Netfirms

netfirms : Web Hosting Sites Review

Netfirms is web hosting company that was created to cater specifically to small businesses and they promise to provide value to their customers. They have been around since 1998 and are sister companies with Fatcow web hosting. Unlike Fatcow they serve separately as both a domain registrar and a web hosting service. They offer three separate hosting packages each with their own unique features as well as according to them the “lowest domain price anywhere” (which is false see explanation below).

Netfirms talks the talk when it comes to trying to woo their potential customers in their promotions and on their website. Unfortunately, they are unable to walk the walk leaving the vast majority of customers unhappy with their service and choosing to make the switch. In life you get what you pay for and this is a clear example of how saving a couple of bucks a month on web hosting really is not worth the hassle and poor quality service that Netfirms provides. Especially when it's geared towards small business websites, the last thing you want to deal with is your website being down and potentially losing new customers or sales in the process.

Company Reputation

Unfortunately, due to many biased reviewers and propaganda out there Netfirm’s reputation on the web seems to be fairly positive. This is since those people writing the reviews are just to trying to earn a commission by promoting the website positively thus generating referral sales. Since we are a 100% unbiased and honest resource we are here to give you the real deal on this company. Netfirms being affiliated with Fatcow does not have a positive impact on their reputation. Like Fatcow there are hundreds of complaints online of angry customers who were mistreated by their support or had terrible experience with their services.  If you’d like some examples of these complaints It is also notable that this company is NOT accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They make outrageous claims on their site such as the “lowest domain price anywhere” or the “country’s largest web hosting company” and these statements are absolutely false. The average unknowing consumer might see these statements and think it gives them creditability, but I urge you to take a further look at the facts behind it all.

Customer Service

Netfirms offers phone, chat, and email support. None of these options will get you very far though. Their support staff are often outsourced and know very little about how to deal with any issues that may arise which makes the whole experience a nightmare. They will often make up a generic excuse when you confront them about your website’s down time or a slow domain registration time. Their approach to support seems to be to comfort their customer and assure them their issue is being worked on while hoping it will fix itself in the long run. Though I have only dealt with their email/chat support it seems that there are several complaints on the links provided above confirming their phone support is just as awful.

Features

Each individual plan through Netfirms offers a variety of features with three tiers of service. There really isn’t all that much difference between each plan besides the amount of free domains that are provided. For example the cheapest “plus” plan comes with 1 free domain, the middle “advantage” plan includes 2 free domains, and the most expensive “business” plan includes 5 free domains. Each plan comes with $100 worth of Adwords credit, $50 of Facebook credit, a free yellowpages.com listing, and a free $25 credit to Yahoo!/Bing search engine. The bandwidth and disk space are both “unlimited”, but keep in mind these are shared hosting plans so this is not technically true. You will get cut off if you go excessively over the limit their server is allowing per shared plan. It is very important to note that in the features list they do not mention the up time guarantee whatsoever. If you visit any of their reputable competitors they will ALWAYS disclose a up-time guarantee. With Netfirms there is nothing mentioned about up-time which gives them free reign to keep your site down as much as they prefer.

Their domain registrar services boast the “lowest domain price anywhere” which is completely false. Netfirms charges an initial $9.99 per domain name. They also charge an additional $5.99 a year for domain privacy. We recently did a review on the excellent domain provider Namesilo, which provides domains with free domain privacy for $8.99 and under for .coms/.nets/.orgs.  This means by choosing Netfirms you’ll pay over $6.99 or 89% more for the same domain name you could get for much cheaper at a more reputable domain provider. Do not be fooled by foolish claims, we HIGHLY suggest Namesilo over Netfirms (or any other domain provider for that matter) for any domain needs.

Final Thoughts

Netfirms talks the talk when it comes to trying to woo their potential customers in their promotions and on their website. Unfortunately, they are unable to walk the walk leaving the vast majority of customers unhappy with their service and choosing to make the switch. In life you get what you pay for and this is a clear example of how saving a couple of bucks a month on web hosting really is not worth the hassle and poor quality service that Netfirms provides. Especially when it’s geared towards small business websites, the last thing you want to deal with is your website being down and potentially losing new customers or sales in the process.