 1 & 1 is a big player in this industry and in so being, brings a great deal of momentum to the table, as well as inertia. Overall, we are happy with their services, especially the quality of their hosting itself and the range of features included with their hosting plans.
Reliability
The reliability of 1&1's hosting is great, as is the performance. There were only a couple of minor hiccups to experience and all were resolved quickly and automatically by 1&1. This is a strong point for 1&1 and a significant one. After all, of what use us unreliable hosting? Their scale is, most likely, a contributing factor here, offering them the experience necessary to stay ahead of developing issues. Whatever the cause, they did very well in this area.
Price Value
1&1 provides customers with hosting plans that start as low as $2.99 per month, which is dirt cheap, but which is also a slimmer hosting package than the rest of the hosts on our list offer as entry-level hosting plans, giving you 10 gigs of space and 300 gigs of traffic per month. The next level up, the 1&1 Home plan, moves up into the range of these plans and is competitive at $4.99 per month, offering 120 gigs of web space and 1,200 gigs of monthly transfer. Not too bad at all. Their plans include a host of features as well as marketing freebies such as vouchers for adCenter, AdWords, Yahoo and Cityseach, something not offered by other hosts on our list.
Control Panel
Our experiences with their control panel were mixed. We had no issues with the reliability of the control panel, but did encounter what seemed to be consistent issues with the performance of the interface. It was not a bit slow and even frustratingly slow at times and never as responsive as the other hosts' control panels that made our top 10. This is an obvious area for improvement for 1&1.
Customer Support
As is common for a hosting company of this sort, their phone support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is staffed by courteous and skilled personnel, while their email support could use some improvement in turn-around time. They are not alone in the slow-email-response epidemic. |
