UK2 Net Review - Web Hosting Review

	Products and Services:	9 / 10
	Reliability:	10 / 10
	Control Panel:	8.5 / 10
	Customer Service:	8 / 10
	Price and Value:	9 / 10

	Overall Score:	89%

Visit UK2 Net

Company Profile:

UK2 has been a major player in the web hosting industry since 1998. They have been a profitable company from day one and have sold over a million domain names to date. They currently host thousands of websites and dedicated servers for customers in various countries, and are now one of the largest and fastest growing hosting companies in the UK.

UK2.Net supply reliable top quality, professional and low cost affordable services, including domain name registration, web hosting, e-commerce solutions and dedicated servers.

Year Established: 1998

Number of Employees: -

Number of Accounts: -

Mission Statement:

“We believe that customers should always be the core of every business, which is why we are constantly on the look-out for ways to improve our products and services to our customers.

Awards:

UK2.Net has won a variety of awards in recognition of their achievements, most recently being named as top hosting company 2007. Other awards include best website, best domain pricing, and best E-commerce solutions.

Products and Services:

UK2.Net offers a range of products including web hosting, domains, servers and e-commerce solutions.

Web Hosting:

Unlike other providers UK2.Net only offer two hosting packages, Home and Business. Prices are low and relatively competitive, although it’s worth noting they charge on a yearly basis not monthly like many other hosts.

Both hosting packages come with free Domain Names, generous Web space, adequate Bandwidth and also benefit from having a multitude of features available.

UK2.Net also include a free website builder with each package which is relatively easy to use, letting you create your own website, blog, online shop or photo gallery with just a few clicks of the mouse.

As an added extra they also throw in a few FREE Google Ad word vouchers with each package - £20 Home and £30 Business.

Plans:

	-	£49.99 pa + VAT	/ 3GB web space	/ 100GB traffic	/ 5 Email accounts	/ 1 Domain
	-	£79.99 pa + VAT	/ 100GB web space	/ 1000GB traffic	/ 1000 Email accounts	/ 3 Domains

Domains:

UK2.Net are probably the most high profile of all the domain name registration companies, currently charging under £6 to register the UK domain name of your choice for 2 years.

As with many providers, UK2.Net offers an efficient registration service. They provide FREE web forwarding, unlimited e-mail addresses and FREE e-mail forwarding, all included in the price. However, be careful as you will have to put up with their pop-up banner(s) on diversion - you'll need to pay extra to divert without this.

One thing worth noting is that you will have to pay to transfer your domain, should you wish to use another host. UK2.Net claim this is because they are charging next to nothing for the initial domain name - but with other providers now offering cheap registration without any restrictions, £15 seems slightly excessive.

Servers:

UK2's boasts several powerful dedicated server offerings, all on monthly contracts, generous bandwidth and a range of features to enable you to customise the server to your needs.

All servers provide a minimum 10,000GB bandwidth a month with 100Mb connectivity and FREE unlimited SSL certificates.

Plans:

-	£59 pm + VAT	/ 80GB Hard Disc	/ Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.0GHz
-	£109 pm + VAT	/ 160GB Hard Disc	/ / Intel Core2 Duo 2.4GHz
-	£209 pm + VAT	/ 2x500GB Hard Disc	/ 2 x Intel E5310 Quad Core Xeon 1.6GHz

E-Commerce Solutions:

UK2.Net offer only 1 simple, yet powerful E-commerce solution.

The package itself offers a quick and easy way to launch an online shop, boasting a range of marketing tools and features – perfect for many retailers, large and small.

You will find it easy to set up, maintain and expand. Plus your e-shop can be easily customised for most popular payment gateways, and will track and report all transactions for your records.

UK2Net are so confident that you'll love this package they're not only offering 6 months for free if you don't sell anything in the first 6 months, but you'll also be covered by their UK2 30 Day money back guarantee.

On the whole this is a simple but very effective e-commerce solution;

£14.95 pm + VAT

/ Unlimited number of items and categories

Email:

UK2 offers a FREE no-frills e-mail service that comes with a user friendly web interface, 10MB space, spam and virus protection and an online web calendar.

