Fasthosts Review: A Worthwhile UK Hosting Service? [2024]

Affordable WordPress Hosting for UK Websites

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Via its dedicated UK data centers, Fasthosts provides a number of hosting and hosting-related services to a wide range of customers – from individuals to enterprises. Its selection of shared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, dedicated, managed, and reseller hosting plans cater to various setups – from larger eCommerce stores to simpler professional websites.

Though relatively speedy and certainly affordable, the provider’s below-average uptime score has been an ongoing issue, though. However, our recent tests show that Fasthosts has successfully improved both its loading speeds and uptime. Now, I can safely say that Fasthosts WordPress hosting plans are worthwhile contenders – specifically if your customer base is located in the UK, as its data centers are in Gloucester.

Otherwise, Fasthosts is reasonably-priced, if not the best “value-for-money” solution. That said, if you’re looking for an eco-friendly host, it may be it – Fasthosts data centers run 100% off renewable energy.

However, if your target market is another locale – such as North or South America, Asia, or Oceania – I recommend Hostinger instead. With Hostinger’s WordPress hosting plans1 and other hosting types, you can select from servers in the USA, Singapore, India, and Brazil.

The Basic WordPress Features You Need – But With Some Notable Limitations

A number of useful features are included with Fasthosts shared and WordPress hosting plans. A WordPress auto-installer, free domain name registration, SSL certificates, and 24/7 support come standard, for example. Unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage on all Fasthosts plans – including dedicated and VPS options – are another bonus.

The issue comes in when you compare each Fasthosts plan’s limitations regarding the number of sites you can host and storage space. For example, on Fasthosts’ most expensive WordPress plan – WP Advance – you can only host up to ten sites – and its two other plans offer somewhat scant amounts of storage space (25 or 50 GB).

WordPress Auto-Installer

Fasthosts’ WordPress auto-installer makes setup easy for beginners or those with limited technical knowledge. You are asked simple questions while being guided through the process.

During the sign-up process, you’ll be prompted to answer a few questions about your WordPress site’s intended usage and type – which will help Fasthosts better optimize it for you. You can also skip this entire process if you’re migrating your site from another host or planning to create your site later on. Either way, the WordPress website setup process with Fasthosts is very user-friendly.

Free Domain Names & SSL Certificates

Another plus of getting hosted by Fasthosts is the free domain name (or names) included with your WordPress plan. Many hosts don’t offer one for free with hosting, requiring you to pay for a domain name separately, sometimes even via a different provider.

With shared Fasthosts web hosting packages, you can get as many as 5 free domain names and SSL certificates free. The Fasthosts WordPress Advance plan comes with up to 10 SSL certificates, but only a single free domain name.

The offer applies only to .com, .uk, .co.uk, and .online addresses, with other domain names purchasable for an extra fee. All Fasthosts SSL certificates also use ultra-secure 256-bit TLS encryption.

Do note that Fasthosts VPS and cloud plans don’t include SSLs and domain names for free, offering them instead as optional paid add-ons, although this is typical for higher-end plans.

MariaDB

With Fasthosts WordPress hosting plans, MariaDB databases come standard, as a database is required for every WordPress website. MariaDB is a free, open-source system similar to and compatible with MySQL. Designed by the founders of MySQL, it’s a branch of it – but it will allow your WordPress sites to run a little faster.

Useful Paid Add-Ons

There’s more to a website than a template, domain name, and hosting. Cybersecurity, marketing, email hosting, and SEO optimization are just a handful of other important considerations. Fasthosts assists with additional software and tools to excel in all these vital areas.

When hosting with Fasthosts, you’re supported with a variety of paid add-ons:

• Marketing tools: listing, ads, and SEO managers, as well as tips and insights
• Advanced cybersecurity software from Acronis Cyber Protect
• Premium in-house basic and e-commerce website builders
• Email and Microsoft Exchange hosting
• Microsoft Office Suite products
• Plesk Obsidian control panel
• Additional IPv6 and IPv4 addresses

Fasthosts Features at a Glance

Optimized & User-Friendly for Beginners, But Could Include More Freebies

Setting up and managing website hosting with Fasthosts is very easy, as both its sign-up process and control panel are very user-friendly. You can complete a number of website hosting management tasks from the Fasthosts admin panel – as well as access statistics and buy paid add-ons. Overall, pleasing to the eye and straightforward enough for beginners.

In our tests, we were also able to jump directly to our site’s official WordPress Dashboard from the Fasthosts admin panel without logging in separately.

Creating a New Account With Fasthosts

When you opt-in to purchase a Fasthosts WordPress hosting plan or another paid service, an account creation page automatically loads. However, you can also create an account without buying a product via the Create account link under the Log In drop-down menu.

We were prompted to add Marketing Radar to our Fasthosts WP Go hosting plan – we simply opted out by clicking Continue Without Marketing Radar.

Plus, when finalizing your order, you can select from monthly or yearly payment terms on or off contract to save money. However, you’ll need to click Change under the plan name on the Your Basket page to do so. Pay close attention to the terms on the plan you choose, as the claimed discounts can be misleading.

For example, Fasthosts’ seemingly most-discounted WordPress hosting plan – Pay monthly, 12-month contract – actually ends up more expensive than its truly best-value Pay yearly option. This is due to the fact that though the first 6 months of the monthly 1-year contract are heavily discounted, the following 6 are charged at full price.

Connecting a Domain and Installing WordPress

Fasthosts’ WordPress hosting plan is streamlined to get your hosting account and actual website(s) up as quickly as possible. Once you’ve logged into the Fasthosts WordPress Hosting dashboard, click on SET UP WEBSITE under the WordPress Hosting tab to begin the process and connect your domain. Doing so will launch the WordPress instant installer.

