Part of the Host Europe Group, the largest privately owned hosting company in Europe, 123-reg offers domain name registration, shared web hosting, email hosting, dedicated servers and virtual private servers. 123-reg uses an eco-friendly data center based in the UK.
Review
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Sales
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Sales questions can be taken to 123-reg by live chat or email. I dropped 123-reg a note on a Friday morning and didn’t hear back from them for nearly five days. I also tried to raise up 123-reg by live chat, but had a difficult time doing so. I later learned that 123-reg only offers live chat and email sales support during business hours on weekdays. To their credit, when I was finally able to chat with and email the sales team, they were very helpful in their replies and seemed to know the company inside and out.
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Setup
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Signing up for an account takes place right on the host’s website. The sign-up process involves nothing more difficult than filling out an online order form and paying for your hosting account. I was able to sign up with ease, but was then left hanging for a few days. I received no welcome letter or even a copy of my invoice after payment. Because I’d signed up on a Friday, I had to wait until 123-reg opened their office again on Monday. The issue was finally sorted out and I was up and running by the following day.
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Billing
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123-reg accepts Direct Debit, PayPal, and all major credit cards. The billing department is open 9-5pm on weekdays. My web hosting package was billed properly, and my account was easy to cancel.
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Pricing
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The smallest shared hosting package available, Starter Package, includes 500 megabytes of space and unlimited bandwidth for $4.78/month. It should be noted that this package must be paid for at least one year in advance. Even 123-reg's largest hosting package must be pre-ordered for a three month period. Additionally, hosting plans come with a $15.97 setup fee. Ouch! Virtual private servers run $23.95/month and up, and dedicated servers are $111.89/month and up. 123-reg’s plan are a little short-sided when it comes to hosting space available and many plans come with a hefty setup fee, which cancels out any savings.
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Reliability
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Right from the get-go I had trouble with my website’s speed and my email server. My website often took at least two minutes to completely load, and I was unable to retrieve my email via webmail access at all. I contacted support regarding these issues and was eventually moved to a new server, though for the life of my account, webmail never worked the way it should and I was forced to use an external PC email program to retrieve my domain-based mail.
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Help & Support
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Support is said to be available 24/7 by trouble ticket system, and can be raised by live chat on weekdays between 9am and 5pm. I had repeated problems getting quick answers from 123-reg. When my website speeds became shamefully slow, I submitted a ticket asking to be moved to a new server. I received no response. I submitted a second ticket. Finally, I received two responses from support, but each gave me a different reason for the problem, and one promised to move my website to a new server while the other told me it was impossible to move. Confusing! My website was eventually relocated. However, I found support to be exceptionally slow and largely unavailable.
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Uptime
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My uptime monitor indicated that 123-reg maintained a 98.98% uptime rating over a one year period.
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Guarantee
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7-day money back guarantee.
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Terms of Service
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Hosting services must be manually cancelled. Early cancellations will not receive pro-rated refunds.
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Spamming forbidden.
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No IRC bots or scripts allowed.
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Websites using excessive server resources may be suspended.
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Bottom Line
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Advantages
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Environmentally friendly hosting.
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Free domain with some plans.
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Decent specials.
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Excellent domain management.
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Disadvantages
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Phone support available in UK only.
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Live chat support only available during business hours.
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Support generally slow to respond.
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Setup fees.
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No uptime guarantee.
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