I jumped on the web bandwagon quite early on...maybe 1994 or so? Back then it wasn't customary for your ISP to give you free web space and getting a domain name was not commonplace. I played around with several hosts and set up some local clients with a local host. Their service was nice but $50 a month was steep after a while. The search was on...

I eventually went on to start my own online e-commerce venture selling t-shirts (ugh...what a flop!). I could do all the HTML and snazzy graphics but scripts and the like were out of the question. Setting up a guestbook was a two week project for me back then! Anyhow, I needed some sort of a shopping cart program and eventually opted for MIVA Merchant (very easy, great system!). I needed to find a host that offered it. I started off with Valueweb and had TONS of problems. After getting the guts to move, I chose Simplenet. Again...more problems. The biggest problem with both of these hosts was support. Being a designer and nothing more, I often needed help getting minor kinks worked out. Their answers were often no help at all or they flat out refused to help. After complaining on a MIVA message board I got an overwhelming amount of recommendations for IDesigns. I checked them out, gave them a call and spoke with them. Wow...what a bunch of great folks! We just chatted for a good half hour! I was sold and moved my site over to them the next day.

I now sign up every new client with IDesigns. Granted they are far and few as this is a hobby for me, IDesigns treats me just as important as anybody else. I call and get a live person. If I e-mail them I hear back from them within hours. If I have a question or problem they actually research the dilemma if they do not know off hand. These people keep crazy hours and go far above and beyond of what most hosts would do.

IDesigns may be slow to adapt to new technologies versus major players like Verio and others, but they are overall unmatched. They now run a nice control panel system for clients to manage accounts. Their pricing is very reasonable and they offer four different packages.

IDesigns reminds me of this great "Mom and Pop" hardware shop down the street from me. Granted they don't have everything Home Depot does, it's great to talk live and get great help when needed. I cannot thank these people enough. I absolutely swear by them. You will NOT be disappointed by Idesigns. Check out www.idesigns.net for more info...



Recommended: Yes

Monthly fees (US$): 13-$40
Hosted on Secure Server: Yes
Main focus of Web site: Sales/E-commerce