20i Hosting Review

20i hosting was launched in 2016 by Tim and Jonathan Brealey who have 20+ years experience within the industry and are the founders of Webfusion, 123-reg & Heart Internet. Although they don't offer cPanel and have their own in-house built control panel, their web hosting is lightning fast, reliable & affordable.
9.4/10 (Expert Score)
Product is rated as #2 in category Web Hosting Reviews
20i Hosting Review

My goal when creating this 20i Hosting Review was to make sure this resource is the only one you’ll ever need to research all aspects of this service including uptime stats, server performance metrics, features and pricing.

In a nutshell, here’s what I found:

After months of tracking uptime statistics and server performance metrics, I have discovered that 20i hosting delivers fast website loading speeds consistently, although their uptime statistics are below average and they also don’t offer the best cPanel.

But why should you listen to me anyway?

Over the last decade or more working as a freelancer I have managed the web hosting accounts for my clients across more than 50 different web hosting platforms on a daily basis.

This means I have a ton of knowledge and experience with web hosting, but it also means I’ve had the misfortune of managing some of the worst web hosting in existence, who were simply ripping off my customers.

Rather than let this knowledge and experience go to waste, I decided to extensively test a load of the UK’s most popular hosting companies to compare their performance with each other and 20i hosting is next on the list.

the bottom line
If you’ve been thinking about launching a website, blog or online store and you want to do it right then you’ll need a reliable web hosting provider so your website loads fast and is online most of the time. Inside this review, we will find out without a doubt if 20i hosting is any good.

Although I’m not a long term customer of 20i, my extensive initial research suggests that other long term customers I have come across highly recommend them due to the great hosting and support they received.

However, I know you cannot just take their existing customers word for it, so inside this in-depth 20i Hosting Review you’ll find all the verifiable data you need to help you with your research into this company.

So let’s jump right in…

About 20i Hosting

How was 20i web hosting born?

20i web hosting was launched around 5 years ago by Tim & Jonathan Brealey, who created WebFusion, 123-reg & Heart Internet.

These 2 founders are no strangers to growing industry leading web hosting companies that develop innovative web hosting software and tools, as they have been involved within the web hosting industry for more than 20 years.

In that time they have achieved some amazing things but most of all, they sit on the cutting edge of technology, pushing the boundaries to benefit their clients and constantly evolving their services.

They create innovative tools to make managing a web hosting account easier, so anyone with any level of experience can learn how to manage all aspects of their website inside their bespoke control panel.

Over the last 20 years, Tim & Jonathan Brealey have:

  • Founded Webfusion, 123-reg & Heart Internet.
  • Created the first web hosting with a control panel.
  • Drove down costs of UK domains from £50 to £2.59/year.
  • Been among the first to offer reseller, VPS & dedicated hosting.

But regardless of all their past success with other companies, 20i web hosting was born out of a desire to go above and beyond what was achieved before it, without any limitations on development.

20i continues their innovation within the web hosting industry based on feedback from it’s users, rather than become a stale web hosting provider that will settle for adequate.

20i Pros & Cons

Straight to the point…

Pros
  • Fast Servers.
  • Excellent support.
  • Free SSL certificate.
  • Affordable monthly fees.
Cons
  • No cPanel.
  • No free domain.
  • Only host 1 site on Startup Plan.

When I first setup my 20i account I had to assign my web hosting package to my existing domain name as this is not done automatically which will be confusing for people who don’t have experience, although the support team are highly responsive if you need help with anything.

After testing 20i for a few months I’ve come to learn that their server response times and website loading speed is lightning fast, plus they are affordable with free SSL and excellent support.

While most of 20i’s competitors offer the more popular cPanel control panel, the My20i web hosting control panel is developed in-house by 20i. It’s simple to use and as 20i don’t have to pay for cPanel licenses the savings are passed on to you which is a bonus.

20i don’t offer a free domain name for any package if you pay yearly like some others do and you can only host 1 website on the startup plan, although these issues are only minor.

20i Hosting Features

What’s the best 20i web hosting features?

20i have a decent range of web hosting services to choose from including shared cloud web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting and managed hosting.

As the full list of features for their different web hosting packages are so comprehensive, I’m going to discuss the features of 20i’s shared cloud web hosting which is the most affordable service they offer.

Here’s a quick overview of the features:

SPECSTARTUPWORDPRESSMANAGED CLOUD
Sites Hosted11Unlimited
Disk Space10 GB SSD10 GB SSD25 GB SSD
Bandwidth50 GB50 GB1 TB
SSL CertificateFREEFREEFREE
BackupsDailyDailyDaily
MySQL Databases11Unlimited
Mailboxes (10 GB)10001000Unlimited
Free DomainNONONO
Control PanelMy20iMy20iMy20i

You don’t get very much on the Startup package similar to other providers such as only been allowed to host just 1 website, but that’s normal, but if you only need 1 website then it’s fine.

