Network Solutions vs GoDaddy or 1and1 For Small Business
Over the last 2 and a half years, I’ve had a few small business clients who have used Network Solutions for all their domain name and hosting needs. While I’m confident that Network Solutions offers excellent customer service and solid (if not spectacular) quality, I can not recommend them to small business owners as a viable option for domain purchases or web hosting services.
Please understand – if you’re looking for a high quality hosting service for your high-traffic website, or if you need a hosting company who understands big business, Network Solutions is probably worth a look. However, if you’re looking for a basic hosting and domain company with good customer service for your simple business website, Network Solutions isn’t the best option. Here’s why:
1. Network Solutions domains are overpriced. Let’s look at domain registration costs at Network Solutions and compare them to costs at some of the other registrars. We’re going to include an email account in the price:
- NetworkSolutions.com – $12 per year for a “.com” domain + $15.96 per year for an email account.
- 1and1.com – $8.99 per year for a “.com” domain + $11.88 per year for an email account.
- GoDaddy.com – $10.69 per year for a “.com” domain, but an email account is included in this price.
Clearly, GoDaddy.com is the most inexpensive option. In addition to being the best value. GoDaddy also allows businesses to re-sell their services for an even lower price. We sell domain names for less than $10.00 at SporkHosting.com (our own GoDaddy reseller company).
2. The hosting services provided by Network Solutions are also overpriced, but it’s more difficult to compare apples-to-apples. Network Solutions is famous for offering powerful servers that are always “up,” so you have to evaluate uptime when you compare Network Solutions to GoDaddy or 1and1.
- Network Solutions promises 99.99% uptime with their small shared hosting package. That means that a website hosted with Network Solutions site will be down about 53 minutes over the course of 1 year.
- GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com promise 99.9% uptime with their smallest shared hosting packages. A GoDaddy or 1and1 hosted website will be down about 9 hours over the course of 1 year.
- Keep in mind that the 99.9% is only what GoDaddy or 1and1 are willing to promise. In my experience, uptime on all of my GoDaddy powered sites runs closer to 99.99%. WebHostingStuff.com shows that GoDaddy has 99.99% uptime and that 1and1 has 99.98% uptime.
Besides, while 9 hours of downtime per year seems like a lot of time, it’s actually less than 2 minutes of downtime per day. Considering that there are 1,440 minutes in one day, that’s very, very good.
Don’t get me wrong – if you’re running Amazon.com or some other major high-traffic site, downtime is a big deal. However, for most websites, 1 or 2 minutes of downtime per day is not a problem…especially when you consider the price difference. GoDaddy or 1and1 will provide hosting for $4 a month, where NetworkSolutions costs $111.48 per year.
3. Network Solutions isn’t the only place you can get great customer service. I’ve worked with both 1and1.com and GoDaddy.com before, and both are excellent compared to other hosting companies I’ve worked with (including Verio, Hostway, and Network Solutions). GoDaddy.com in particular offers superb customer service.
4. Network Solutions isn’t developer friendly. I’m all about using a secure system, but I’m flummoxed by the fact that Network Solutions raises barriers to developers in their standard hosting packages under the guise of “security.” If you’re not a developer, you probably won’t care that Network Solutions won’t grant you full access to a SQL database. However, if you think your business might need some sort of custom web application (and a lot of companies do at some point), Network Solutions might not be your best bet. GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com are very developer friendly.
5. Network Solutions seems to prey on ignorance. In my experience with the company, I feel that Network Solutions preys upon people that don’t know a lot about the Internet, domains, and web hosting. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
Network Solutions offers a special “Wordpress hosting package” that promises an easy install. This package seems like a good deal, but here’s what’s wrong with it:
- First, the way that the “free” domain name resolves almost guarantees search engines won’t index your blog. Without getting all technical, Network Solutions uses a simple forward and mask to make it look like your blog has it’s own address. However, in reality, your blog is sitting on some obscure domain like “012abc.netsolhost.com/WordPress/.” That’s a formula for SEO disaster.
- Second, the Network Solutions dedicated Wordpress hosting plan does not include FTP access. FTP access – which you’ll need to host large files, upload custom theme images, etc. – is extra.
- Third, the “value” of the Network Solutions Wordpress Hosting package is very limited. GoDaddy offers a free wordpress installation system with all of their hosting accounts, including their $3.99 a month economy hosting package. For roughly the same price, GoDaddy provides multiple FTP accounts, multiple SQL databases (so you can use Wordpress alongside other systems), and a very decent “website tonight” template website system that’s not too bad.
