Well, this is NOT what this article is all about!
I have done all the shopping around for you and I am down to these two web hosting companies:
GoDaddy or
1And1
Why did I choose these two web hosting companies? Of all the web hosting companies that
I have tried, these two web hosts offer the lowest monthly fee with the most features. They both offer 24/7 support and they are committed to 99.9% network uptime.
Below are the feature comparisons of these two web hosts:
Feature and Price Comparisons between GoDaddy and 1And1:
| GoDaddy | 1And1 | |
Domain Registration: | $9.99/year | $6.99/year |
Private Registration: | $8.99/year | $0 |
Economy Plan | Beginner Package | |
Monthly Fee: | $3.99/mo | $3.99/mo ($2.00/mo for first 3 months) |
Included Domains: | 0 | 1 |
Web Space: | 5 GB | 10 GB |
Transfer Bandwidth: | 250 GB | 300 GB |
Email Accounts: | 500 | 600 |
MySQL Databases | 10 | 10 |
Deluxe Plan | Home Package | |
Monthly Fee: | $6.99/mo | $4.99/mo ($2.50/mo for first 3 months) |
Included Domains: | 0 | 2 |
Web Space: | 100 GB | 120 GB |
Transfer Bandwidth: | 1,000 GB | 1,200 GB |
Email Accounts: | 1,000 | 1,200 |
MySQL Databases | 25 | 25 |
Premium Plan | Business Package | |
Monthly Fee: | $14.99/mo | $9.99/mo ($5.00/mo for first 3 months) |
Included Domains: | 0 | 3 |
Web Space: | 200 GB | 250 GB |
Transfer Bandwidth: | 2,000 GB | 2,500 GB |
Email Accounts: | 2,000 | 2,500 |
MySQL Databases | 50 | 50 |
While both GoDaddy and 1And1 offer abundance of features at very competitive prices, from the comparison chart above, 1And1 comes out as the clear winner.
1And1 beats GoDaddy in every aspect.
To purchase a domain name using GoDaddy, you have to fork up $9.99/year. If you want to add private registration to your domain name (so that spammers can't get a hold of your email address), you have to pay an extra $8.99/year to GoDaddy. That's
a total of $18.98/year. On the hand, if you purchase a domain name through 1And1, you only pay $6.99/year, and private registration is free! So your total domain registration fee and private registration is only $6.99/year (as opposed to GoDaddy's total fee of $18.98/year). This is the lowestprice you can find anywhere to purchase a domain.
Once your purchase a domain, you need to pay monthly fee for it to be hosted on the web hostingcompany's web server. GoDaddy charges $3.99/mo for its Economy Plan. With the Economy Plan, you get 5 GB of web storage space, 250 GB of transfer bandwidth, and 500 email accounts.
With 1And1's Beginner Package, you get 10 GB of web storage space, 300 GB of transfer bandwidth, and 600 email accounts for the same price ($3.99/mo)! 1And1 is
currently offering a discount where you are only charged $2.00/mo for first 3 months.
Most of your hosting needs can probably be satisfied with 1And1's Beginner Package. However, if require more web storage space, bandwidth, or MySQL databases, check out 1And1's
Home Package or Business Package. Each of 1And1's packages beats GoDaddy's packages,in terms of price and features, hands down! You pay lower price for 1And1's packages andyou get more features, compared to GoDaddy's packages.
1And1 also offers a benefit called "included domain", which is not offered by GoDaddy. With
"included domain", you can host your domain at 1And1 at no fee! For example, Beginner Package offers 1 included domain, which means you can host 1 domain (either a new domain or existing transferred domain) at 1And1 without paying annual fee, forever! If you have just 1 domain and you purchase the Beginner Package, your $6.99/year domain registration fee is waived, and you get private registration for free! This is not a temporary deal. Your domain name registration fee is waived every single year. All you pay is the web hosting fee of $3.99/mo.
How sweet is that?
If you decided to purchase or transfer more domain names after you sign up with 1And1, you can just pay the extra $6.99/year for each domain (with free private registration). Alternatively, you can upgrade your package to Home Package (which offers 2 included domains) or Business Package (which offers 3 included domains). You can even go for Developer Package (which is not mentioned on the chart above) that offers 5 included domains.
You can continue to waste your time shopping for the best web hosting deal online. I guarantee that you will never find a deal better than 1And1's. I have many of my sites hosted there and I don't have any problem with them. Their control panel is easy to use and their support staff is very responsive.
I also have some sites hosted at GoDaddy, but I plan on transferring all of them to 1And1 soon. GoDaddy provides almost the same level of service, but I don't like their control panel and purchase process. They have too many ads on their site and they try to up-sell you on every page when you need to make a purchase. Sometimes I "accidentally" purchase items that I don't need because of their aggressive up-sell effort. Anyway, the main driver for me to move away from GoDaddy is price. If I can get the same level of service from 1And1, why pay more at GoDaddy?
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for 1And1
web hosting service now! They offer 90-day money back guarantee. You have nothing to lose! And I am confident that you will not be disappointed.
