Curse.com Launches New Guild Hosting Site: WowStead

With have launching a new guild myself, House Hlaalu, I know having everything established guilds have can be difficult.

Well, Curse.com has done it again.  With its endless supply of resources the company’s “new” hosting service, WowStead, has finally gone into public beta. Read their description below.

Wowstead has been in development for a while and the project is now polished to enter a phase of public beta! Try it, it’s free! The site will remain free in the future but some of the features will be part of the premium package, including the Raid Tracker, more freedom on the Calendar, and a custom domain name instead of the .wowstead.com subdomain.

What is WowStead?

  • The Curse team has been hard at work forging the premier World of Warcraft guild hosting site and deliver the best guild experience on the web.
  • We want to invite all MMO-Champion users to check it out. In order to give everyone a preview of the site’s full potential, all premium features will be free throughout the Cataclysm launch period.

Why Try WowStead?

  • WowStead’s guild sites are simple to set up and easy to manage
    • Automatically update your roster, guild ranks, progression and more
  • WowStead’s compelling features and customization options
    • Select from a variety of site themes or create your own with full CSS control
    • Ability to use custom domains
    • Curse Raid Tracker (beta) – a DKP system with a custom addon that automatically syncs in-game data using the Curse Client
    • Powerful calendar event management to help you plan your guild events
  • WowStead’s social tools keep you connected
    • Custom forums that are intuitive to manage
    • Use the Shoutbox for live chats
    • Find the right guild for you or recruit the exact players you need utilizing WowStead’s Guild Recruitment Tool
    • Create alliances with other guilds – share calendars and forums

Read on to see a gallery and my quick review of the handy tools given by the Curse Team.

After seeing the announcement myself, I created a site to make use of their free premium services for my new guild. In under 5 minutes, I was easily able to navigate the site administration control panel and had the site you see here completed in around 15-20 minutes.

The extensive use of ranking systems and syncing with WoWArmory, the core of guild sites, has put WoWStead ahead of the game. With Blizzard’s Guild Achievement system, raid progression and PvP tracking all included, the various statistics of a guild are far more up-to-date for those looking to apply.

I love the site’s look, and will most likely subscribe for the premium service, which is cheap to begin with. Using a “longer subscription – cheaper fee” plan model, I can get the site for a year for under $8 USD! For 6 months it’s just 8.95USD/month, 3-months 9.45USD/month, 1-months 9.95USD/month.

I highly recommend any guild sites not on WoWStead to port over. The functionality of full CSS site design allows GMs to easily keep your old look on the new platform.