Do you need to find a Web hosting Provider for your site?

For most people, the answer is yes, but not if you’re planning to use the growing number of what I’ll refer to as turnkey website services. These are sites that you can have up and running within a very short time and then start entering your own content. With these sites, which fall into two general categories, the web hosting is included as part of the service:


Free turnkey solutions—There are many types of websites that can be set up for free, and part of the “free” includes the hosting of the site. If you want a blog, for example, you can easily sign up with services such as WordPress.com or Blogger. Or if you want a community website, you can sign up with social media sites
such as Ning or Spruz.


Paid turnkey solutions—These range from basic site builder programs to shopping carts to specialized platforms for real estate sites or travel agencies, for example. The idea is that all websites need certain basic functions, as do sites in specific industries, so the service provider includes them, along with design templates
and a content management system for a monthly fee. Because the services are all on the provider’s servers, you don’t need to think about hosting.


There are two situations for which turnkey websites can be well suited:

1. Simple sites which require no branding, such Q as personal blogs, hobby sites, or small organizations like clubs. 
2. Complex sites with common technical requirements, such as real estate sites or online stores. Building a database and administrative interface from scratch would be cost-prohibitive, and even the setup and maintenance of self-hosted programs might not be worth the time and energy. 

Whatever the situation, if you’re considering a turnkey solution there are some questions you need to ask:

1. How much control do you have over design and layout? Switching the look of a site is no trick at all because of the use of templates, but within a particular template, how much can you switch things around?

2. Can you have diff erent page structures for diff erent areas of your site (different sidebars or a special home page structure for example)? 

3. Are you able to use Q your own domain name?

4. Are you able to install your own scripts to create new functionality on your site?

5. Are there limits on the fi les you can upload: limits on type, size, and so on?

6. What exactly can you take with you if you leave? Not the software that runs the site, but what about designs, and so on? 

Again, it’s likely they belong to the provider.