4
14 Comments

Where do I get a domain name and hosting for my validation landing page?

Hi, I'm stone set on creating my saas applications but I want to validate my services first before actually building it. Problem is, I don't have any idea on how to better execute this, I kinda know Netlify & GitHub hosting, but should my landing page for idea validation be different? Should I go for Namecheap or GoDaddy?

Or is there any free alternative I could take advantage of?

Thank you IH! <3

  1. 1

    Hey. If you want to build your landing page use: Gatsby.js(great for SEO, have nice performance), Netlify (easily deploy), Github( source code and simple integration with Netlify). I buy mu domains from GoDaddy, but it is not required, Namecheap is also good and have the same pricing.

    1. 1

      Yes I've been using Gatsby and Next for landing pages but often use the standard CRA for creating my landing pages plus tailwind. I just can't wrap my head around hosting, domain name etc. so easily. Thank you @sweatcy <3

      1. 1

        I researched a lot of hosting options and found Netlify and Vercel the best, which I use personally and for my customers

        1. 1

          looking into Vercel now. I heard it before, but I've always used Netlify to deploy my projects. Checking to see if it's worth a switch.

  2. 1

    For initial validation I'd go with Netlify and Github/Bitbucket and a domain name from one of the resellers - Godaddy had an offer like $1 or so for first year.

    1. 1

      Thanks @alexmano, Yeah I'm just a bit confused, for domain names I'll go fore either Namecheap or GoDaddy, but for hosting would it be wise to avail from Hostinger or Siteground or other paid hosting plans rather than Netlify/Bit/Git?

    2. 1

      Also, good stack!

  3. 1

    I buy all my domains from Namecheap.

    Hosting is a bit more of a free for all. Since it depends how deep you want to go. Namecheap does offer cheap hosting which would probably be fine for a simple landing page.

    Alternatively, for validation you could use a web builder with an integration into your mail list provider (assuming that's what you were intending). Maybe webflow or carrd would suffice?

    1. 1

      Yes I know webflow but haven't heard of carrd just until now. Anyway, does your hosting platform has anything to do with your website traffic? I mean, if I hosted my site in free platforms like Netlify rather than a paid hosting - would it make any difference? Thank you @ollyfray <3

      1. 1

        It depends where you go. Free accounts are usually tied to bandwidth restrictions which will indirectly dictate how many people can load your site in a month period. It will also be related to the speed in which your page loads too.

        In Netlify's case, their free account gives you 100GB of bandwidth a month (source: https://www.netlify.com/pricing/). Depending on the total file size of the landing page you host, you can (roughly) calculate how many users you could handle (e.g. your page is 1mb in size, so your page can be downloaded to the browser 100,000 times in a one month period). This is a rough guide, as you'll also have browser caching play a part too which will help so you'll never get this accurate.

        For speed, the page will probably load slower than it would on paid hosting. This is because hosting companies will put their free accounts (a lot of the time their paid accounts too) on shared resources (CPU, RAM etc) which means you are queuing with other people to use the system to deliver the page.

        But, with all of that said, I doubt you're going to be hitting 50 - 100k users out of the gate, so you could start with the free account and move if and when necessary.

        1. 1

          Hi @ollyfray this is so helpful. Yes, it makes a lot of sense to stick with free hosting for now since I'm just only trying to see if the market I think there is actually exists. And now, I honestly feel getting a paid hosting is kinda overkill.

          Last question, on what platforms can I freely promote mail list signups? I know ProductHunt but I want to be everywhere as possible.

          Thank you so much! You cleared a lot of fog for me <3

          1. 1

            I'm no expert on this sort of stuff, but you may want to look at https://betalist.com/ as well.

            But ultimately, you want to promote your business where your customers are. If they are on the Product Hunts of the world, great. If not, you need to go to where they hang out to get valuable feedback.

            Good luck

    1. 2

      @AndrewKamphey browsting thru it rn. Thank you <3

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 28 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments