123 Reg eCommerce Reviews: UK Fees & Pricing

123 Reg is a pretty rare specimen among site-building platforms, mainly due to the sheer number of different services it provides.

You have two site-building options, website builder and online shop, which have a total of 7 pricing plans you can choose from. On top of that, you also have 4 hosting services to choose from, all of which have 4 plans a piece. This amounts to a total of 23 plans, which gives you a lot of variety so you can find the exact features and services you need to run your site.

Additionally, you also have several different domain options that you can choose from.

Features

The features you’ll get depend on the plan you choose, so let’s start with the site-building plans and continue with the hosting plans.

Site Building Plans

123 Reg offers two categories of site design plans that you can pick from. The “Website Builder” category comes with 4 plans, whereas the “Online Shop” category has 3 plans.

The more expensive plans come with better perks, while the cheaper plans are better suited for smaller shops and those that are just starting out.

However, before we get to the plans themselves, we should point out that the Website Builder and the Online Shop plans that are priced the same come with almost identical features. So, with the exception of the very first plan, you can go for either category and get the same benefits.

Website Builder

While the website building category might be a bit more suited for general site creation, all of the plans still come with many useful eCommerce tools. There are plenty of design options and product management tools that can help any shop get off the ground and grow its customer base.

All of the plans come with a 12-month contract, and you can choose to be billed monthly or annually, although the sum doesn’t change either way.

Website Builder Standard

Cost – £5.59 a month

This plan comes with the most essential features that are also included in all of the other plans in this category.

These essential features include the following:

• Dozens of fully customizable themes
• Adding up to 1,000 pages to your site
• A free domain name for your site
• A free SSL certificate that confirms the safety of the site
• Free web hosting with unlimited bandwidth and storage space
• Blogging tools that allow you to create and add articles to your site
• A Google Calendar that allows visitors to sign up for any classes, seminars, or other events or services that are hosted on your site
• A Zoom Video Conference feature that allows customers to contact you or a member of your staff directly to ask questions or make a complaint.

The plan also comes with a free email address and basic analytic tools that tell you how many visitors your site is getting on a daily basis and where they’re coming from.

Unfortunately, this plan has an enormous downside for eCommerce sites since you can’t actually add any products to the site that’s attached to this plan.

However, while this plan can’t be used to list and sell products, it’s a great advertising tool.

Since the plan is so cheap and comes with blogging tools, you can use this site to post all of your articles and informational blogs instead of having them clog your main site. You can’t post products on this site, but you can add links throughout the articles that take readers over to your main site where they can find your products.

On the one hand, this isn’t an ideal marketing tool since it requires you to keep redirecting your site visitors through hyperlinks. On the other hand, if you want to keep your main product site exclusively focused on product listings, then this is a great cost-effective marketing option you can try out.

Online Shop Starter

Cost – £10.49 a month

This plan comes with all of the essential features we just covered as well as 5 email addresses instead of just one and advanced analytic tools. The exact differences between the basic and the advanced analytics tools aren’t specified, but presumably, the advanced tools provide more detailed breakdowns of more site statistics.

You also get a few additional features that were not included in the first plan. These features include:

• Access to a developer mode that allows you to change the code on the site however and whenever you want
• Adding the shipping rates from your carriers in your product descriptions
• The ability to hide the 123 Reg branding
• Membership programs that allow you to provide special perks to select site visitors
• Personalized rules that allow you to hide certain content from specific customers
• Site backups that save your site data in case of crashes or other issues
• Mobile customization options that allow you to adjust the way your site looks on phones and tablets
• Adding Yelp reviews on your site pages or directly under the products themselves
• Adding various third-party apps that can help you with marketing, accounting, customer support, site analytics, and much more.

With this plan, you can add up to 10 products to your site, and give your customers access to 4 different payment methods they can pick from. The methods in question include PayPal, Square, and Stripe, as well as manual payments like cheques, invoices, bank transfers, and cash on delivery.

While this plan is a step up from the first one, the number of products that you can list is still very limited and only suited for small companies with very limited inventories. 

Online Shop Standard

Cost – £17.49 a month

This plan includes all of the features from the previous plan, as well as a few more perks.

The new features include the following:

• Listing and selling digital products, like images, documents, videos, and sound files
• Adding special discounts for all of your products
• Creating and giving out gift cards that any customer can use in your stores
• Linking your site with any and all of your social media accounts
• Inventory management tools that send you a message when you start to run low on certain products

This plan is best suited for small and medium-sized stores since it allows you to list as many as 100 products on your site. That’s still not a particularly large inventory, but it’s much better than any of the previous plans.

You’ll also be able to add more than 30 different payment methods to your site that your customers can choose from. PayPal, Square, Stripe, and the manual payment methods are again an option, although the other few dozen methods aren’t specified.

