Founded in 1979, Network Solutions was one of the first companies to provide DNS (Domain Name System) technology. Since then, it has grown to offer many more services, all related to web hosting. Today they offer “everything you need in one place”, namely: domain names and various hosting options with various features and accessible applications. The company is headquartered in the United States, with its main office in Herndon and data centers located somewhere in North America.
Since 2011, Network Solutions (along with Web.com and Register.com) is a new member of the Web.com Group, one of the leading web technology companies serving millions of customers around the world.
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Pros
30-day money back guarantee
Free domain name and SSL certificate
24/7 live chat and phone support
SiteLock and CodeGuard are free with some plans
Cons
No dedicated server or VPS hosting
No live chat support
Are network solutions worth the money?
Network Solutions’ Starter Plan is perfect for businesses just starting out. This plan costs just $3.79 per month and includes 15 GB of disk space, 1 website, and 5 email addresses. Additionally, you can form an LLC for free when you register. For just $9.96 per month, the Basic plan gives you more features than the Starter plan.
It includes 300 GB of disk space, 3 websites, 1,000 email addresses, and domain names included in the package – as well as SiteLock malware scanning and free business LLC formation. If your business needs more than what the Basic plan offers, consider the Network Solutions Premium plan. This plan includes all the features of the Essential plan, plus unlimited disk space, 10 websites, and SiteLock Premium malware scanning with automatic malware removal. All this protection is priced at $34.95 per month. Don’t forget that free LLC formation is also part of the program.
The Network Solutions Premium Plus plan covers everything the Premium plan does, but adds an SSL certificate – all for $40.78 per month. As always, free LLC formation is also included in this package, so you can protect yourself from the potential liability associated with running a small business online.
Is the web solution easy to use?
Since Network Solutions doesn’t have a ton of hosting options, choosing a preferred plan shouldn’t be a time-consuming decision. The first thing you need to know is whether you want a simpler cloud-based solution or a WordPress-optimized solution. In most cases, along with these hosting packages, you will also get email services. If not (and you want them), a little more digging on the website will also lead you to some email hosting solutions.
Once you choose a hosting plan, you’ll move on to domain names, with the option to register a new domain (priced at $15) or use an existing domain. After this, you will be advised to add an SSL certificate (as it is not included in any plan except the “Premium” plan), and the first month of use will be free. Here you can purchase up to 300 certificates, or just click “No thanks.”
The next step is to review your chart and everything it contains, where you can select your hosting plan and billing cycle for SSL (if you purchased it). Billing cycles are flexible, with options from one month to ten years; with the domain option, you get (a confusing choice) 100 years, which means incredible focus on the future.
Before you start creating an account with Network Solutions, you’ll learn about some recommended add-ons, all related to the security of your website. You then have to add your personal data, create a password and choose a security question (some of which seem almost obsolete, like “What’s your library card number?”) Fortunately, you can write your question and Unleash your creative potential (if you want it, that is).
Web Solutions is a great choice for anyone looking for a web hosting service that is easy to use and has adequate features. Not only does it offer a range of benefits such as domain name registration, design tools, email hosting, marketing tools, and more, but its user interface is also very intuitive and easy to navigate, whether you are a newbie or an experienced user.
All plans come with a proprietary control panel, which isn’t as user-friendly as some industry-standard alternatives, but we managed to find a workaround. From there, most of the famous applications can be yours in just one or two clicks (WordPress, Joomla, Durpal, etc.), and all developers will be happy to hear that a variety of website development features are also supported (PHP5, Python, Ruby on Rails, Java Servlets, Zend libraries, etc.). Many e-commerce features (as well as a turnkey e-commerce solution) are available for purchase, along with a powerful drag-and-drop website builder.
Network solution performance
When trying to convince us of the superiority of their service, Network Solutions presented their “reliable” uptime with a 99.9% guarantee, live technical support, and flexible hosting plans, but made no promises about speed. Not knowing what to expect, we tested the speed performance of the Network Solutions main website using GTmetrix as a tool. It places the site’s speed performance above average, with a final result of B (85%), which is pretty good.
We decided to use UptimeRobot to test the uptime of the Network Solutions main website to see if we would take advantage of the guarantee they offered us. After a month of continuous monitoring, UptimeRobot reported several outages, the longest of which lasted 19 minutes. However, the total downtime is approximately 42 minutes. This means that with a total recorded uptime of 99.917%, Network Solutions successfully delivered on their promise.
Help and support
The first help options you may notice from Network Solutions are their phone number (recommended for emergencies only) and a “Contact Us” button, which will give you some ways to help yourself. Their knowledge base (titled “Help Center”) can be browsed with the help of a search box, or you can select some pre-selected categories. There seem to be quite a few articles that are mostly written in an easy-to-understand manner (often with pictures) and rated by users using a five-star rating system.
If you prefer to rely on the support agents from the Network Solutions technical team, you can contact them via support tickets, live chat, and phone, all of which should be available 24/7.
Network Solutions features a community forum where registered users (we assume, since trying to proceed without registering led us to a dead end) can seek answers to questions, answer other users’ questions, or leave feedback for others to see. However, when we tried to register, not one of the dozens of display names (some of them quite original) was deemed acceptable (the only explanation we got was “The name you entered is already in use”, which seemed It is not acceptable that this is the case), so we are unable to report anything more.
Is a network solution right for you?
Web Solutions caters to the needs of people building websites for small businesses.
The biggest difference between Network Solutions and its competitors is price. It’s not the cheapest, but the cost of all packages is relatively low.
Obviously, web solutions are suitable for people building simple websites (such as static websites) for small businesses.
Web Solutions is also a good option for those who are practicing their web development skills and want to use a cheap hosting account.
If you fall into one of these two categories, you have many other options. There are many hosting companies trying to compete on price.
Let’s dive into more details about networking solutions and see how they differ from other low-cost hosts.