During the Fasthosts WordPress website creation process, we were prompted to add or register our domain name. You can select your domain name registration period here. You can also select a domain name separately via the Domain Names link in the left-hand menu if need be. You’ll just need it registered and on hand during the site creation process.

With Fasthosts WordPress plans, only one free domain name is included for 1 year, which must be a .com, .uk, .co.uk, or .online address. Other domain names are available for purchase separately during the site setup process.

In our WordPress website’s admin dashboard, we noticed some helpful pre-installed Fasthosts WordPress plugins. I like how easy it is to get a website’s design ready using Fasthosts’ Assistant plugin. It provides selected themes and plugins based on your website’s purpose. The Fasthosts Journey tool guides you through using and optimizing your WordPress website thereafter.

In the Fasthosts Marketplace, you can find a number of curated plugins best suited for WordPress sites. Of course, all of these tools are optional to use. So, if you’re a pro at setting up a WordPress site or want to do so manually, you can still do so. Another plus? Fasthosts also helps you generate a passwordless WP-CLI login URL using the One Time Login plugin.

Easy WordPress Site Login

If you struggle to remember your password or hate logging in to admin panels over and over again, Fasthosts has you covered. Its instant WordPress login takes you directly to your site’s official WordPress Dashboard. Here, you can edit your site via the WordPress website editor or a connected third-party plugin and complete other vital website management tasks such as publishing site content.

Dedicated Fasthosts WordPress Hosting Admin Panel

If you choose a Fasthosts WordPress hosting package, you also have access to a dedicated Fasthosts WordPress hosting panel. It’s integrated into the general Fasthosts control panel, being accessible via the left-hand menu under WordPress Hosting.

Here in the Fasthosts hosting admin panel, you can view and make changes to your domain name, DNS, backup, email, performance, SSL certificates, hosting package, and more settings. You can also view your WordPress website storage usage and performance analytics, handily illustrated in easy-to-understand infographics and graphs.

Easy Website Backup and Restore

With Fasthosts, the backup process is made easier, as automatic daily backups are built into your hosting plan – no plugins, tinkering around, or adjusting settings, required. You can even view backups and restore a corrupted or defunct WordPress site directly from its admin panel.

Very Reliable Uptime – But Lacks Global Servers

When testing our Fasthosts site using GTmetrix, Uptime Robot, and Sucuri Load Time Tester, performance was very reliable. Not only were loading speeds satisfactory, but site uptime was superb. With dedicated data centers located in Gloucester, UK, you can expect performance, security, and speed.

GTmetrix

We tested the entry-level WP Go hosting plan, and we were impressed with the performance of our test site on Fasthosts’ servers, which earned a typical grade of A from GTmetrix.

Typical loading time for our test site was around 1.2 seconds during the daytime. Loading speed will always be higher hearer to the data center, so your UK and European site visitors can benefit the most from Fasthosts’ infrastructure.

Sucuri Load Time Tester

When testing our site from multiple international locations using Sucuri Load Time Tester, we found that in addition to very good loading speed in the UK and Europe, US loading times were more than adequate, particularly closer to the east coast. You can use a CDN to improve loading times further afield – or, if your primary audience is in Asia or Oceania, you’ll probably want to try a provider like Hostinger with data centers closer to these regions1.

UptimeRobot

Fasthosts consistently provides a 99.9% average uptime rate. We were most impressed by its 100% uptime rate in most 24-hour and weekly periods. The servers only went down for a 9 minute period in 30 days, which could be explained by a server maintenance period.

Lots of Support Channels – But Slow to Reply

When you have an issue, you can contact Fasthosts via a variety of channels, including phone, ticket, and live chat. Only Fasthosts’ phone support is available 24/7. Another bonus is that the phone support line is a UK-wide 0333 number, which charges standard landline tariffs no matter where you call from in the UK.

When contacting Fasthosts support via phone, you can also create a support code via your account dashboard. Fasthosts’ support team will then use this to process any account-related call and query faster and more effectively.

I was disappointed to find that Fasthosts’ live chat is actually only available from 9:00 a.m – 20:00 p.m (GMT) from Monday to Friday. Also, you can’t contact support via live chat without creating a Fasthosts online account and logging into it, which you may find to be a nuisance if you’re just shopping for a provider and don’t want to provide personal details yet.

When I did contact Fasthosts support on a Monday, though, they were very quick to respond. The live chat box pops up separately from your browser, allowing you to move it around and keep it in sight. They were very helpful, offering alternatives to unavailable services I queried about.

That said, you can send a ticket anytime, although you may not get an immediate reply. When I logged a ticket at around half-four on a Sunday afternoon, I didn’t even get a same-day response.

That being said, Fasthosts does provide an easy way to add information to your ticket without creating additional tickets or sending extra messages through its “update ticket” function. All you have to do is log into your account and click on the ticket to add more details to it.

Aside from its support team, you can also consult hundreds of articles, FAQs, PDF guides, and tutorials via the Fasthosts Support site. Conveniently, these resources can be navigated to via search or the various categories listed in the drop-down menus.

Seems Competitively Priced – Until You Compare Specs

Overall, Fasthosts’ hosting packages are on the pricier side. Mainly because Fasthosts’ preset plans don’t always boast as many features as those of similar competitors. However, the performance is certainly good in and around the UK, so if you’re looking for UK-based infrastructure, this provider should be on your shortlist.

The FastHosts VPS packages should not be overlooked, either. The storage, performance, and features included for the price offer very good value for money.

If you’re going to commit to any Fasthosts plan, I recommend skipping the discounted month-by-month plans and opting to pay annually instead. It costs less in the long term – even without the 6 months of discounts offered on the month-by-month plans.