123-reg Alternative: With Nothing Held Back From The Entry Plan
If you are looking for a 123-reg alternative, the thing to read carefully is the feature grid rather than the price. Backups, staging, core updates and malware scanning are all absent from their cheapest plan, and the prices shown exclude VAT. Worth knowing before you compare it against anything else.
What You Get On The Cheapest Plan
Nothing held back from the cheap plan
Backups, staging, malware scanning, the CDN and free migrations are on every plan we sell. There is no feature grid where the entry column is mostly empty.
The price you see is the price you pay
One rate, quoted plainly, renewing at the same number. No introductory term and no VAT to add on afterwards for UK customers.
WordPress, and nothing else
123 Reg sells domains, email, website builders, hosting and ecommerce. We sell one thing, which is why the WordPress work is included rather than extra.
FastCow And 123 Reg, Tier By Tier
Most of this comes down to what the Basic plan leaves out. Two rows go to them.
How this was put together. The FastCow column is what we sell. The 123 Reg column is taken from their current hosting and managed WordPress pages, including which features sit above the Basic plan. Sources: 123-reg.co.uk and their managed WordPress page. Last reviewed August 2026. If a plan has changed since we checked, say so and we will fix it. The same method runs through all our comparisons.
No Feature Grid With An Empty Entry Column
Tiered feature grids are how most hosts are sold, and the pattern is always the same: the cheap column is mostly crosses, and the things missing from it are the things you need on a bad day. We sell one platform, so there is nothing to withhold from the bottom of the range.
Backups on the cheapest plan
Daily, restorable by you in one click, with hourly at $20 a month per site. Not a reason to move up a tier.
Staging on the cheapest plan
Clone the site, break it safely, push it live or bin it. Available whatever you pay.
Malware scanning and cleanup, included
Scanned daily, cleaned automatically, and an engineer on it afterwards. Not an upsell after the incident.
Updates run for you, at every level
Core, plugins and themes, kept current and put right if one of them misbehaves.
One platform, one price, everything on. The full list is on managed WordPress hosting and pricing.
Three Reasons 123 Reg Wins
A twenty-year UK brand with a wider product range than ours will ever have.
Everything under one login
Domains, email, hosting, a site builder and an ecommerce product on one account with one invoice. If you want a single supplier for all of it, we do not compete.
You want a UK brand with UK phone support
123 Reg has been a fixture of UK small business hosting for two decades and answers the phone in the UK. Familiarity counts for more than hosting people admit.
The entry price is what decides it
Their cheapest plan undercuts ours substantially, even with VAT added. If the site is small and you are happy taking your own backups, that maths works.
Moving The Hosting Without Moving The Domain
Your domains can stay registered at 123 Reg for as long as you like. Only the hosting moves, and only when you point the records at us.
Send Hosting Access
Not the domain, just the hosting login. We inventory the sites, databases and mailboxes and send the list back before we start.
Inspect The Rebuild
A private address with the real site on it. Check the pages, the forms and anything that talks to a database, while your live site carries on.
Repoint, Keep The Registrar
You change the nameservers or the A record inside your 123 Reg account. The domain never leaves, and there is no transfer to wait out.
Nobody Acquired Us, And Nobody Will
123 Reg has been through Host Europe Group and into GoDaddy. The brand survived both and the UK team is still there, which is more than happens in most acquisitions. But it is worth knowing that the company you signed up with is not the company you are with now.
The same owners since day one
Private, self-funded, and not part of anybody’s portfolio. There is no group above us to be sold into.
No investors to answer to
We have never taken funding, so there is no return with a date on it and nothing that has to be extracted from your renewal.
Profits go back into the platform
Hardware, tooling and engineers, for the customers already here rather than into an acquisition.
Not for sale
Built to keep, not to flip, and small enough that you would hear it from us first if that ever changed.
One platform, one price, and every feature switched on at the bottom of the range. FastCow Hosting Limited, 39 C/O FastCow Hosting, Jefferson Close, London, England, IG2 6RZ. One owner, one product, no portfolio. About FastCow and why that matters here.
Check What Your Current Plan Leaves Out
Tell us which 123 Reg plan you are on and what it includes. If you are on a managed tier that already covers you, we will tell you it is not worth moving.
123-reg Alternatives, Answered Directly
Not sure which 123 Reg plan you are on or what it covers? Send us a screenshot.
Talk to us →Backups, staging, core updates and malware scanning all sit above the Basic plan. The entry tier gives you hosting; the maintenance features start on the managed WordPress plans. Every FastCow plan includes all of those, plus the CDN and a hand-done migration.
Yes, since 2017, when GoDaddy acquired Host Europe Group. 123 Reg still operates as a UK brand with UK-based support. FastCow is privately owned and self-funded, with no parent company at all.
No. Their displayed prices exclude VAT, so UK customers should add 20% before comparing them with anything else. It is worth putting both options through to checkout rather than comparing the numbers on the pricing pages.
On the entry plan, no. Their cheapest tier undercuts ours even after VAT. The comparison changes once you need the things their Basic plan leaves out, because on our side backups, staging and malware scanning are not a tier you climb to.
No. Your 123 Reg hosting keeps serving while we rebuild on a private address. You check it over, and the switch happens when you change the DNS records we give you.
Yes. Point the nameservers or the A record at us and leave the domain registered where it is. Plenty of customers keep domains and email at a registrar and host with us.