Company Overview

Web.com was established back in 1997, and nowadays it offers a whole armada of different services, including website hosting, web design, DIY web builder, and marketing. Back in the days, web.com we know today was called Website Pros (founded in 1999), and the company changed the name to Web.com after acquiring the Web.com Inc. Darin Brannan (Website Pros founder) had a vision of creating a company which offers the top website design service and other related services for much cheaper than all the smaller and mid-size companies. When the .com bubble exploded, the company changed directions (closing down direct sales to more indirect marketing), and stayed above water. In the past few years, the web.com acquired several companies, this way expanding its “empire” and offering more and better services to their customers. Nowadays, the web.com is still based in Florida and is one of the biggest providers, with more than 3 million registered domains.

Web.com Hosting Services

The Web.com offers only shared web hosting. It’s a feature that’s popular and cheap, although VPS or dedicated service would be desired to be added later. However, as long as the already available services go, the shared isn’t that bad. Actually, it’s quite awesome. What is shared hosting? Well, it’s simple: imagine one big server. Got it, now put a hundred sites on that server. That’s shared hosting as each site on the given box shares the computing power, the RAM, and the storage. And why is it good? Because it’s a budget-friendly solution, and nowadays, a sharing doesn’t necessarily mean that your site has less space, less power or loads slower. Now, the web.com shared hosting is the friendliest out there.

We will talk about the prices later, let’s take a look on the features and goodies you get first! The three plans basically offer the same features like MySQL support, Python support, FTP access, a website builder and “unlimited” bandwidth. The most major difference is the storage you get: with the smaller plan, you get 300GB (which is better than most offers out there), the middle package gives you access to 500GB, while the highest offers is an “unlimited” storage option. It’s really easy to get your site up and running, and the tech support the web.com provides is quite great.

e-Commerce Specific Hosting Plans

The web.com grants special hosting packages for small and medium-sized businesses. The three different plans for web-shops are quite nice, and you can also take advantage of the high-value marketing solutions. Here is a rundown on these services:

eCommerce Express:

This is the starter package. It allows you to list 20 products, yet you can take advantage of the unlimited storage. You also gain access to the Web.com in-house made web builder, and you can create business email addresses. The transaction fee (which you have to pay after the generated sales), is 2.5%.

eCommerce Standard:

The web.com claims that it’s the most popular choice, and we actually tend to believe it, because it offers things you might find essential. With this package, you can list 500 products. The extras of this plan include email auto-responders, and a low, 1.5% transaction fee, along with free submission of product to Google.

eCommerce Pro:

This is for big marketers. You have the option to list unlimited products, and you also get the chance to set up a store with digital products (e.g. ebooks, videos, music). If you are serious about your business, the web.com also offers affiliate management program, that can help you drive more traffic, signups, thus generating you profit. Apart from the super-small 1% transaction fee, you get an SSL certificate to ensure the safety of your sales.
All these packages include access to the website builder, templates, and full support online or by phone. If you open an online store at the web.com, you could also take advantage of payment gateways.

Website Building

At web.com, you can choose from different website building solutions. The first time you log in, you can start using the exclusive website builder called Neo. This allows you to pick a design, choose the color theme. There are several ways to customize your site, and these include editing the pages, adding content (text, images, videos, etc.). Though we usually advise users to create their site’s content “offline” first, using Word or an open-source editor, then upload it, but at web.com, you could take advantage of the integrated spell-checking editor too. As usual, if you know what you are doing, you can fully customize your site, but if not, the templates can help a lot. You may also add contact forms, maps and other extras to enhance the looks and the functionality of your portal. There is a more advanced website builder, which you could get for free. It’s called Matrix, and it adds extra functions like adding store features to your site.

As one of the alternative solution, the web.com has an open source library (more on this later), where you can install WordPress. Since WordPress is rocking the online world nowadays, you can find free templates throughout the web, and this way you can hit two flies at one: you can set up a finely designed site, which could also be mobile ready. Another alternative for the clueless, the lazy, or those who really don’t want to screw up their site is to hire the web.com experts to create the site design and every function you dream of. All in all, building a site is easy, and you get all the help and features you might need.

Marketing Tools

The web.com aims to provide a webhosting service which covers all related fields. Well, it’s up to you to decide if you need their marketing services, but if you are not a marketing guru, you may have to ask for their help.

Ignite Online Marketing:

This service includes some SEO services and listing. If you live with this option, the web.com team will get you into Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yellow Pages and many other important search engines and directories. They can set up your site, so it appears on GPS maps, so if you have a physical location (e.g. office, store, etc.), you can be found easily.

Facebook Advertising:

With this complimentary service, you can give your site a significant boost by appearing on Facebook. Web.com offers a full Facebook-assistant service, adding content to your FB page, and increasing your likes and presence by targeted marketing on the biggest social media site.

SEO Service:

The web.com offers a full SEO-service too. This includes keyword research by experts, link building, and analytics. They can also improve your content to increase its readability for both human readers and for search engines.

PPC Advertising Service:

If you want, the web.com can overtake your Google ads campaign and optimize the results. This could ensure that your ads appear where they should be, and you get real, targeted traffic from sites which are related to your product or services.

