How many websites can i host with a webCommerce plan?

Question

I'm wondering how many websites I can host if I have a webCommerce plan? I see that it says 3 users, does that mean website essentially? I currently use Dreamhost and they allow me to host an extremely large number of websites for a low yearly price. I do want to be able to incorporate eCommece with Adobe Muse so the webCommerce sounds inticing but it's hard to justify without being able to host a wide varity of sites since the webCommerce plan is almost 5x's at much than Dreamhost.
If the answer is yes only 3 websites unless you pay more per site, then does that allow you to have sub-domains off of a website? For example if I had 3 sites total and one of them is www.bubslove.com - can I host www.party.bubslove.com without it taking up 1 user?
Thank you

Answer 1

Hi,
First off, aside from being a registrar, through its parent company New Dream Network, Dreamhost just offers hosting. A place on a server to store the website(s) you build from Scratch.
Business Catalyst offers a BaaS model, where all the struggle of developing an effective business platform, complete with site analytics, content management, social media sharing, phone and tablet support, sftp & file management, hosted e-mail accounts, dynamic menu builders, blogging engine, customer database, e-mail marketing, forums, e-commerce platforms, business reporting, event booking and webapps is turned into a process as easy as carrying out a few clicks.
Now, the 3 users you mentioned are actually the number of administrator accounts offered for a single BC account.
You could host multiple websites under a single bc account, as long as you keep some things in mind:
- You can add multiple domains to a BC account, each one pointing to a separate page. You can add as many sub-domains as you like
- Each "separate site" can be customized in any way you like, using separate templates and stylesheets and with custom templates for modules
- System messages, invoices, the shopping cart, system e-mails, will each share a single template (though with some javascript some of these can also be adapted)
- There will only be a single sitemap available
A significant advantage of this scenario would be to have a single CRM database for all the websites involved! Now, depending on the complexity of the sites involved this "multiple-sites-under-one-account" strategy can either be a piece of cake (a few microsites) or an elaborate adventure ( when talking about e-commerce, if you want customized system e-mails and a separate checkout experience for each site)
To conclude, the base of starting this comparison between Dreamhost and Business Catalyst is not justified. For whatever you would pay at Dreamhost, you'd only get storage. You'll add development & support costs To that. With BC's e-Commerce plan you get a complete business setup
Kind Regards,
Alex Pavelescu