1and1 Hosting offers great value at a decent price. In business since 1998, 1and1 hosting has slowly grown into a significant hosting site that served as a dominant player in the industry in Europe before opening operations in the US in 2003. Since then, they have come to encompass four million users and continue to grow. The best aspect of 1 and 1 is that they offer both Linux based and Windows based systems at relatively similar prices, which is unique in the web hosting business.
Value & Price
1and1 Hosting offers great value for their services. Both beginner Linux and Microsoft packages start at $2.99/month for the Beginner package and go up to $19.99/month for the Developer package. All accounts, from the lowest to the highest, in both Linux and MS, include:
- 10GB up to 300 GB web space;
- 300GB up to 3000 transfer volume;
- 1 to 50 FTP accounts and 1 and 1 website builders;
- FrontPage Extensions;
- CGI library;
- PHP3, PHP4 and PHP5;
- RSS feed;
- MySQL Database;
- 1 to 5 domain names;
- 20 to 200 external domains and 25 to 600 Sub-domains;
- IMAP & POP3, email forwarding and auto response;
- Spam filter; Firewall;
- Daily website backup;
- 90 day money back guarantee;
- Access to Google Webmaster Tools;
- Linux: $50 Microsoft AD Center credit, $25 Google AdWords Credit and $25 CitySearch credit;
- MS: $50 to $100 Microsoft AD Center credit, $25 to $100 Google AdWords, $25 to $100 CitySearch credit;
- 24/7 phone and email support.
As you can see, most of these double as you go up from the basic plan. Additional features of higher level packages include GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate; Secure Shell (SSH) Access; Proxy SSL Encryption; Cron Jobs/Scheduled Tasks; CGI Script Monitor; Perl Syntax Checker; 1and1 Dynamic Content Catalog; Maps & Directions; PDF2Web Converter; Dynamic SiteCreator; Graphic Archive; Premium Software Suite; Server Side Includes (SSI); Server Priority; Chat Channels; In2site Live Dialogue; 1and1 E-mail Marketing Tool; 1and1 Web Statistics.
Reliability
1and1 Hosting offers extremely reliable service and backup for clients. They operate four data services worldwide, and own two of them; this adds up to over 27,000 high-tech servers. They are large enough that they have their backbone and guarantee a 99.9% uptime rate.
Control Panel
They operate a custom control panel similar to a Plesk control panel. The interface is easy to use, accessible, and friendly even to the most neophyte users. The control panel allows you to efficiently control and manage all aspects of your account and websites.
Customer Support
1and1 Hosting offers a comprehensive customer support plan. They're operators are available 24/7 all year round, including holidays. You have a choice of email support, phone support, or unlimited access to a knowledge database that is constantly updated to reflect current issues or concerns. Thus you can choose to troubleshoot a problem or question yourself, or email or call them on their toll free number and get the help you need.