The typical web hosting service can overwhelm novice customers with its many choices. Do you go together with devoted, shared, VPS, or WordPress internet hosting? Linux- or Windows-based servers? Network Solutions simplifies the choice-making course of by taking most of these issues off the desk. The internet host focuses on streamlined choices and area registration so to shortly construct a shared, cloud-primarily based web site. Unfortunately, Network Solutions lacks the function-wealthy choices seen in HostGator, Hostwinds, and different Editors’ Choice award winners.
Shared Web Hosting
If you do not need to spend some huge cash on website hosting, shared internet hosting is the best way to go. This cheap web hosting locations your web site on a server with different web sites, and the group shares server sources. This implies that it’s miles from probably the most highly effective website hosting sort. Still, Network Solutions presents a number of pockets-pleasant, shared internet hosting choices—at the very least at first.
Starter ($5.99 per thirty days) is the entry-degree tier, a plan that options one web site, 5 electronic mail accounts, 15GB of disk house, and limitless knowledge transfers. Next up the ladder is Essential ($15.95 per thirty days), a package deal containing help for 3 web sites, 1,000 electronic mail mailboxes, 300GB of disk house, and limitless knowledge transfers. The Professional Hosting ($22.94 per thirty days) tier helps 10 web sites, limitless storage, electronic mail, and month-to-month knowledge transfers, and comes with SiteLock Premium. Finally, the Premium tier ($32.93 per thirty days) provides an SSL certificates to the Professional service. These costs replicate the month-to-month value, although you may get reductions for signing up for one- or multi-yr commitments.
Network Solutions has odd pricing. The Essential, Professional, and Premium plans all value $15.95 per thirty days ($9.96 for annual dedication), regardless of Essential providing fewer electronic mail accounts and disk house than the opposite tiers. The distinction between the three tiers comes all the way down to the add-ons: Professional provides SiteLock for $6.99 per thirty days, and Premium provides SSL on high of that for $9.99 per thirty days. If you join an annual dedication with the Essential, Professional, or Premium tiers, Network Solutions waives the area registration payment. There’s additionally a further $1.99 per thirty days cost if you wish to go for personal registration.
HostGator, the Editors’ Choice choose for shared internet hosting, tops Network Solutions by providing extra options for the same worth level. Its Hatchling plan begins at $10.95 per thirty days, however an annual dedication drops the associated fee to $3.95 per thirty days. Plus, the plan comes with free one-yr area registration, the superb Gator Website Builder, unmetered disk house and bandwidth, and a free SSL certificates.
WordPress Web Hosting
Like many different internet hosts, Network Solutions has WordPress internet hosting. WordPress is the content material administration system that powers roughly a 3rd of all web sites. It’s simple to make use of, and has a thriving theme and plug-in ecosystem for increasing your web site’s performance. If you are trying to create a fundamental, WordPress-powered web site, take a look at Network Solution’s three tiers: Entrepreneurs, A Growing Business, and Professionals.
The Entrepreneur plan prices $7.99 per thirty days, with help for one web site, 50GB of storage, 10 electronic mail bins, and a cloud-backup resolution. A Growing Business ($13.98 per thirty days) builds upon Entrepreneur providing three web sites, 100GB of storage, 25 electronic mail bins, and an SSL certificates. Finally, the Professional tier ($18.98 per thirty days) helps 5 web sites, 200GB of storage, and 50 electronic mail bins. Bluehost and WP Engine, the co-Editors’ Choice picks for WordPress internet hosting, have superior WordPress plans. The former presents limitless web site internet hosting, month-to-month knowledge transfers, domains, subdomains, and storage with every tier; the latter presents glorious specs and options (akin to web site staging and enterprise-pleasant customized plans).
E-Commerce Web Hosting
If you are trying to launch an internet retailer, Network Solutions has you lined with its e-commerce plans. Starter is $7.95 per thirty days (renewing at $29.95 per thirty days), and consists of 5 electronic mail accounts and the power to promote 25 completely different merchandise. Standard is $9.95 per thirty days (renewing at $54.95 per thirty days), and comes with 50 electronic mail accounts and a 300-product catalog. The $19.95-per-month Premium plan ($99.95 per thirty days after renewal) helps you to create 100 electronic mail accounts, retailer 100,000 merchandise, and set up all the pieces with product administration instruments. In distinction, the superb InMotion Hosting has e-commerce plans that begin at $6.99 per thirty days (renewing at solely $11.99 per thirty days), and provide a free area, two web sites, no product restrict, limitless bandwidth, and a free SSL certificates.
Network Solutions supplies electronic mail advertising instruments ($20 per thirty days) as an add-on, however you’ll be able to pattern the products with a prolonged, 60-day free trial. The add-on supplies over 400 prepared-made electronic mail templates to make use of in newsletters and electronic mail blasts, and actual-time monitoring and reporting on who clicked hyperlinks and opened messages. The different choices embody the $49-per-month Simple search engine optimisation add-on that improves search engine optimization, and the $9.95-per-month Business Directory service that tracks what individuals are saying about your enterprise throughout social media channels.
