Overview:
1 and 1 are one of the worlds largest web hosting companies and dominate the industry in many EU countries. 1 and 1 have over 7 million paying customers worldwide, plus over 60,000 servers amongst 6 data centers. The size of 1 and 1 comes with disadvantages, customer service is considered to be of lower quality than at other providers mostly down to wait times as they try to handle an unpredictable number of queries each day. On top of this promotions are often only available for limited times so most customers find themselves paying a lot more for their web hosting than those who were fortunate enough to stumble across the site when they were running a promo.
Customer Service:
1and1 has received criticism for their customer service, their sheer size makes managing call centers and ticket queues difficult to manage and predict at times. 1and1 is essentially a budget web hosting service aimed at people who are more advanced with hosting and can manage their own server space. 1and1's software makes using the control panel slightly easier for the less experienced user, but in the end you get what you pay for and it really shows.
Control Panel:
1and1 use their own proprietary control panel meaning therefore that using 1and1 servers can be difficult for customers used to the industry standard cPanel control panel. That said, the control panel is powerful and robust plus it has many great features not often found at other companies. The control panel also features many marketing tools and free scripts.
Price:
1and1 are often associated budget hosting, especially during their limited time promotions which usually cover all their plans. When 1and1 first launched, over three hundred thousand customers received 3 years of free hosting and then a very cheap renewal rate if they chose to stay. This sent shockwaves through the web hosting industry and naturally, made all other web hosting companies a little nervous.
Reliability:
1 and 1 have suffered many outages in the past but more recently they are known to be more reliable and stable. 1and1 operate their own internet backbone connection that gives them a real one up on the rest of the web hosting industry. As far as customers are concerned, 1and1 are no more or less reliable than any other provider on our site.
Summary:
1and1 certainly offer good value for the money but they are really not suited to low end users with less experience in web hosting. 1and1 are for those looking to host highly active applications or requiring complex managed hosting.
