123-Reg.co.uk Review
123-Reg.co.uk is a popular UK domain registrar that also offers a wide set of online tools for any business or individual who wants to establish an online presence. Thus, 123 Reg offers website building tools, ecommerce tools, web hosting services, SSL certificates, search optimization and online marketing tools, as well as website security tools.
In this 123-reg.co.uk review, we’re focusing on 123 Reg the web host, listing the hosting options, their pricing, and the pros and cons of hosting your site at 123 Reg.
123-Reg.co.uk Overview
As one of the largest domain registrars in the UK, 123 Reg hosts over 3 million domain names and 1.7 million websites. They claim to host 1 in 5 of UK’s active sites. The company was founded in 2000 as a domain registrar, but since it has expanded its services to include web hosting and several other useful web tools as well.
Shared hosting, application-specific hosting, VPS and dedicated hosting options are all available at 123 Reg. Let’s see the pricing and features offered with these plans.
123-Reg Plans & Pricing
Shared hosting plans start at £2.49/month for the Essential plan, which allows you to host a single website, offers 10 GB web space, 1 free domain, unlimited bandwidth, 100 mailboxes with 5 GB storage each, and one MySQL database. This plan is rather basic, but three other plan iterations are available in this category. The plan with the most resources is the Premium+ plan, costing £14.99/month and includes: 1 free domain, hosting for unlimited websites, 100 GB web space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited mailboxes, free SSL, a WordPress pre-installed.
Application-specific hosting plans are another popular hosting option at 123 Reg. Thus, WordPress hosting, Joomla hosting, and Drupal hosting plans start at £2.99/month for the Business plan, which allows you to host 5 websites, 5 MySQL databases, and includes 100 GB web space and unmetered bandwidth. If you’re looking for unlimited CMS optimized hosting, the Business plan allows you to host unlimited domains and unlimited MySQL databases for £14.99/month. The web space remains capped at 100 GB, but the Business plan also includes 2 GB dedicated RAM and an SSL certificate.
Virtual private servers start at £9.99/month (Starter plan) and feature Linux or Windows operating systems, Plesk or cPanel control panel. The hosting environment on these servers is customizable, and servers are backed once every 24 hours. The VPS plan with the most resources costs £44.99/month (+20% VAT), and includes: 3 cores CPU, 3 GB RAM memory, 150 GB storage, unmetered data transfer.
123 Reg’s premium hosting packages feature managed hosting that combine the capacity and performance of dedicated servers with the simplicity and user-friendliness of shared hosting. Plans in this category start at £29.99/month (+20% VAT) for the M plan, which is designed to withstand and estimated 375,000 monthly visits and offers hosting for unlimited websites. The plan comes with 100 GB web space, unlimited traffic, unlimited MySQL databases, 4 GB RAM. The XL plan costs £119.99/month (+20% VAT) and features 16 GB RAM, unlimited storage, unmetered traffic, and the capacity to handle an upwards of 1,500,000 monthly visits.
Premium hosting plans also feature 99.99% uptime guarantee, load balancing technology, free SSL certificates, dedicated IP addresses, 24/7 hardware support and one-click install apps.
123-Reg.co.uk Hosting Features
123-Reg offers feature-rich hosting plans that rank high in usability as well. Here is what makes 123-reg.co.uk the hosting of choice for 1 in every 5 active UK websites:
- Great hosting options including WordPress optimized, Joomla optimized and Drupal optimized hosting;
- Choice of Linux- and Windows-based VPS hosting;
- Easy to use cPanel or Plesk control panel;
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- 99% uptime guarantee;
- Free .co.uk domain name with most plans (CMS optimized Business plans include two free domain names);
- Unmetered traffic with all plans;
- UK-based support;
- One-click application installation;
- Free SSL certificates with most plans;
- Linux hosting plans support PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, etc.;
- Windows hosting plans support popular software like IIS, ASP, .NET, MS SQL, etc.;
- 24/7 support;
- Expert support, auto-updates, backups and restores, spam protection with CMS optimized hosting packages.
123-Reg Customer Support
123-Reg has very good support options. Customers in need of technical help can reach 123-Reg’s customer support via phone, live chat or they can raise a support ticket. Support is available around the clock. The Support page also features a FAQ section and a comprehensive Knowledge Base with abundant information on all services of 123-reg.co.uk.
The customer team is based in UK, thus, issues that would arise with support teams outsourced overseas are avoided.
Pros & Cons of 123-Reg.co.uk
123-reg.co.uk provides well-rounded plans with great features, but it’s a web host designed primarily with a UK customer base in mind. As a summary of the above, let’s see which are the strengths and weaknesses of 123-Reg, the web host:
Pros
- No commitment time, flexible month-to-month plans;
- Linux-based and Windows-based hosting options;
- Unmetered traffic with all plans;
- WordPress, Drupal and Joomla optimized hosting plans;
- 24/7 UK-based customer support;
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- Good overall performance metrics.
Cons
- Small website storage with initial plans;
- Some basic plans than those of competitors;
- Free domains include only .co.uk domains;
- No toll-free phone support.
123-Reg.co.uk Review Conclusion
123 Reg is an easy to use web host that is geared towards an UK customer base, which is reflected by some of its features that are beneficial mostly for those looking to launch a UK website (.co.uk domain, UK based customer support). The web hosting plans offered by 123-reg.co.uk cover a wide-spectrum of hosting needs from small, static websites to high traffic, large websites.
Since the company was originally a domain registrar, domain registration continues to be one of their most important services with UK domains starting at just 99p+VAT. If you want to host your website at your domain registrar and you need a suite of online site building, online marketing and eCommerce tools, 123-reg.co.uk can be an all-in-one solution for all your web needs.
