Comparison on Website Design Companies

1&1:

What they offer: Domains, email solutions, web hosting, eCommerce, web design, and servers.

Why they think they’re so great: Like Go Daddy, 1&1 has more than 10 million customer contracts. Offering one of the lowest domain name registration fees in the industry, 1&1 makes it easy to register a domain for one low, all-inclusive price. There’s nothing extra to buy and no hidden fees (but if you read the fine lines, it says “starting at” these low prices–which means that the renewal rates get more expensive.)

Why they really aren’t: Just like Go Daddy and Intuit, there is no true customization or personalization for your website design because they have pre-designed templates that you choose from. This not only means that the chances of you having a similar site to other companies is high, but all they really do is change out the colors, content, and images of the limited templates and (wah-lah) you have a “customized” site. This is also a problem because your site will not be as professional, attractive, or unique to your company’s character if you choose from a pre-designed template.

1&1 Site Example:

(http://mywebsite.1and1.com/popupCustomerVoices)

What’s wrong with this website image:

First, if you go to the link above the website image, you will see 1&1’s customer site examples….and knowing that they are willing to show you these sites proves that they would only show you the ones they are proud of. Obviously that’s not saying much when you take a look at each of their site examples on the web page. Each site they are “proud of” has multiple issues that we make sure we take care of when consulting with our clients and while building their company site. Remember: looks are not everything. If you browse through each site, you will see that only the home page is attractive and the layout/content is more organized than all the other sites (if at all).

For the image located above, not only does it hurt your eyes with the intense colors and patterns, but if you browse the website after clicking on the link posted above the picture, you will see the layout is unorganized and provides unclear direction for users. The tabs for their main topics are located at the very top of the page, which can be hard to find considering the bright and distracting colors used all over the site. They layout for comments, log-in access, and other information is unprofessional with the random location of the content and lack of organization or categorization.