Web.com

Web.com Review – Is it Any Good?

Web.com is a well-known, US company that has a strong focus on website building, website design, and online marketing. It is one of the oldest companies of its kind as it was founded in 1997. Today, they represent a huge range of brands and services. Additionally, they are one of the PGA Tours main sponsors.

Some of the brands that Web.com represents include Register, Network Solutions, and 1ShoppingCart. Their goal is to help small businesses succeed online. To achieve this, they also offer hosting services, although this seems to be a side branch.

So, is Web.com any good?

What I Liked about Web.com

• They have a huge amount of design templates to choose from, more than any other service of its kind. While this may feel overwhelming at times, they have organized them in an easy to understand way, so you shouldn’t find it too hard to pick one that suits your needs.
• Their ecommerce functionality is really good, which is logical since their main focus is on helping small businesses start to trade online.
• You can have your site custom built by experts at Web.com.

What I Didn’t Like about Web.com

• The platform, while good, is not particularly user friendly. This means that, if you have no experience in the world of site design and building, you may need their support quite regularly.
• It is definitely not the cheapest website builder out there.
• com does not offer a free trial, which means you have to take a bit of a chance.

Features of Web.com

Web.com comes with a number of really cool features. However, what you will notice from these features is that there is a certain expectation that you already know your way around the internet at least to some degree. The features include:

• WordPress integration
• PHP
• An uptime guarantee, which means that you know your store will always be available
• A money back guarantee, which is important since there is no free trial
• Backups, just in case something does go wrong
• MySQL

One other cool feature is that you can ask the Web.com team to build a custom site for you, without having to pay them for doing that. If you decide to use their design, then you will be charged. They will create a really professional look and even work on your content, as well as a number of other features. This is completely unique to your own site, so you won’t run the risk of accidentally looking just like someone else. Some of the features that are noteworthy within this Web.com service include:

• com is happy to work with and offer their services to any type of industry. Their current clients range from retail stores to restaurants. You also don’t have to be looking for an ecommerce solution. When their experts build a site for you, they can get it listed in all the major search engines, while also giving you the opportunity to track your stats. Additionally, you can ask for a mobile friendly upgrade, which means it can be seen on all types of devices.
• They offer a portfolio service, which is really good for designers, musicians, artists, photographers, and so on. Portfolio websites enable people to show off the work that they have done. With the ability to choose out of 2,500 different templates, there is bound to be a design out there that works with their personal views.
• The sites come with an excellent blog, which provides you with a space on which you can share information, news, your personal thoughts, and more. You can easily create a piece of content, add images, and then publish it, and Web.com offers a number of tools to help you promote it as well.

Web.com Templates

When you sign up to Web.com, you will have the opportunity to choose from 2,500 different templates. While they are well-organized, it can be a bit overwhelming to sift through all of them. However, you will quickly find that there are only a few different structures to choose from, and the other templates simply change things like colors and fonts.

The template gallery contains around 30 categories at present, and in each category, you will find a number of sub-categories. This means that if you already have an idea of what you are looking for, finding it should not be too difficult. Plus, when you click on the example, you get to see an enlarged view with a much better detail of what you will actually get.

If you really have no idea of what category your ideal template could be in, you can simply search by color scheme or keyword.

Once you have chosen your theme, unfortunately, you cannot use a demo to play around with in order to see whether you like it or not. That is a significant drawback in my opinion, as it means you don’t really get to figure out what your personal site will look like until you really try it. However, switching between templates is incredibly easy. Hence, if you have picked a look and then change your mind, or you just fancy a change, it is really easy to do so. All your information will instantly be migrated to your new design, which means you only have to really design the whole thing once.

Web.com App Market

Web.com offers a number of excellent tools within its app market. These are all open source, which means that there is no guarantee of quality. Hence, you do have to take a little bit of a risk, but Web.com has listed a number that they personally recommend. In terms of blog tools, these include:

• WordPress
• B2evolution

In terms of content creation, recommended apps include:

• Joomla
• Geeklog
• Drupal
• Typo3
• Xoops
• Mambo
• Owl

Many of these are registered trademarks and really big names in the overall online world.

