Suggestions on SharePoint Public Facing Site with User Registration

Question

I am exploring options on creating a public facing SharePoint site. I need to provide functionality where I allow users to register (create an account) to later login to view certain pages. Is this possible with Office365 SharePoint?

If using SharePoint Server, is it suggested to use FBA or AD? The other caveat is that there isnt an on-premise environment, therefore, I will be looking for a SharePoint host - so that is another question - thoughts on a SharePoint host?

Recommendations are very much appreciated.

Updated to include more thoughts: Basically, I am exploring options on doing a SharePoint site that allows user self-registration. As mentioned, the big caveat is that there isnt an on-premise SharePoint environment. If I explore a SharePoint host provider (like FPWeb - though they are expensive) would you set this up using FBA (SQL)? Or perhaps using SharePoint with Windows Live Authentication? Since it is a public host - I would either be going into a shared environment or dedicated - if there were dollars available to be on a dedicated server. Curious what your thoughts are around implementing a SharePoint site allowing registration and using a public host......and what type of authentication framework to use....while making every attempt to keep cost (licensing and hosting) down.

Answer 1

Office 365 does not currently support the Public Facing sites yet, and there would be no support for self registering accounts.

You can likely find a regular SharePoint host that can provide this functionality but the licensing would likely make this cost prohibitive. If you want full self service then FBA and the custom registration and account maintenance forms is likely the way to go.