123 Reg helps you share your business with the rest of the world. 123 Reg has evolved to offer a myriad of web hosting-related options. This web host is based in the UK and offers shared hosting, VPS, WordPress hosting, and dedicated servers are EU-based, while email hosting data is stored in their data center in Leeds. The company also added that their data centers are green and strive to minimize their carbon footprint.
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When purchasing a plan, 123 Reg prompts you to pick your free domain as well, and tries to add extra features to your basket. Before checking out, you’ll need to create an account with your full name, address, and phone number. Once you’ve completed the purchase, you’ll be able to access your Control Panel.
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Plans and pricing
123 Reg has two main web hosting plans on their website and three separate plans for an online store. You can try this web host for a 30 day free trial before deciding on a final purchase. Here’s a quick overview of both main hosting plans:
The Standard plan costs $2.95 per month when you purchase the yearly plan. It includes unlimited pages, your own domain name, basic analytics, your own email address, and an SSL Certificate. 123 Reg recommends using this plan for small businesses or anyone who wants to share a personal portfolio.
The Pro plan costs $5.91 per month when you sign up for the yearly plan. It comes with everything in the Standard plan plus advanced analytics, discount coupons, a place to add a menu for a restaurant, advanced design mode, and an option for multiple languages. This plan is designed for anyone who wants to build a more advanced website with ease.
Interface
The interface is easy to navigate, and wherever there is a button with a question mark, you can click it to open a support page filled with questions related to the term. For example, the Domain term has a full 125 different guides and explanations, separated into sections like Troubleshooting, Basics, etc.
123 Reg offers live chat, support tickets, a phone number, and even a post address for any customer queries, but they urge their users to first check whether their question was already addressed in one of their numerous guides and articles. However, to gain access to their live chat service, you’ll have to register with them first. Otherwise, you’re free to call their number, although standard rates apply.
Features
Plans have built in marketing tools to help your website with SEO and traffic. There’s even an option to add social media links on your website so it’s easy for people to share what they find. There’s also an ecommerce option so you can easily sell your products or services. Plus, you can advertise deals for loyal customers. A nice touch is how all of the templates are organized by occupation - if you’re specifically building a website to showcase your photography skills, then you can easily search templates designed for sharing photos.
As for uptime, although 123 Reg doesn’t make any promises in numbers, they do say that their “latest Cisco architecture using 10 Gigabit connections [...] with different backbone providers” mean that “you’re unlikely to experience any network downtime.” During our two-week long uptime test, however, 123 Reg’s main website had absolutely no downtime at all. While two weeks is a relatively short time to judge, they’re still off to a good start.
The competition
The biggest difference between Bluehost and 123 Reg is their location. Both are budget-friendly options, but Bluehost includes a wider array of features in its advertised price, while 123 Reg tends to charge extra for those.
123 Reg is slightly cheaper than Hostgator, but some features may come at an extra price. They both offer excellent customer support, but Hostgator doesn’t have a contact email, while 123 Reg does. Cloudways offers a far wider range of features and extras, each of which are charged on an hourly basis. 123 Reg, meanwhile, requires either monthly or annual contracts. However, Cloudways is slightly more technical and better suited for more advanced users than 123 Reg.
Final thoughts
123 Reg is a great option for UK-based users who can take advantage of the free .co.uk domain, but both their pricing and the lack of free features leave a lot to be desired. For cheaper, more accessible web hosting providers, Bluehost or Hostgator could be the better options.
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