1&1 Review (1and1)
1&1.com is a giant web hosting company. They have almost 6 million customers and more than 2,400 employees, and in excess of 37,000 servers. You’ve probably seen their 10+ page ads in magazines or heard about them from friends or colleagues. They are definitely an industry leader and a well known company in the web hosting industry.
1&1 offers a few main service types: domain registration, mail hosting, Linux hosting, Windows hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, eshops, and Microsoft Sharepoint hosting. This review will discuss the pros and cons of 1&1 as a Linux hosting provider.
The company’s offerings are quite inexpensive. 1&1 offers a lot of space and bandwidth for very little money. You have to pay six months in advance for many of the plans, but the six months of their least expensive plan still comes out to be less than $20. Be sure to read the order and refund terms carefully. 1&1 will try to lock you in for longer if you choose some of their special offers.
Each account includes plenty of email accounts, databases, a control panel, a 90 day money back guarantee, and 24/7 support.
I called their sales department and the office was closed due to weather. I gave up trying to reach technical support representative over the phone after waiting on hold for more than 10 minutes. Their hold queue didn’t tell me when I should have expected my call to be answered, so who knows how long it takes to get through to a human. Among bigger web hosting companies, support seems to be the worst aspect. 1&1 doesn’t seem to be an exception in that regard.
An email sent at 11:07 PM on Friday the 16th got an answer at 3:26 AM on Tuesday, March 20, 2007.
Bigger web hosts have their advantages, though. The main ones that apply to 1&1 are: they have a top notch data center and network and lots of partnerships with interesting companies. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about the company disappearing or going under and there is always someone to turn to if there are serious problems.
1&1’s partnerships range from being an ICANN accredited domain registrar to having partnerships with companies like Google (for ads) and Plesk (for control panels). A lot of these partnerships have helped 1&1 develop its marketing center, which offers discounts and vouchers on major web sites and tools like Google Adwords or Microsoft Adcenter to 1&1 customers. These offers add a lot of value to the accounts and can make a difference for someone starting out on the web.
The company’s custom control panel isn’t bad. It offers all of the expected features and has some nice add-ons that aren’t typically found in control panels. Most of the features, including billing, can be easily managed via the control panel, which has one login.
The control panel features a whole bunch of tools ranging from blog systems (a custom WordPress install) to web site builders to statistics programs and everything in between. Most of the little applications are pretty user friendly and will easily serve the needs of a newbie or an average web site owner. Each one has its own customization options and can be customized to a certain extent.
In my tests, FTP access was pretty quick and problem free. 1&1 likes to assign every install and many folders an odd series of letters and numbers as identifiers. This annoyed me personally, but was easy enough to get used to and understand.
Getting used to the control panel is not difficult. After a few minutes of playing around with, I was able to get a good idea of how it worked and was up and running. If you aren’t sure how to do something, 1&1 offers a lot of in-depth help articles and tutorials. I was able to get answers to a majority of my simple questions by looking at these documents.
Would I use 1&1 personally? No. Would I recommend them to a new web site owner who was just looking to get started and didn’t want to spend too much money? Most likely. As they say, you get what you pay for – and with 1&1, there is definitely a lot of value for your $20 a year.
Bottomline: For people new to the world of web site creation and hosting, 1&1 is a solid choice if your web site is not mission critical
Pros: Powerful control panel with lots of features, inexpensive pricing, useful marketing tools
Cons: Lack of customer service, some sneaky terms in ordering process
Rating: 
–Review and testing by Douglas Hanna for Clickfire
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This is a warning to anyone considering using 1and1 for dedicated server hosting.
We signed up for two servers with 1and1, and we were working on the assumption that 1and1 support is almost non existant (Which is very true).
We are Microsoft Gold Partners, and have extensive OS and hardware experience.
I signed up on the basis we would not need 1and1 support for anything other than a physical hardware fault.
When we had a physical hardware fault it took 1and1 3 days ! to replace a stick of memory.
When the server came back the OS had somehow been corrupted.
The 1and1 windows recovery system didnt work (1and1 suggested we use a linux emergency recovery), but as we have no linux experience this was about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
The Serial console access, also didn’t allow us to press f8 for DS restore mode or safe mode (from which we could have recovered the OS).
