Any recommendations for domain host alternative to 123-Reg.co.uk?

[d-type]

25 years ago I setup my .com domain with easyspace, but after various subsequent buy-outs, it's now with 123-reg, which is owned by GoDaddy, who have jacked up the annual price of a single domain & email forwarding to gmail from about a tenner(?) a few years ago, to ~36 quid.

Anyone have a recommendations as to where I could move it to? Preferably somewhere in Europe with acceptable support (which I've probably called twice in 25 years).

MS Copilot "Smart (GPT-5.1)" proposed:
Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap and Forward Email, any thoughts on these?

 

[Georgian2]

I use https://www.easyname.com/en
I never had any problems so far.

 

[jimmerd]

Having seen GoDaddy heavily advertised, I’ve been using them to host a domain for the past few years, but I’ve been far from impressed.

The service initially included a “free” webpage, only for them to later add an advertising banner to it, which I find completely unacceptable.

Basic email address management also appears to require signing up to Microsoft 365 at an additional cost of £40+, which feels unreasonable.

In my experience, the admin interface is poorly designed and frustrating to use, frequently sending you in circles—particularly when trying to manage payments or account configuration.

 

[david656]

GoDaddy are a complete scam - always have been - shocking service, ambiguous wording. I've been using Fasthosts for 15 years and always recommend them.
Being Bristol based myself they're local: (I had a friend who worked there)

Founded: 1999
Headquarters: Gloucester

Probably not the cheapest, but their support line has always been helpful for me over the years if I've ever had questions.

 

[Spanky]

What do you want? Domain name, hosting, both?

 

[BubNotBob]

For 25 years I have used Hover it used to be Tucows. Never any problems, but I am only using them to hold my domains for email.

 

[Spanky]

25 years ago I setup my .com domain with easyspace, but after various subsequent buy-outs, it's now with 123-reg, which is owned by GoDaddy, who have jacked up the annual price of a single domain & email forwarding to gmail from about a tenner(?) a few years ago, to ~36 quid.

Are you sure you mean Easyspace? They're part of iomart. I should know, I used to work there.

 

[Fantazia2]

Ionos

Dont know what prices are like but we've used them at work for years to host customers sites.

 

[d-type]

What do you want? Domain name, hosting, both?

Domain name and email forwarding to Gmail.

 

[d-type]

Are you sure you mean Easyspace? They're part of iomart. I should know, I used to work there.

Yes, it was originally Easyspace. Actually, I remember when iomart took them over, jacked the prices up and the customer support was abysmal, so I transferred to 123-reg, who are now doing the same as iomart did. 🤦
These were from back in the day when I managed a bunch of domains for family and local businesses, now I just have my personal domain.

 

[d-type]

For 25 years I have used Hover it used to be Tucows. Never any problems, but I am only using them to hold my domains for email.

They used to advertise a lot on some podcasts I used to listen to, which probably means they're expensive I'll check them out anyway.
I guess it's not the price that rankles me, it's123-Reg/GoDaddy pushing a 3x price increase to a product I don't want (email hosting package), which makes me want to leave.

 

[Max...]

I've used webhosting.uk for years for my business and found them very good with excellent and rapid support. Pay about £100 total for our uk domain and hosting.

 

[Spanky]

Tibus, small outfit based in Belfast.

 

[d-type]

Tibus, small outfit based in Belfast.

Seem to be tailored to businesses, I'm not that big.

 

[d-type]

I've used webhosting.uk for years for my business and found them very good with excellent and rapid support. Pay about £100 total for our uk domain and hosting.

Is that URL correct? It seems to be owned by some cyber-squatter.

 

[d-type]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, I'll have a think about it over Christmas and then decide what to do.

 

[Vorbis]

If it helps the decision, the founder of GoDaddy enjoys killing elephants for fun 😕

 

[Max...]

Is that URL correct? It seems to be owned by some cyber-squatter.

Ahh, was just naming them, not giving a link, try: https://www.webhosting.uk.com/