Web.com Hosting Review – The Many Reason I Would Look Elsewhere

Web.com is a web hosting company that has been around since 1997.  They certainly are no newbie when it comes to the industry.  They are a large brand in the hosting industry.  Recently, they acquired Network Solutions and owned several other brands, as well.  But, what are webmasters saying about their experience working with Web.com?

Whenever I review a web hosting company, I like to look at some different things.  I like to look at their features, uptime, performance, and customer support.  Lastly, I will then either recommend them or recommend another host.  I have developed a rating system at the top and bottom of this review that will show you how I rate them.

Also, feel free to vote on them if you have any experience working with them.  If you’re not interested in reading the full Web.com review, you can always jump down to the summary and find out what I think about them.

Web.com Features

Web.com offers four plans on their website as well as tons of extras.  You can get Linux or Windows plans.  The plans are not labeled as “shared,” but for the most part I have come to the conclusion that they are pretty much-shared plans.  It means if you’re running a website that isn’t going to have over 200 unique views per day Web.com should be able to handle the traffic.  They do not offer any VPS, Reseller, or Dedicated plans at this time.  Now, let’s take a look at the four hosting plans they offer and the additional products and services you can purchase.

3 Shared Linux Plans

Above is a screenshot of the hosting plans that are offered with Web.com.  These are Linux based plans.  Depending on which plan you pick you’re going to be paying $5.95, $7.95, or $9.95 per month.  If you’re new to my reviews, you will notice that I am not a fan of data transfers that say “unlimited.”  What this tells me is I can run a 3 TB a month website that gets 100,000 visitors a month and my site will run smoothly.  However, I know that you can’t support that kind of site on a shared server.  I was unable to get the actual numbers of what they will except when I talked to them on live chat.  If anyone knows what the limit is before your account gets suspended, please let us know.  Their prices are pretty good compared to SiteGround and Doteasy.

1 Windows Plan

I almost missed it on their site when I was evaluating Web.com, but they do offer a Windows plan.  This plan is for $11.95/month.  It comes with unlimited data storage, unlimited bandwidth, email accounts, one domain name (free) for one year, Windows Server 2008/IIS 7.0, etc.

Ignite Online Marketing

It is a special service that submits your website to some directories.  Means if you run a business you can call them for a quote, and they will submit your companies details to Google Places, Yelp, Yellowpages, Mapquest, etc.  It says right on their site that their agents are standing by and you can have a no-obligation consultation.

Facebook Boost

Since more and more companies are spending their marketing money on Facebook (because it’s much cheaper than Adwords) it makes perfect sense that Web.com offers a special service to help create a Facebook fan page, get more likes, engage your fans, and manage your Facebook advertising.  Again, Web.com is standing by with a no-obligation consultation.  Sorry, I can’t give you a quote because you have to call to get that price.

SEO

Like a lot of other web hosting companies Web.com does offer SEO services.  With this service, you have a dedicated SEO expert.  Each month they will get with you to discuss your strategies, develop links, optimize your site, and then review your results.  It is ideal for people that have no knowledge of SEO and want a professional to guide them through the process.  Like Ignite Online Marketing and Facebook Boost, they have a no-obligation consultation.  You have to talk to them on the phone to get a quote.

PPC

A lot of companies online today are marketing their business through PPC (Paid per click) advertising.  It is essentially Google Adwords.  You can lose a ton of money if you’re not careful with Google Adsense.  Believe me; I am speaking from experience.  I have lost lots of money on Google Adwords ($3,000 to be exact).  For a lot of people, it’s very appealing to have a PPC expert to help manage and track their Google Adwords campaigns.

Local Leads

If you have a local business and are searching for a way to get more local leads, Web.com has a service that offers this service.  They have an opt-in form where you can enter your name, email, and telephone number to schedule a demo.

Online Visibility Report

Web.com offers a service which is called an online visibility report.  Gives you a report showing if your site shows up on Google+ Local, Yahoo, Bing, and then a directory score.  This service is only $1/year.