(essentially rendering the serial console access useless).
So all the “safety features” 1and1 offered didnt work correctly, essentially leaving us with one option and that was to do a clean install of the OS, (Which fortunately does work from 1and1 control panel).
we now have a day or so’s work to recover the server just because the 1and1 service is so bad. so all in all 3 days + downtime for our customers.
My complaint to 1and1 customer support was never answered (2 months+)
There is no online ticket system to track issues.
If you leave an issue with 1and1 support they will not resolve the problem.
If you call regularily to get problems resolved you might as well be speaking with a monkey , as you would get a similar response.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS , YES THEY ARE CHEAP BUT you will pay for it in customer dissatisfaction (Unless this server is going to be used for something completely non critical - ie you can wait up to 1 week for it to be fixed , and you have the time to rebuild the server whenever there is an OS issue.
(I did research before signing up, and thought that due to our technical skills and experience we could ignore the support issues with 1and1 but this was not the case as there are times when hands on server access is needed (especially when most of the 1and1 tools offered for server recovery do not work).
You have been warned.
This company will charge you for the service that they did not provide. Even if you would like to cancel the next day after you have been charged they will not allow this. This company has the worst customer service that I have seen in US. They do not care about the customer. They only care only about there revenues and profits. This is not the way to build the company.
Pricing on 1and1.co.uk is quite good but I cannot begin to tell you how many problems I have had with the CUSTOMER SUPPORT. They are based in the Philipines and that would be fine except that
- they don’t understand English very well and so have trouble understanding you and expressing themselves
- they read scripted answers and cannot function if you ask them anything complicated
- they stammer and use unnecessesarily long phrases that sound polite to them but are a waste of time for a busy customer who is frustrated and needs a quick solution instead of fluff
It’s terrible! This may sound petty but when your business depends on it, it really matters! To top it all off, one of their staff members was very rude to me yesterday. When I asked if if he was sure about something he was telling me, he said, “I have been working here for 2 years so don’t tell me what to do.” - all because I asked him if he is sure my webspace isn’t 100gb instead of 8gb! When I asked to speak to supervisor he insisted on knowing what my nationality was! Ridiculous. I am this close to taking my business elsewhere.
I have used 1and1.com for several years and can confirm that their support has become worse over that time. For me, I am comfortable using their hosted solutions, because I’ve never encountered a critical issue that required their assistance to resolve. Most of my concerns have been related to getting additional PHP modules installed (which they won’t do…). I might be hesitant to have a dedicated box with them, for the reasons cited by Scott. That said, the low costs and broad features are a bonus to my clients, who are small businesses looking for cost savings.
When it comes to cancellation, 1and1 won’t do it, I even sent a request and said that I followed their directions to cancel one of the services, but I still got billing. I refuse to pay for the service I’d like to cancel. 1and1 shut down all my services, including the one I already pay and still under contract for a few more months… I ask them how about just shutting down the one that I’d like to cancel instead since I don’t want service. They refuse to do it and kept shutting down all services have.
DO NOT BE FOOLED BY ONE AND ONE! They are a shame of company and a terrible service provider! They trick the pubilc with their giant glossy ads, and their claim to be “#1″; the reality is that they are only interested in trapping new clients, not maintaining existing clients with even a mediocre level of service.
If you think I am being too subjective here you’re wrong! I had the service for years, so as you can imagine I have some really negative things to say. They do not provide anywhere even close to even 95% uptime, that is an outright lie! Email with one and one is unreliable, so if you need a strong email solution DO NOT USE 1AND1, your business will be affected. But their horrible customer service, and their unethical business practices with regards to accounting are by far their worst offenses. The humans behind the US operation do not care if you do business with them or not because they already have your money; so they will provide little or no help when there is a problem, all the while being the rudest, most unsympathic, and demeaning people that you have ever dealt with in a business environment(the two supervisors are absolutly awful people).
