Network Solutions offers a basic drag-and-drop website builder that lets you launch your online store in minutes. It includes over 150 professionally designed templates, a free domain, and an affordable starting price. However, the website builder has very limited features, and the regular prices can be prohibitive. Overall, we think competing website builders offer better value for money, even if you only need a basic website for your store.
PROS
- Very easy to use
- Excellent support
- Competitive pricing
CONS
- The editor is somewhat limited
- Doesn’t allow you to add custom code
Overview
Founded in 1979, Network Solutions is recognized as the world’s first domain registrar. With over four decades of experience, the company has adapted to the evolving internet landscape and now operates as a comprehensive e-commerce platform. Offering web hosting, domain services, and an easy-to-use website builder, Network Solutions caters to a wide range of online needs.
While Network Solutions’ website builder is suitable for basic websites, its pricing structure may discourage users from seeking out more advanced design and marketing tools. Competitors like GoDaddy, WordPress.com, and iPage offer a wider range of features at a competitive price. However, Network Solutions remains a solid option for those looking for a reliable domain registration and web hosting service.
How Network Solutions Works
One of the first issues we encountered with Network Solutions was the lack of transparency in its pricing structure. The website only displays the initial price for the first month. You’ll need to read Network Solutions’ terms of service to find out the regular price.
However, once we started using the drag-and-drop editor, we found the interface to be user-friendly. Network Solutions uses a content editing panel that is similar to those offered by other website builders. Adding and moving content is intuitive, and once we’ve designed the site, we can publish it with a single click.
Free Domain
All Network Solutions website builder plans include a free domain for one year. That’s a good deal, although it’s worth noting that most other website builders also offer it.
Professional Design Service
If you don’t want to spend time creating your own website, you can hire Network Solutions developers to do it for you. The company will create a website according to your requirements, after which you’ll have access to Network Solutions’ standard website building tool to make changes and maintain your site over time.
How to Create a Website with Network Solutions
The first step in creating a website with Network Solutions is choosing a template. The platform offers over 150 professionally designed templates, with categories for the most common types of businesses. In fact, the templates were one of the features of Network Solutions’ website builder that we liked the most. The only downside is that if you want to change the templates later, you’ll have to start the design from scratch.
After choosing a template, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop site editor. It’s very intuitive, with a panel of content elements that you can drag and drop onto your site. Content elements include basic elements like text fields, images, videos, forms, and buttons, as well as more advanced elements like HTML snippets and image carousels. You can also change the fonts and background colors of your template, although customization options are limited.
It’s worth noting that Network Solutions’ builder also offers pre-designed blocks. These are full-width panels that contain different content elements. Blocks make it easy to design your site without having to arrange each element individually, making them a great option for novice designers.
Network Solutions doesn’t have a dedicated mobile editing interface, but all of its sites are mobile-friendly. While you’re building your site, you can easily preview how it will look on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
Overall, we found the process of creating a simple website with Network Solutions to be fairly straightforward. The website builder doesn’t offer many customization options, but it’s easy to use, and the presence of pre-designed blocks is a big plus for beginners. However, if you’re looking to create a more complex website, the editor may not provide the flexibility you need.
Adding Multimedia to Your Network Solutions Website
Network Solutions lets you add photos and videos directly to your website. You can also embed audio files, PDFs, and other types of files using the HTML content element. Adding files is easy, although you can only upload one image at a time when creating galleries. Additionally, the builder includes access to over 2 million free images from Unsplash. Overall, the media features it offers are average, but sufficient.
Marketing Functionality with Network Solutions Websites
Network Solutions doesn’t offer many marketing features. For example, there are no email marketing tools. You can create a blog, but there are no options for scheduling posts or sharing them on social media. Network Solutions offers social media icons so you can connect your accounts, but it doesn’t have deep integration with Facebook or Instagram.
SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with Network Solutions Websites
Your website’s SEO functionality depends on the hosting plan you choose. The basic website building plan lets you add a title and meta description to each page, but doesn’t offer much more. However, if you upgrade to the Website and Online Marketing plan, Network Solutions will automatically submit your site to search engines and local directories like Yellow Pages, Yelp, etc.
Network Solutions doesn’t offer built-in traffic analytics, but you can easily integrate Google Analytics.
Ecommerce
Network Solutions offers a comprehensive e-commerce solution that combines store design, secure order processing, inventory management, marketing tools, training, and support. It is ideal for new or growing businesses with small to medium-sized inventory looking to expand online. The service offers fully customizable online stores, social media integration, SEO marketing tools, and mobile-optimized design templates.
Payment Processing
Network Solutions offers a secure payment processing system that easily integrates with a wide range of credit card processing companies, including merchant accounts and payment gateways, as well as PayPal. The service is fully compliant with the Visa Certified Cardholder Information Security Program and all PCI data standards. Customer transaction data is never stored on the site for added protection.
Scalability
Network Solutions offers scalable hosting and storage options that provide stability regardless of the plan you choose. However, Network Solutions doesn’t offer many advanced tools for inventory management or delivery. Therefore, this platform may work well for small businesses with a few products, but it probably won’t be powerful enough to support the growth of your online business.
Network Solutions Customer Support
Network Solutions offers customer support via phone, email, and live chat. Phone support is available 7 days a week from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Eastern Time), while live chat is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM.
The company also has an online knowledge base, although we had to dig through a few links to find it. However, once you do, the tutorials are pretty easy to follow and include plenty of screenshots.
Pricing & Special Offers
The price of Network Solutions’ website builder plan is the main reason we don’t recommend this platform. It’s way too expensive, especially considering the lack of advanced tools. What’s worse is that Network Solutions isn’t transparent about the pricing after the first month. We had to consult the company’s terms of service to find out the regular subscription pricing for the website builder plan.
Network Solutions offers three plans: Website Builder, Website & Online Marketing, and Website, Marketing & Store. All plans include access to the builder and a free domain for one year. The Online Marketing plan adds the SEO features we’ve described, while the Website, Marketing & Store plan lets you sell up to 500 products.
Network Solutions doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can get a refund if you cancel within the first 30 days.
Network Solutions vs GoDaddy
We think GoDaddy offers a better value than Network Solutions, especially for building a website for small businesses. GoDaddy offers email marketing and online meeting booking tools, as well as more advanced traffic analytics.
Network Solutions vs WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a great alternative to Network Solutions for creating a blog. With WordPress.com, you can schedule posts and share them on social media. You can also monetize your blog with ads, which is not possible with Network Solutions.
Network Solutions vs iPage
iPage’s website builder is similar to Network Solutions in many ways, but it’s much more affordable. SEO tools are included as standard with iPage, and the builder is free with any iPage hosting plan. We think that for basic websites, iPage offers a better value than Network Solutions.
Bottom Line
Network Solutions offers a good website builder for creating basic websites, with well-designed templates and an easy-to-use web editor. Notably, the pre-designed content blocks include quick customization, allowing users to create a unique website in minutes.
However, Network Solutions’ pricing is questionable. Compared to other platforms, its price is significantly higher without offering many additional features. Especially for e-commerce, managing an online store with a social media presence is prohibitively expensive without the tools needed to grow your business.
Overall, we recommend looking into alternatives like GoDaddy, WordPress.com, or iPage, which offer more affordable options and a wider range of features.
