http://www.squarespace.com might be what you're looking for. It has a free 14 day trial period and makes it easy for you to set up your site. Monthly costs would be at 8$/MO.
The small company I'm working at uses it and it's pretty easy to keep the website up to date.
"The right tool for the right need."
Could you tell us what about making a website ? Portfolio right?
You could take a look at https://www.one.com/en/
My portfolio is hosted there and I never had any issues and its fairly easy to setup.
You can either use the web editor (I havent tried that) or use wordpress. (either installing it yourself or using their super easy install version.)
This is relevant to me. Recently I have been looking around for hosts as well (in the US) because I wanted to put up a small site and portfolio. I've beening looking at stuff like http://www.dreamhost.com/ and https://www.digitalocean.com/ but I have no experience with either of them (or any host). So hopefully I might see some good recommendations or what to stay away from in this thread.
The web editor I mentioned works via drag and drop. You get guidelines and stuff to place them properly on your chosen template (either a blank or basically finished one).
I made a few screenshots of it. http://imgur.com/a/1Db8K#0
Wordpress is for free so It couldnt hurt to give it a shot, depending on if you have the time to mess around with it for a bit.
It has tons of free plugins and themes which are usually fully customizable, but you probably would have to buy them since you´re using them for business.
I had written a bit more before but I accidently hit backspace...^^
No worries, I'll look into it, cheers 
Paul: Wordpress is a blog. You can either register a domain and use it through Wordpress.com so you don't have hosting hassle, or install it in you own space (and test in local).
Dreamhost and I think all other sites, have one-button installs which make it easy, you don't have to worry about updates cos they update themselves if I remember correctly.
It has been modded and developed toward a CMS so shitloads of small businesses use it with plugins (free and commercial) but it's still a blog.
MaK: I have had dreamhost for several years and I think it's a very good host. Easy to manage domains and space.
It's a powerful hosting, I got it through a 90% discount offer but then the normal price kicked in and I was basically using it only for remote-linking after the first 2-3 years in which I was doing proper webdev with database and everything, so I terminated and switched to ovh (French company).
This one is good as well but I had problems in porting my very basic basic php portfolio pages (they were basic just including other pages) so I've let it die and I'm gonna look for another solution for my portfolio.
Quote from PaulHActually is for a small business, though all the transactions will be handled off site, so it won't require anything too advanced, it's mainly to advertise the business
Fine. What kind of product? Do you have a strategy plan, business plan or something?
I would go for something SEO friendly if I were you (the most important thing ppl never take care).
Also "anything too advanced" if you want to be seen you need to take care a lots of details. Running a website for business isn't just about the Framework part (html/css/js), it's about Editorial work, Technical optimization and so on.
Did you list your competitors or made a list of references? This would be much much appreciated to give you real tips.
Dont use godaddy or 1and1. That's all I can say.
As for me I use site5 but they arent a website builder type of host. You have to do everything yourself. That said, they have been great.
Never had bad experiences with One.com except once and that was during a server transfer, that said when it's running on maintenance it's all fine and dandy.
Quote from SjonssonNever had bad experiences with One.com except once and that was during a server transfer, that said when it's running on maintenance it's all fine and dandy.
Seems like there's some bad reviews mixed with the good here: http://www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/one-com/
The best hoster so far to me is Gandi.net (French company). Their slogan is no Bullshit which mean what it mean. I met them in Paris during a conference and they're very pro and such. And good for you they are running their business in UK since 2008.
So Gandi "simple hosting" + Wordpress is the best way to start imho!
PS: Wordpress is a better solution if you aim for something simple and scalable to evolve and such. Simple website host managers are very limited.
"Small business" "Nottingham" Drug dealer, called it here first.
If you are looking for something to build the site with as well as hosting then I can recommend wix.
Quote from Seldoon182The best hoster so far to me is Gandi.net (French company). Their slogan is no Bullshit which mean what it mean. I met them in Paris during a conference and they're very pro and such. And good for you they are running their business in UK since 2008.
So Gandi "simple hosting" + Wordpress is the best way to start imho!
PS: Wordpress is a better solution if you aim for something simple and scalable to evolve and such. Simple website host managers are very limited.
This is incidentally what MapCore is hosted on. 
The performance (i.e. how fast it can pump out dynamic pages) is excellent. I've used a lot of hosts personally and professionally, and short of a finely tuned dedicated server (as in Nginx + MariaDB) I haven't found comparable speed. Mainly because the 'Simple Hosting' is actually a pre-configured virtual private server with dedicated resources, unlike most hosts in the price bracket.
You do need to do everything yourself, but if you go the WordPress route with a nice premium theme (which I would recommend so that you're not tied to any particular company/host) it really is very straightforward, and there are billions of people who could help in the unlikely event you have installation problems.
I use siteground, an american based company with global hosting. They're a feature rich host and have 24/7 support. They also have a a range of pricing options depending on the intended size of the site.
They support lots of different CMS's all complete with autoinstallers: Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal etc!
Having said that, Gandi seems like a good shout, I've not heard of them before, but then I'm a noob 
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