"Included domain" is a term that is rarely used by most web hosting companies nowadays, because not many web hosting companies are offering this kind of service. "Included domain" is used to describe a web hosting package which offers services that include domain registration. Some web hosts charge extra for this service, some offer it for free. 1And1 is one of the companies that offers this service for free.
Before you commit yourself to a web hosting company, find out if their monthly hosting fee includes domain name registration. Most web hosting companies charge you a monthly web hosting fee AND an annual domain name registration fee. The monthly web hosting fee is a fee charged to store your web pages on the web hosting company's web server. The annual domain name registration fee is a fee charged to maintain your right to a certain domain. If you get these two fees confused, just look at web hosting fee as the fee you pay to reserve a parking spot for your car, while domain name registration fee as your license plate registration fee.
With the exception of 1And1, most web hosting companies charge both types of fee.
1And1 offers 4 different packages with different number of included domains:
Monthly Fee | Included Domains | |
Beginner Package | $3.99/mo ($2.00/mo for first 3 months) | 1 |
Home Package | $4.99/mo ($2.50/mo for first 3 months) | 2 |
Business Package | $9.99/mo ($5.00/mo for first 3 months) | 3 |
Developer Package | $19.99/mo ($10.00/mo for first 3 months) | 5 |
With 1And1's Beginner Package, you pay a hosting fee of $3.99 per month (for either Microsoft web hosting or Unix web hosting) and you are allowed to have 1 free included domain. This means that if you just have one domain, it will be hosted at 1And1's server for free, as long as you keep paying the $3.99 monthly hosting fee. For Home Package, you pay a hosting fee of $4.99 per month and you are allowed to have 2 free included domains. You will never have to pay domain name registration fee not just for a year, but forever, as long as you keep paying the monthly hosting fee! Tell me where else can you find a good deal like that?
What if you have 100 domains and you would like to purchase the Beginner Package? No problem! You just need to pay an extra $6.99 per domain per year. This annual domain name registration fee includes private registration, which block spammers from retrieving your personal email address. Most web hosting companies (for example, GoDaddy) charge $9.99/year for domain name registration AND $8.99/year for private registration. That's a total of $18.98! Why pay $18.98 to GoDaddy while you can get the same service for $6.99 at 1And1?
Included domain is the best kept secret at 1And1. Take advantage of this service now and save yourself some money. You will never find a better deal anywhere else. 1And1 is so confident about their service that they offer 90-day money back guarantee. You have nothing to lose for signing up.
Tony McBride is a website developer with more than 10 years of web development experience. He tried hosting his sites on various web hosting companies and finally settled for 1And1 because of its competitive price and abundance of features.
