Domain.com Review

As its name suggests, Domain.com is first and foremost a domain name registrar, but their services also include SSL certificates, domain privacy, email marketing, email hosting, web design and web hosting. Of all these, web hosting will be the subject of this Domain.com review.

Domain.com Overview

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Domain.com has been offering its domain name registration services since 2000. The company is owned by one of the largest players in web hosting, the Endurance International Group, which is also the parent company of other big-name web hosting providers like BlueHost or HostGator.

Domain.com claim to provide great value services, affordable prices, and reliability, so let’s see in our Domain.com review if these claims can be backed up.

Domain.com Plans & Pricing

Domain.com offers a choice of Windows or Linux-based hosting through a variety of shared hosting plans. Those looking for month-to-month plans will have to settle for the 1-year plan, which is the minimum commitment period at Domain.com, the longest being 3 years.

Unfortunately, Domain.com does not reward customers with discounts if they commit for a longer period, thus, prices stay constant across all contract periods. A free domain name is provided for free with all hosting plans.

Linux Shared Hosting

Linux-based hosting plans start at $3.75/month or $45/year (Basic plan) offering unlimited disk space, scalable bandwidth, hosting for 1 domain, 5 FTP accounts, 10 MySQL databases, 100 email accounts, and $100 worth of Google AdWords and Bing marketing credit, as well as a free toll-free number.

The Deluxe plan is unlimited in terms of disk space, bandwidth and number of domains hosted, but not in terms of FTP accounts (25), MySQL databases (25), and email addresses (250). The Deluxe plan costs $6.75/month or $81/year.

If you’re looking for a plan with unlimited everything, we recommend the Ultra plan, which costs $13.75/month or $165/year.

Windows Shared Hosting

Windows-based hosting plans start at $4.75/month or $57/year. The Basic plan and the Ultra plan (costing $7.75/month or $93/year) have the same configuration as the Basic and Ultra plans in the Linux-based hosting category. The Deluxe plan (costing $14.75/month or $177/year) features only 50 FTP logins and 50 MySQL databases compared to the all-unlimited Linux-based Deluxe plan.

VPS Hosting

Domain.com’s VPS plans feature CentOS and cPanel/WHM with the Pro and Premium plans. Unlike shared hosting plans, VPS hosting plans do feature month-to-month billing. The entry-level VPS plan costs $29.70 per month and includes 512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk space, 1000 GB bandwidth, hosting for unlimited domains, unlimited databases and unlimited email. cPanel/WHM is not available with the Standard plan.

The Pro plan doubles the RAM and web space allocation of the Standard plan, and comes with 1500 GB bandwidth, unlimited domain and unlimited database hosting. This plan costs $41.60/month.

The plan packing the biggest punch in this category, is the Premium plan, which features 2048 MB RAM, 60 GB disk space, 2000 GB bandwidth, unlimited email, domain and database hosting. This plans costs $67.95/month.

Domain.com also features a basic hosting plan for WordPress, which costs $3.75/month and allows you to launch a WordPress blog in a matter of minutes.

Apart from the choice of OS and resources discussed here, let’s see what other features are available with these hosting plans.

Domain.com Hosting Features

Only shared and VPS hosting are available at Domain.com. Plans come with the following features:

• Free domain name for 1 year;
• Free drag & drop site builder;
• Free 1 GB cloud storage (shared plans);
• Anti-spam filter and email anti-virus;
• Marketing tools ($100 Google AdWords, $100 Bing Ad Credit, YellowPages listing, toll-free phone number – US);
• PHP5, Perl, Python supported;
• SSL support, Password Protected Directory;
• Web Analytics tools;
• Free apps: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, CubeCart, etc.;
• Eco-friendly hosting (wind-powered);
• cPanel/WHM;
• Data backups, full network redundancy, 24×7 security monitoring.

Domain.com does not offer dedicated hosting plans nor reseller plans. Their services are aimed at individual users and small businesses. If your website needs to grow beyond the resources offered by Domain.com’s VPS plans, Domain.com may not be a suitable choice for your website.

Customer Support at Domain.com

Domain.com’s customer service is limited to live chat and ticketing system. Support personnel is available 24/7 to handle requests. Phone support is not available; however, a sales toll-free number is available for those with sales questions. Some plans (e.g. Ultra plan) feature premium support.

As with any respectable web host, Domain.com maintains a knowledgebase on their Help Center page. User guides are also available for the uninitiated.

Opinions about Domain.com range from high praises for their easy-to-use services to ardent complaints about customer support.

Pros & Cons of Domain.com

Domain.com is a domain name registrar first and web hosting provider second. Their hosting plans are truly easy to use and are not cluttered with features that beginners may find overwhelming. However, advanced users and professionals may find them underwhelming for these very reasons.

Here are the Pros and Cons of Domain.com:

Domain.com’s hosting features can help you establish an online presence on the cheap, but it may lag behind on some hosting aspects that may be crucial to some businesses and individuals.

Domain.com Review Conclusion

Domain.com has good shared hosting options with a choice of Windows or Linux-based hosting. While it gives your site more room to grow than an average shared hosting provider, it lacks the full-spectrum of hosting options. Even so, Domain.com can be a good hosting candidate for the average user that doesn’t need a hosting plans chock-full of features they might end up not using anyway.

The lack of an uptime guarantee and advanced features, makes Domain.com unqualified to become the hosting of choice for high-traffic websites and professionals that need more advanced hosting options.