I have come to the conclusion that there is no oversight for this little hole-in-the-wall operation. The corporate office is in Germany, so it makes sense why the US office acts with such contempt for their customers, there is absolutly no accountability. The US offshoot of 1and1 is run out of a office suite in some random pennsylvania town, by a handful of unethical people. Don’t bother complaining either, your email goes straight to them. The same people who you might be complaining about, filter the emails, and in their words,”decide which ones are vaild, and get seen to Germany”! Can you believe it! Here’s the point, i have taken time out of my life to write this for the hope that I may prevent someone from experiencing what i have experienced. If you are looking for a web host, and you are an honest, self-respecting individual, who needs an honest, hardworking, and friendly service provider DO NOT use 1and1.com. It is almost too easy to find a better service! DONT GIVE THEM ONE CENT OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!
Honestly I’ve never had any problems with 1&1. I don’t have a dedicated server and I have used them for hosting numerous sites. When ever I have needed to cancel a package or domain, I never had any issues. I know they can have some problems with their dedicated servers but with their shared servers, no problems ever.
BOTTOM LINE 1 AND 1 IS S#@%!
THEY CHARGED ME $7880 FOR A SERVICE I CANT USE!
THEY RUINED MY CREDIT!!!
What was the service that 1&1 charged you such a huge amount of cash for?
mar2008 and the pirate ship 1+1 sails merrily on, pillage in its wake.
i think i’ll cut my loses here and not waste any more time “arguing” with them.
I’ve been using 1and1 since May/2006 or for 1 year and 10 months. I have 7 domains and 8 subdomains hosted with them.
The biggest website I have hosted there is 860 meg (14,000 files in 370 folders) and the others are somewhat smaller.
I have lots of picture albums, a movie database (Access), and use ASP pages.
I used Front Page and now MS Expression Web (New Front Page). All the Hosts I’ve used (including 1and1) have some issue with FP and extensions, however I have had the last problems with 1and1. The issue is Front Page and the number of files you are publishing.
The Good:
- Found them to be reliable (100% uptime in 2008)
- Only one minor insident in all of 2007
- Addons okay (better than nothing)
- Inexpensive (using Microsoft Home for around $60 / yr)
- Paying sem-annually at 29.94 each six months
- Least expensive host offfering ASP
- No support issues however didn’t use more than once
The Bad:
- Cannot use FTP when site has Front Page extension enabled
- Front Page extensions enables all domains (All or nothing)
- Strange naming of accounts and email (changed since last year, more like the other hosts)
Conclusion:
- I’ve had the best experience of several other hosts that I’ve tried.
- No issues with up time
- No issues with email (via Outlook and web)
- My sites are for home use and not high bandwidth usage, on Microsoft servers and am very happy.
- Note that 1and1 has 6 million customers so it’s normal to have some disatisfied ones and usually the satisfied customers don’t express themselves in these forums, so for once I thought I should write something.
- I have three other friends using the 1and Hosting and are all satisfied.
-Sent one request for help on July 17, 2007 received an answer on July 18, 2007 (Within 24 hours).
- For your home site this is best and this price point that I’ve found with loads of space and fast enough.
Actual SiteUpTime as of today March 21, 2008.
Since: July 22, 2007
Outages: 5
Total Uptime: 99.924%
Last Check: March 22, 2008 at 10:42 AM PST+3.0
Year Outages Uptime
2008 0 100.000%
Year Month Outages Uptime Downtime
2008 March 0 100.000% 0.000%
2008 February 0 100.000% 0.000%
2008 January 0 100.000% 0.000%
Average response time: 0.108 seconds
Stephen, I like the way you recorded the outages/uptime/downtime and summarized the good and bad. Gives some valuable insight into 1&1’s performance. Thanks for reporting this.
1&1 is a joke!
Terrible service..Bad website.. Bad customer service..Even BAD Collection agency!
I registered a domain with 1&1 for a year. I let the domain expire..However 1&1 auto-renewed it..One day I got two mails from their collection agency - NCO Financial.
I talked to 1&1 to let them know that I didn’t want to renew the domain, but apparently their policy is to auto-renew the domains. This was not at all apparent in the sign-up process. Customer service was not at all helpful..
So, I got stuck with two bills to pay - $29.99 for the auto-renewal (that I didn’t want) and $18.95 as a collection fee! I called the collection agency number and it took me 4 tries over a matter of few hours to have finally someone pick up the phone! Then they wanted $7.95 as extra fee if I used a credit card!! I downright refused..The only way to not have the $7.95 fee is to use a check, which is what I am doing now.
