The cheap web hosting challenge

Posted by kent on August 11th, 2009

The world of web hosting can be a confusing place. On the one hand, all web hosts do pretty much the same thing: they allow you to publish a website on the Internet. But, as our reviews show, there are also a lot of differences. All those variables aside, sometimes what you want is cheap web hosting, an inexpensive domain to upload your site to. While the race for best bargain web host was pretty tight, this month we have a clear winner: 1&1.

No, we don't know what the name means (but for that matter we don't know what a HostPapa or a WebHostingPad is either), but they have one compelling offer: two years for the price of one. With one year coming in at $4.99, that's like paying only $2.50 per month for two years. Plus, you get two free domain registrations, meaning you can score a .com and a .org version of your site for one price (assuming they're both available). And domain privacy, that's free too.

In our review, we loved the user interface, the shopping cart creator, and the site builder. We had some reservations about the quality of the out-source support and it didn't rank up there with our performance champs (upload and download speed were good, but not great on large files). But it is the most affordable web host you're likely to find, as long as your comfortable with a two-year commitment.

Check out our web hosting ratings and reviews to see how 1&1 stacks up against the competition, or click here to get started with 1&1.

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