The short version
Web.com no longer exists as a separate brand. Its parent, Newfold Digital, folded it into Network Solutions in 2025, so Web.com and former Yodle customers now deal with a large registrar that sells domains, email, hosting, a self-build website tool, a professional design service and paid marketing under one login. Gold Strategics gets a business found, answered and followed up, with a managed website and a small set of tools around it, at published prices, month to month, with the site and domain in your name. If you want your domain, email, ads and website from one large company, Network Solutions does that and we do not. If you want a website that belongs to you outright, a bill you can predict, and a person who answers, that is the gap we exist to fill.
Where Web.com is strong
Fairness first. Web.com was a publicly traded company for years and, in 2016, completed its acquisition of Yodle, a local marketing company for small businesses. Today the business sits inside Newfold Digital, the group that also owns Bluehost, Register.com and Domain.com. The Network Solutions design service describes a named contact and design team, hosting with a stated 99.9% uptime guarantee, SSL, private domain registration and a business email address in one package, and the same account can add SEO and pay-per-click advertising. Having your domain, email and site under one roof is genuinely convenient. None of the criticism below is about whether the company is legitimate. It is.
Why people search for an alternative
Read through Web.com's complaint records on the Better Business Bureau, where the profile currently carries a pattern of complaints alert, and recent reviews on Trustpilot, and the same few themes come up again and again. We are deliberately not quoting a star rating here, because scores shift and cherry-picking one is not honest. The patterns are what matter.
The billing. The most common thread in BBB complaints is billing that customers did not expect: charges that continued after they say they cancelled, in one 2026 complaint for more than three years after a business closed, and renewals that arrived before the customer realized the service was still active. Whatever the merits of each case, automatic renewal with a hard path to the off switch is the structure, so know your renewal dates and cancel in writing.
The pricing. The design service page does not list a package price. It describes a one-time design fee, with maintenance and changes sold separately in hourly or monthly increments, and its own FAQ gives a range of $500 to $5,000 or more for professional design. Unpublished pricing is not a scandal, most of the industry works that way, but it means you cannot compare without a sales conversation, and the ongoing cost depends on how often you need changes.
The account and the website. The theme with the biggest consequences is access. Several BBB complaints filed since the move to Network Solutions describe owners locked out of their account, unable to point their domain at a new host, or losing a site after a billing problem without being able to get a backup. Losing the site means losing the design and the search history built up under it, which makes the cost of leaving much higher than the last invoice. Your own agreement governs your situation, so read it, and ask the ownership question in writing before signing with anyone, us included.
How the two models compare
| Question | Web.com (Network Solutions) | Gold Strategics |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Not for the design service; one-time design fee plus hourly or monthly changes | Yes, $80/mo Gold, $349/mo Business Operating System, on the site |
| Contract | Set by the Newfold service agreement; BBB complaints center on renewals and cancellation | Month to month, no cancellation fee |
| Who owns the site | Not addressed on the design page; complaints report account lockouts when trying to leave | You. Domain in your name, files handed over if you leave |
| Paid ads, domains and email | Yes, sold from the same account | No, we do not manage ads or sell domains and email |
| Scale of company | Part of Newfold Digital, which also owns Bluehost and Domain.com | A small Central Florida growth partner, founded 2024 |
| Who does the work | A design team, then support and sales lines | The person you emailed |
The rows about scale and paid ads are not spin, they favor Network Solutions for some buyers. An owner who wants a domain registrar, email host, ad manager and web designer on one bill gets more from a large vendor than from us. The rows about pricing, terms, and ownership favor the smaller model, and they are the three things former customers complain about most.
What our alternative looks like in dollars
Gold is $80 a month plus a $250 one time build fee: a custom built site, hosting, security, backups, intake forms, the visitor analytics dashboard, and the AI chatbot. The Business Operating System is $349 a month plus a one-time $500 build fee and includes a fully custom, multi-page website that is SEO optimized and AI optimized, with intake forms, career forms and an AI chatbot, a CRM with the automated follow-up and reminder tool inside it, a visitor analytics dashboard, online booking and scheduling with deposits, two-way texting, a review builder, a knowledge management system, an online presence audit, Google Business Profile optimization and priority website changes.