ABSOLUTELY AVOID 1&1.
This company tried to charge me almost $100 for domain registrations three months AFTER I transferred my (fully paid up) domains to godaddy. The charge didn’t go through because the card they tried to use had been cancelled in June of 2007. They tried to tell me I owed them money and when I refused to pay their bogus invoice, they sent my account to a collection agency! No, I am not kidding, they charged me for 2007 (no problem) but then they tried to charge me for 2008, three months after I transferred my domains to a different registrar. Be warned, if they tried to do it to me, they probably have gotten away with it many times. My attorney is handling it now and I intend to sue these people for as much as I can get.
Have hosted my own for years, tired of doing it all, so i
hosted with 1and1.com , my mistake. Got it all set up
friday and it was all down for 45 mins Monday. They double
bill you as well for sql access that came with thier servie.
Cant php localhost sendmail, though they say I can up to
1000 a day, the web response time is sluggish at best,
people wind up posting twice, this is worse lag than when
I hosted the site from my dsl with it’s massive 512k up.
The domain transfer was easy enough and thier site is
easy enough to use for anyone.
If you have a SMALL website with no feature or frills and
you are lucky enough to get on a solid server then have
a good hosting life, otherwise you’ll be like the rest of us
and sadly dissapointed with their services.
NOTE: I’ve been told they have some good servers and bad servers, so , you got a 50-50 shot of having a good service
or bad one. This of course is unacceptable for my website to
be hit and miss. I need it up 24/7. Bye 1and1
Hope and Hugh, you are talking about the 1&1 domain registration service. This review covers the web hosting service. Any comments on hosting that you want to share?
On Sunday 1&1 customer service walked me through setting up imap on my Outlook. Then he had me go into the 1&1 control panel and change my password. Immediately all 400 of my emails for my contracting company disappeared. I’m moving my domains and website to a much better company. STAY AWAY FROM 1&1. I have many other complaints but I won’t bother to list them.
Below are some complaints I sent to 1&1 after a very frustrating and trying experience with their company over the past week in 2008. As soon as my accounts are unlocked, I will be moving all hosted domains to another company. I have never had such poor customer service nor have I ever felt so helpless and frustrated. I have recommended numerous people to 1&1 and now am forwarding this to them as well. 1&1 has been a wonderful company to me up until this last week when I had to deal with their customer service. This is the letter I will also be sending to the US main office as well as United Internet in Germany. Hopefully they’ll take this information and change their system so this never happens again. Read below:
To Whom It May Concern,
Friday, April 11, 2008, I was baffled to learn three of my domains were not only delinquent but 1&1 had sent me to collections and locked my account. My credit card had been stolen in 2007 and I had forgotten to update the card on the account. I am a web designer and currently hold over 70 domains with 1&1 and my business also has a business server.
I have never worked with a domain and Internet provider that didn’t try an alternative method of contact about upcoming payment or delinquency. I think sending me to collection over $16 was a bit unnecessary. Even more troubling is I have over $400 in charges coming up in May that would have been billed to the same incorrect card had this incident not occurred. I have a client rolling out a City website that is one of the sites delinquent. They want to launch at their board a week from today as well as go live to the public. The web designer working on this site was trying to get in to the account today and that’s the ONLY reason I had found out there was an issue.
After calling 1&1 and explained my predicament, I was given a code to call a collections agency to take care of the $16 late fee plus charges for being late. I immediately called the collections agency to pay the bill and she promptly gave me a confirmation number and told me to call 1&1 back and give them the confirmation code.
Upon calling 1&1, I explained my situation again to the service rep which said he could not help. I was told I would have to wait 3-4 business days before the account would be unlocked. I asked for a manager and I was rudely greeted when he got on the phone. Actually, no greeting was given at all. “Is this about the 4 day business day policy?” he barked. Later I realized the service rep (Josh) had not honored my request to speak with a manager.
I told Josh I had no idea why I had never received 1&1’s emails regarding the three default accounts but I asked Josh if he could update my email account online because I was afraid the other large amount of domains I held was already behind as well. Very curtly he let me know not only would he not change my email, he would also not change my credit card information to ensure it was updated. I was traveling in Sacramento and did not have all the 1&1 account information with me. I would not be able to change any of my information until I returned from my trip.
