It seems like this was kicked around here, but I can’t find anything recent. My hosting company, Vinsuite, is raising their monthly to $449. I didn’t like them at $149, so I need to switch over to someplace else by the first of the year. Anybody have an inexpensive company they like?
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Curious, what are the features or services you need for your site? E-commerce etc?
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There’s kind of a basic bundle for e-commerce. I’d like it to integrate with Paypal, UPS, Mailchimp and Quickbooks. It needs to process payment, calculate taxes, discounts, shipping costs on website orders. It needs to manage mailing lists and email campaigns, or at least coordinate with mailchimp to do so. It needs to manage a wine club. It needs to generate packing lists, UPS shipping labels, lists of what has shipped and what’s being held. It needs to generate reports for sales tax filing – better yet, export that data to QB. I don’t use a fulfillment service, but I expect most people would want that integration.
I gather that Vinsuite is more focused on things like POS and lots of data on customers and sales., but those things aren’t of interest to me.
shopify + various plugins would do this very well, if not better. but some of those aren’t cheap and may easily be more than $450/month. i would do some research into that world before re-upping with vinsuite, but the disruption in migrating to a new service might be a lot to handle.
Hi Stewart,
Having a technical background (I like to refer to myself as a recovering engineer), I have demoed/used/deployed to many different platforms. Have lots of the plus/minus of many of them,. More than happy to share my experiences with you (either on the phone, zoom or email).
I switched over from Commerce7 to Bottle360 about a year and a half ago. PM me if you want to discuss. Happy to help others.
Thanks. I’d like to take you up on it. I’m not tech proficient, and I may be looking for something simpler than would suit your needs. Can I check in next week?
Stew@kendricvineyards.com
415 806-4944
Mail: 48 Tamalpais Ave.
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Winery (no mail): 401 13th St.
Treasure Island
San Francisco, CA
No real experience yet in this technology space but we are at that doorstep. Not sure one solution is going to do what you want but a 2 hub integration solution might cover you well for less. With that said I would check Ekos as they seem to pride themselves on interfacing with several important applications used in the winery and brewery space. They can be found here … Winery Management Software | Ekos For Wineries.
I realized as I was typing out the wishlist that it seemed like a lot more than I had previously thought. But it was a pretty standard list of functions on my previous and primitive website host, WineWeb. When Vinsuite absorbed WineWeb, they, theoretically, offered the same bundle of services. They just do it more crappily. Part of the problem is that their attention is elsewhere, in the broad range of services they offer that I don’t care about. How about just a functional “Events Calendar” or “Reviews/Ratings” button or mailing list maintenance or a quarterly report that’s pertinent to sales tax reporting? Basics of website hosting got lost. I’d rather take a beating than do a “deep dive” into data of any sort, and all that functionality is just clutter to me, and I definitely don’t want to pay for it. Same with production software, inventory tracking, etc. A quick look makes EKOS appear to offer so broad an array of services that I’m leery of getting back in a similar situation, where the nuts and bolts of website hosting is an afterthought.
I got caught up in the number of functions you were seeking and that’s how Ekos came to my mind. They do not appear to offer webhosting services. Their shtick is more connecting different platforms with their production and reporting software that can provide overall process streamlining. My previous business life experience showed me that with multiple software integrations you begin to see breakdowns and support issues. Simpler functional units that still offer straightforward output/input connections will serve you better in the long run.