Network Solutions can be a hosting service that comes packed with tons of awesome extras. Let’s Dive into a Detailed Network Solutions Review.
For starters, it includes a website builder with all of its plans. You’re also ready to get a free domain with just about any plan they offer for a year.
However, it lacks in some areas (mostly security). While standard SSL protection is available and included in various subscription levels, some do not have this required feature.
But can network solutions still convince us?
We will determine this through this Network Solutions review. Whenever we review a hosting service, we put it through a series of tests to compare it to some of its biggest and best competitors.
Let’s delve into this.
Table of Contents
Network Solutions Review: General Info & Hosting Overview
⭐️RATING: | 3.0 ★★★☆☆ |
SPEED: | 600 ms |
UPTIME: | 99.98% |
SUPPORT: | Phone, Ticketing, Help Center |
APPS: | WordPress, Website Builder, Joomla, Drupal, Php, Ruby, MySQL, etc. |
FEATURES: | Website Builder, Free Domain, Daily Backups |
HOSTING PLANS: | Cloud and WordPress |
SITE TRANSFER: | Not Free |
PRICING: | Starting at $5.69/mo |
Pros of Network Solutions Hosting
1. Good Uptime (99.98%)
A network uptime of 99.98% is claimed by Network Solutions.
But so does any other web host.
During a 2-week observation period, I conducted an initial test to assess the reliability and response time of Network Solutions.
The test site experienced two outage instances throughout this period, resulting in a total downtime of 3 minutes. Consequently, Network Solutions demonstrated an impressive uptime of 99.98%, surpassing their official uptime guarantee of 99.9% by a significant margin.
2. Page Loading Speed (600 ms)
The average response time of Network Solutions was measured to be 4.43 seconds, which is more than 7 times slower than the market average of 600 milliseconds.
While one could initially attribute this to a temporary maintenance issue, it is a recurring pattern with Network Solutions. In simple terms, slow response time is consistently experienced with this provider.
Network Solutions can be considered highly reliable in terms of uptime. However, it is almost certain that their response time will be notably slow.
3. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Risk-free scenarios are always the best when making a sale.
You need an answer if you spend money on a service and later find it doesn’t meet your needs.
That’s why Network Solutions offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of their plans. You are ready to buy the accommodation, try it for a month, and choose whether or not you want to continue.
4. Free Domain
Most hosting plans with Network Solutions come with a free name.
While most domains cost less than $20, the service is still a nice touch. Several of the opposing hosting services we reviewed don’t offer you a free name, and some won’t let you buy one in the slightest (like Cloudways).
When that happens, customers are more likely to lean towards a hosting provider like GoDaddy, which offers a unique place. It is good to ensure that Network Solutions wants to lead its customers by ensuring an all-in-one experience.
It should be remembered that most hosting plans come with a free domain. It is not included with the Starter cloud hosting service and is only available after you have bought an annual term cloud kit.
5. Includes Website Builder
While this is often indirectly associated with shared hosting, it’s worth noting that all Network Solutions subscription levels come with a free Network Solutions website builder.
This goes hand in hand with what we just said about providing an all-in-one experience. With Network Solutions, you are ready to purchase a website name, create the website connected to it, and then host that website in one place.
This is just provided in the Cloud server, apparently. You will be able to build your site on the WordPress website if you are using WordPress hosting.
We’re not going to go too far into the functionality of the website creator, so you’ll be using it to create a website, small business, or blog for eCommerce. It also comes with built-in models and a stock picture library.
Cons of Network Solutions Hosting
1. Limited Customer Service
Network Solutions offers phone support and ticketing. They also usually offer a live chat option (for new clients or already registered users).
Also, they are available with a great domain of knowledge if you prefer to independently search for solutions to your hosting problems.
We tested their ticketing support since Network Solutions does have a live chat option.
Sounds good, right?
However, the immediate response seemed to be an automatic response in which we were instructed to look at his domain of knowledge to seek answers to our questions.
So it seems like the only thanks for quick assistance are calling them or browsing the knowledge domain.
2. SSL Security Costs Extra
Do you want Google to label your site as safe or not safe?
It is not a difficult question to understand.
Obviously, you would like to be sure. But without an SSL Certificate, your site will be labeled as not secure by Google.
This is why many hosting service providers include some form of SSL security in their services.
And Network Solutions does it … for several of them.
SSL certificates are only included with the most expensive cloud hosting plan and the two most expensive WordPress plans.
If you don’t subscribe to at least one of these, the certificate (and your overall site security) must be purchased separately.
- Xpress validation costs $76.89/yr for a two-year period.
- Basic validation is $153.89/yr for 2 years.
- Advanced validation costs $219.89/yr for a two-year period.
- The wildcard gives you unlimited subdomain protection and is $384.89/yr for 2 years.
- Extended SSL security is $329.89/yr with a two-year commitment.
3. Site Transfers Are Not Free
A hosting provider always has to affect new customers who have existing websites on other services. Next, you need to transfer those domain names.
Unfortunately, Network Solutions does not offer free site migrations, and therefore the price may vary depending on what is being transferred. For example, There is a $9.99 fee per domain name for every transfer.
4. Complicated Control Panel
Network Solution features a custom dashboard instead of the industry-standard cPanel.
This, of course, is not necessarily unpleasant. Many other hosting companies, such as IONOS and CloudWays, also use their own custom dashboard, but the Network Solution dashboard seems a bit outdated, especially compared to the hosts mentioned above.
Under “Hosting Packages,” you will access your website security options, website builder, manage backup options, and more. You will also manage your domains and emails from an equivalent panel.
In general, the Network Solution dashboard is not difficult to use, but it does seem a bit cluttered. This means that it takes too many clicks and scrolls to get your bearings.
Network Solutions Costs, Plans, & Payment Options
We are going to cover Network Solutions cloud and WordPress hosting services.
Let’s start with a look at cloud hosting plans.
Starter Plan | Essential Plan | Premium Plan | Premium Plus Plan | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing | $5.69/Mo | $9.96/Mo | $25.78/Mo | $31.61/Mo |
Websites | 1 | 3 | 10 | 10 |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Storage | 15GB | 300GB | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Email Accounts | 5 | 1000 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Other Features | – | • Domain Name • SiteLock | • Domain Name • SiteLock Premium | • Domain Name • SiteLock Premium • SSL Certificate |
Moving on to the WordPress plans, there are only three, and they don’t require a commitment period.
Entrepreneurs | Growing Business | Professionals | |
---|---|---|---|
Pricing | $7.99/Mo | $13.98/Mo | $18.98/Mo |
Websites | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Storage | 50GB | 100GB | 200GB |
Email Accounts | 10 | 25 | 50 |
Other Features | • On-Demand Cloud Backup • Domain Name | • On-Demand Cloud Backup • Domain Name • SSL Certificate | • On-Demand Cloud Backup • Domain Name • SSL Certificate |
Every package comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. No free trial is available. Credit cards and PayPal are recognized as payment alternatives by Network Solutions.
Do We Recommend Network Solutions?
Not really.
Although they are suitable for medium to large size websites, their uptime and speed are not stable enough to drive our recommendation.
We also don’t like the incontrovertible fact that site migrations and SSL certificates come with an additional fee whose support is extremely limited.
On the bright side, we are a huge fan of Network Solutions‘ all-in-one approach to hosting services and website building. You will get their domain, their email addresses and create your website in an equivalent place.
But we can’t ignore its uptime and speed. Until these critical aspects of your service are repaired, we will not recommend that you use them.
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