123-reg vs NameSilo
A detailed comparison to help you choose between 123-reg and NameSilo.
Quick Verdict
3.0/5
123-reg
0 reviews
3.6/5
NameSilo
0 reviews
NameSilo is rated higher (3.6 vs 3.0). 123-reg registers .uk and international domains with integrated hosting options. Designed for UK small businesses and individuals seeking bundled services at competitive introductory prices. Budget-friendly domain registrar offering .com, .net, .org and 500+ TLDs. Includes free WHOIS privacy, DNS management, and basic email forwarding for all domains.
123-reg UK domain registrar with hosting bundles — cheap first year, materially higher renewals | NameSilo Affordable domain registration with competitive renewal rates | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.0 (0 reviews) | 3.6 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $0.01/mo✓ | From $17.29/mo |
| Best for | UK small businesses and individuals registering .co.uk/.uk names who want domains, email, and hosting bundled under one control panel and are comfortable budgeting at renewal prices. | Portfolio managers, domainers, and developers holding many domains who want flat, item-free billing, free privacy on everything, and an API for automation. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | eu datacenter | api access |
| Visit 123-reg → | Visit NameSilo → | |
123-reg
Pros
- + Established UK registrar since 2000 with 400+ extensions and consolidated domain, email, and hosting billing
- + Transparent first-year and renewal prices published together on 123-reg's own pages
- + Free .co.uk/.uk transfers in and free Nominet WHOIS privacy on UK domains
- + cPanel on hosting, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and DDoS protection with 24/7 monitoring on VPS
- + Bundles (domain + email + hosting + SSL) suit non-technical UK small businesses
Cons
- - Renewals jump sharply — .co.uk from £3.99 to £12.99/year, Economy hosting from £1.99/mo to £251.64 per 3-year term
- - WHOIS privacy for gTLDs costs extra (around £4.99/domain/year), compounding portfolio costs
- - UK-hours-only support with no published response-time SLA; phone support restricted to the UK
- - Backup advertising says daily; terms say files weekly and databases daily
- - April 2016 mass site-deletion incident across 67 servers remains on the reliability record
NameSilo
Pros
- + Flat registration-equals-renewal pricing on core extensions (.com $17.29 both ways)
- + Free WHOIS privacy for the life of every eligible domain, plus free DNS, email forwarding, and Domain Defender
- + No hidden fees: no privacy renewal charges, no charge for auth codes, transparent pricing page with regular prices marked
- + Free documented API and strong bulk tools for portfolio automation
- + Discount Program and volume tiers lower per-domain cost for large holdings
Cons
- - Ticket-based support only — no phone line and historically no live chat
- - Retail .com at $17.29 is above at-cost and several mid-market registrars
- - New-gTLD renewal cliffs apply here too (.shop $38.99, .store $58.99 after cheap first years)
- - Interface is dated and denser than newer competitors
- - Side products (hosting, SSL, email) are not reasons to choose this registrar
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