I’ve used 1and1 to register domain names (1and1.co.uk and 1and1.com) for the last 3 years or maybe a bit more. I think the first domain name that I registered was in 2005. In total, right now (July 2008) I have around 15 domains with them. Mostly .co.uk domains and maybe one or two .org’s.

Customer Service

I’ve only had to contact customer services on three separate occasions, once due to billing, once for help with transferring a domain out to another registrar and one other time because I couldn’t figure out how to change DNS for a particular name (clumsy interface - I’ll talk about that later).

Each time I was more than satisfied with the customer services, I got a response within minutes on one occasion and had to wait no more than an hour on the two other occasions. The issue with billing took two days to sort out but the other two issues was dealt with almost immediately.

I’d have to give customer services a "very good" rating. Would’ve been more but I haven’t had to deal with them much so can’t say much.

Pricing (Value for money)

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For .co.uk domains I think 1and1 is one of the cheapest registrars (Uk based registrar). It costs around £2.99 per year with a minimum of 2 years for .co.uk domains. Its around £4.99 for .com’s which isn’t that bad, but you could find much cheaper places to register anything other than UK domains.

Interface (Ease of Use)

This is where I don’t really like 1and1. The user interface (control panel) is annoyingly hard to navigate. Keep in mind that I’m somewhat experienced with technology / terminology and the domaining industry (ie. experienced with many registrars and various interfaces). It should be a doddle for me to navigate my way around the control panel, but it certainly isn’t.

I think its perfectly fine if you’re planning on have less than 10-15 domain names registered there, but if you’re a domainer and want to start your portfolio - then I’d avoid 1and1 purely because of their clumsy interface.

The Verdict

Very good customer services, good value for money on UK domains but a very hard to navigate control panel makes 1and1 a no-no for large domain portfolios. Saying that, if you’re only going to register 2-3 domains (or even less than 10) then I’d recommend them. You’ll be fine with a few domains, but trying to control a large portfolio of domains becomes annoying.

RATING: 6/10

The customer service however is very good, the pricing is probably the lowest I found and unless you’re a domainer (dealing with more than 10-20 domains) then 1and1.co.uk is recommended.

However, if like me you’re dealing with lots of domains, then I’d recommend you go with one of the others.

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