Online Shop Pro

Cost – £34.99 a month

The final plan in the Website Builder category includes all of the features that were mentioned up until now. Naturally, as you might expect from the price, there are also features that are exclusive to this plan.

The added features are:

• Automated emails – These emails get sent out to any customer with an account on your site. They remind customers about any products they still might have in their cart and haven’t checked out, inform them about any special discounts, and so on.
• Bulk Invoice Printing – This feature allows you to organize and sort all of the product requests so that you can view and approve them from a single dashboard.
• Order Modification – You can instantly change any info on the order form. This includes everything from the customer’s name and card details to the address where the item is supposed to be shipped.
• Mobile Management – You get access to an app that gives you full control over every aspect of your site, including analytics, sales information, product listings, and so on.
• Product Variations – If you have products that come in various colours or sizes, you can attach separate images and details for all of them.

This plan also comes with 30+ payment methods that you can add to your site, but this time you can add as many products to your site as you want. In other words, this is the best option for large companies that have large catalogues.

This is also the only plan that has an automatic tax calculator feature. 

Online Shop

All of the plans in this category allow you to list and sell products on your site, and they all come with very similar features to the Website Builder plans. For the sake of simplicity and to avoid repetition, we’ll list only the features these plans come with without explaining them in more detail.

These plans also come with a 12-month contract that you can pay annually or monthly, and the price is the same for both.

Starter

Cost – £10.49 a month

With the starter plan, you can list up to 10 products and use 4 payment methods, which include PayPal, Square, Stripe, and manual payments like cheques, invoices, bank transfers and cash on delivery.

Included features:

• You can add up to 1,000 pages to your site
• 1 free domain name
• 5 free email addresses
• A free SSL certificate
• Free web hosting with unlimited bandwidth and online storage space
• Automatically included shipping rates for your products
• Membership perks
• Third-party app compatibility

Standard

Cost – £17.49 a month

The Standard plan allows you to list up to 100 products on your site, and use more than 30 different payment methods.

Included features:

• All of the features from the Starter plan
• The option to list and sell digital products
• The ability to add discount codes for all of your products
• The ability to create gift cards that your customers can redeem at any of your stores, both online and offline
• Social media marketing tools
• Stock warning messages that tell you when specific products in your inventory are running low and new stock needs to be reordered

Pro

Cost – £34.99 a month

The final plan comes with the option to add an unlimited number of products to your site and add 30+ payment methods to your site.

Included features:

• All of the features from the Standard plan
• Bulk invoicing features that organize all of your product orders in one place
• Instant order modifications
• Multi-view for product variations

Hosting Plans

If you already have a site, 123 Reg also offers hosting services that provide you with all of the necessary tools you might need to run your online shop.

You have 4 hosting services that you can pick from, and all of them come with 4 separate plans. The cheaper plans are much more suited towards smaller and new shops that don’t get many daily visitors. The more expensive plans, on the other hand, are much better suited for large companies or shops that have started to drastically increase the number of site visitors that they get on average.

Web Hosting

These plans come with many useful hosting features, but they’re lacking in several areas like malware protection, migration tools, and regular backups. They’re a great option for small sites that are just starting out, but you might want to switch over to the other hosting services once your site starts to grow.

All of the plans in the hosting services come with the same features, but differ in the size of the storage, the number of email addresses you get, the number of free domains you get, and so on. We’ll list all of the features in the first plan, and then simply mention the differences in every proceeding plan so that we don’t go over the same features again and again. 

You can either choose to pay for the hosting services on a monthly or yearly billing schedule. The same goes for the 3-year long contract as well since you’ll be billed at the end of each year counting from when you bought the plan.

Starter

Cost – £2.99 a month on a 1-year contract, and £1.99 a month on a 3-year contract.

Features:

• 1 free domain
• 1 email address
• 1 website
• 100 GB of storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 10 x 1GB MySQL Databases
• 1 CPU
• 512 MB of shared RAM
• More than 130 Linux apps that can be installed with a single click
• Unlimited email autoresponders
• Unlimited email forwarders
• Catch-all emails that forward every email that’s sent to your domain to another email address
• Direct code modification capabilities
• SSH access
• Password-protected directories
• Programs that run automatically on a set schedule

Standard

Cost – £3.99 a month on a 1-year contract, and £2.99 a month on a 3-year contract.

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Starter plan
• 2 email addresses
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited storage
• 25 x 1GB MySQL Databases

Pro

Cost – £5.99 a month on a 1-year contract, and £4.99 a month on a 3-year contract.

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Standard plan
• 2 free domains
• 3 email addresses
• 1 free SSL certificate
• Unlimited x 1GB MySQL Databases
• 2 CPU
• 1 GB of shared RAM

Ultimate

Cost – £7.49 a month on a 1-year contract, and £6.49 a month on a 3-year contract.