Other Extra Features

Domains

When you opt-in for a hosting plan from the web.com, you can grab a free domain name. It’s free for one year, but if your site turns out to be a real hit, the renewal price won’t set you back too much. On the other hand, you could choose from different extensions, including .com, .net, or .org. As an added extra feature for this, you could buy the domain privacy, which hides your registered info, and during a WhoIs search, only the web.com info appears instead of yours. You can bring your own domain, though.

Online Reputation Monitoring

It’s an interesting service, and if you would like to keep your site and business above the water, you should opt-in for this on the long run. This service is basically a monitoring service, which keeps track of your reputation throughout the web. The web.com’s Reputation Alert software monitors what people are saying about you and your business on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, CitySearch, LinkedIn, Yahoo Local, Bing, Google Places, and hundreds of other relevant places. This way, you have the option to get constant feedback, even your clients don’t leave it directly. Also, you can improve your reputation by addressing queries and resolve complaints. If you can’t, or don’t want to hire an assistant, you should include this software service for your site, for a $9.95 monthly fee.

Take-A-Payment service

With this app, you can accept secure payments on your site, or, if you are in something more physical (e.g. gardening, plumbing, woodworking), you can bring your own device and receive credit payments on the location, directly from the client. You could have more time as you don’t have to go the bank to cash-in checks, nor you would need to go back to the customer to give you a new check. It’s a secure solution, and it’s also a great feature to ensure you get paid.

Applications and Add-Ons

Through the open source library at web.com, you can install most of the popular tools & software. For example, you can easily install not just WordPress, but also Joomla or Drupal. Hardcore site builders who know how to write a code should also check the available Python or PHP solutions. When it comes to opening an online store, people usually go with the easy-to-use Magento, which gives you all the options you might need. Other security, anti-spam features are available for installing from the library.

Since the web.com has only two hosting services, their prices have to be competitive, and you get that from that. Even though the eCommerce hosting may look pricey at first, the added value of the features made it worthy for store-owners. Let’s take a look at these prices.

Shared Hosting

Plan 1 – Website Builder:

This is the most basic package at web.com, with a starting price of $1.95 for the first month. The website builder includes access to the Neo builder, access to a huge template library, along with unlimited storage and bandwidth. This is a nice plan for newbies, but professionals can also take advantage of the open source scripts and add-ons they can install for free usually.

Plan 2 – Website Builder and Marketing:

It contains all the features of the first plan and spares you the hassle of submitting your site to search engines, and the web.com adds your business profile to local searches. You can also benefit from a SEO This plan is $2.95 for the first month.

Plan 3 – Plan 1 + Plan 2 + Store Options:

This plan is suitable for small business or handcrafter who would like to sell online. You have the option to list 500 products, the pre-installed shopping cart is available, and you can accept payments. The starting price is $3.95. Email tools for marketing are also included.

eCommerce Hosting

Since we’ve already covered their features above, we will just summarize this hosting plans. The price of the different packages starts from $34.95. Depending on the package, the prices vary. Web.com bills every 4 weeks.

Other Services

There are many freebies included, so that’s a good point. Some of the solution we’ve covered (Reputation Alert, Take-A-Payment software) costs $9.95 per month, and on the long run, they might prove to be worthy of this price. For example, if you notice a decline in traffic and orders, the reputation alert service could direct you to the source of the problem. As for the other services, you have to get in touch with the web.com staff to find out how much the SEO, the web design and the others might cost you.

Security

To grant your visitor, customers a more secured environment, you should be a cheapskate when it comes to additional layers of security. Web.com grants you spam protection, and it uses the service of the CatchGuard. Naturally, you can – and have to! – keep your email accounts safe, with the spam, virus protection tool, which is also capable of removing the viruses. The SSL is a must if you are processing payments through your site, and you can have the certificate of SSL for only $24 for 12 months, meaning great security for only $2 a month!

As for the uptime, the web.com is one of the most stable ones. Our test site was online for more than 99.89% of the past months, so literally, there was no downtime. Quite strangely, the Web.com hosting service hadn’t had any downtimes when other hosts were suffering from DDoS attacks and hacking, like in last December 2016. In case uptime is important to you, the web.com is a great provider.

If you are not satisfied for any reason, you can ask for a money back. The web.com offers a 30-days money back guarantee, and we believe that’s more than enough to set up a site and test the host’s performance.

Web.com has several phone numbers on the site. You can call in as a client to consult (e.g. about the SEO service), and you have the option to call them for technical support. As our test, and users’ experiences show, the phone support is quite fast to pick up the phone, and you can get to the right person quite quickly. They can give you directions, or if needed, there you could add what you need. (e.g. install the Matrix instead of the Neo builder for free). The Web.com also has a live chat support, and the agents are quite fast there too. It depends only on your preferences what you would like to do: call them or chat. We know that there are people who hate using the phone, while other can more easily express themselves in said words. The third line of support is available via the ticket submission system on-site.

As a bottom line, we have to say, the Web.com has one very great feature: the high uptime. Even though most people who would like to establish an online presence, can benefit from the great marketing and other options, we have to say, the web.com is a perfectly good option for bigger marketers and businesses as well.