I logged into my hosting account with 1&1 today and receive a notification. My hosting package is almost over and I need to renew before the due date. I signed up with 1&1 back in November 2003. There was a promotion going on at the time that gave me free hosting for three years. The only thing I had to pay for was the domain name. I didn’t want to pass up on free hosting so I signed up. I had no idea that I would be doing what I’m doing now.
I have to decide whether to stay with 1&1 and renew my contract with them or move my domain over to PowWeb and use the hosting package that I used with them. The decision sound like an easy one to make but it’s not that simple. There are a few factors that I’m comparing in order to make the right decision. If I stay with 1&1, I’ll have to pay about $5 Canadian every month for hosting. On the other hand, if I switch my domain over to PowWeb, the hosting is already paid for.
If I continue with 1&1, I can get my current package at a discounted price. I would receive all the features that I’m getting now but I won’t have to worry about paying extra. I barely use the 1&1 administration services that come with the package. I only use the package for hosting. I handle the database management on my own using phpMyAdmin, I track traffic with Google Analytics and I create my own layout instead of using their Web Creator service.
The current package that I have now is fine but I am slowly running low on storage space. I am limited to 500mb of storage space but my photographs are slowly eating that up. I might be able to get around that by hosting my site on Flickr and then linking to it but I haven’t thoroughly read the terms of service to see if that is allow. If it is, that would be great otherwise I’ll have to see if I can link my photographs to another server.
Looking at these pricing, I could probably upgrade to the 1&1 Home package and get more space and it would cost an extra $2 Canadian a month. Along with a lot more web space, I’ll be getting more bandwidth and a lot of email accounts. I could care less about the email accounts since I’ve already have enough. The main things that I’m looking at right now are web space and bandwidth.
The hosting package I have over at PowWeb is allowing me 20GB of storage space and 400GB of bandwidth. The amount of storage space used at the moment barely even registers on the statistic chart and we’re only using 40mb out of the 40000mb allowed for bandwidth. That package is just sitting there right now. I’m using it to host Project One’s website and Alvin’s site.
I like the service that 1&1 has provided me during my three years with them. My site hardly experiences any down time at all. PowWeb had some down time when they migrated over to their new platform. Some of the things that I had set up on their server were not working correctly. PowWeb allows way too much customization to be done to the server which could lead to down time if you don’t know what you’re doing. 1&1 handles most of the server configuration and lets you configuration other stuff that won’t affect the server. So in the end, I am willing to spend the money if it means that my site will be up more than it is down.