Building a Website
There’s good and bad points to consider when looking at 123-Reg’s options for building your website, first, let’s look at the good stuff:
One-Click Installation Apps
As with most of their competitors, the company offers a range of apps for both their Linux and Windows hosting plans, all of which provide the opportunity to install powerful Content Management Systems and web building tools on your hosting server.
All the usual suspects are present and correct here, with the Big Three CMS platforms (WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal), available alongside the likes of Concrete5, Mambo, b2evolution, and the Typo3 blogging platform.
Linux apps
In total, Linux hosting plans boast 70 different apps to help you create everything from eCommerce stores (more of which later) to Wiki sites and forums, with other apps on offer to manage advertising, website analytics, and surveys.
Windows apps
On the other hand, Windows hosting comes complete with just ten basic apps, as shown in the image below.
On the face of it, this doesn’t surprise me too much as -like I said earlier- Windows servers are typically designed for more advanced projects that need more than just a basic app to function.
Programming
Speaking of advanced requirements, serious developers and programmers will find full support for all of the following:
- PHP5
- Perl
- Ruby
- Python
- ASP and ASP.net.
Bitmap editor ImageMagik, PHP enhancer Zend Optimiser, and GhostScript are also pre-installed into your plan.
Website Creation Tools and Templates
If you were looking to build your website using a simple drag-and-drop editor such as the in-built Weebly product that comes with iPage, you’re out of luck unless you forgo the hosting plans altogether and opt for
123-Reg’s own Instant Site web builder. To be honest with you, I wouldn’t recommend this option, as I really don’t think it offers good value for money when compared to similar packages offered by other web hosts.
Opt for the basic £4.99 Instant Site package, and you’ll not only have just a single email account but also be stuck with 123’s own branding on your site. To remove that, you’ll need to upgrade to the mid-level £9.99 package, which also offers additional features such as automated site backups and a whopping three email addresses.
Having trialled the company’s website builder for a project a while ago, I can at least say that it’s very easy to use and does offer some decent templates, but like I said, you can do make better-looking sites using drag-and-drop elsewhere, and much cheaper.
Customisable templates
One good thing of the brand’s web building offer is that they do provide you with a range of downloadable website templates, which you can either then hand-code, or re-upload via FTP or your file manager and edit from the site itself. It’s a confusing, laborious process, though -much as with Instant Site- the end result is often decent if hardly spectacular.
If you are planning on using 123-Reg to build a website then, I’d recommend using the applications available rather than trying to go it alone with any of the company’s in-house products.