None of it is billed one tool at a time. The Operating System includes getting found in search and AI assistants, automatic follow-up and the rest of the list above at one price, and if you are on a prepaid term with Network Solutions, we can plan the switch around the date it renews.
Who is better served by Web.com
You should stay, or choose Network Solutions over us, if one big account is what you are buying: your domain registration, email, hosting, pay-per-click campaigns and SEO services all in one place, with a large company behind them. We do not manage paid advertising, run social media, or offer call tracking, and a provider that pretends that does not matter to some businesses would be selling you short. It also fits owners who are comfortable editing their own site after launch and only want design help now and then, since changes can be bought by the hour. If that is you, keep your renewal dates and your account recovery details current, confirm who the domain is registered to, and you can be a happy customer there.
You should look at us, or any smaller managed provider, if the website itself is the point: you want it built well, kept fast and secure, owned by you, and priced in public, with tools that answer the phone traffic your reputation already generates. That describes most one-location trades and local service businesses we talk to.
Leaving Web.com without losing your footing
If you decide to move, the order of operations matters. First log in to your Network Solutions account and confirm who the domain is registered to and that the recovery email and phone are current, because the domain is the one asset you cannot rebuild and account access is where complaints say moves stall. If it is registered to you, everything else is recoverable. Second, check your renewal date and turn off auto-renew for anything you are leaving, in writing. Third, save a copy of your content, photos and email before anything is cancelled, since complaint records describe sites deleted without a backup. Fourth, have the new site built before the old one goes dark; we build on a staging address and switch the domain over in one step, so there is no gap where searchers find nothing. We do not charge extra for any of that, it is just the $250 build fee and the first month.
Want a written quote to compare?
Tell us what you do and we send exact numbers in writing, plus a free demo of what your site could look like. No sales call unless you ask for one.
Questions people ask when comparing
Is Web.com still a company?
The brand is retired. Newfold Digital, which owns both, announced in 2025 that the Web.com brand was being fully integrated into Network Solutions, and Web.com accounts were moved there. If you were a Web.com or Yodle customer, your account, billing and support now run through Network Solutions. Nothing on this page claims the company is illegitimate. The criticisms in public records are about billing, account access and the terms of leaving.
Do I keep my website if I leave Web.com or Network Solutions?
Check your own service agreement, because the design service page does not address ownership. A recurring theme in complaints filed with the BBB is customers who could not get into their account to point the domain elsewhere, or who lost a site after a billing problem and could not get a backup. Before you cancel, confirm who the domain is registered to and download everything you can. With Gold Strategics the answer is yes: your domain is registered in your name and you get the files if you leave.
How much does Web.com cost compared to Gold Strategics?
Network Solutions describes its professional design service as a one-time design fee, with maintenance and changes sold separately in hourly or monthly increments, and it does not publish a package price on that page. Its own FAQ gives an industry range of $500 to $5,000 or more for professional design. Our pricing is public: Gold is $80 a month plus a $250 one time build fee, The Business Operating System is $349 a month plus a one-time $500 build fee, and the tools and services are included in the Operating System, never billed one at a time.
Can you take over a site Web.com built for me?
If you control the domain, yes. We rebuild rather than migrate, because a site built on a host's own builder usually cannot be exported cleanly. You point the domain at the new site when it is ready, so there is no gap where you have nothing.
Does Gold Strategics do everything Web.com does?
No. Network Solutions sells domains, email, hosting, self-build website tools, pay-per-click advertising and SEO services under one account. We do not register domains as a reseller, sell email accounts, or manage paid ads. We build and run the website, the structured data that gets you found in search and AI assistants, the CRM, follow-up, online booking and reviews, and the person you email is the person doing the work. If you want ads, domains and email from one large registrar, that is a real difference in their favor.
Keep reading
Weighing more than one provider? We wrote the same straight comparison for Hibu, Townsquare Interactive, Thryv, LocaliQ, Scorpion, Footbridge Media and Vivial. To put any quote in context, what a website costs in 2026 lays out the whole market, and do I own my website covers the question to ask before you sign anything. When you are ready, see the plans.