Company Background
It claims to be the world's largest web hosting company but our chart above shows otherwise. 1&1 as a public listed company is probably financially more stable than their smaller competitors and you want to host your small business website with a company you know will be around a long time. 1&1 started out in Europe as a marketing company in 1992, it went into the business of webhosting in 1998, entered the US market in 2003. As with any big companies, the personal touch can sometimes be lost. I sent a very simple email requesting for more information on the free domains, it took them almost 1 week to revert to me!

What sets 1and1 apart from the rest is their Netviewer technical support function. Through Netviewer, their technical support team is able to provide you with a 1-to-1 support through a secure connection with your computer to find out what trouble you are experiencing with their control panel. They are able to assist you in configuring your website or in setting up any new feature.

1and1 has an online FAQ which is very comprehensive. You can find the answer to your questions on how to set up New Email Address, Email Client, FTP Account, Website Creator, Domain Transfers and Domain Setup etc.

Verdict
I gave it a 3 stars because honestly their offerings can be somewhat confusing if you are new to this. First off, it offers both Linux and Windows hosting which is good, while it does offer unlimited bandwidth but not for diskspace. It does place a cap on the subdomains you can create. The best way to explain subdomain is to show you one, for example, support.discountwebhostreview.com is a subdomain of discountwebhostreview.com, so depending on the package you choose, there is a cap on this, a cap on the number of domains you can host in 1 account, cap on emails, email space. Just all too confusing even for a person like me. But I can almost guarantee that they are feeling the heat from our list of recommended top hosts here. What's annoying is this, you are offered a list of other add-ons before you can arrive at the order page. Control panel is slightly difficult and slow to use if you have been used to Cpanel. Finally, it's not the cheapest plan around. And it does charge a set up fee of $9.99 too!