Mr Site Storefront: website creation software

For people or small business that would rather have their own website than operate through a website such as eBay, Mr Site Storefront offers an all-in-one service for creating an online shop.

Impressively, the Storefront service took a lot of the hassle and technical difficulty out of setting up an online store.

There are three different packages available, priced at £25, £35 and £45 per month respectively, with increased storage space and pages available as the price increases. All accounts include registration of a domain (website address), and a free trial is available for each package, of which we reviewed the cheapest.

The initial registration process simplified the complicated task of registering a domain name and sorting out web hosting but getting the store up and running was arduous. This was mostly down to the number of settings and options available, which at times felt overwhelming. There was a useful setup wizard to guide us through the process, which was split into seven steps with plenty of guidance and further information available.

First we were asked to choose one of 10 basic design templates and then the wizard took us through setting a store name, adding product categories, products, setting up a payment system, shipping and finally it published the website to the internet. While the process was complex, the Storefront wizard simplified things well.

The end result can be very impressive, but creating a high-quality site still required a lot of care and attention. Setting up a website isn't a task to be taken lightly and although this service made things easier, it was still time-consuming to make sure that the site covered all the pages we required, and that it was consistent and high-quality.

Mr Site's online support service was good and it included an option to have transcripts of our conversations sent to an email address for future reference.

For some people, selling through eBay will be enough, but for the more adventurous, or if your small business is growing fast, Storefront offers a great service for a reasonable price.