It had been a while since I wrote my last review. As Epinion was recreating their website early this year, I started something new that took a great deal of my time. What did I do? I created a website with Homestead. No kidding, it was an 60-page site!

The Past
Homestead allows 16 MB web space for each website, but if a site is too big, it can be broken down into 2 or 3, then be linked all together. For beginners, it's real easy to use Homestead because it's all drop and drag. As long as you have a sense of what to put on your pages, just go and look for the elements, and you'll find almost anything you can possible imagine. Homestead has extensive elements grouped by category to choose from, which include "Basic Elements", "News & Information", "Communications", "Entertainment", "Commerce", and "Advanced". Each main category contains a number sub-categories. No HTML skill is required to use Homestead, but it certainly allows HTML markup.

On top of online editing, a Homestead SiteBuilder can be downloaded for working off-line. This is handy for those who have only one phone line, and don't want to keep it occupied all the time. Homestead has a MoneyMakers Affiliate Program for those who want to earn a commission for every sale made through the MoneyMakers Element on their websites. When a site is published, just list it in the Homestead directory, and submit it to some small search engines using the Homestead "one-click" service.

All these were provided by Homestead - free of charge (until September 30, 2001).

Unfortunately, Homestead is not altogether that good. The two main reasons I don't like Homestead are: 1) each file takes up too much space; whenever a page is created, it'll automatically created 4 files, which makes the page size unnecessary big, and 2) it’s way too slow; if editing online, you might as well be using at least cable or T1. Using a 56K modem will take forever to complete one simple step. Loading a page and saving a page could take up to 1-2 minutes. However, editing off-line is rather smooth, it's still slow, but not as slow, at least the chance to get hung up is smaller. For my 24 MB, 60-page site, it took 3+ hours to upload all the pages to the Homestead server.

The Present
Although it was a nightmare to use a different software to reconstruct my site, to find a web hosting service, and to be real creative about a domain name, I decided to move away from Homestead within a short one month after I published my site with them. Now it's a snap to make changes to my pages using FrontPage, the 80-page site is only a little over 1 MB, and the total file transfer time to the server is approximate 6 minutes.

Funny how things happened, as I was working away with the new site, I received several emails from Homestead about new changes. First was about the new subscription Homestead Professional service, next was about the subscription Personal service. This doesn't mean that Homestead is not free anymore, they have a preview version with a lot of limitations.

The Future
For myself, I’ll continue to stay away from Homestead, but for those who are still interested in Homestead, here is some information.

You may join as a Preview Member for Homestead free service, but you will be limited to one website per account and will only have access to the online version of SiteBuilder. Sites will be restricted to 3 pages, 8 MB of web space, without any option to remove the Homestead page bar (their advertising bar). If for any reason your site is bigger than the limit, you will not be able to update it until you make changes to fall within the limit, or to upgrade to be either a Homestead Personal or Professional member.

The new Homestead Personal service launches the week of 7/16/2001. For current Homestead members, there will be a $29.99 yearly Charter Membership, with the choice of an extra 25 MB of storage or an additional $10 off the first year. Note that new members don't get the option of extra storage or $10 off. After the launch of this subscription version, current members will have until 9/30/2001 to decide whether or not to subscribe. Personal Members will get a new version of downloadable SiteBuilder, unlimited number of websites, unlimited pages per site, still no option to remove the Homestead page bar, new site design and navigation wizards, 25 MB of web space , ability to FTP multiple files and folders, and member support via e-mail.

Starting from $29.99 a month, Homestead Professional members will get what a Homestead Personal member gets plus extensive online help resources, site promotion services, custom web address, 2 e-mail accounts that match the web address, and web hosting with 50 MB of web space plus 5 GB monthly bandwidth. Should you need more, you may pay $5 per month for each additional 25 MB of web space, $2 per month for each additional e-mail account, and $20 per month for each additional 5 GB of bandwidth. As well, a $25 fee will be applied to any cancellation on packages within 6 months for monthly payment option, or 30 days for yearly payment option.

Comments
I have no idea how good the new Homestead SiteBuilder is going to be, but I didn't have a good experience with their existing one. It's pretty clear that I am no longer using Homestead, especially I'm paying less for a better service. Although I don't have 50 MB of web space, each of my pages is only a 1/10 of the space that would be required at Homestead. I'm enjoying 25 POP3 email accounts (in fact, I don't need them), and unlimited aliases compared to the Homestead's 2 email accounts.

If you just want to play, Homestead Preview is of course a choice, but there are many more free websites out there. If you're serious about creating a website, shop around carefully for a service that suits your needs most. Once your site is launched, it will be a pain to change web hosting service.



Recommended: No

Monthly fees (US$): $29.99/year (Personal); $29.99/month (Professional)
Hosted on Secure Server: No