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Pro plan
• 3 free domains
• 5 email addresses
• Free SSL certificates
• 2 GB of shared RAM

Managed WordPress Hosting

These hosting plans offer a bit more protection in terms of malware and accident protection because of the regular site backup they provide.

You also have the option to choose either the single-website or the multi-website hosting plans. The latter are obviously a lot more expensive, but they allow you to host a lot more sites, which is ideal for large companies.

Starter

Cost – £1.99 a month on a 1-year contract

Features:

• 1 website
• 1 free domain
• 1 free SSL certificate
• 1 email address
• 30 GB of storage
• Automatic migration tools
• Access to a content delivery network
• Malware scanner
• Regular backups

Standard

Cost – £4.99 a month on a 1-year contract

Features:

• All of the features from the Starter plan
• 2 email addresses
• 75 GB of storage
• Access to a staging site where you can test the changes to your code before implementing them

Pro

Cost – £8.99 a month on a 1-year contract

Features:

• All of the features from the Standard plan
• 3 email addresses
• Unlimited storage

Ultimate

Cost – £26.99 a month on a 1-year contract

Features:

• All of the features from the Pro plan
• 5 email addresses
• WooCommerce compatibility
• 75 premium extensions

Multi Starter

Cost – £24.99 a month

Features:

• 5 websites
• 5 free SSL certificates
• 50 GB of storage
• Automatic site migration tools
• Access to a content delivery network
• Malware scan
• Regular site backups
• Access to 5 staging sites

Multi-Standard

Cost – £39.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features from the Multi Starter plan
• 10 websites
• 10 free SSL certificates
• 80 GB of storage
• Access to 10 staging sites

Multi Pro

Cost – £89.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features from the Multi-Standard plan
• 25 websites
• 25 free SSL certificates
• 100 GB of storage
• Access to 25 staging sites

Multi Ultimate

Cost – £149.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features from the Multi Pro plan
• 50 websites
• 50 free SSL certificates
• 200 GB of storage
• Access to 50 staging sites

Premium Hosting

As the name suggests, the plans listed in the Premium Hosting category come with premium features. You can also choose to pay for these plans on a monthly or a yearly basis, although there’s no discount for a yearly contract.

These plans are a bit more costly than the standard plans we’ve mentioned until now (with the exception of the multi plans). However, they provide a private environment with dedicated resources for hosting your websites, so they’re worth the money.

Starter

Cost – £19.99 a month

Features:

• 1 CPU
• 2 GB of dedicated RAM
• 3 free domains
• Up to 150,000 monthly visitors
• Free SSL certificates
• 5 mailboxes
• Unlimited autoresponders
• Unlimited email forwarders
• Catch-all emails 
• 60 GB of storage
• An unlimited number of databases
• Direct code modification capabilities
• Unlimited bandwidth
• One-click Linux apps
• SSH access
• Password-protected directories
• Programs that run automatically on a set schedule

Standard

Cost – £29.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Starter plan
• 2 CPU
• 3GB of dedicated RAM
• Up to 300,000 monthly visitors
• 90 GB of storage

Pro

Cost – £34.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Standard plan
• 3 CPU
• 6GB of dedicated RAM
• Up to 500,000 monthly visitors
• 10 mailboxes
• 120 GB storage

Ultimate

Cost – £47.99 a month

Features:

• All of the features listed in the Pro plan
• 4 CPU
• 8 GB of dedicated RAM
• Up to 750,000 monthly visitors
• 150 GB of storage

VPS Hosting

A VPS is similar to a dedicated server, with the difference being that multiple virtual instances are running on just one set of hardware. This essentially means that the performance is virtually (pun intended) the same, except the running costs are significantly lower.

The data transfer speed, private servers, and low costs make these plans ideal for virtually any business (pun not intended this time).

Additionally, keep in mind that all of the plans come with a one-time setup fee of £9.99 on top of the monthly or yearly costs.

Starter

Cost – £9.99 if billed monthly, or £109.89 if billed annually

Features:

• 1 core CPU
• 512 MB of RAM
• 25 GB of storage
• Unmetered data transfer
• Your choice of either a Linux or a Windows operating system
• cPanel control panel

L

Cost – £18.99 if billed monthly, or £208.89 if billed annually

Features:

• All of the features from the Starter plan
• 1 GB of RAM
• 70 GB of storage
• Your choice of either a Plesk or a cPanel control panel

XL

Cost – £29.99 if billed monthly, or £329.89 if billed annually

Features:

• All of the features from the L plan
• 2 CPU
• 2 GB of RAM
• 100 GB of storage

XXL

Cost – £44.99 if billed monthly, or £494.89 if billed annually

Features:

• All of the features from the XL plan
• 3 CPU
• 3 GB of RAM
• 150 GB of storage

Domains

123 Reg also provides a domain service so you can have a catchy name that’s easy to remember and that will hopefully stick in the minds of your site visitors.

