123-Reg are the biggest domain and website provider in the UK, with over 3 million customers across the country. The offer a simple way for individuals and small business to create their websites, and they have some of the best customer support you are likely to find anywhere on the internet.
123-Reg have a wide number of packages available and they offer competitive prices on all of them. They have an incredibly user-friendly website, which is why they are often the number 1 choice in the UK and across the world.
Uptime & Reliability
Good uptime, but slow shared hosting speeds
The lower marks account only for shared hosting plans, which is what the major of 123 Reg customers use. The dedicated hosting plans are fine, the servers are quick and there is rarely any issues, but the same can not be said for the shared hosting. 123 Reg have a tendency to overload their servers, stuffing as many web-sites as they can onto one and the reducing the speed and efficiency of all.
During peak times, if your hosting plan has been shoved onto one of these over-crowded servers, it means that your website, regardless of how small it is, can take a long time to load. So long that many 123 Reg customers say they can’t access their own websites as they constantly time out.
Features
A huge number of features
123-Reg offers it shared hosting customers a feature rich and easy to use control panel. Even those with little to no previous experience hosting a website will easily be able to find their way around. The standard VPS hosting packages may be a lit-tle more difficult to use, but for an extra fee you can add a cPanel to your package to make it much easier.
Anyone wants to use apps such as WordPress and MediaWiki, along with many others, can integrate them into their website with just a few clicks.
Feature | Description |
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Disk Space and Bandwidth | The cheapest shared hosting option at 123 Reg provides 1 GB of disk space and unlimited bandwidth; unlimited disk space begins with the professional package which costs three times as much as the beginning package. |
Site Builder | 123-Reg have their own site builder for customers to take advantage of. It is very easy to use and comes with simple What You See is What You Get interface. |
Email | Most of the packages at 123 Reg, including the cheapest ones, come with a number of email addresses and many of them have unlimited email addresses. |
Stats | Shared hosting customers will need to integrate their own statistics to see who is visiting their 123 Reg website. |
FTP Access | FTP access is straightforward. Users simply need to input their unique username and password and use an FTP program in order to upload to their website. |
Domains | 123 Reg customers can attach a domain to their hosting plan for just a few dollars, regardless of the extension that is uses. There are offers available that give them free domains if they purchase certain hosting plans. |
MySQL | 123 Reg allows for MySQL databases and comes equipped with a comprehensive troubleshooting file for those who are new to it. |
Shopping Carts | Shopping carts include OpenCart, Prestashop, ZenCart and others. There is a wide choice avail-able for all hosting packages bought through 123 Reg. |
Support
Unbeatable customer support
123-Reg has some of the best, quickest and most friendly customer support around. Their staff are knowledgeable and incredibly quick to respond. Not only can they provide advice to assist you with any problems, but they can also access your website or account (at your request) and fix things for you.
The 123 Reg support works on “tickets” rather than emails. If you have an issue you submit it through a form on the “My Support” section of the website. A member of the support team will then respond and you will be sent an email to tell you they have responded. They are very quick and more often than not, providing it is during working hours, your problem will be solved within the hour.
If I had to pick holes in the 123 Reg support system it would be that when you receive the emails to tell you that your ticket has been updated, you can’t view any responses through this email and need to go to the site and login to do so. This is minor though and not enough to stop 123 Reg from getting full marks when it comes to customer support.
Pricing
Some of the cheapest hosting around
123 Reg is one of the cheapest web hosts around and also provides very cheap domain names. Their shared hosting plans begin from just over $4 a month and customers need only pay three times that to get the top shared hosting package available. The VPS hosting is also fairly priced, beginning at just over $16 a month — up to around $73 a month for the top end VPS hosting package.
123 Reg dedicated hosting and cloud hosting are a little more expensive, but customers are assured plenty of value as these are some of the best hosting packages available.
User Friendly
One of the easiest hosts to use for first timer web masters
With great customer support and a What You See is What You Get interface that everyone can handle, 123 Reg is very user friendly. This is the perfect host for anyone who is new to website creation and is hoping to be guided through the process. The staff are on hand at all times and not only are they very quick to respond but they are very knowledgeable and helpful.
Experienced web developers will also enjoy the ease of use at which this hosting provider operates. It truly is a breath of fresh air when it comes to customer support.
Summary
Great host provider that is let down by poor shared hosting speeds
123 Reg is a very good web host that is only let down when it comes to providing a quick and reliable service for its shared hosting providers. Despite the fantastic customer support on offer, if it’s a shared hosting package that you need then you will probably be better off elsewhere. If you’re looking for a VPS hosting package, a cloud hosting package or a dedicated server, then you really can’t do much wrong with 123 Reg.
Most of 123 Reg’s customers are based in the UK and it is one of the biggest and most well known hosting providers in that country, but their services are open to customers from all over the world and they also sell all of the available domain name extensions alongside their hosting packages.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Unbeatable customer support.
- Cheap shared hosting packages and VPS hosting packages.
- Easy to use.
- Simple integration with apps such as WordPress and MediaWiki.
Cons:
- Poor speeds for shared hosting packages.