123-reg In 2020: How Does The Host Stack Up For Its Customers? Read The Reviews Now

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by Katie Horne

Last updated: August 10, 2020

Our Verdict: #1 Cheap UK Hosting

123 Reg offers reliable bargain-priced web hosting for small websites. Plans come with everything you need to launch and maintain your online presence, including SSL certificates and a free .co.uk domain name.

You can save up to 30% on your 123 Reg hosting package when you click any of the discount links in this review.

Over 50 customers have scored 123 Reg 2.5 out of 5 stars. If this host isn’t quite right for you, find out more about the best web hosts.

Is 123 Reg the Right Host for Your Site?

Want to read about something specific? Jump to our most popular sections:

• Expert review – read our thorough analysis by hosting specialist, Katie Horne
• Customer reviews – see what actual 123 Reg customers have to say
• Hosting plans – compare 123 Reg hosting plans
• FAQs – find answers to the most common questions about 123 Reg

123 Reg is a U.K.-based web hosting company offering a variety of shared, VPS, and WordPress plans at bargain prices.

You can register domain names and get marketing services from this host as well.

How is their customer support? What’s included in their hosting packages? What do they offer WordPress users?

In this review, I’ll answer these questions and help you decide whether 123 Reg is right for you.

Web Hosting

123 Reg (also called 123-Reg.co.uk) offers four main types of hosting:

1. Web (Shared) Hosting
2. Premium Hosting
3. CMS (Content Management System) Hosting
   • WordPress
   • Joomla
   • Drupal
4. VPS Hosting

Entry-Level Hosting Options

If you are looking to get your feet wet with web hosting, you are likely to begin with the shared hosting options.

Web (Shared) Hosting

By “Web Hosting” 123Reg means “shared web hosting.” This is a type of hosting where multiple accounts “share” a server. This results in low prices.

There are four different Web Hosting plans, all offering unlimited bandwidth.

The shared hosting plans differ in terms of:

1. The number of included domains and subdomains
2. The number of websites you can host
3. Storage space allocation
4. The number of MySQL databases included
5. Whether it’s WordPress Ready
6. Free SSL certificate
7. Backup and restore
8. Scheduled tasks
9. Password-protected folders

The upper-tier Web Hosting (shared hosting) plans include other things MediaWiki and osCommerce.

Control Panel

123 Reg’s plans ship with a custom control panel that, in addition to letting you manage your hosting account, features 123-apps, which is the company’s implementation of a one-click installer.

Prices for Web Hosting plans began at £3.49 per month, excluding 20% VAT

Premium Hosting

For those who need more than entry-level resources, there are the Premium Hosting plans.

123 Reg bills these as offering the resources of a dedicated server (albeit a lower-end dedicated server from our perspective) with the customer service and technical assistance typically offered to shared hosting users.

Currently, there are three different Premium Hosting plans from which you can choose.

Each varies in terms of CPU power and allocations of RAM, storage, and databases. All plans come with unmetered bandwidth and support for an unlimited number of websites.

CMS Hosting

If you have a website built using WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, you might consider one of 123 Reg’s platform-specific hosting options.

These options are very similar to the generic Web Hosting plans, but your hosting environment has been optimized so that:

• You can get up running quickly and easily
• Your website runs on an environment optimized for your platforms or CMSs
• You can manage and maintain your website’s core with ease

123 Reg offers two plans: Business and Premium. The Premium plan is almost three times as much as the Business. They differ in six ways:

1. The number of included domains
2. The number of websites you can host
3. Storage space allocation
4. MySQL databases include
5. SSL Certificate
6. Dedicated RAM

Website Builder

The web hosting plans do not come with a website builder. If you want this functionality, you will need to purchase one of the Website Builder plans, which do come with hosting.

These plans are slightly more expensive than those offering just web hosting.

The web hosting plan that comes with the website builder is very similar to the WordPress/Joomla/Drupal-specific hosting plans.

E-Commerce Builder

An offshoot of 123 Reg’s Website Builder is its E-Commerce Builder.

Like the Website Builder, you get everything you need to build and host your website, but you’ll also get e-commerce-specific features like:

• Inventory management
• Tools for running promotions
• Over 30 payment processors
• Shipping integrations
• Analytics

They offer three plans that differ substantially in terms of:

• Number of products
• Available payment gateways
• Discount codes
• Digital product support
• Stock control
• Marketplace feeds
• Instant order editor
• Mobile management
• Bulk invoice printing

123 Reg makes no claims that it is PCI compliant.

Advanced Hosting Options

123 Reg offers VPS hosting plans. The company does not offer reseller plans, but you could configure the existing options to act as a reselling server.

