Need Suggestions for Website Hosting/Setup

[FunkyFaulc]

Happy 2014 everyone. I know there is some web hosting expertise here among the clan (at a minimum Ratix since he's running this very site). I've decided to make a website for my side business. It will be pretty simple but what I'm really looking for is a way for people to make an account that they can use to sign up for recurring training sessions. I also would like to be able to accept payment.

Any recommendations? I've looked at just building a free site (abssports camps, stadium roar, etc) but they don't let parents create an account that will save data for future registrations.

Thanks.

Funky

[RaTix]

For web hosting, I would go with Bluehost.com. That's the webhosting I use for this site, as well as my old business site. I've also migrated clients from GoDaddy and NetworkSolutions hosting to Bluehost as well. They really have the best price for all the features they give you.

Unlimited Domain Hosting
Unlimited GB Hosting Space
Unlimited GB File Transfer
Unlimited Email Accounts
Free Domain
Free Site Builder w/ templates
Secure Shell, SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
$100 Google Advertising Offer
24/7 Phone, Chat & Email Support

With that you can then look at which CMS (Content Management System) to go with to build your site. Like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, etc..
Personally I prefer Drupal. It's easy to use and setup, and has tons of modules.

You'll probably want to look up all those CMS's though and see which ones have modules/plugins that can do what you're looking for with the registrations.

This might help you get started and show what I mean.
You can get Drupal Commerce (Free Open Source, Commerce version of Drupal)

http://www.drupalcommerce.org/

Here are some free and paid themes to customize the look

http://www.drupalcommerce.org/extensions/theme

And here are modules for exactly what you were looking for.

http://www.drupalcommerce.org/extensions/module/event-registration

Depending on whether or not you have a Merchant Account to accept credit card payments, you might have to look for Paypal compatible modules. Or not sure if Drupal Commerce has that functionality built in already.
Here it is,

http://www.drupalcommerce.org/faq/payment-methods

Here's the module for Paypal

https://drupal.org/project/commerce_paypal

If you don't have already a Payment Gateway/Merchant Account, and are looking to go that route, I suggest looking at Authorize.net.
Here is the module for that,

https://drupal.org/project/commerce_authnet

Let me know if you need any help.

[FunkyFaulc]

Thanks a ton. Bluehost/wordpress/drupal were all on my list after exploring the last week. Nice to hear from someone with first hand experience. Let me know if you get a discount for referring someone and I'll use yours.

As far a payment I setup a paypal account for business and was also looking at a merchant account. I like the paypal reader as well so I can receive payment out on the soccer field. I don't like the $.30 fee on top of the % fee. But it's for the ease of use I guess.

[RaTix]

If you click the link in my post above for Bluehost when you sign up, that is linked to my affiliate account so I get credit if you stick with them.

No matter whether you go with Paypal or a Merchant account, they are jacking fees from you either way. The only difference is Paypal just takes it up front on each purchase instead of sending a bill every month for batch/transaction fees plus sales %. The only downside to Paypal is the long wait to transfer those funds to your bank account (3-7 business days I think). Whereas with merchant account, after the nightly batch, you usually have it in your bank account in 2-3 days. Which helps when you're cash flow dependent and need to pay other expenses.