DNN is technically eCommerce ready out of the box - and there is no need to pay for any sort of licence to get this functionality.

Many DNN CE sites are out there running full ecommerce systems on the free community edition of DNN and using the free DNN nb_store dnn module.

What powerdnn are referring to by "ecommerce ready" is a little bit of a complex concept relating to https, ssl and encryption.   This has a lot to do with the way that you intend to accept payments from your users.

There are a number of different ways that payments can be accepted on a web site - but the most common two methods are PAYPAL or a dedicated payment gateway.

If you are happy to use PAYPAL - which can also accept all major credit cards by the way - then there is no requirement for your site to have https / ssl encryption - as the actual payment processing is handled by paypal on their site using their encryption system for the collection of credit card details

If however you dont want to use paypal - but instead want to use a dedicated payment gateway - then in most cases the payment gateway will require you to have an encrypted payment page on your site where the credit card details are collected.  

The $20 per month package on powerdnn does not by default give you a dedicated ip address which is required for a ssl security certificate - so using this package out of the box you can only use payment services like paypal.  Which frankly for most people running small shopping carts is perfectly fine.

FWIW the $20 package at powerdnn also gives you access to the CE editions of the most powerful 2 shopping carts available on DNN - smithcart and storefront- im not sure exactly what the limitations are of these special community editions - but between these and NB_Store - which is also completely free - im sure you would be able to get a very functional small 20 product shopping cart site up and running with no problems at all.

So basically for $20 a months on powerdnn - you would get pretty much everything you need to run you site - no other license or fees to pay - though you might want to put aside a few dollars for a good looking dnn skin from the dnnstore to spruce things up and make your site look that little more professional.

I'm sure the guys from powerdnn.com will be able to jump in a clarify further what exactly you get with smithcart CE  and storefront CE

Westa

Well you can build a new dnn site localy on your System if you have IIS, .NET 4 on it (Professional Edition) an install SQL Server 2008/2010 express locally. 

About the costs of a Provider you should also look to the Service they can give you.  As I am in europe and using my own Servers I have not worked with any of the ISP's in your region. 

About learning skinningcan  be expansive in time if you haven't good knowledge on HTML and CSS.  There are some free Skins availible from forge or you can by one from the dnn store or let create a custom Skin.

I went with dnn4less.com and that ended up being a big mistake.

I paid my $100, and they sent me an email telling me to change the name of my servers on my current site. So I did. But there was no directions on how to access the DNN for the site. So I waited about 24 hours, and contacted customer support (each line is a separate message back and forth, over the past 5 days):

Me: I don't know how to access the DNN. Can you help me?

Support: You need to change the name servers. It was sent to you in an initial email.

Me: I thought I did (gave directions on what I did). If that isn't what I'm supposed to do, can  you please tell me what else I need to do?

Support: You have failed to respond to our email, so your claim will be closed in 24 hours.

Me: What? I sent a response in. Please help (and repeated what I said earlier).

Support: We already gave you a response. You didn't change the name servers. 

Me: I told you that I thought I did. Is there something else I should be doing?

Support:  You have failed to respond to our email, so your claim will be closed in 24 hours.

Me: Are you kidding me? I keep asking the same question, but I'm not getting a response. What do I need to do to change the name servers other than what I've already done?

Support: You have failed to respond to our email, so your claim is now closed.

Me: I keep asking the same question, but not getting a response. Please tell me how to switch my domain. If this is too complicated, let me know and I'll go with someone else.

Support:  Either you are not getting our emails or simply ignoring them, we have answered your question three times as you can read in this ticket if you login to the support desk (https://www.teamdotnetnuke.com), no matter how many times you ask the same question the answer is the same.

Me:  This is the worst customer service I've ever encountered. Customer service reps should NEVER insult their customers. Unbelievable. Please direct me to who I can contact for a refund.

So far, no response.

So I guess I'll be going with another server shortly (once I'm able to get my refund).

Very frustrating.