VPS Hosting

123 Reg’s VPS hosting plans come in four different variants. They vary by:

• Number of CPU cores
• Memory and storage allocation
• Control panel installation

All plans come with unmetered bandwidth, offer a choice of Linux or Windows operating systems, and can support an unlimited number of websites.

Starting prices for 123 Reg’s VPS hosting plans are relatively low, so you can easily upgrade the type of hosting you have.

Does 123 Reg Offer Dedicated Servers?

You may come across archived documents from when 123 Reg offered dedicated servers. The company no longer sells dedicated servers to new customers (or existing customers that do not already have dedicated servers).

Control Panels: cPanel, Plesk, and Proprietary

The entry-level hosting plans come with an in-house control panel that comes with an “intuitive interface.”

Users with VPS hosting plans or dedicated servers can choose to use either cPanel or Plesk.

Continued below user reviews

123-reg Reviews by Our Community

Overall Rating from 54 Reviews by 123-reg Customers

Support
Quality
Features
Value

Filter reviews by: Most HelpfulMost RecentNegativePositive

Most Helpful Reviews

Agnieszka Kurzawa agaia.co.uk

Mar 04, 2018

Do not use for hosting. I fell into a sales trap and signed up for hosting with them along with a domain purchase and I couldn’t be more disappointed. I would be getting approximately 10 notifications per week about my websites being down and whenever I tried to speak to 123-reg rep I would hear that ‘the website works fine for them now’ or ‘there is nothing wrong with our servers’.

When I eventually said I will leave they admitted ‘there may have been a problem with their server and it will work in the next 24 hours’. For the next 7 days I would receive Pingdom updates that the website was down in the middle of the night. They also don’t have any support over the weekend which means you’re stuck with what you’ve got – for me it meant I couldn’t do any work – because the website was down. Again

Visit Host Now →

Matt Smith compumexltd.com

Sep 06, 2018

Support is adequate. 1st line can usually fix the issue or at least push you to someone who can. Functionality wise the Control panel does what it needs too. Their webmail interface is mega dated and bizzarly the users cannot change their passwords.

This means the admin knows everyones password – this sort of thing is a serious shortfall and has meant we moved our email. Not had any issues with uptime

Value for money – not the cheapest – I think they have got a bit complacent in pricing as they have been around a long time. Wouldn’t use them going forward as there are much better services elsewhere for less money.

Visit Host Now →

michael bester dulwichsashwindows.com

Jun 20, 2018

I have been with 123 reg for around 10 years via a web designer who made me a website. I only wish I had the know how to quit them and start with another company. I find their auto renewal system to be made complicated , for the obvious reason of profit.

Each year I find myself renewing items I have attempted to cancel (even called them to cancel) and they keep getting my money. Stay away from them, and don’t listen to the good reviews here, they must be from employees/management. I’m going to put the effort into transferring to another company.

Visit Host Now →

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Datacenters

The only thing that 123 Reg says about the datacenters for its shared, VPS, and WordPress hosting plans (as well as dedicated servers) is that they are EU-based.

The company does not offer its users a choice between datacenters.

123 Reg’s email hosting is based in Leeds, England and cloud backups are stored in a datacenter in the United Kingdom.

Other Products and Services: Domains, Marketing and More

In addition to its web hosting and website building plans, 123 Reg offers the following services.

Domain Name Registration

123 Reg offers a lot when it comes to domain names. In addition to selling and transferring domain names, 123 Reg offers the following services:

• Bulk ordering, where you can order multiple domains at once
• Backordering, where you can buy a domain name the moment someone else lets it expire
• Domain privacy, where you hide your personal information from being publicly listed alongside your domain name in the WHOIS registry

“Make Me a Website” Service

123 Reg’s Make Me a Website service is exactly what it sounds like. The 123 Reg team will:

1. Design and build your website (includes copy as well)
2. Get your web hosting set up and your website up and running
3. Keep your site fully optimized for search engines even after launch

You’ll have an Account Manager to help you through this process, and your website comes with a domain name, email, and hosting.

Website Checker

The Website Checker is a free service offered to all by 123 Reg, regardless of whether you are one of its customers or not, that will review your website from top to bottom. 123 Reg will then provide you with a report that includes information on:

• SEO — can search engines find your site?
• Mobile performance — does you worksite work well with small screens?
• Your marketing — are you using things like social integrations?
• Your content — over time, are you changing up your content to keep things interesting?
• Any issues — broken links, slow speeds, etc

With this report, you can make the changes you need to improve your website.