In short, GoDaddy’s cheapest hosting package offers significantly more than the Network Solutions “Wordpress only” package, while costing just a few dollars more.
Bottom line: Network Solutions offers great customer service and excellent quality servers, but their pricing is too high, they restrict what their customers can do, and they seem to prey upon consumer ignorance. Network Solutions isn’t alone in these practices of course, but I think all small business owners should review GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com before choosing a hosting and domain registration company.
Comments
Shashi Bellamkonda Dec 14th, 2009
Hi Jason,
I stopped by to let you know that your feedback on Network Solutions is read. As a progressive company we welcome feedback that will help us in our goal to help Small Business succeed.I agree that Small business owners should review all their options and choose their provider carefully and should consider that Network Solutions is very competitive in service and customers get domain names free with annual hosting making the price competitive. I will pass this post on to our product team as feedback from a customer.
Thanks,
Shashi
admin Dec 20th, 2009
Shashi – Thanks.
Mark Jan 1st, 2010
you neglected to mention how hard it is to work with the netsol website for maintenance of your sites.
the netsol website is in constant sales mode.
admin Jan 2nd, 2010
Mark – Good point. Thanks for chiming in.
Jason Lancaster Jan 4th, 2010
Hi Jason. Just wanted to chime in from a developers perspective. I’m personally against all three. In my experience, all have been plagued by reliability problems, typically (but not only) the “oh your memory was sucked up by a rogue site reboot” where you can never get any more information about what happened.
As you said, nwsol isn’t very developer friendly but all of them are “fluffy” service providers offering loads of crap in an interface that is all too cumbersome. Take 1and1’s domain management — it’s an exercise in what the web looked like in ‘99.
Anyway, all that to say I trend to the simplest of all hosting plans on the most reliable and easily scalable of hosting companies, like Rackspaces cloud hosting: http://www.rackspacecloud.com/
Everyone has their favorite, of course… but I’ve never heard a peep from anyone I’ve turned away from the big two, nwsol or godaddy.
-The other Jason!
admin Jan 4th, 2010
Jason – First of all, great name!
We need to go to lunch sometime since we have the same name and work in the same industry.
As for your comments, you’re absolutely right I think. I struggle with kookey rules that GoDaddy and 1and1 setup, and I’m always wondering if my hosting provider is the cause of an error.
I’ve never used Rackspace, but I haven’t ever heard anything bad about them. I think developers are wise to use them, but I have the same cost concerns for small business owners. Many of my clients need nothing more than an online brochure, so I think GoDaddy is appropriate.
I like your analogy about 1and1’s domain management system – UGLY.
Thanks for commenting.
Russ Jan 5th, 2010
Netsol from my experience is good, but you do need to jump through to many hoops. I am well established with them and have been for years, while I know that they have problems I am sadly a loyal user of NetSol.
Network Solutions please do not test me in this because you will lose a long term customer. I understand that internet programming and site building is a difficult thing and all these companies must offer a simplistic solution for the bulk of users. Unfortunately that leaves us in a cloud of unneeded bulky overhead that slows us down and restricts our progress and ingenuity.
So I understand you Netsol, But I don’t have to like it. And let this be a warning to all of you providers, not adequately accommodating us professional users will be your demise, as one by one more flexible power user friendly services will be created by guess who? That’s right! us, those who you finally cracked and cause to created something better. Sadly these too shall likely follow the path of money and become as you, such as Google.
admin Jan 5th, 2010
Russ – Thanks for commenting. I’m guessing that you’ve been a Netsol consumer for a while – have they always been this way?
I know of a few loyal Netsol fans who have more years of experience than myself, and they feel the way that you do. Wondering if perhaps Netsol has “evolved.”
Alex Jan 18th, 2010
I have a network solutions account that allows me to host multiple domaines without an extra charge.
I also created a go daddy account. They allow me to host more than one account but place there adds on top and bottom.
Am I missing something? Or does network solution work better for a multiple domaine owner?
admin Jan 20th, 2010
Alex – There’s a difference between hosting and domain registration. GoDaddy provides “free” hosting on any domain name that you register with them, but the “free” hosting has ads at the top and bottom of the page. It’s not a workable solution for a business.
The paid hosting from GoDaddy is much less expensive than the paid hosting from Network Solutions, however you might have received a special offer not shown on their website that I don’t know about. Can you leave a link?
Alex Jan 21st, 2010
Thanks. It looks like I just did not understand there directory structure. Looking at it now I see how to create another directory and link it to another web site. I will have to play with it a bit more to get use to the differences.
I do have Unlimited Hosting from godaddy – Linux – 4 years
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