and get a response. Also, as your site grows you don't want to be locked into expensive upgrade options.