Epik vs 123-reg
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Epik and 123-reg.
Quick Verdict
2.5/5
Epik
0 reviews
3.0/5
123-reg
0 reviews
123-reg is rated higher (3.0 vs 2.5). US-based ICANN-accredited domain registrar (founded 2009) offering WHOIS privacy, bulk registration and marketplace tools. Sold to Registered Agents Inc. in 2023; under new ownership it repositioned toward small businesses with tighter terms of service. 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.
Epik Domain registration with privacy protection and reseller support | 123-reg UK domain registrar with hosting bundles — cheap first year, materially higher renewals | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 2.5 (0 reviews) | 3.0 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $9.99/mo | From $0.01/mo✓ |
| Best for | Small-business buyers who want domains alongside the parent company's registered-agent and LLC-formation services, and existing holders who value the tightened post-2024 terms of service over price. | 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. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | api access | eu datacenter |
| Visit Epik → | Visit 123-reg → | |
Epik
Pros
- + WHOIS privacy included free on registrations — no per-domain privacy upsell
- + Published price table for common TLDs and bulk/marketplace tooling included in the platform
- + ICANN accreditation survived the 2023 ownership change; transfer was reviewed and finalised openly (31 January 2024)
- + New ownership has tightened abuse handling and repositioned the platform toward small businesses
- + Mid-scale operational footprint: 22nd largest US registrar as of January 2022
Cons
- - Expensive against mainstream registrars: .com $15.99 register/renew, $129 redemption ($229 for .shop)
- - September 2021 breach exposed ~180 GB including credentials and private keys; initially denied by the company
- - 2023 financial collapse and forced $5M sale to Registered Agents Inc., whose corporate structure drew press scrutiny
- - History of upstream terminations (Voxility, Linode, PayPal) tied to its old customer base and practices
- - Product story beyond domains is scattered; support depth lags top-tier registrars
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
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