I had the great pleasure of telling my client they’d be locked out until next week possibly ONE day before their release. The 1&1 staff had absolutely no sympathy for the situation and was no help. 1&1 also informed me that they were no longer “required” to take the confirmation numbers from the credit agency and would not assist me in getting the account unlocked. I took this to mean that Josh could have helped me, but he didn’t feel like it and I deserved what I got for going delinquent. He also told me he couldn’t give me his last name because it wasn’t “policy.”
Shortly after we ended our conversation, an email survey was sent to me regarding my experience with customer service and Josh’s entire name was listed in the email. I gave the service poor ratings and pasted the above in the email survey.
I’ve been a big advocate of 1&1 for some time now and have referred several clients. I was about to move over another 50+ domains from IPowerWeb. I will now start looking for a new home for all of my accounts and I will never refer your company again. Furthermore, this letter will be sent to all of my clients that I have referred to you to warn them of your customer service.
I’ve been in the service industry for some time and the way I was treated today was unacceptable. I’m sure you deal with a lot of dead beats in your business that just are lazy and don’t pay their bills. I have never been one of those people and I don’t appreciate being treated like one over an honest oversight. Especially from a company that didn’t do all it could have done to avoid this situation.
I’ve been on the phone twice with your staff today as well as the credit agency. Now I will spend further time sending this via mail to several people on the 1&1 staff as well as United Internet AG including Andreas Gauger, Ann Marie Tropiano, Ralph Dommermuth, and Norbert Lang in hopes this never happens to another customer. I had been very impressed with your company until today. I’d hate for another consumer to have the same experience.
A simple letter or a phone call from 1&1 would have saved us all time and money. Both my mailing address and phone number, by the way, were correct on my account. Now I have the issue of restoring my perfect credit thanks to 1&1 which will require AMEX verifying the stolen card with the credit agency.
For your future customers, I hope 1&1 reconsiders its policies and considers sending out a late notice via standard mail or a phone call if someone goes delinquent. For us in the web industry who handle multiple domains and several clients, it’s not always easy and this seems like a simple courtesy that saves everyone grief, time and money. If email is the only way 1&1 plans on contacting customers, please allow a second alternative email address so it has two chances to reach a customer should one go bad or change. This could very possibly save this from ever happening again. And please consider changing your three to four day restart policy. This practice seems unnecessary, unproductive, and frustrating. It’s done nothing but make sure I never want to work with 1&1 again.
Update: Monday, April 14, 2008
Today I called the credit agency again and wanted to make sure the charge went through and to check and make sure this didn’t go on my credit report. I’m extremely anal about my credit and looking to buy a house this year.
The gentleman confirmed that my account had been billed and everything should be set to go. I wish someone would have let me know it was not a reporting agency. I stressed a lot over the weekend.
When I got back into town from Sacramento, I had a letter from the credit agency telling me of the delinquent account. I wish I would have got one from 1&1 a few months prior letting me know to update my account before sending me to the collection agency.
Update: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, April 17th I was still nervous because the account had yet to be unlocked and my client was sending me emails asking the status. I called 1&1 to see what was happening. While I was on hold waiting for a manager, I looked at my bank statement to be sure it had charged my account.
Sure enough my account had been charged April 14th for around $46 and it showed an origination date of the charge at April 11th. I told the rep the situation and she passed me on immediately to a manager. The manager (Ian) informed me that the account had still not been paid and he said he even logged in to the NCOF’s (credit agency) system and it showed it hadn’t been paid. That would have been nice if they would have checked that when I called them Friday after I paid and wanted them to check with the confirmation code.
As you can imagine I was again baffled and upset. I told him I had even called 1&1 back Monday to confirm with the confirmation number that 1&1 refused to take it down. I had discarded the envelope I wrote the confirmation number on while I was in the car.
Once again I was told I had to call NCOF with the code given by 1&1. I asked if I could have his direct extension and if he could help me have this fixed so my client could have access by tomorrow morning. He said he could get it turned on in the morning as Germany would get the request early as long as I could get this fixed with NCOF. He feared that NCOF had charged the wrong account!
