Ralph Dommermuth started 1&1 Internet in Montabaur, Germany nearly 20 years ago as a marketing company. Dommermuth is still involved with 1&1 Internet and is the current Chief Marketing Officer.

Since its foundation, 1&1 has evolved from being just a marketing company, to being a hosting reseller into its current form as a leading internet services provider. 1&1 is now part of the German giant United Internet AG (a public corporation).

Company and Services
1 & 1 Internet started hosting following its takeover of Schlund and Partner, a leading German web host company in 1998. By 2000 the companies had merged to create 1&1 Internet. Today, 1&1 offers just about everything you could expect from a mainstream web hosting provider. It specializes in providing solutions for small-to-medium size businesses, though it has a substantial personal user customer-base as well.

With more than 7 million customers and more than 10 million registered domains there can be no doubt that 1&1 is a major provider of web services worldwide. The company has some 3,000 employees - 250 of which are developers. 1&1 has its US headquarters in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The technical support team are based at the US HQ. 1&1 Internet’s head office is in Montabaur, Germany and it also has offices across Europe, including the UK, France, Spain, Romania, and Austria. The Philippines is home to its far eastern branch.

1&1 Internet offers a wide variety of flexible hosting packages which can run on either Windows or Linux in shared, dedicated or VPS hosting flavors. It also offers special e-commerce and business packages. Customer support is available by email or through its 24/7 phone line. All hosting packages come with a 90 day money back guarantee and free website design software. Shared hosting packages include a free domain name. 1& 1 is able to offer some of the most keenly priced, feature-packed hosting around as a result of its size within the marketplace.

It should come as no surprise that such a large player in the market has received several awards. Since 2003 the independent review site Web Host Directory has honored 1&1 Internet with 12 awards.

Server Location
1 & 1 Internet has five data centers - it owns and manages two of these while the other three are outsourced.

Related Links
1&1 Knowledge base