Putting a bit more thought into your domain name allows you to create a unique brand that’ll help you stand out from the crowd. Ideally, you’d want something short and easy to advertise, but you can also choose from a variety of options that allow you to get a bit more creative with your site branding.

Domains are divided into two parts – TLD (top-level domain) and SLD (second-level domain). The SLD is the name of the site that appears after the “www.”, whereas the TLD is the end part of the domain e.g. “.com”, “.net”, “.co.uk”, and so on.

For example, in the domain “www.123-reg.co.uk”, the “123-reg” is the SLD, while the “.co.uk” is the TLD.

Top-Level Domain

The TLD is sometimes also referred to as a domain extension, and the prices on them vary depending on the exact extension that you want to go for.

123 Reg gives you access to more than 400 domain extensions that you can choose from, and they all come with their own initial registration and renewal costs.

The initial registrations last for one year and they’re only available for new customers. Once you’ve been using a domain for more than a year, you need to pay a renewal cost in order to keep using it.

The “.co.uk” extension has a registration cost of £0.79, but a renewal cost of £11.99. This means that after the first year, you’ll need to pay £11.99 every year for as long as you’re using the extension.

The registration cost is usually significantly cheaper than the renewal cost, but you also have some extensions like “.cymru” or ”.berlin” that cost £14.99 and £54.99 respectively, and both their registration and renewal prices are the same.

Additionally, you also have domains like “.co.nz” and “.co.za”, which don’t have a registration price and simply charge you for the renewal cost from the start.

As you might have noticed, there’s no one rule when it comes to TLD pricing, so the best way to figure out the price of a domain extension is to find it on the list and check it for yourself.

There are several categories that you can browse and hundreds of extensions to pick from, so you’ll definitely find something that’s ideal for your business.

Second-Level Domain

123 Reg provides you with access to premium domains. The domains in question were purchased by others who are now interested in selling them.

You simply need to use the search bar on the premium domains page and enter the name of the domain that you’re interested in. You’ll then be able to make a bid for the domain in question.

There’s also the option to place a backorder on a domain that you’re interested in but that isn’t available yet. You’ll then be notified once the SLD frees up or expires and you can snatch it up and start using it immediately.

Buying a premium domain is much quicker, but you’re sometimes going to need to pay absurd yearly costs in order to use a certain domain.

On the other hand, while waiting for a domain name to expire requires a bit of patience, it’s well worth it when you consider that you don’t need to pay to use the SLD. However, keep in mind that you’ll still need to pay for the TLD that you attach to the end of your SLD.

Transfer and Security

If you have an already existing domain, then you can use 123 Reg to transfer the domain over to their servers. The process is quick and simple, and there’s no downtime or disruptions.

Once you transfer your domain, you’ll have access to a lot of useful security tools. You’ll get a password for your domain that only you know, WHOIS privacy protection, and a renewal guarantee. Even if the domain renewal fails, you’ll still have access to your domain for the duration of the year that you’ve already paid for.

Additionally, there are also bulk registration and transfer features that you can take advantage of. These features allow you to reserve and transfer multiple sites, making them an ideal addition for large companies.

Additional Features

All of the domains that you have access to come with free email forwarding and a 1-page website that you get free of charge. You also have a support staff that can be contacted through phone, live chat, or ticket, and that can be consulted for any issues that you might be having with your domain.

You also get free DNS updates, you don’t have to pay for any editing fees on the WHOIS security features, and the domains are all advertising-free, so you won’t have any banners or annoying commercials running on your site.

Payment Options

123 Reg allows you to add PayPal, Square, and Stripe as well as online payment methods, on top of the manual payment methods like cheques, invoices, bank transfers, and cash on delivery.

The platform also allows you to add around 30 other online payment options, although none of these options are specifically listed, so you’ll need to contact a 123 Reg representative for more specific details.

Company Background

123 Reg was started in 2000 by Jonathan and Tim Beresford-Brealey. In the 20+ years since its start, the platform has helped more than a million websites get off the ground.

The platform has won several awards, including the “Best Value Web Hosting 2016 & 2017” award, the “#1 Budget Hosting” award from WebHost Directory, and the “PC Pro 2006” award, to name a few.

The company was acquired by GoDaddy in April 2017.

User Reviews

Techradar gives 123 Reg a 3.5 out of 5 stars, naming the marketing tools and the organized interface as the standout features.

PCMag rates the platform at a slightly worse 3 out of 5 stars, and mentions the lack of customer service outside of the UK as a big downside of the company.

User Reviews

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