Off I go to NCOF once again. I give NCOF the number 1&1 gave me and sure enough it shows I had not paid. I told the woman I had my online statement in front of me and even a number attached to the charge. There was no record that I had ever called and she couldn’t find the charge. I was given another number at another department at NCOF to call.
Now I arrive at a separate department and speak with Mr. Williams. He is as baffled as I am and we start digging into the system. Come to find out, either 1&1 had given me the wrong number or I had written the number down incorrectly. My payment went to another delinquent account!
I found this extremely upsetting since she asked to verify my name and I believe my address before we even started. How could my bank debit card get charged under a completely different name? How could my address mismatch not be caught? I don’t know who to be upset with here about the charge. I dare not call Citibank as they would freeze the account and cause even more problems.
I explained to Mr. Williams my predicament with my client and I need his help. He tells me to fax my bank statement over along with a note stating what we had discussed on the phone. I did and the fax was sent 2:50 PST. I figured I would call Ian and tell him it was in the works and perhaps have him speak to Mr. Williams so he knew what was going on.
I wait for the fax to go through and print out the fax receipt and started trying to call Mr. Williams back to ensure the fax had gone through. I keep getting a voice message saying they’d call me back and to leave a message. The third time I finally left a message and wanted to tell Ian so he could set things straight in their system and set things up for the unlock Friday morning.
I dial the 1&1 number and enter Ian’s extension.
“The billing department is now closed. Normal business hours are from 8-5 EST.”
As you can imagine my stomach dropped. Ian had not informed me about the time difference and I am not sure I he had set up for the unlock to go through.
I called NCOF again only this time I call the original number and ask them what happened to the other department. She informed me they too are on EST and would not be until morning!
1&1 nor NCOF had told me we were on a time crunch. Ian made it sound like he would set up the unlock if I got back to him with the info from NCOF. I had sent Mr. Williams a personal bank statement and was now unable to verify if he even received the fax. I was under the impression that both were available and willing to finally help. They were not.
I had even asked for Ian’s extension and I couldn’t even reach his voice mail.
I am so flustered and angry that my card was charged to someone else’s account and that 1&1’s staff couldn’t take the time to help me out when it was obviously important. I only spend $2,000 with 1&1 per year which I know is not much. But I have never been treated so poorly as a customer. Just once in my whole experience, I wish I were treated the same way the people I was dealing with would like to be treated (especially from management).
As soon as I can get my accounts cleared I will be moving my entire portfolio elsewhere before you can charge me for the other 70 domains I have with your company. Even after I sent the past review, I received zero contact from 1&1 regarding this matter.
The last note I sent had a few suggestions as I hate people who just complain and never offer any solutions. I think I’ve run out of constructive ideas and I don’t feel anyone on the other side would listen anyway. 1&1 is an excellent company to work with unless you really need their help.
I am completely helpless at this point and I have let me client down. I feel horrible. They’re upset but not nearly as upset as I am. I have spent numerous hours dealing with this issue and now I will spend a few more taking the time to move all my accounts.
For all you readers, make sure you keep numbers handy for any domain accounts you may have and keep your credit card current. You have absolutely no control of your experience if you go delinquent. I realize that going delinquent was my fault. I’ve been in school and working full time. I never expected to have the truly horrific experience I had with these two companies over $16 and a stolen credit card.
Wow, that’s quite a story, Aaron. Thanks for sharing and please let us know things turn out for you and your clients.
Our company uses 1and1 for all email (450 mobile employees) and we’ve been down all day today (4/25/08) and they have no idea when we will be back up. This is the second time (December ‘07 was the other) that we’ve been down for a full day!!! We’re a mobile company and we can’t use email or our Blackberry’s! The other major risk is that we will probably loose all the communications from today….
We’re switching to another provider as fast as we can get it done….
@freenah: Don’t be stupid, if you are a technical support rep, you don’t use scripts, you use your knowledge. hello??
I’ve been fighting with these thieves for six months trying to transfer a domain name away from them. They only seem to have two tech support reps, both of whom are in the phillipines. My grandfather kicked their **** ***** in world war 2, and I want to go over and do it again now.