Web.com is a website host offering an intuitive interface that allows users without cascading style sheets (CSS) or content management system (CMS) knowledge to create pages. Even in a busy web hosting market, Web.com is very successful. As of the time of this writing the service boasts three million customers. There’s a reason why these types of hosting platforms have become so popular. With a service, such as Web.com, you can craft and host attractive sites without a dedicated web designer or information technology (IT) team, which makes it ideal for small businesses just starting out.
Web.com hosts each page on their servers. As one of the best hosting provider, Web.com has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for site reliability. In addition to this reliability, Web.com sites load quickly, take as little as an hour to build, and have extensive customer support channels. In this review, we’re going to take a look at all of this so that you can determine if Web.com is right for your business.
Web.com
| Introductory price: | Starting at $2.95 per month (for 1 year) |
| Renewal price for the same plan: | $9.99 per month |
| Discounted rates for longer terms? | Yes, save up to 70% with a three-year commitment |
at web.com
Pros
- Drag-and-drop builder interface
- Free domain
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 24/7 phone and chat support
Cons
- No free trial
- Renewal can be expensive
- Does not offer unlimited storage
With a web host like this, you can virtually drag and drop your site into its ready-to-publish version without needing to get into the nuts and bolts of the page. You’re able to use a variety of templates to build your site’s look, and each is very customizable. Effectively, a solopreneur quickly builds their own site with its unique look and feel without paying for a dedicated designer.Web.com’s reliability is also very valuable for the small business owner. The service offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means that, within a year, you can expect guaranteed service continuity for all but eight hours. While nothing is saying that your site will experience downtime, knowing that the builder has this uptime percentage in writing is critical for a small business that needs to be sure its site is available at all times.
As a general rule, larger companies are better served taking on an IT team that can support their website. With a web builder/host, such as Web.com, you’re provided customizable templates that can get the job done but are still somewhat limited. With a dedicated designer and developer, you have limitless options when it comes to design, and these developers can add functionality to the site as needs arise.While you can add several niche features through Web.com, features that include integration with point-of-sale (POS) devices and recurring payments aren’t supported. These features are relatively easy to implement for a developer with a site built on a more traditional CMS, such as WordPress or Drupal. As a business grows, if it wants to maintain a degree of agility and customizability, a web host with builder functionality, such as Web.com, starts to become increasingly less attractive.
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Web.com pricing & plan overview
Web.com has a three-tiered plan structure, and each plan starts at a very low rate for the first year and renews at a higher monthly rate. For example, the first-tier Website plan starts at $2.95 for the first year and renews at $9.99 per month for features, such as a free domain and business email. Each plan has unmetered bandwidth, up to 40GB of web storage, and a drag-and-drop web builder for sites. Learn more in our guide to web hosting costs.
| Plans | Introductory rate | Renewal rate | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $2.95 per month (first year) | $9.99 per month | 1 website 10GB storage 15,000 visitors |
| Plus | $4.95 per month (first year) | $13.99 per month | 5 websites 20GB storage 50,000 visitors |
| Premium | $6.95 per month (first year) | $16.99 per month | 10 websites 40GB storage 200,000 visitors |
| Basic | |
|---|---|
| Introductory rate | $2.95 per month (first year) |
| Renewal rate | $9.99 per month |
| Features | 1 website 10GB storage 15,000 visitors |
| Plus | |
| Introductory rate | $4.95 per month (first year) |
| Renewal rate | $13.99 per month |
| Features | 5 websites 20GB storage 50,000 visitors |
| Premium | |
| Introductory rate | $6.95 per month (first year) |
| Renewal rate | $16.99 per month |
| Features | 10 websites 40GB storage 200,000 visitors |
Best Web.com plan for small businesses: Basic
The Web.com plan that has the best array of features for a smaller business would be the basic plan. The Basic plan is specifically provisioned for smaller companies needing a single website. This plan features an intuitive web builder, has 10GB of website storage, and comes with a free domain. While it is limited to 15k visitors, this is a fairly extensive number of available visitors for a small company that’s starting to grow.
All of these useful features are available at less than $3 a month for the first year. This, of course, increases to $9.99 after this period ends, but this is still a very low cost of entry price point that smaller businesses take advantage of as they build a customer base. This plan even comes with a business email so that you have a venue for customers to reach your business without relying on an external service or going with an @gmail, @yahoo, or other email address.
The aforementioned website builder is a major advantage of this plan. Being able to make use of a drag-and-drop system to build your site is very helpful. In addition to this, the provided templates are very customizable, so while you may have used the same template as another business, yours will still look unique with a few tweaks.
Pros
- 24/7 phone and chat support
- Free domain
- Business email included
- Easy-to-use, drag-and-drop website builder included
Cons
- No free trial
- Add-on features/services get expensive
- Only 10GB of storage
Other services Web.com offers
In addition to hosting services, Web.com features several additional services that’ll be valuable to a small business. Here are a few to consider:
- Search engine optimization (SEO): For $29.99 per month, Web.com provides dedicated SEO services. These include SEO health checks and improvement monitoring.
