Theo vs Network Solutions for a small business website (October 2026)

The scorecard

Tally: Theo 3, Network Solutions 2, even 1, split 2. Three tests decided each round: who does the work once the site is live, what the owner keeps, and the monthly cost. Network Solutions' plan prices, terms, help articles and service agreements were read on networksolutions.com and its legal pages on October 20, 2026, with a final check on October 21, and Theo's come from the pricing page. Round 3, on who does the SEO and growth work, carries the verdict.

Round 1: Who builds the site

Network Solutions offers two ways to get a site built. Its AI Website Builder asks a few questions about the business and generates a draft with pages, a layout and starter text, which you then edit and publish yourself. Its web design service has a team build the site after a consultation call. No price is published; you get one by calling or filling in a contact form.

Theo starts from a chat description, or from the address of the site you have at Network Solutions now, and matches its look. The first preview is usually ready within minutes, costs nothing and comes before you choose a plan, and you shape it by typing what should change. Both hand you a first draft to shape, so the difference shows after launch.

Round result: even.

Round 2: Who makes changes after launch

On the AI Website Builder, each change after launch is the owner's job. Network Solutions describes it as editing text, swapping images, adjusting colors and refining sections in its editor, then publishing. A site from the design service comes with a team that, by Network Solutions' account, stays available for updates and changes. It publishes no price, limit or turnaround for that upkeep.

On Theo every change is a message, on every plan. You, or a collaborator you invite from the site's settings, type what should be different, and Theo makes the change and publishes it when you say so. Requests draw on the month's chat credits: 1,500 on Basic, 4,500 on Starter and 7,000 on Pro. Top-ups you buy roll over and never expire. On Starter and Pro the weekly search work also starts without anyone asking for it.

Round result: Theo.

Round 3: Who does the SEO and growth work

None of the three AI Website Builder plans lists SEO work among its features, though Website + Marketing and E-commerce add a Google My Business listing. SEO is bought on top, in two forms. The first is the SEO App, software that scans the site, suggests keywords to track and, its FAQ says, shows you what to change so you can carry it out yourself. Its paid plans start at $12.99 a month for a 1-year term, renewing at $18.99.

The second is Pro SEO, where people do the work. Specialists work on the site's pages, technical issues and directory listings, and the Pro website and marketing bundles sold by phone include it. The price is set on a sales call, and the SEO page gives general industry ranges, not its own figures. Its FAQ sets two conditions. Pro SEO needs a do-it-yourself subscription, Simple SEO or Business Directory, beside it. And to change the pages of a site built elsewhere, the team needs your website and FTP login (the password for the site's files). The page sets out no count or schedule of new pages.

On Starter and Pro the work is part of the plan, and what it covers is spelled out. Every week Theo looks for the searches your competitors show up for and you do not, and writes service pages, posts and landing pages aimed at them. It also fixes technical issues, improves page speed and tracks the results. Each draft waits in the Growth tab, Theo's list of every page and fix, until you publish it or turn auto-publish on, and a weekly email tallies what was added. None of it uses chat credits. It begins once your domain is live and Google Analytics and Search Console are connected, which also submits your sitemap on every plan. Theo makes no promise about rankings, because no one honestly can.

In Theo's audit of 6,861 small business websites, 47 percent of the 4,633 sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search (The State of Small Business Websites 2026). The report does not break out Network Solutions sites, and it records how much search traffic arrived, not why.

Picture an independent insurance agency in a small Midwestern town, with a site built at Network Solutions years ago. With the SEO App, the owner gets recommendations and keywords to watch, then makes each change in the editor between client calls. With Pro SEO, a specialist works through a package agreed on the phone. On Theo Starter, the Growth tab holds a draft page on auto insurance in the agency's home town one week and a post on umbrella coverage the next, each waiting for the owner's yes.

A new town page will not fill the appointment book in its first week. Search traffic tends to build over several months, not days. Over the first 30 days, expect the new site on the agency's own domain and a few pages published. Google has the sitemap, the list of the site's pages, and Search Console, Google's free report for site owners, can start to show the pages turning up in searches. Calls can follow later, if those pages climb.

Round result: Theo.

Round 3, continued: a page that work produces

Kettlehaus Insurance, an insurance agency site built by Theo, shows the kind of town page that weekly work adds. Its page on auto insurance in Wausau, WI explains why a new driver, a longer commute or a move across town can change what a policy should carry. It says the agency compares options from several companies for Wausau and Marathon County households. A box beside it offers to start from your current policy and compare limits, deductibles, drivers and discounts side by side, above a Request an auto quote link. The picture below shows the left side of that section, the headline and its two paragraphs, partway down the page. See the live site.

Round 4: Sticker price

Network Solutions' plan pages price its website builder, shared hosting and WordPress hosting plans by the month on a 1-year term, with the first term billed upfront. Each plan then renews automatically at a higher monthly rate. Its terms also mention month-to-month plans, but the plan pages show no price for them.

Theo bills monthly with no term. The table gives each monthly price with the term it belongs to, as of October 2026.

Round 4, continued: after the first term

Every 1-year price on Network Solutions' website builder, shared hosting and WordPress hosting plan pages, first term or renewal, comes in under Basic at $29.99 a month. The highest of those renewals is $28.99 a month, for E-commerce.

Round result: Network Solutions.