The e-ommerce plans include a management panel to handle the catalog, prospects, orders, and transport choices. You may create a service provider account with Bank Card Services Worldwide to simply accept cost playing cards, or use PayPal, Google Checkout, or different choices. There can also be a separate web site builder to design the storefront, but it surely does not provide many customization choices apart from a Facebook advertising software, an search engine optimisation optimization add-on, and a buyer relationship administration platform.
Reseller Web Hosting
If you are trying to get into the website hosting enterprise, however do not need to take care of infrastructure issues, take a look at Network Solutions’ reseller hosting packages by way of the corporate’s SRSPlus web site. There aren’t any annual charges, paper contracts, or quantity necessities, and the plans include electronic mail, e-commerce instruments, and different anticipated options.
Setting Up a Website
Network Solutions helps you to set up greater than two dozen open-supply functions, together with WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Owl, SugarCRM, Magento, phpBB, WebCalendar, PHPWiki, and Tikiwiki. Setting up WordPress (or some other utility) is a reasonably easy affair. You click on the appliance’s Add button, and stroll by way of the setup wizard to outline the weblog URL, and the administrator username and password. It’s easy, however the choice to create the weblog is buried within the interface.
A Network Solutions subscription comes with the corporate’s website builder, which allow us to shortly construct a snazzy-wanting web site in a short time. We dragged and dropped parts from the menu, uploaded photos, entered textual content, and embedded YouTube movies. You may drop in kinds, social media hyperlinks, Google Maps, and a picture gallery. In a pleasant contact, you’ll be able to embed JavaScript and fundamental HTML code. Network Solution’s web site builder is not as function-wealthy as some do-it-your self web site builders from companies (Duda, Wix), but it surely’s free with each service plan. It’s a bit annoying that Network Solutions does not provide a free trial so you may get a really feel for the web site builder and total service earlier than you make a dedication.
We have one grievance with our web site. Even although we registered our URL through the signup course of, the web site we created did not level to our area. Network Solutions did not ask what our web site’s tackle needs to be, and it defaulted to a sub-area underneath netsolhost.com. This wasn’t an enormous deal, since we merely switched to My Domain Name and used the drop-down menu to level the URL to the web site listing. People who aren’t used to web site administration want higher directions.
Network Solutions presents 256-bit, safe-socket layer (SSL) safety beginning at $59.99 per yr (with a two-yr time period). You may add nsProtect Assured trusted web site seal ($69 per yr), SiteLock Premium (beginning at $9.99 per thirty days), and Small Business Cyber Security Protection (beginning at $4.16 per thirty days, with an annual plan).
Dependable Uptime
Website uptime is a crucial aspect of the website hosting expertise. If your web site goes down, purchasers or prospects can be unable to seek out you or entry your services or products.
We use an internet site monitoring software to trace uptime at a take a look at websites over a 14-day interval. Every quarter-hour, the software pings our web site and sends an alert if the location is darkish for at the very least a minute. Our testing revealed that Network Solutions went down as soon as for a couple of minutes, however in any other case demonstrated reliable uptime.
Helpful Customer Service
If you encounter a internet hosting downside, you’ll be able to search Network Solutions’ FAQs for solutions (although we stumbled throughout a couple of 404 pages, which isn’t an excellent signal). The internet host presents 24/7 electronic mail and phone help, too. That mentioned, the e-commerce technical help is just out there weekdays from 9 a.m. to five p.m. EST. We examined customer support by inserting an 8:30 p.m. Eastern weeknight name to seek out out the distinction between common website hosting and WordPress internet hosting. We held for 5 minutes earlier than a customer support rep fielded my name.
The consultant defined we could not set up different functions on the WordPress internet hosting plan, however assured us that we may at all times swap plans if we needed to. We spent about three minutes discussing updates—Network Solutions would obtain, however not set up them—and storage necessities. We thought we noticed the choice for dwell buyer help internet chat at one level, however could not discover it once more later. It was additionally difficult to seek out an electronic mail kind to submit a query. We requested learn how to import a WordPress weblog into our account round 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight, and acquired an in depth reply the following morning. Overall, Network Solutions has respectable customer support choices, and a stable, 30-day, cash-again assure.
Is This Your Solution?
Network Solutions is a blended bag. Hosting begins out low cost, however its upsells shortly add up. Domain administration is straightforward, but it surely’s not properly-built-in with the website hosting. Streamlined providing make it simpler to pick a internet hosting sort, however the interface might confuse novices. If you need a extra function-wealthy website hosting service, take a look at Bluehost, DreamHost, HostGator, or any of our different Editors’ Choice picks.For extra on website hosting, level your browser towards 10 Easy But Powerful SEO Tips to Boost Traffic to Your Website and How to Register a Domain Name for Your Website.
