Hi,

I'm 'shopping around' for a cms that I can use to build multiple websites. My aim is to use the CMS as an engine to build websites for customers and then hand them over (with hosting) and then move onto the next project.

I currently use Visual Studio (VB.NET) to build websites, but I'm looking for something that has a more pluggable dynamic in terms of add-ons.

Would I be able to develop sites for others via DNN? Is it possible to have many projects going on under one DNN username/membership, or would it be a case of creating a site within my account and then copying that site to another hosting account before deleting the info from my DNN account and starting the next project? Or setting up DNN on the clients hosting account and building the site 'in-situ'?

Also, I've already installed 'dotnetnuke' on my hosting, which cost me nothing, yet there's the Evoq thing going on which appears to cost money, I'm confused as to whether the thing I've got in my (Plesk) hosting account will even work.

Finally, I read that 'dotnetnuke' will now only work with MSSQL 2009, whereas, even though my hosting account only offers 2008, it installed fine and I can log in.

Anyway, before I get stuck in and start creating I wanted to know if I was barking up the wrong tree - Joomla instead?!?

Based on the details you've provided so far, DNN would be a good fit.  DNN Platform is an open source platform that is a great choice for people who are just getting started and want to keep costs to a minimum.  If you have a customer project where professional support and advanced features are needed then you can purchase an EVOQ license for that customer.  The good thing is that the money from these license purchases are used to help fund further development of DNN.

As a .Net based CMS, it is easy for you to use any .Net language to write extensions to suit your customers specific needs.  Of course, you can probably just use some of the thousands of modules and skins that are available in the store to get you up and running pretty fast.  Whether you choose to go the fully customized route or use off the shelf extensions, DNN makes it all pretty easy.

DNN supports multiple portals out of the box and I have known more than one system integrator who used this feature to provide an inexpensive hosting option for their customers who were on a tight budget.  The downside to this approach is that if any of your customers outgrows your hosting plan it can be a bit of a challenge to split their site out from the others in the installation (it is doable, but it is not a recommended task for someone just getting started with DNN).  It is definitely something you need to think about as you are planning how you want to host your customers.  

If you can afford it in the budget of your projects, I would setup each customer with their own hosting account.  This ensures that you can scale each customer as needed without worrying about what other customer might be located in that installation.  It also provides you a lot more flexibility in terms of installing just the modules and skins needed to support a single customer.  Finally, it ensures that hosting companies are getting fairly compensated for their services.  If you have multiple accounts with a hosting company, they are much more likely to give you a good deal on rates and support than if you try and go the cheap route.  Hosting companies operate on a small profit margin and don't prefer to support multiple sites hosted off a single low cost account.  My experience is that you will get much better support from them if they know you have multiple accounts and continue to grow their business as well as your own.  You can't go wrong by looking for the WIN/WIN.