Email Hosting

123 Reg offers email-only hosting. If you purchase a hosting plan from 123 Reg, you will not need this, but for those who want email that matches a domain they already have (or are interested in a professional email, but not a website), email hosting is a good option to consider.

Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

123 Reg offers marketing and SEO-related services to improve your digital presence and increase your traffic, conversions and sales.

You can also purchase Microsoft Office 365 through 123 Reg.

Former Google users who transfer to 123 Reg can also transfer its use of cloud-based tools from the Google suite to Office 365.

Does 123 Reg sound right for you?
Our readers can get the lowest price by using this special discount link. This deal includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Security

123 Reg takes reasonable steps to ensure that the sites it hosts stay secure, but you can purchase options to increase your level of security.

123 Reg will sell you SSL certificates and automated backups. (You are welcome to make an unlimited number of manual backups, but 123 Reg does not assist with this process.)

You can also purchase SiteLock for malware monitoring and removal.

Do note that the more expensive hosting plans include an SSL certificate free of charge — check to see if this is the case before you purchase another one for yourself!

Customer Support

123 Reg’s customer support team can be reached 24/7 via its Support Centre, live chat, Twitter, or by phone.

Their written online support resources are excellent: they’re well organized, easy to navigate, clearly written, and thorough.

123 Reg offers a robust Support Center, and this is where you will find all of the documentation.

When you look through the resources provided, you are asked a couple of questions about the product(s) you are using — this makes sure that you only see the docs that are relevant to you.

Even novices will find 123 Reg’s documentation 100% accessible.

Migration Policy and Assistance

You are responsible for moving your website and domain name. 123 Reg, however, provides in-depth tutorials that you can follow to make sure that everything gets moved and set up appropriately.

That said, the 123 Reg team is available to provide support should you encounter questions with your migration.

If you prefer a host that will handle your site migration for you, consider SiteGround.

Refunds and Money-Back Guarantee

123 Reg offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

It applies only to web hosting, and you can request a cancellation and refund via telephone or by opening a support ticket.

Pros and Cons

What are the upsides and downsides to opting for 123 Reg? As with most hosts, it’s a mixed bag. Whether 123 Reg is right for you will depend upon your specific needs.

Pros

1. Full-service provider — you can purchase everything you need for a website from 123 Reg
2. Entry-level hosting options are inexpensive
3. 123 Reg offers VPS hosting, so you can upgrade without switching hosts

Cons

1. The plans offered are no-frills. You get all the resources you need to launch and maintain your website, but the company does little for you (eg, make backups, help with website migration)
2. UK-oriented, so this company might not be the best option for someone outside the UK or seeking an international audience

Comparable Hosts

If 123 Reg looks good, but is not quite the option for you, check out these alternative web hosting companies:

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is more than just a web hosting company — you can think of GoDaddy as a full-service internet shop.

In addition to web hosting plans and domain names, the company offers productivity tools like Office 365, email services, SSL certificates and other security tools, add-on phone numbers, and more.

GoDaddy is very similar to 123 Reg, but with a more international focus (eg, less emphasis on location-specific domain names) and a broader offering of web hosting plans.

HostGator

HostGator is a stripped-down version of GoDaddy — it offers everything you need to host your website, no matter what type of hosting you need.

You will not have a hard time finding the products and services you need to build and host your website, but you will not find add-ons like productivity suites and second phone lines for sale.

HostGator is also known for its excellent customer service.

SiteGround

Like 123 Reg, SiteGround is a web hosting company that focuses mostly on entry-level hosting options, though the company does offer cloud hosting and enterprise-grade options for users who need more for their websites.

SiteGround also offers managed WordPress hosting. If SiteGround offers what you are looking for in terms of technical requirements, you cannot go wrong with them.

Their plans are well-thought-out, and the company strives to make your web hosting experience as easy as possible.

SiteGround also offers top-notch customer service.

Interested in 123 Reg?
Our readers can get the lowest price by using this special discount link. This deal includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Summary: Is 123 Reg Any Good?

Given their quality support documentation and technology platforms, 123 Reg is a good match for those looking for reliable bargain-priced hosting and basic marketing services. WordPress users will benefit from automatic updates, one-click set-ups, and expert support.

Not quite right? Check out our top recommended hosts, and also see what customer reviews have to say.

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About Katie Horne

Katie is a C# developer who became a technical writer. She is a lifelong bookworm and all-around nerd with a soft spot for gimmicks and packaging. She judges books by the cover, and she’s not sorry about it. In her spare time, she likes to swim, knit, and do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

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