When it comes to the Internet, you need to have a place that you can call home. Your company’s Web site needs to be accessible, and the best way to do that is to rent space on a server through a Web host. A Web host is a company that allows you to save space on a server, which is basically a computer. The Internet is made up of servers that store information in a form that can be easily retrieved and then displayed by computer screens all over the world. In order to get your Web site on the Internet easily, it pays to rent space from a Web host.
We will focus in ASP.NET hosting since this blog is for ASP.NET hosting lover. There are many ASP.NET hosts out there, and some of them even offer free hosting. However, these free services often come at a price: diminished service or you have to let the company run ads on your business Web site (which looks unprofessional). In the end, it is often worth it to find ASP.NET hosting that costs a little bit. There are plenty of low-cost ASP.NET hosting options out there. Two Web hosts will be discussed here: HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 Internet Inc. You can find out more about other popular low-cost Web hosts at https://www.topreviewhostingasp.net.
About HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 Hosting
Founded in 2007, HostForLIFEASP.NET become one of the largest ASP.NET hosting in Europe. HostForLIFEASP.NET is awarded as No #1 Microsoft Recommended Windows ASP.NET hosting provider. HostForLIFEASP.NET serve many clients around the world. They specialize in Windows hosting. This provider offer wide range of web hosting services; shared hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated server. In addition, they also offer domain registration and SSL as well.
1&1 is one of the world’s leading Web hosting providers. The company was founded by Ralph Dommermuth in 1988 in Montabaur, Germany, where its headquarters is still located. 1&1 currently offers a wide range of Web hosting products, including email solutions and high-end servers in 10 different countries including Germany, Spain, UK and the United States.
Known for its comprehensive and affordable Internet products, 1&1’s unique business model positions it as a one-stop Internet shop. From domain registration to Web hosting and also site creation.
Their ASP.NET Hosting Price
HostForLIFEASP.NET offers 4 ASP.NET shared web hosting packages so that customers can choose the most proper one according to their current budget and needs, which are named Classic, Budget, Economy and Business and priced at €3.49/mo, €5.50/mo, €8.00/mo and €10.99/mo. However, now, thanks to the compelling discount the company offers, the effective price of the plans is lowered to €2.97/mo, €4.67/mo, €6.80/mo and €9.34/mo.
1&1 offers 3 ASP.NET hosting packages that named Basic Windows, Plus Windows, and Pro Windows. Basic Windows start from £0.99/mo, Plus Windows £3.99/mo, and Pro Windows £6.99, this all price is discounted price.
ASP.NET Hosting Features
Both of the companies offer many features to help customers run website smoothly and stably and manage the accounts easily. However, there are also some limitations. The table below lists the main features HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 provide.
Both HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 offers plenty of freebies and add-ons to their hosting plans. They both offer a free domain name for a year with purchase of a hosting plan.
They both offer pre-packages app installers for software like WordPress or Joomla. The benefit using HostForLIFEASP.NET is they use in house software that can optimize your website performance. Your ASP.NET site can be faster 3 times.
HostForLIFEASP.NET ASP.NET hosting and 1&1 do daily backups of your server. We have tested their recovery tools and we found that HostForLIFEASP.NET recovery tools better than 1&1 tools. You can recovery your files faster. 1&1 recovery tools sometimes don’t work well, sometimes it can miss something.
For money back guarantee, both also offer money back guarantee. If you don’t satisfied with their hosting services, you can claim your money back/
If you are judging HostForLIFEASP.NET hosting vs. 1&1 based on features – we would say that HostForLIFEASP.NET ASP.NET hosting provides the better value.
[table id=HFLvs1and1 /]Performance
Features, however, do not really matter if the ASP.NET host does not perform. The job of a ASP.NET web host is deliver your website files to a visitor’s browser every time they go to you web address as reliably and as quickly as possible.
Uptime is the measure of how well the web host fits the “reliably” part of performance. Both HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 claim industry-standard uptime of 99.9%. Any measure of uptime by customers is going to anecdotal (including mine – neither me nor my clients have had noticeable downtime with either). Their uptime claims are supposed to be audited – so I’ll give them both a tie on reliability.
Quick aside on reliability – be wary of any host that over-promises reliability. Everyone can (and does) go down at some point. The famous website like Facebook, Yahoo, or Bloomberg can down also. And 1&1 certainly goes down. You should expect a very high-level of performance from your web host, but be sure not to let past performance set future expectations. Additionally, both services promise “unlimited bandwidth” (ie, how many concurrent visitors you can have on your site). That’s a partial untruth for nearly all web hosts. If your site is featured on CNN, Yahoo, and goes viral on Facebook at the same time…your site is probably going to crash. Again, expect a high-level of performance, but don’t have unrealistic expectations or put value in unfulfillable promises.
Back to comparing 1&1 hosting vs HostForLIFEASP.NET on performance. Even though we can’t look at uptime directly – we can look at how quickly their servers can deliver files – ie how fast your website is.
You will notice that HostForLIFEASP.NET wins the TTFB comparison, quite handily. That said, you’ll also notice that on total load time – 1&1 also loses. Typically, this would be put down to how the site is setup or how big it is. But my test was with identical, new websites, so that variable is out.
According to our monitoring results, the uptime of 1&1 is 99.89% on average, while that of HostForLIFEASP.NET is about 99.95%. Read the following 2 charts for the uptime of the 2 companies in the last 30 days.
[show-rjqc id=”3″]Control Panel
You control your server and hosting account with backend software that’s on your server (sort like Windows on a PC). This backend software is where you go to find your server & website information. It’s where you install software to power your ASP.NET website. It’s where you set up your email – basically just managing your account.
HostForLIFEASP.NET offers Plesk panel, the most easy-to-use control panel adopted by a large amount of ASP.NET web hosts. With an intuitive interface, Plesk enables customers to manage every aspect of their accounts and websites in a simple way. In addition, cPanel integrates with a 1-click installer, with which customers can install a lot of popular CMS.
On the other hand, 1&1 doesn’t offer Plesk but the control panel developed by themselves, which enables customers to manage almost every aspect of their websites easily. However, it is a little hard for people who are used to using Plesk to get started.
Customer Service
Customer service, like overall uptime, is often hard to judge based on just anecdotes – and companies’ internal metrics are not generally available. Both HostForLIFEASP.NET and 1&1 are huge companies with a lot of customers. Usually, customers with good experiences rarely talk about their customer service (especially if the service is functioning properly). Meanwhile, customers who do have problems will vocally talk about their bad experiences online.
Our most recent HostForLIFEASP.NET customer experience revolved around a problem with their ASP.NET version on control panel. The support answered very quickly and was very cordial. The issue was resolved within 10 minutes, and we received quick follow up via email from the rep.
1&1 hosting support has typically been fine, but not quite good. Their support is fast (usually under a minute wait) and cordial, but not super knowledgeable. They seem to view support as a cost center rather than a marketing & retention channel.
In my conclusion, HostForLIFEASP.NET is more effective than 1&1 for technical support. I must admit that they must improve their customer support, but overall I would prefer HostForLIFEASP.NET than 1&1 hosting.
Conclusion
So – who wins HostForLIFEASP.NET vs. 1&1 in 2017? It depends on who you are and what you are looking for.
If you are looking for the best ASP.NET hosting based on speed and performance, then HostForLIFEASP.NET is the answer.
Otherwise, I’d say that 1&1 hosting is a big brand with great prices and lots of features, but really can’t match HostForLIFEASP.NET in any other category for overall value.
