1&1 MyWebsite: cheap for a shop window, costly for business

1&1 MyWebsite: cheap for a shop window, a trap for business

A furniture maker wants a page so that customers in his area know he exists. He does not sell online, he does not expect thousands of visits, and he needs something cheap he can handle himself. The answer he gets on an entrepreneurship forum is mostly critical: 1&1 MyWebsite works for putting up a sign, but not for building a business, according to several participants. The service from United Internet's German subsidiary relies on aggressive TV advertising and a low entry price, and that is where the problem starts: what you sign up for is not a website, it is a rental.

What 1&1 offers and why it appeals

The product is easy to explain: templates, an online editor, hosting included and a domain. For someone who does not know what hosting or a template is, the promise of having an internet presence without technical knowledge is unbeatable. One participant sums it up bluntly: 1&1's solutions are good for thousands of small businesses at very little cost. Another adds that if you make do with what they offer, you are all set.

The problem appears when the business grows or when you want to change something. The system is rigid and boxed in as much as possible, according to the account of someone who used it for three years. As soon as you want anything more, you have to move up to the higher package and pay up. And there is one detail that keeps coming up: automatic renewal is switched on by default.

Who owns the website: the detail nobody reads

Here lies the heart of the matter. If the design is made with 1&1's editor, the site lives on their server and cannot be downloaded to your computer. A website created on 1&1 belongs to 1&1, not to you, one participant argues. If tomorrow you want to move it to another hosting provider, they will not let you. The difference with a site uploaded from your own hard drive is total: that one you can move wherever you like.

The alternative that keeps coming up in the conversation is a free content management system —WordPress, Joomla, Drupal— on separately contracted hosting. The annual cost discussed is around 60-90 euros, with your own domain included. The site is yours, the content is yours, and you can switch providers whenever you want.

Domains, debtors and the fine print

The other open front is domains. According to several accounts, if you fail to renew a domain with 1&1, the customer is listed as a defaulter and starts receiving demands from debt collection companies, with a drastic increase in the amount owed. In the rest of the industry, the norm is a few reminder emails and little more. It is the most serious accusation circulating and should be treated with caution: these are customer experiences, not court rulings.

Low price, dubious search rankings

The TV advertising targets a specific audience. Business owners unaware of the care an internet presence requires, in the words of someone who worked in the industry. The sales pitch is the price; the technical argument, search engine rankings, is rarely mentioned in the ad. Some argue that 1&1 is doing developers an unintentional favour: it creates the need to have a website, and when the customer discovers what they have signed up for, they look for a professional.

What to do if you only want a shop window

For the furniture maker's specific case, the conversation points to middle-ground options: a blog with a template and its own domain, a free CMS with Spanish hosting, or simply paying a professional. For 400 euros, someone will build the site and pay the first year's hosting, with a content management system installed so the owner can edit it alone. The question left hanging is not how much it costs to start, but how much it costs to get out.