8/10
Website:	www.uk2.net
Contact:	www.uk2.net/about_uk2/contact_us/
Phone:	0800 612 2142
Location:	UK
Cost:	From £0.99 /month
Year Founded:	1998

 

UK2 Review

Websites seem to be everywhere these days. Nearly everybody hosts a website. Some of them are blogs. Others are e-commerce stores. Yet others are forums. There really is no limit to the type of website you can build. All you need is basic knowledge about the Web industry, as well as a reliable Web hosting provider.

Speaking of providers, today we want to talk about UK2.

Web Hosting Through UK2

UK2 is a fifteen-year player in the Web hosting industry that provides a bevy of hosting solutions, including domain name registration, standard Web hosting, virtual Web hosting, dedicated Web hosting and website builders.

The company is based out of the UK, but it offers its services to clients from all across the world. Some of the things that set it above the fold include its competitive pricing, exemplary customer service and topnotch servers.

Available Basic Services

UK2 offers every type of hosting service available, including the following:

Domain Names:

U2K offers very affordable domain name registrations and transfers. It supports all common domains (.com, .net., org), as well as more uncommon ones like .xxx. You can also take advantage of substantial discounts by performing bulk domain name registration. Unless you have a clear cut plan of action, however, we recommend just buying a single domain at a time for now.

Standard Hosting:

Standard shared hosting is also available. The cheapest package limits you to just one domain name, but the slightly more expensive higher-end packages add along Facebook integration, SEO tools, free domains names, unlimited bandwidth and more. Note also that you get a basic, stripped-down instant website. You can design it using a template or scrap it altogether and replace it with something else.

VPS Hosting:

U2K is one of a very few hosting providers that offers fully virtual cloud hosting. You can take advantage of up to 24GHz of processing power, 23GB of memory and 500GB of storage space, if you want.

Each VPS gets it own unique IP address, as well as 24/7 support, free Linux/Windows installation and automatic failover.

Dedicated Hosting:

The dedicated servers start to get a bit pricey, but they offer the type of hardcore infrastructure needed for serious Web entrepreneurs. They all include Gigabit connectivity, 99.9% uptimes and unlimited bandwidth. Plus, the dedicated servers sit at a London data center that is outfitted with the best server and security technology in the industry: N+1 generators, heat detection sensors, CCTV monitoring and more.

Website Builder:

If you don’t know how to build a website, have no worries. Taking advantage of any of the previously mentioned services entitles you to use U2K’s website builder. All you have to is choose a template, configure the settings, add some content and publish. However, we recommend taking the time to learn something like WordPress, a relatively easy but powerful tool for designing more customized solutions.

Available Advanced Services

UK2 also offers some advanced services for niche functions. These services combine different parts of the previous services into convenient packages.

• eCommerce Hosting: The eCommerce package entitles you to a domain and hosting, as well as an e-commerce-optimized website. This site lets you quickly add as many products as you want. It also comes optimized for mobile devices, and it includes auto search engine optimization and user-friendly URLs. Simply put, it takes all the hard work out of the process of building a store.

• Reseller Hosting: Reseller hosting is designed for people who want to get into the business of leasing websites to others. You basically get a huge chunk of shared server space that you can then divide into blocks and then lease out to your customers. UK2 makes it especially easy to do courtesy of its automated billing and ticket system.

Extraordinary Features

There are other Web hosting providers who offer the same grade of services. However, UK2 offers a long list of notable features that you should keep in mind.

• Service Level Agreement

  UK2 abides by a Service Level Agreement that guarantees you compensation in case the servers crash and you lose money because of this. The good news is that UK2 generally practices 100% network and server availability, meaning the possibility of this occurring is very remote.

• 1-Click Installs

  Features like scripts (WordPress), picture galleries and more can be installed with a simple click of your mouse. You can as a result build blogs, shopping carts and even wiki pages without having to learn a single bit of Web-programming code.

• Multiple Sites

  The shared hosting plans (which are the most popular) offer up to 10 websites via the very affordable Home package. You can upgrade to the Business package if you want an unlimited number of websites. We recommend starting with the Starter package, which comes with 1 website. You can later upgrade if you decide you need more.



• Exceptional Redundancy

  UK2 uses 10Gb/s connectivity and numerous clustered servers to maintain exceptional redundancy. It could even be said that it hosts the most redundant Web hosting network in the industry. This means that your data will remain safe at all times. Plus, periodic backups are made to provide even more redundancy and safety.

• Firewall Protection

  UK2 also offers incredible security courtesy of managed hardware firewalls. These prevent any and all hacker attacks: IP spoofs, port exploits, MySQL exploits and more. They are also completely managed on the backend, meaning you never need to worry about them.

• Multiple Email Types

  This hosting provider also supports the top types of email, including POP email, IMAP email and webmail. We recommend taking the time to set up a POP or IMAP email account, because that way you will be able to configure your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.) to directly receive emails from the main server.

• Mobile Optimization

  Mobile optimization is available as an add-on service for all hosting plans. It takes only 5 minutes to setup and is capable of making your website compatible with all mobile phones, from Android phones to iPhones. We definitely recommend taking advantage of this service, what with the fact that there are a whopping 6.8 billion mobile users in the world!



• Search Engine Optimization

  Search engine optimization is also available as an add-on service. It is composed of several smaller, differently priced services. One of them submits your website to search engines, while another gives your site quality ranking for pertinent keywords. The most expensive option involves a fully managed SEO team taking over all optimization efforts. We recommend starting with the first option and then maybe branching out to others in the future.

• Web Design Services

  Not surprisingly, UK2 happens to also include professional Web designers among its staff. The packages are fairly expensive, but they entitle you to a customized website with basic SEO and social networking integration. We do not recommend taking advantage of this, especially since you can easily build your own site using the website builder tool.

CPanel Integration

We especially appreciate that UK2 chose to work with the CPanel system. It is an extremely popular Web hosting control panel that competes alongside Plesk, vDesk and other panels. It offers several key benefits that make it better than its competitors:

• Auto script installers like Fantastico, Installatron and Softaculous.
• An easy-to-use and user-friendly interface.
• Ultra-fast loading times.
• Many scalability options.
• Regularly released upgrades.
• Superior backend support.
• Support for multiple websites.

It is simply the easiest and most functional dashboard system on the market. We feel confident that you will feel the same way once you give it a test run.

Above-Par Customer/Technical Support

UK2 offers a heavy dose of high-quality customer and technical support. You can contact agents during standard business hours by submitting an email, starting a Skype session, dialing a phone line or submitting a ticket. There is also a comprehensive ‘Knowledge Base’ that contains detailed instructions on how to connect to MySQL databases, set up email and much more.

We wish the support was available 24/7, but we appreciate the ticket system. We also appreciate the extensive ‘Knowledge Base’ and recommend that you take advantage of all the information contained within it.

Special Promotions

UK2 runs a few promotions through the year. The exact promotions change every year, but they generally allow you to obtain multiple services and features at significantly reduced rates. We recommend signing up for the company newsletter and keeping an eye out for the next promo. There is unfortunately no way to tell when it will occur.

Conclusion

Overall, we found UK2 to be a topnotch Web hosting provider well worth trusting. First and foremost, the company offers access to high-quality cloud servers with incredible redundancy rates. Second, the provider retails every type of service imaginable, from conventional hosting to search engine optimization and more. Last but not least, it has a track record for providing stellar services, features and support. Simply put, UK2 is among the best of the best in Web hosting, especially for this affordable, budget-friendly price range.