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First, I’ve to admit, I’m a horrible customer. I’m a demanding perfectionist who hardly ever feels that he is getting his cash’s worth. That is especially true in regard to hosting providers. In the last 4 years, I’ve had to change providers no less than six times because I felt that I was not getting what I paid for. This brief commentary is somewhat of a deal for me as I finally get to say something good about a hosting supplier!

Somewhat over 2 years ago I was studying up on the latest technologies in one among my favourite publications, eWeek, when I ran across a nice, full-web page advert from 1and1 providing an introductory offer of free hosting for 3 years. Wait! What! No way! This has got to be too good to be true! Off to the trusty computer I go…

Certainly enough, it was the real deal. 1and1 was indeed providing free internet hosting for 3 years to introduce its new public sector hosting service. Effectively, like every good money-strapped college student, I stepped right up and bought me a piece of the pie. I’ve got to say, the pie was good too!

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After roughly 2 years of hosting with 1and1, with minimal problems I ought to say, I began to note that I was getting dangerously near the bandwidth allowance my free package deal had to offer. No big shock there; these things occur once you’re trying to establish an online presence and you offer free downloads. It was time to improve my hosting.

At the time, there have been no great specials going on at 1and1 so I decided to shop around. That was an amazing mistake! What I bought was a course in how *not* to run a hosting service. I shall be well mannered, this time, and never name titles and corporations, but let’s just say: stay away from low-cost reseller hosting accounts! The uptime is nowhere near what they promise and each time you turn around some idiot is operating a script that bogs the server right down to a crawl.

After a couple of months, a piece of wasted money, and several strikes backwards and forwards between providers, I finally conceded that 1and1 was indeed the perfect host I had come across thus far. As luck would have it, I had received an e-mail from 1and1 announcing an amazing promotion for their free preview package holders (apparent advertising trick, but good timing in my situation). They were providing their top shared Linux package deal for half the price. Okay, that seems like a good deal, and it was, but what about the subsequent year? Well, this is where it will get even better. Not solely did I get the package deal at half price, but they guaranteed that price for 3 years will include free upgrades!

I may not be the brightest mild bulb in the field, but I know a good deal after I see one. So, as I’m certain you’ve got already discovered, I signed up. What I bought was a whole lot greater than what I bargained for, and honestly, may have hoped for. Nearly immediately after upgrading, I’ve observed that my sites were operating faster. I’m assuming that paid clients are placed on less crowded servers.

Then, the first improve came. My area and bandwidth were doubled at no further charge. I thought to myself, cool, I’ll take it! A couple of weeks later, I was analyzing the 1and1 website comparing options for a potential consumer after I observed that the package deal I’ve had been bumped to ridiculously excessive levels. Though I was getting my cash’s worth at the time, I felt just a little bitter that I wasn’t getting the full package deal spec. In any case, I was promised that I might get each package deal upgrade.

Identical to another nightmare consumer, I promptly dialed billing department to provide them a piece of my mind. Apparently, the billing agent was no stranger to tough clients like me. Within a few minutes of talking to me, he got me defused and guaranteed that my package would be brought as much as spec inside 4 weeks. That was 2 weeks ago. He defined that it was taking extra time than expected to improve all their current accounts to the brand new account specs. He really shocked me when he stated that I might truly be getting greater than what was presently listed on the site. What?! Okay then! Thank you for your time! For sure, I was left feeling very positive about that support call.

This is where we get into the numbers… Once I logged into my account at present, I was greeted by some very generous numbers for the package I have. I discovered that I now have 30,000MB of storage and 1,500 GB of transfer on a shared hosting account that normally runs $19.99/mo! Wait! That can not be proper! These are VPS specs! Yup, you read right. 30GB of storage and 1.5TB of transfer for below $20/mo. PLUS, with 1and1, I solely pay $5.99 per area, per year.

Now, let’s be real here. These numbers are great and all, but other providers have comparable specs. What sets 1and1 apart? For starters, uptime! With each different host I’ve used, uptime was a major issue. This isn’t so with 1and1. I can rely on one hand what number of instances in the past 2 years my website was not available and almost each time it was associated to an ISP router, not 1and1! Also, one of the things I’ve really grown to understand is their one-of-a-sort control panel. It’s just a little slow, but it surely greater than makes up for it in streamlined administration. That is especially true of the area administration. Even full n00bs have no problem navigating the 1and1 control panel and managing their package deal like a pro.

Again, I’m not the simplest person on the planet to impress, especially with regards to hosting providers. Nonetheless, 1and1 has really raised the bar of what a good hosting supplier is in my mind. They are now the benchmark by which I will measure all hosting providers. If you are in the market for a good, reliable, affordable hosting supplier, I can’t say enough positive about 1and1.

There is only one negative thing I’ve discovered with 1and1 and it is not even really a negative. They’re a bit restrictive on script execution. If you think about it, in a shared hosting surroundings, this is a good factor, and this also explains why the only time I’ve observed the server truly being down was during a scheduled hardware upgrade. Now, who’s going to complain about a couple of free upgrades in efficiency?

If you need extra information on 1and1 and the packages they provide, I encourage you to visit their site. Just as a point of reference, I’m operating on the Developer Package. I feel you may find that it’s a greater than adequate package deal for average to heavy traffic sites.