Network Solutions is an American domain name registrar and web hosting service that was founded more than four decades ago. It is one of the largest web hosting platforms, with nearly 7 million domain registrations. The company is a subsidiary of Web.com, a web hosting giant.
Domain name registration is Network Solutions’ primary service, but it offers free offerings such as web hosting, web design, online marketing, and search engine optimization.
We’ve tested the ins and outs of networking solutions to give you a comprehensive, unbiased review. We rated the platform based on specific factors including pricing, customer support, features, ease of use, etc.
Subscriptions and Prices
Network Solutions charges different rates for different services. The domain names start at $10 and up. The generic ones like .com, .net, and .org cost between $10 and $20 a year, while unusual ones like .app, .club, and .tips cost between $20 and $40 a year. Network Solutions domain name prices are competitive.
Network Solutions offers web hosting services for $4 to $40 per month. It offers four hosting plans; Beginner ($4 per month), Essential ($10 per month), Professional ($35 per month), and Premium ($41 per month).
Network Solutions offers a free website builder for anyone who purchases a hosting package. However, it requires payment for the web builder’s ecommerce features. The company offers three ecommerce web builder plans; Beginner ($30 per month), Standard ($55 per month), and Premium ($100 per month). With Starter, Standard and Premium, you can place up to 25, 300 and 100,000 products in your online store respectively.
Network Solutions also offers SSL certificates to protect your website for $50 to $580 per year. It offers six SSL plans; UCC ($50 per year), Express ($60 per year), Base ($125 per year), Advanced ($200 per year), Extended ($399 per year) and wildcard ($580 per year).
Functions
Network Solutions is an all-in-one web hosting platform with many features including;
Domain name registration
Network Solutions allows you to register available domain names. Just go to the website and search for any domain name you want. If it’s available, you can grab it right away. Network Solutions supports hundreds of TLDs, including regular ones like .com, .net, and .co and rare ones like .VIP, .website, and .expert.
Whenever you register a domain on Network Solutions, you can also pay for private registration so that no one can get your contact details from the WHOIS database. This prevents spammers from contacting you.
Likewise, you can also search the WHOIS database for information about domain name owners. But you wouldn’t find anything if a domain name owner turned on private registration.
Network Solutions also allows you to transfer domain names that you have registered elsewhere to the platform. It charges a one-time fee for that service.
web hosting
Network Solutions provides web hosting services for users. You don’t need to go elsewhere after registering your domain if you can also host your website on the same platform. Network Solutions cloud hosting is reliable and secure.
Network Solutions offers four hosting plans; Starter ($4 per month), Essential ($10 per month), Professional ($35 per month), and Premium ($41 per month). The starter plan includes one website, 15 GB disk space and 5 email boxes. Essential consists of 3 websites, 300 GB disk space and 1000 email boxes. The Professional and Premium plans include 10 websites, unlimited disk space, and unlimited websites.
All Network Solutions hosting plans include a free LLC business incorporation service. It includes free legal assistance for clients to set up limited liability companies for their business. You normally pay hundreds of dollars in legal fees for this service, but Network Solutions offers it for free. All plans above Starter also include a free domain name.
Network Solutions hosting is compatible with many open source applications, including MySQL, Joomla, Drupal, Ruby on Rails, and WordPress. It also includes SiteLock for malware protection and CodeGuard for automatic website backups.
website builder
Network Solutions offers all customers a free website builder. With this website builder you can create functional, appealing websites without too much technical work. However, Network Solutions requires payment for the web builder’s ecommerce features, and they are quite expensive ($30 to $100 per month).
With the e-commerce package you can set up a webshop quickly and without much stress. It integrates with a handful of payment gateways (eg PayPal) so you can easily collect payments from your customers. It also includes tools for online marketing, inventory management, and accounting.
Interface and in use
Network Solutions has a user interface that is a bit clunky. The interface is not as modern as what you find on some competing web hosting platforms and thus is more difficult to use. We think the UI of the platform could use a lot of improvement.
Customer service
Network Solutions provides telephone customer support. There are separate support lines for US-based and foreign users. The company has no other customer support channels, which is a drawback. Phone lines quickly become clogged when there is too much demand.
The competition
Network Solutions’ main competitors are Namecheap, Bluehost, and Domain.com. It is quite expensive and lags behind in usability compared to these competitors.
final verdict
Network Solutions is a suitable domain name registrar and web hosting service. It offers a wide range of domain name extensions and excellent uptime for hosting customers. However, we saw a significant downside in the aggressive upselling. The platform uses some dark patterns to encourage you to buy additional products.