Should you wish to upgrade they also offer a Gold service. This is priced from 0.54p per month and includes more disk space, POP3 and IMAP email access and email forwarding.

Both services are good; the paid being better than the free as you’d expect. That said, we did notice regular delays in receiving emails. UK2.Net assured us this was just a technical issue, as they were in process of completely upgrading the email system.

It’s also worth noting, UK2.Net recently introduced a FREE POP3 Email account with all UK Domains names. This means you’ll be able to choose whether to view your emails via the UK2 web mail service or using an email client such as Microsoft Outlook. This offers good value for money as the vast majority of other hosting companies we reviewed only offer this an upgrade option.

From 0.54p pm

/ 25-500MB Disc space

/ POP3 Email / IMAP Email / Email forwarding

Reliability:

Most web hosting companies will boast about their 99.9% guaranteed uptimes, but even these hosts will have outages, U2.Net is no exception. UK2 does suffer a low percentage of downtime and a few sporadic technical issues, however usually it's nothing that can’t be fixed in a short time.

If a major technical issue does happen to arise UK2.Net now offer a dedicated support line - although expect to pay 50p per minute.

Our overall reliability experience with UK2.Net was positive - downtime was low and technical issues were few and far between.

Control Panel:

Using UK2.Net’s Control Panel you can make all but the most complicated changes to your products online.

The interface itself is straight forward and simple to use. It enables you to easily administer, create, edit and delete your e-mail accounts. It offers a complete overview of your billing accounts and also allows the user to easily upgrade or add new products and services.

Customer Support:

Ditlev Bredahl (CEO) has certainly had his work cut out having taken over a company with a reputation such as UK2.Net – customer service being at the top of his agenda.

Since his arrival the company seems to have made conscious efforts to vastly improve upon their previous level of customer support, by placing it at the centre of the business.

A major step forward was the addition of a new UK based call centre, open 9am–11pm Monday thru Friday, providing assistance for any general or technical questions regarding Domains, Web Hosting, E-commerce or E-mail – albeit calls are charged at 50p per minute.

Free phone support is also on offer Monday–Friday for questions relating to Sales, System Status and Billing. Outside of these hours you are invited to leave a message and UK2.Net will call you back – we left several messages but unfortunately our calls were never returned.

Alternatively you can submit a ticket 24/7 via the UK2 online support system. You are guaranteed a response within 24 hours – again response times slightly exceeded 24 hours on more than one occasion and staff came across uncaring and uninterested.

In conclusion we were actually very impressed with UK2’s new outlook on customer support. However we still think levels are questionable at times, and there is still room for further improvement.

Price and Value:

At first glance UK2.Net’s prices seem too good to be true - Website hosting options starting from just £3.29 per month, Dedicated Servers starting from just £39 per month and Domain prices from just £2.99 per year. Unfortunately the pricing structure can be slightly confusing and you should be aware of hidden charges - UK2’s FAQ section offers little guidance.

If you want to move a domain away from UK2 you will incur a charge of £15, quite steep considering not many other providers charge for this service. The same goes for your web space. Relocating to a new host will also incur a fee of £15, and can be a lengthy process.

For Domains, UK2 offer FREE e-mail forwarding, all included in the price. However, be careful as you will have to put up with their pop-up banner(s) on diversion - you'll need to pay extra to divert without this.

Hidden charges aside, UK2.Net offer some good products, posing great value. Web hosting packages include free domain names, ample web space and several email accounts. Dedicated servers all offer generous bandwidth, hard disc space and a range of features. The e-shop package offers a quick and easy way to launch an online shop, boasting a range of marketing tools and features, and all products are now offered with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Conclusion:

UK2.Net certainly needs to be more transparent with it’s pricing, as this seems to be the main bone of contention amongst unsatisfied customers. The general customer service levels also seem questionable at times.

On the whole though, UK2.Net provides an efficient level of service and has proven to be a cost effective reliable host, providing a range of quality products and services.

By identifying and understanding their customers as well as their values, and by applying the correct behaviour, we are sure support levels will improve and customer loyalty will continue to grow.