Netfirms

Overview

Netfirms is a Toronto, Ontario-based company founded by CEO Thomas Savundra in 1998. Savundra brought his prior experience of dealing with web hosting and all the early stages of the internet to the table. His main vision was to ensure that his team maintained a strong focus on reliable technological advances in the web hosting environment. In 2009, Savundra's IT team purchased over 40,000 new servers which allowed for their clients to have reliable hosting, with a great bandwidth at a low cost. Netfirms.com has grown to become a large organization with over 500 employees. According to reports from their clients, they have an average up time of 99.995% ranking, which keeps their customers very satisfied. One of the most valuable services that Netfirms provides is their catering of small-to-medium sized businesses that are focused on getting more traffic to their sites; this is why Netfirms offers various packages to suit the different scenarios a small business may have.

Usability

Most users would be going to Netfirms to set up a website and get a complete service plan, for which domain registration will be necessary. Despite not being primarily a registrar, getting a domain can be done with relative convenience here. But that convenience comes with a lot of upselling which turns user experience around; sometimes, you just want to get over a transaction quickly and with little fuss. Some users might find these add-on suggestions ideal especially if they’re setting up a new site and want to make sure every conceivable tool would be within their reach which Netfirms savvy marketing team has covered. Whether you’re buying a domain or getting one for free with a web hosting plan, check if you need other products offered on your way to checkout.

Domain Privacy

An important thing to remember when building an online presence is that doing so requires the surrender of a certain amount of privacy. A person who registers a domain is a person who would become a target for spammers, fraudsters, telemarketers and other undesirable online characters. Personal data such as name, address and phone number will be made available to the public WHOis database and most users would understandably want to avoid this. Extensions supported by Netfirms’ domain privacy service are .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name .cc, .tv, and can be availed for $9.99 a year, a fair price as compared with most registrars offering this same feature.

Bulk Registrations and Management

Domain registration is not really Netfirms’ core service, hence, the lack of quick, easy tools for bulk registration. Looking for several domains is certainly possible, but it has to be done through individual search which is of course tedious. Bulk management of domains proves slightly different from the registration process as the site does in fact offer a clean user control panel which makes managing several domains simple and straightforward. It also has an easy to locate quick-start panel which lets you to jump right in to domain management, as well as website builder and mailboxes. When it comes to bulk domain management, you won’t get lost or confused but you will have to get used to its individual bulk search capability.

Access Level and Delegating

It is possible under its VPS hosting plan to provide third party access to the account for domain management. This can be done in its control panel which is easy to manipulate and manage.

Pricing and Coupons

Netfirms prices are very competitive, but they still offer coupons on various sites for their domain names every so often. Their most popular plan is the Plus Plan which most new businesses may opt for, because for the cost they are getting an unlimited amount of disk space, bandwidth as well as an extra domain name. Their introductory prices are also one of the most attractive in the industry (check out their hosting plan) and renewal isn’t as high as some registrants.

Customer Service

Support services for domain and hosting issues can be directed through their toll-free hotline, live chat, and email. Support is often seem sound like legitimate and personally invested support technicians, as opposed to most customer service departments of some registrars which seem to be staffed with outsourced support staff that provide half-hearted responses to technical and complicated inquiries. Web chat in Netfirms is fast the way it ought to be. Explanation is simple when it needs to be and detailed when necessary. There is even an option to email the transcript of the chat in case you might need to refer to it later for reference.

Management Summary

Although domain registration is a key element to its lineup of services, its capabilities lie strongly in web hosting. There are many great web templates to choose from and there is an easy drag-and-drop template that suits the design of many types of businesses which are some of the more attractive features of its hosting plans. With it's reliable 24/7 customer support, steadiness on up time and multiple options for domain names, Netfirms.com proves to be a satisfying registrar for small business and personal professional sites. Some users might find some of its features a bit lacking (eg., bulk search) while those looking for a good hosting provider and basic domain registration will find their service quite suitable for most website building needs.