Web.com also recommends a number of content management apps, including:

• TikiWiki
• PHPWiki

They also have apps for message boards and forums, which can be really beneficial to have on a website. The apps they recommend include:

• Simple Machines Forum, which is also a registered trademark.
• phhBB

Web.com also offers you the ability to add chat tools to your site, including:

• CraftySyntaxLive or CSLH
• Help Center Live

In terms of galleries, apps include:

• Gallery
• Coppermine

As their focus is on ecommerce businesses, Web.com also offers a number of apps that focus on ecommerce and can be fully integrated with their own designs. These include:

• OsCommerce
• Magento

Lastly, they offer a huge variety of project management tools. This demonstrates just how committed Web.com is in helping small businesses become successful, as that is not just about running a successful website, but managing it and all its related elements properly as well. Their project management recommended apps include:

• XRMS CRM
• osTicket
• Mantis Bug Tracker
• PHProject
• Website Add-Ons
• BBClone
• Advanced Guestbook

A wealth of other apps is available through their app store, and it is recommended that you take a look at what they have available. Some apps are particularly relevant to certain types of businesses. For instance, the advanced guestbook can benefit restaurants or museum galleries. Artists, meanwhile, could benefit from the various gallery apps. Those who are attempting to monetize on their website can benefit from the various ecommerce apps.

Web.com eCommerce

Web.com has designed its system to enable small businesses, who are involved in a certain niche, to become involved in the online world. This is why their main focus is on online businesses, although they also help to design websites for physical businesses such as restaurants, portfolios for artists who want to showcase themselves, and more.

Setting up an ecommerce store is reasonably easy through their DIY feature. As soon as you sign up for their service, you will be presented with a software wizard, and this will guide you through the entire process. The wizard will firstly guide you to the templates, which is likely to be the place where you spend the most time due to the huge number of choices available to you. Once you have chosen your template, you’re good to go. Overall, you could be uploading product descriptions, images, and prices, in less than an hour.

You can tell that Web.com focuses mainly on ecommerce, however, by the fact that they accept so many payment options. You can link to virtually any credit card company out there, aside from having full PayPal integration. Furthermore, you can choose a payment processor. Most people who come to Web.com already have a payment processor because they already run a business, but if you are completely new, the service is available for you.

While all of this is really good, it has to be said that if you choose the out of the box option, rather than the done for you option, your ecommerce store will not automatically be mobile friendly. Furthermore, you won’t automatically get SSL protection. Those are extras that you have to sign up for.

Overall, Web.com offers really robust solutions, which surprises many people. You can easily add products to your site, and managing orders becomes a breeze. Not just that, you can also send marketing managers to your customers and keep track of what they are doing. Included as standard are excellent reports, which you can search by product, order, or customer. There are also lots of other really good features, such as customer blacklists, the ability to create coupons, and tracking online advertisement orders.

Web.com Pricing

The big question is always how much something costs. Overall, Web.com is marginally cheaper than other website builders, but that is also because their packages are slightly different. Their first month is offered at a discounted rate in lieu of a free trial. As such:

• If you choose the do it yourself website builder, you will pay $1.95 for your first month, followed by $22.95 per month.
• If you choose the website and marketing, your first month will be $2.95, followed by $32.95 per month.
• If you choose a website with marketing and ecommerce, then your first month costs $3.95, and this is followed by $42.95 per month.
• Lastly, if you choose the build it for me option, your first month will be free and subsequent months start at $114.95.

The DIY builder, therefore, is really affordable and highly competitive compared to other site builder programs at first. However, after your one month period, the price really skyrockets. Going from $1.95 for the first month to $22.95 for the second seems like a big jump. Many agree that it would be better if Web.com simply offered a free trial option, followed by standard monthly payments, as well as discounts for yearly or even two-yearly payments. Furthermore, it must be said that $22.95 for the basic package is more expensive than the industry standard.

Unfortunately, it seems people are often attracted by the first month’s price, without realizing that the next months are a whole lot more expensive. Web.com has a number of important benefits, but if your goal is to have the more affordable solution, then you should go somewhere else.

The custom built site costs $114.95 after one month for basic functionality. However, you won’t know before you start just how much higher than that your personal site will be. This means that it is likely to be a lot more than the minimum price, which could be an unpleasant surprise.

Web.com Customer Support

Web.com offers its customers around the clock, 24/7, 365 days per year telephone support, as well as an email address. They also have a good Twitter and Facebook page, but those who ask a support question there will usually be told to either telephone or email the company. They also have a regular newsletter and a blog, and quite a few useful articles have already been posted on their site. These articles can give you some good details about how to build a website.

The Final Verdict

Overall, you can use the do it yourself version of Web.com to create something pretty cool, if you know what you are doing. It is quite limited and does require you to have some knowledge of how website design works. For really good features and functionality, it is likely that you will have to sign up to slightly more expensive plans. That being said, if you can afford Web.com’s services, they are incredibly good, if not the best, out there.