*This post is more than ten years old and may be out of date.*
1and1.com is a hosting company who claims to be “The World’s #1 Web Host.” (Who doesn’t these days?) I switched over to them a month ago from Godaddy.
In an earlier post, I discussed my original comparisons of the two companies. For a quick overview: Godaddy.com is inexpensive and well worth every penny. Their online programs are very extensive and always being updated. Their help support is always on top of any problem. 1and1.com is the cheapest website hosting and domain registration I’ve ever seen in my life.
1and1.com
Positive: Domains are $6/year (for almost every TLD).
Negative: You can only buy one domain at a time, so if you want to buy 20 domains, as my clients have asked me to do a couple times recently, you have to buy each one individually. That has wasted a good 2 hours of my life.
Positive: Website Hosting is very, very cheap: $3/month, and you can host up to 25 sites on that one set of hosting! so instead of paying $3.50/month for each site at GoDaddy, I can host all of my sites on one hosting account for $3/month. (That is their smallest account and they have 10GB storage and 300GB Bandwidth!)
Negative: You can’t choose your username for anything. Not for your FTP, SQL database, Control Panel, etc.
Positive: The 1and1.com Control Panel is pretty extensive, and you can do just about anything. And if you can’t figure it out the FAQ is very extensive.
Negative: Their 24/7 Technical Support is horrible. I’ve been on hold for almost an hour before giving up, and another time, when they did pick up, they knew less about hosting than I did. You get what you pay for in tech support.
Summary
If you are computer-savvy, 1and1 is for you, but if you are one who needs tech support and/or don’t have more than one site to host, go with Godaddy.
-Ashton Sanders