- Domain name search: Web.com features a top-level domain (TLD) search function that provides .com, .net, .org, .co, .store, and .info domains. You can even use keywords.
- WordPress hosting: The host also features the capability of building your site through WordPress and features multi-site management and customer support.
- Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates: With four monthly plans, Web.com has SSL certificates. This masks site data and makes private data unreadable with encryption.
- Free email: Starting at $1.49 a month, business emails that match the purchased domain are provided. These integrate with calendar apps and feature 25GB of storage.
- Professional website design: The host employs web design experts who will help business owners create eye-catching sites.
The Web.com platform and customer support
As a hosting platform, Web.com is designed with ease of use in mind. It’s easy to add on services, navigate, and build sites through the intuitive user interface (UI). Immediately, you’re presented with options for password protection, file transfer protocol (FTP) and content publishing, site enhancements, configurations, and statistics for your page. You’re granted access to the website builder under the FTP submenu quickly.
Customer support is critical for a service, such as Web.com, especially since many use a provider like this to avoid the expense of hiring a full-sized IT support organization. In this regard, Web.com does a good job of providing the channels customers need to get help. Most of their channels are available 24/7. When you need help with various site issues that might arise, you have the choice of:
- Email support
- Live chat support
- Phone support
- An online knowledge base
Is Web.com secure?
This host has a wide variety of security features to ensure your page’s continuity. One of the more useful security features is Web.com’s CodeGuard system. This is a three-tiered plan that ranges from $3.99 to $9.99 per month. CodeGuard backs up anywhere from one to 10 websites and provides additional storage and databases for each. Each plan has infinite backup retention, daily backup and monitoring, and one-click restore should the worst happen.
Another security offering is their SiteLock plans, which also come in three tiers that range from $6.99 to $24.99 per month. These provide daily malware scans, automatic malware removal, bot blocking, and blacklist monitoring. There’s even distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection at the higher tiers and continuous malware scans.
Web.com user reviews
Overall, users have given the hosting packages offered by Web.com a solid score. In fact, HostingAdvice.com gives them a score of 4.3 out of 5 when it comes to web hosting. With the affordable pricing scheme and easy-to-use website builder, most beginners have a fairly easy time. If difficulty arises, there is a support staff available 24/7 that responds quickly to inquiries. There are plans with unlimited storage and bandwidth, so scaling is easy with Web.com.
The negative reviews about the service often circle around the pricing structure. The fact that the first year is much lower than the renewal price is definitely a perk, but when renewal time comes around, users can be caught unaware of the new, higher charge. Add-ons tend to increase the price as well, causing the final price to be more expensive than originally expected.
Compare Web.com alternatives
 Web.com: Plus |  Squarespace: Business |  Wix: Core |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price per month (with annual payment) | Starting price per month (with annual payment) | Starting price per month (with annual payment) |
| $13.99 per month | $23 per month | $29 per month |
| Free trial available? | Free trial available? | Free trial available? |
| No | Yes, 14-days | 14-day money-back guarantee |
| Storage (in GB) | Storage (in GB) | Storage (in GB) |
| 20GB | Unlimited | 50GB |
| Unlimited bandwidth? | Unlimited bandwidth? | Unlimited bandwidth? |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
Web.com vs. Squarespace
When it comes to hosting, both Web.com and Squarespace offer cloud hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They both come with unlimited bandwidth, a drag-and-drop editor, and storage options. The difference is that Squarespace offers unlimited storage while Web.com only offers up to 40GB. In addition, Web.com does not have a free trial, but Squarespace allows you to try the service, without charge, for 14 days.
Web.com vs. Wix
To start, these web hosting services are very similar to drag-and-drop editors for the web-building process and unlimited bandwidth. Neither service offers a free trial, but Wix has a 14-day money-back guarantee. When it comes to pricing, Wix has a higher price point with paid subscriptions, but they also offer a free plan with somewhat limited functionality. Web.com has a low price per month, but for the first year of subscribing, you get a discount. You also save up to 70% with a three-year contract.
Is Web.com right for you?
Web.com is a good selection for any small business that wants to quickly find a host that also has an intuitive site builder included. The host has a wide array of add-on services that will enhance the functionality and performance of your site quickly. Small businesses will appreciate how easy it is to fine-tune SEO performance with Web.com. That being said, larger businesses might be better served with a host that doesn’t include the builder component, especially if they have web development staff on hand.
Frequently asked questions
Is Web.com a web hosting service or a website builder?
Web.com is both. The service offers a dedicated website builder and hosting service with web builder functionality.
Does Web.com provide a free domain?
Yes, Web.com offers a free one-year domain registration in its hosting plans. After the first year expires, you’ll have to pay renewal rates.
Is Web.com a good hosting site for beginners?
Yes, Web.com is a good site for beginners as it requires very little IT knowledge. With the host, you craft a website using the drag-and-drop interface, and you can rely on the site being online with the host’s guarantee of 99.9% service uptime.