Domains

With Web.com you can purchase domain names.  They offer six kinds of domain names.  The details are down below:

• .com $15/year
• .co $40/year
• .net $15/year
• .org $15/year
• .biz $15/year
• .info $15/year

Email

If you need an email hosting plan, Web.com also offers one plan for that as well.  With this plan you get:

• 1 GB of email storage
• Access to check email anytime and anywhere
• ActiveSync
• Outlook 2007
• Spam Filtering/Virus filtering

It does cost $8.95/month.

SSL

With Web.com you can purchase SSL Certificates.  They have four different ones you can purchase.  The details are down below:

Control Panel

I was unsure about what control panel Web.com was using.  Whenever you browse their site from time to time, you will get a popup message asking you if you need help.  I have no problem with this at all.  I did need help because I spent about 10-15 minutes trying to find out if they used cPanel or not.  Eventually, I talked to an agent on live chat.  This is the screenshot:

So, I guess they use cPanel based on what their live chat agent said to me.  Kind of thought it was a little odd that at first, he was asking me if I wanted to drive more traffic to my website and then wanted to know if I wanted a professional website developed?  I suspect it was probably just automated messages.  Fail!  They did tell me to call customer support though…lol.  They did immediately kick me out and ended the chat with me, though.  For WordPress users, it’s pretty easy to install your WordPress CMS on your website.  Web.com comes with a 1-click installer.  Along with installing WordPress, you can also install 100’s of open source applications.

Now that we know all the plans and additional services you can purchase with Web.com I’m going to go over their performance, uptime, and then evaluate their customer support.  Lastly, I will then either recommend them or suggest other companies to do business with.

Web.com Performance & Uptime

Performance

Web.com does have slower than average servers.  Why am I stating this?  No, it’s not just a random comment I like to put in about Web.com.  What I like to do is check their response times on isitdownrightnow.com.  Typically, this site is good for checking on whether or not a site is down.  But, I use it to check out their response times.  When I checked their response time, I found out that their response time was 66.46 ms.  To have what I consider fast servers as a general rule 20 ms and under is considered fast, 21-50 ms is considered average, and anything over 51 ms is deemed to be slow.

Uptime

Uptime shouldn’t be a problem or issue with Web.com.  They have a 99.9% uptime policy.  One thing that will drive me up the wall is downtime.  I am a busy person and don’t want to have to contact support when my site is down.  It’s just a hassle to have to spend an extra 20-30 minutes whenever something is down.   According to Webhostingstuff.com, I have found out that their site has been up 99.9% of the time (monitored for 3,343 days).

Web.com Customer Support

I got a preview of what I was in for when I jumped on their live chat.  If you remember earlier in my review, I had a question about their control panel.  I got asked if I wanted more traffic to my website and if I needed a website designed.  Yeah, I know odd.  I believe that customer support is only offered through the telephone.  Only when are you interested in signing up with them will the live chat feature be available to you.  It means that if you’re a paying customer, you have to email them or call them.  You can call them 24/7 and they should be able to help you.  However, a lot of webmasters have complained that they were the least bit helpful.  Some might say they were almost useless when resolving their issues.

Optionally, I do believe they have email support.  But here is a look at some of the complaints about support with Web.com:

Web.com BBB Rating?

Web.com is accredited with the Better Business Bureau.  Oddly enough they have received an A+ rating.  But, as of December 8th, 2014 they have 688 customer complaints against them.  388 of these complaints are problems with products/services.  274 of the complaints are from angry customers of theirs that have billing or collections issues.  Of course, I do understand that any business that is as large as Web.com is going to have a couple of complaints here and there, but 688 is a lot of complaints!

Web.com Hosting Review Summary

So do I recommend you use Web.com?  No!  For one they won’t work for you if you need anything more than a shared hosting plan.  Secondly, their servers are a lot slower than other companies.  Third, the prices for the service are pretty high compared to other hosts.  Yes, they do offer a lot of features and tools to help your website, but a lot of webmasters have reported they are not happy with the service.  Lastly, the customer support with Web.com is very lacking.  No live chat and you have to call them for everything.

Do you have experience working with Web.com?  I would like to hear what you think about their company.  If you could take the time to leave a comment and rate them, that would be great.

However, if you need a recommendation for great hosts checks out InMotion or WebHostingHub.com.  I do business with both of those companies.  I have been working with them for six years and love them.

Web.com research.

Web.com interviews.