Round 5: What the site plus the search work costs each month

This round prices having the pages and fixes done month after month, not just owning the tools. At Network Solutions that takes three purchases: the website plan, a do-it-yourself Simple SEO or Business Directory subscription, and Pro SEO at a price set on a phone call. The Pro bundles are priced on a call too. The monthly cost of having the work done at Network Solutions cannot be read off its own pages.

On Theo the work sits inside Starter, $69.99 a month and free for the first 30 days. Hosting, the weekly pages and the fixes share one bill, and there is no setup fee and no contract on any plan.

Round result: Theo.

Round 6: Online store

A Network Solutions store comes inside its E-commerce website plan, at $13.99 a month for a 1-year term, renewing at $28.99. That plan adds checkout on your own domain. Its plan page does not state transaction fees.

Theo has no checkout of its own. A Shopify or Wix store connects on every plan, and its products, prices and stock show on the Theo site with a cart, while the buyer pays in the store. That store is a second subscription: Shopify's Basic plan is $39 a month, or $29 a month billed annually, as of October 2026. At Network Solutions, one plan covers the site and the store.

A Network Solutions store does not come across by itself. The first path is moving it to Shopify, which Theo recommends and connects to directly. Failing that, the Network Solutions site and store keep the main domain while a separate Theo site runs on a subdomain such as blog.yourdomain.com. Keep the E‑commerce plan running until the store is settled.

Round result: Network Solutions.

Round 7: Domain and email

For an owner who has kept a domain at Network Solutions for years, the good news comes first: both the domain and the email can stay. Only the website moves. You point the main address (yourdomain.com) and the www version at Theo, turn off any forwarding or parking, and leave the mail records exactly as they are. Mail then keeps arriving at Network Solutions. If the site and mail share a record, Theo lists the extra records that keep mail flowing.

Network Solutions' own DNS guide points the same way. It says a domain's records are changed in its Advanced DNS, which needs the domain on Network Solutions' managed nameservers (the setting for which company holds the domain's records). If yours already uses them, leave the nameservers alone and change only the website records. If Advanced DNS will not open, ask Network Solutions support before changing anything, because its guide warns that switching nameservers interrupts service for a while. The MX records route your mail, and without them, the same guide says, a domain cannot receive email.

Check one thing before canceling a Network Solutions plan. Mailboxes can come with a plan: 1, 3 or 10 email boxes on the hosting plans, and 3 free months of Professional Email with a website plan. Its plan pages do not say what canceling does to them, so ask first.

For a business registering its first domain, an annual Network Solutions website plan brings the domain's first year free and three months of email. Theo brings neither, though you can buy a domain inside Theo, and it is registered in your name. For a business whose domain and email already sit at Network Solutions, both products leave them in place, so the round splits between those two owners.

Round result: split.

Round 8: Ownership and leaving

What you can take with you depends on what you bought. On a Network Solutions hosting plan, its help center walks through downloading the site's files over SFTP, a way of copying them to your computer. That needs an active hosting plan and an SFTP account. For a site made in the AI Website Builder, none of the Network Solutions plan or help pages read for this comparison describes an export.

Leaving also runs on Network Solutions' calendar. Its help center lets you turn off auto-renew yourself in the Renewal Center, says cancellations go through support by phone or chat, and says new purchases are not refunded after three calendar days. No refund is given on a yearly renewal after 30 calendar days, or on a monthly renewal at all. The date to watch is the renewal date in your account manager.

On Theo you own the pages, words and photos on every plan, and you can stop whenever you like. The cancellation confirmation names the day the subscription ends, and the site stays live until the end of the paid period, so there is time to save your text and images. Pro adds read-only GitHub access to browse and copy the site's code, and Basic and Starter have no code access.

Round result: split.

How to move from Network Solutions to Theo

Because Theo reads the live site, nothing has to be exported first. For more detail, see moving a website to Theo and how a domain gets connected.

1. Run the free audit on your Network Solutions site to record its estimated search traffic, the figure the new site has to beat. Then give Theo the same address for a preview in the same style, and adjust it in chat.
2. Publish the Theo site on its temporary address and leave the Network Solutions plan running while you check it.
3. Sign in to your Network Solutions account and open the domain's Advanced DNS. Change the website records for the main address and www to the ones Theo shows, turn off any forwarding or parking, and leave the nameservers and mail records alone. If Advanced DNS will not open, ask Network Solutions support before touching the nameservers. The old site keeps loading until the change goes through, usually within a few hours.
4. When the domain is live, one Google sign-in lets Theo set up Analytics and Search Console. That submits your sitemap on every plan. On Starter and Pro it starts the growth work, and SEO repair sends old addresses that still get search visits to their new pages. On Basic, ask for each redirect in chat.
5. Before you cancel the Network Solutions website or hosting plan, ask which mailboxes and services come with it. Then cancel by chat or phone before the renewal date, and keep the domain registration and email running.

The bottom line

Theo wins the tally, three rounds to two, with one even and two split, and it takes Round 3, the round that decides the verdict. On Starter and Pro the keyword research, the new pages and posts and the technical fixes happen each week and wait in the Growth tab for your approval. Network Solutions hands that work back as SEO App steps, or sells it through a specialist, priced by phone. Its two rounds are sticker price and the store. For an owner who wants the site to bring in customers, Theo Starter or Pro is the recommendation, and Basic covers the site and hosting with edits by chat. Prices and terms as of October 20, 2026.

Frequently asked questions