Build your own website with password protected members area?
Discussion
Morning all,
I'm looking to produce a business website, mostly standard stuff, contact information, some background on the company and products etc., but I need a secure members only area that requires an email address and password to be entered for our product catalogue.
Is this possible with the likes of Wordpress or GoDaddy etc? If so, any recommendations for which one to go for please? I've had a play with both and they are 'ok' but lacking some of the functionality I would really like for a properly slick site.
Thanks in advance!
I'm looking to produce a business website, mostly standard stuff, contact information, some background on the company and products etc., but I need a secure members only area that requires an email address and password to be entered for our product catalogue.
Is this possible with the likes of Wordpress or GoDaddy etc? If so, any recommendations for which one to go for please? I've had a play with both and they are 'ok' but lacking some of the functionality I would really like for a properly slick site.
Thanks in advance!
Yes for Wordpress. There are any number of plugins to choose from. There are free ones, and there are premium, but hardly expensive, ones. Choose the pubins that suits your needs, you can afford, check the reviews, and go for it.
I run a website with WP for a club with a members only section, and it runs without problem.
I wasn't overwhelmed by the service GoDaddy provided. I'm happy to be PMed. Wix has a lot of good reviews. I've tried the free one and it is simple enough but, as always with these things, not as straightforward as the advertising suggests. If you do pick Wix, try the freebie first then wait for offers for reduced prices.
There's the option of stand-alone, ie pick your own hosting service, webauthoring software. You can produce a very nice, distinctive website with Xara. You can change the content of the page dependant on which device the browser is viewing it on.
I run a website with WP for a club with a members only section, and it runs without problem.
I wasn't overwhelmed by the service GoDaddy provided. I'm happy to be PMed. Wix has a lot of good reviews. I've tried the free one and it is simple enough but, as always with these things, not as straightforward as the advertising suggests. If you do pick Wix, try the freebie first then wait for offers for reduced prices.
There's the option of stand-alone, ie pick your own hosting service, webauthoring software. You can produce a very nice, distinctive website with Xara. You can change the content of the page dependant on which device the browser is viewing it on.
Thank you for that, very useful. I've built a site in both wordpress and godaddy now and I'm trying to figure out which one to go with.
Having a private area is absolutely essential for the business and I need to retain control of the site to regularly update content. Our current site (which I had nothing to do with) costs us £250 a month in 'admin' and hosting fees and I have very limited control so it needs to go. Maybe I should just employ someone to build it, decisions decisions...
Having a private area is absolutely essential for the business and I need to retain control of the site to regularly update content. Our current site (which I had nothing to do with) costs us £250 a month in 'admin' and hosting fees and I have very limited control so it needs to go. Maybe I should just employ someone to build it, decisions decisions...
Of the two - you are better going with the WordPress option, it is less proprietary than GoDaddy allowing you to easily move hosting if you need to. It also benefits from better flexibility and options for you to add bespoke coding if you wish.
Employing someone to build it for you is always an option, but will be a magnitude or two more expensive - the advantage of WordPress is that if you want simple functionality added quickly then many plugins will give you that additional code with low cost options widely available. WordPress already has the whole login and membership concept built in from its days as a blogging platform, so a plugin to give a private area is simply expanding on code that already exists.
We specialise in building bespoke business / process systems so have built a number of websites with private areas etc. - you are into multiple thousands to do it from scratch, if you need to bring complex processes online then it can be worth it (staff cost savings can easily pay for many hours of coding!), but it sounds as though you have very limited needs, so perhaps taking a simpler approach will make more sense and minimise the spend required.
If your product catalogue is a pdf or similar then google Wordpress client portals - several options
If it is an online catalogue, then you may be better looking at whether using wordpress and woocommerce would allow you to restrict the catalogue to those signed in - or split the website and have a sub-domain e.g. shop.domain.com which points at shopify or similar where you can lock down the catalogue?
Employing someone to build it for you is always an option, but will be a magnitude or two more expensive - the advantage of WordPress is that if you want simple functionality added quickly then many plugins will give you that additional code with low cost options widely available. WordPress already has the whole login and membership concept built in from its days as a blogging platform, so a plugin to give a private area is simply expanding on code that already exists.
We specialise in building bespoke business / process systems so have built a number of websites with private areas etc. - you are into multiple thousands to do it from scratch, if you need to bring complex processes online then it can be worth it (staff cost savings can easily pay for many hours of coding!), but it sounds as though you have very limited needs, so perhaps taking a simpler approach will make more sense and minimise the spend required.
If your product catalogue is a pdf or similar then google Wordpress client portals - several options
If it is an online catalogue, then you may be better looking at whether using wordpress and woocommerce would allow you to restrict the catalogue to those signed in - or split the website and have a sub-domain e.g. shop.domain.com which points at shopify or similar where you can lock down the catalogue?
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