Westhost

What Westhost is

Westhost is a web hosting company that also sells a website builder and an ecommerce builder, so the store tool arrives alongside domains, email hosting and hosting plans. The company's site says it was formed in 1998 and counts 23 years of experience serving small businesses and individuals. The ecommerce builder is for a small retailer or first-time seller who wants a store online quickly, with a domain and hosting handled by one provider, and who does not want to write code.

What you build and how

The ecommerce page opens with an AI-first path: "Turn your idea into a professional online store instantly. Just enter your business name and a short description" and the AI "creates a ready-to-edit store in seconds." The AI Website Builder is included in every Online Store plan, and so is mobile onboarding. The page also advertises a way to build from your phone: you start the website from your phone with a short guided setup.

If you would rather start from a design, the FAQ says Westhost offers "over 140 stylish and responsive templates for free" with the ecommerce builder. You change them with a drag-and-drop interface, swap the stock images for your own photos, and add pages, design elements and content wherever you want "without having to enter a single line of program code." Every template is mobile-optimized, so the layout adapts to a monitor, a tablet or a phone. An Image Editor lets you crop large smartphone photos, which the page says are around 5 megabytes, down to a size that loads faster and helps your SEO score.

Products go in one of two ways. You can batch-upload them from a spreadsheet, or add them individually with names, images and prices, then publish. You can also set variants such as different colors or sizes. The plan table adds detail on what each tier includes: all three plans accept credit card, debit card and PayPal payments; the two larger plans add variants, product tags for easy searching and different delivery rates; and the top plan adds different tax rates and batch import of products via CSV.

The page lays out a five-step route to opening: add a payment method, add basic info such as currency and returns policy, add products, add shipping costs, then open your business. The FAQ compresses it further for a new seller: choose a store name and contact email, pick a payment provider (the page recommends PayPal or Stripe), and confirm shipping rates. Westhost says it offers free live chat and tutorials along the way.

Selling abroad is covered in the FAQ. You can sell products and services anywhere, with shipping and tax rates adjusted per nation, and the site says it offers several payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe, with payments accepted in almost 30 currencies. A domain is included with each ecommerce package. You can search for an available name with endings such as .com and .shop, or import a domain you already own into the Westhost control panel.

The second membership is general websites. Westhost sells a standard Website Builder separately: the home page advertises it "from $3/month" or a 25% saving on yearly terms for a limited time, and the FAQ describes it as a drag-and-drop builder that needs no coding knowledge. The page explains the difference plainly. An ecommerce builder includes everything needed to trade online: multiple product pages, payment platforms and the checkout that lets customers complete a purchase. A normal website builder does not.

Around the builder sits the hosting business. The home page lists web hosting at $1 for the first month, renewing at $5 a month, a .com domain at $0.99 for the first year when bought for 2 years, and email hosting with up to 50% off on 12-month terms. Its Essential, Personal, Professional and Premium hosting packages each include a free domain on terms of a year or more, unmetered bandwidth and website space, and 10GB of email storage. The company also sells WordPress hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers, so a store that outgrows the builder has other products to move toward on the same account.

The evidence from the pages

The page publishes three Online Store plans, each with an intro price on a 1-month term and a higher renewal price.

• Online Store 10 is $4.00 a month on a 1-month term, renewing at $8.95 (labeled "Save 55%"), with 10 ecommerce products, card and PayPal payments, the AI Website Builder and mobile onboarding.
• Online Store 50 is $6.00 a month, renewing at $13.95 ("Save 57%"), with 50 products plus variants, product tags, different delivery rates and the same payment options.
• Online Store Unlimited is $10.00 a month, renewing at $19.95 ("Save 50%"), with unlimited products, variants, tags, delivery rates, tax rates, CSV batch import and the same payment options.

All three carry the note "Terms and conditions apply," and the page lets you switch between a 1-month and a 1-year term. The site states a 99.99% service level agreement for its web hosting, 24-hour technical support, backed by a knowledge base and blog that answer common questions.

Who it suits and who it does not

The ecommerce builder suits a first-time seller, a side business or a small shop that wants a store, a domain and hosting from one provider and a low monthly price to start. Someone with 10 products can begin on the $4 plan, and a shop that needs variants and different delivery rates can step up to the 50-product plan. A person who wants the store drafted by AI from a short description will find that path front and center.

There are limits to read before buying. The entry prices are for a 1-month term and renew higher, at $8.95, $13.95 and $19.95 a month. Product caps are real: 10 and 50 products on the lower plans. Variants start on the 50-product plan, and tax rates and CSV import only on the Unlimited plan. The pages describe a hosted template builder, and they mention no code export, self-hosting option, public API or integration marketplace, so a team that wants to build custom logic or move the store to its own infrastructure will want a different kind of tool.