I tried the professional evaluation version, and had built up some loyalty toward them due to this. When I started my e-business I also had my business e-mail there because it would have the same domain name.

I wait 15 seconds for each e-mail while staring at "Waiting for webmailcluster.perfora.net..."
Their e-mail web interface is so slow, and often I get a window that says "Internal Server Error!". I've complained and nothing is ever fixed. I am presently looking for a new host, I would not pay for this level of service.

Web statistics are an example. The give you very basic pre-digested pages that don't tell you much. You have to wait for each category to download to get an idea of how many people are seeing your webpage. I eventually gave up and just ftp the raw datafiles and look at them with a text editor. Much more informative than their useless simplified graphical interface.

In both cases, e-mail and web statistics, they open up so many new windows that my task bar shows 8-10 pointless open windows that I have to go and close.

If you need something simple and don't care about support or e-mail, go somewhere else anyway!

I dunno what the people below me are talking about but I have been using 1and1 for almost 6 months now and I am VERY pleased with the kind of service that I get from them. My site is almost never down, and for $2.99 a month (their basic plan) you get a lot for almost nothing.

Their customer support is very reliable and I found them to be much better than other hosts like PureHost and goDaddy.

I recommend 1and1 to anyone.