Fasthosts

Fasthosts is a British web-services provider: it offers web hosting, domain registration, professional email, and dedicated and cloud servers, all run from its own UK data centres in Gloucester and Worcester rather than rented space abroad. Founded in Gloucester in 1999, it's one of Britain's longest-established hosts, and today it serves both individuals and businesses that want their infrastructure kept on UK soil. Support runs 24/7 from the UK — including phone, which many rivals drop — and it backs its shared hosting with a published 99.99% uptime SLA. In short, it's a full-stack UK host aimed at customers who prioritise British infrastructure, data residency and round-the-clock local support.

See in the comparison →

Fasthosts has been owned by the German group United Internet since 2006 — the same parent that owns IONOS, which makes the two sister brands. Despite the German ownership, its operations, data centres and support all remain in the UK, based in Gloucester. So it's a British-run host under a European corporate parent.

See in the comparison →

British-born and British-run, but German-owned. Fasthosts was founded in Gloucester in 1999 — famously starting from a school project — and is still headquartered there, running its own UK data centres in Gloucester and Worcester. Since 2006 it has sat under Germany's United Internet, the group behind IONOS. For most practical purposes, especially data residency and UK-based support, what matters is that the infrastructure and staff are genuinely in Britain — which they are. The parent company is European, but the hosting itself is unmistakably UK.

See in the comparison →

Yes. Fasthosts runs its own ISO 27001-certified UK data centres — the £21m Worcester facility opened in 2022 on renewable energy — and support is available 24/7 from the UK, so there's a real security and operations team behind your site. Its Trustpilot rating sits around 4.8/5 from 18,000-plus reviews, which reflects solid day-to-day reliability. One honest caveat on 'safe' in the everyday sense: the cheapest Ignite plan ships without an SSL certificate, so you'll want to add or upgrade to SSL — which encrypts traffic and is expected by browsers — rather than assume it's bundled. The infrastructure itself is genuinely secure; just check SSL is included on the specific plan you pick.

See in the comparison →

Yes — and the way it displays VAT is the single most important thing to know when comparing. Unlike most UK rivals, Fasthosts advertises its prices excluding 20% VAT, so the number you see isn't the number you pay — the real cost is the advertised figure plus a fifth on top. (The £6/mo we list for Fasthosts in this comparison is already the VAT-inclusive rate.) That doesn't make Fasthosts more expensive by intent — quoting ex-VAT is a legitimate convention for a partly-business audience — but it does mean you have to add 20% before lining its prices up against hosts that advertise VAT-inclusive. Always compare like for like on the final, tax-included figure.

See in the comparison →

Fasthosts offers 24/7 support by phone and live chat — it's one of the few hosts in this comparison with round-the-clock, UK-based phone support, not just chat — plus a ticket system and a searchable knowledge base for self-service. General contact details are published at fasthosts.co.uk/contact, and existing customers get direct support links inside their control panel once signed in. For a UK business that wants to actually speak to someone in its own timezone when something breaks, that always-on phone line is one of Fasthosts' stronger selling points.

See in the comparison →