These are the tools that I use on my own home-based food business websites. There is nothing I recommend here that I haven’t used.
P.S. Keep in mind that every food business idea doesn’t require a website.
Recommended Website Platform
There are lots of platforms that you can use to build your food business websites, but I only use WordPress. This is the most popular website platform in the world and for good reason.
- It’s Free.
- It’s super easy to use, and even non-technical people can soon build a website.
- It’s very popular, being used by over 35% of the websites in the world.
- Every good host will install WordPress for you, making it easy to get started.
- It is secure and stable.
- There are countless add-ons, both free & premium, to customize your websites.
Don’t worry about getting WordPress right now. Instead, choose your host, and then ask them to install WordPress for you.
One of the reasons listed on that page is that they make it so easy to set up a WordPress site.
The host that I use and recommend is Siteground, and below I explain exactly why I use them.
If you have questions about any other website builders, let me know and I’ll be happy to share any experience I have with those builders.
~Stacey
Recommended Website Host
Your website host is the company who actually keeps your website on their computers. You’ll be able to access and edit your website from your home, but it actually lives on their much better computers somewhere else in the world.
Your choice of host is very important because hosting includes lots of services:
- Technical Support
- Backups Of Your Website
- Website Speed
- Website Reliability
- Security
Over the last twenty years, I’ve used a lot of different website hosts, and about six years ago I moved all of my websites (I currently have four active sites), to Siteground.
I love them for the quality of service that they provide, but most importantly I love them for their fast and reliable technical support.
Things will happen to your site. Sometimes it will break. Sometimes it will be because someone hacked the site, a glitch in some software you’ve installed, or just a mistake you made while trying to do something on your website.
All of those things have happened to me before and they 0will again.
Siteground’s support is the best I’ve ever experienced. They are fast, polite, not-condescending (which is rare), and good at what they do.
You probably already saw that I recommend using WordPress as your website builder, and Siteground makes starting a new WordPress website super easy.
Siteground is also affordable. There are cheaper hosts, but their service is cheaper too. There are also much more expensive hosts, but their support is no better.
More expensive hosts normally just have greater bandwidth to handle lots of traffic to your sites. You can worry about that when the time comes. My sites get hundreds of thousands of page views each month, and Siteground handles that volume just fine. If I get to millions, I’ll let you know what host I use then.
Check out Siteground and when you do, please use my affiliate link below. When you do, I make a few bucks (at no additional cost to you) to support my work here.
Do I believe in Siteground?
This website and all of my websites are hosted on Siteground.
I am also an affiliate to Siteground, and when you signup through my link below, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I’m here to help you startup and grow your home-based food business. This is what I love.
~Stacey
Recommended Theme
A theme sets the general display and operation of your WordPress website. Over the years, I’ve used countless themes.
In general, each new theme I used was slightly more fancy than the last, and that lead to each theme being more complicated and slower than the last.
That changed when I started using Acabado. It’s bare-bones but still pretty. And it’s stupid fast.
Do I believe in Acabado?
Two of my most active websites use the Acabado Theme: FoodBusinessPros.com (which you are on) and RabbitPros.com (which I started with my kids to teach them how to build websites).
I love the simplicity and speed of this theme.
It cost $50 a year, or $99 for a lifetime and you can put it on as many websites as you want.
It also comes for ‘free’ with a membership to Project 24, which I’ll talk about more later.
I am also an affiliate to Acabado & Project 24, and when you signup through my link below, I make a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Recommended Website Course
If you’ve been reading my articles, you know that I’m a bit frugal.
But even I joined Project 24 from the Income School and it was worth every penny.
Since I’ve joined Project 24, I’ve started two new websites, including this one. And I’m actually making income from my websites.
I’d encourage you to start with Income School’s free YouTube Channel.
But please, when you are ready to join me as a member of Project 24 please come back here and use my link to signup.
I’m an affiliate for Income School, and I get a commission when you use my link, and it doesn’t cost you a thing…my money comes out of Jim and Ricky’s pocket!