Is anyone using homestead to create websites?

I've done so, but found 2 issues with it off the top. Money can be made, don't get me wrong, it just was not for me. Still use the concept, just not the service.

Anyway, my issues were

• Locked into the template
• When you cancel you lose portability. Cannot take design elsewhere, it stays when you go
• Personally, I can do this better, faster and cheaper with WP on HG.

Can be done, for sure, but its a personal choice.

Thanks for the advice, yeah I have been looking into wp but it's just I have a few friends who want basic websites built, nothing fancy! As for the reseller part, can you shed any light on that?

Regards.

You will find a lot of people that have bad things to say about Homestead. I disagree.
It really depends on your skill level and what you are looking for. I DO have a Homestead account and sometimes will use them to make sites. I find their sitebuilder to be very user friendly and have MUCH more options and functionality than many others out there. I think it is the best option for someone trying to get up and running quickly in a offline website business.

The downside has been presented well by Michael Parsons in the post above. I have several different options I use, from coding from scratch, Homestead, WYSIWYG Site Builders, and WordPress. However, for someone starting out, I do recommend Homestead. Check out this HUGE thread that talks about using Homestead as a complete offline business:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...knowledge.html

Here are their packages including reseller:

Web Hosting Software Packages For Your Website | Homestead

I LOVE homestead, but the problems above are true. If you are just starting out and don't know how to build websites, I recommend homestead..hands down! Why? They have pre-built websites, not just templates, but they have websites that already have content on them, you just change the words to match your business and what you want to say on the site.

It is VERY newbie friendly and I haven't had a problem with customer service. You can ask questions via their forum or call and speak to a live person. If you're just making the sites for friends like you said..it's a perfect solution.

As far as the reseller package goes. They don't call it that which is why you haven't seen it on their website. Even if you call and speak to them and say *reseller* they won't know what you're talking about (at least the person I spoke with didn't) I think it's called the *business package* You get unlimited websites for $19.99 per month..all of their packages come with a 30 day free trial, so you can try it out and see if it'll work for you..if not, just cancel and you don't have to pay anything.

I've switched over to HostGator now though..I haven't built a site with them, I have an outsourcer do it for me so I can't really comment on how easy hostgator is to build sites with. But I LOVE homestead, a lot of people don't, but I do. You can also use your own templates, you don't have to use theirs.

There is also a company called CityMax that has a reseller program.
It's $49.99 a month for your own white-label version.
They allow you to create sites (help) your customers with the design.
They handle everything in the backend. Billing, hosting, customer support, etc.

I haven't looked into a whole lot. Saw an ad and browsed the site.
I prefer WP... however if I was gonna do HTML I would use this company.