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Webfusion offers cheap domains, but is it worth the price?
UK hosting giant Webfusion jumped the pond, and debuted its services for a North American audience starting on December 18, 2008. Of course, in North America, there’s more than enough web hosting services, so why consider Webfusion? How about $0.99 .com domains, paired with $2.99 per month hosting? It sounds like a great deal, but what exactly is the catch?
The catch is that it’s a catch. Webfusion is hoping to spark interest in North America with its enticing deals, but how long can you expect the good prices to last?
We can use another UK-turned-American host, 1&1.com to predict the future. 1&1.com started off as a small German company that expanded its territory throughout Europe, and eventually reaching North America in 2003. It differentiated itself by offering simple hosting solutions, cheap or free domains (with hosting), and 24/7 customer service.
Let’s compare it with Webfusion.
Webfusion has been around since 1997. It’s a very popular UK host, currently serving over 1 million sites, and has registered over 2 million domains. It’s known for its reliability, which is good news for anyone looking to host with Webfusion. This web host seems to have their act together. The site is quick and informative, and they offer 24/7, 365 customer service with a toll free number. Sounds strikingly familiar, doesn’t it?
Perhaps that’s because of Thomas Vollrath, the CEO of Webfusion, and the former CEO of 1&1.com. It appears that Vollrath is carrying his same vision of clarity of service, great prices, and committed customer support over to another web host, and hoping to make Webfusion as successful as its predecessor, 1&1.com.
If he is indeed going to follow the same pattern as 1&1.com, Webfusion will probably maintain its great prices. Six years into its American invasion, 1&1.com still offers free domain registration with inexpensive web hosting. For now, Webfusion comes in at just $1.00 less than 1&1.com, with these three packages: Newbie ($2.99/per month), Techie ($6.99/per month), and Guru ($14.99/per month). The Web space ranges from 10 GB to 400 GB, with bandwidth from 300 GB to 500 GB. You can have anywhere from 10 – 100 MySQL databases, depending on the package you choose. It can’t hurt to try it, because you get a 30 day money back guarantee, if you’re unsatisfied for any reason.
Overall, if you’re looking to host with a reputable company, Webfusion appears to be a great choice. It is a company millions trust, and it’s following a model that has withstood the test of time.
Tags: Discussion
5 comments for “Webfusion offers cheap domains, but is it worth the price?”
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I can hardly imagine which domain names can they offer for such price. Lol.
@ Hosting Admin: Offering domains at this price is part of their overall marketing strategy to enter the North American market. It has been done before. Perhaps you can explain your concern?
There are actually a lot of different domain name registrars that have had similar specials. They do this so as to attract many new customers and they certainly hope that these customers will renew their domains at regular prices the following year. They are basically financing the purchase for the customer as the Icanm fee is higher then this.
This is actually a nice marketing strategy. I see no problem with the deal as long as the service maintains a standard of quality and in the end the price does not jump to high.
Free domain accompanied with the cheapest or all web hosting plans looks like a new web hosting standard nowadays. It’s hard to find a hosting which does not offer this.