The amount of diskspace you get is more than enough to create a small business website on WordPress as you also get 1 MySQL database with WordPress built in which is useful on both Startup & WordPress.

With tons of monthly bandwidth, a free SSL certificate and more mailboxes than you could possibly ever want, you’ll have everything you need to launch a business website, blog or online store on a budget.

Here’s a few screenshots of the members area and control panel:

The My20i control panel makes it very easy to manage all aspects of your web hosting account, especially if you’re new to managing websites as everything is laid out in a clean flow, so it’s easy to find things.

20i Loading Speed

How fast will my website load on 20i?

I personally maintain my own account on 20i web hosting so I can test the website loading speed and server response times on a daily basis, ensuring more accurate results overall.

This allows me to compare the server response times and website loading speeds of all providers I track and also track how consistent 20i’s server performance is, as I have the exact same setup on each provider.

TESTING PROCESS
I track both server response times and website load times manually using GTmetrix to get a complete understanding of how fast 20i’s web hosting servers load a website over long periods of time.

20i Hosting Performance Metrics

The following metrics are generated using Lighthouse Performance data.

METRICRESULTS
First Contentful Paint383ms
Time to Interactive383ms
Speed Index355ms
Total Blocking Time0ms
Largest Contentful Paint383ms
Cumulative Layout Shift0

20i Hosting Browser Timings

These timings are milestones reported by the browser.

METRICRESULT
Redirect Duration0ms
Connection Duration34ms
Backend Duration6ms
Time to First Byte38ms
DOM Interactive Time160ms
DOM Content Loaded Time161ms
Onload Time359ms
First Paint384ms
FULLY LOADED TIME575ms
conclusion
Based on the server performance and browser timing metrics shown above, 20i hosting is among the fastest loading web hosting companies I have tested. Having a fast website is key to offering your website visitors the best user experience and having your website hosted with 20i will allow you to achieve that.

20i Uptime Tracker

How consistent are 20i servers online?

As I mentioned previously, I personally maintain my own account on 20i web hosting so I can test the server uptime on a regular basis, although 20i does not mention of any uptime guarantee on their website like their competitors do.

With this uptime tracking data I can compare 20i’s server uptime against other companies I track as I have the exact same setup on each provider so it’s just the server performance that will fluctuate over time.

TESTING process
I ping my domain name that is hosted on 20i web hosting automatically every 1 minute which allows me to see if the website is up or down and then I report any issues publicly for full transparency, so you can see how 20i’s uptime performs over long periods of time as well as any downtime issues.

Here’s the current uptime stats for 20i:

30 DAYS90 DAYS
99.990%99.991%

As you can see within the table above, 20i’s server uptime is highly consistent over a 90 day period and shows no sign of falling behind their competitors which is always a great sign of a reliable web host.

There has only been a couple of minor server downtime instances earlier in the year which I noticed such as server updates/upgrades, but generally they have been above average over the last 90 days.

20i Hosting Comparison

How does 20i compare to competitors?

I’ve made it quick and easy for you to compare 20i alongside their closest competitors (Krystal & tsoHost) by testing and tracking their performance over several months as this can be difficult and time consuming to complete yourself.

In the comparison table below I’ve listed the most important stats and features based on the shared web hosting packages they offer at the same pricing to see how they compare against each other.

20i vs Krystal vs tsoHostWeb Hosting Battle
VS
VS
Server Uptime90 Day Tracking
99.991%
VS
99.995%
VS
99.965%
Server Response TimeLondon Server
6 ms
VS
4 ms
VS
54 ms
Website Loading SpeedLondon Server
575 ms
VS
485 ms
VS
499 ms
DiskspaceSSD Storage
10 GB
VS
10 GB
VS
100 GB
BandwidthPer Month
50 GB
VS
VS
Websites HostedSmallest Package
1
VS
1
VS
1
Free SSLSecure Sockets Layer
VS
VS
Control PanelHosting Management
My20i
VS
cPanel
VS
cPanel
PriceMonthly ex. VAT
£1.00
VS
£7.00
VS
£3.99
WinnerWho Is Best?
VS
VS
What Next?Visit The Winner!
VS
VS

Based on the results above you can see that 20i web hosting has the 2nd best website loading speed and has the 2nd best uptime out of the three over a period of 90 days which displays their level of consistency.

There is no real issue with 20i at all, even if they don’t offer the cPanel controls as the My20i control panel is so simple to use for anyone and you can try out their services for just £4.99 per month.

20i Hosting Prices

How much does 20i web hosting cost?

It’s great that 20i web hosting allow you to pay on a monthly basis which makes it much more affordable for new customers to start a website, as similar competitors can sometimes force yearly pay.

You will find a web hosting package selector during the checkout process that allows you to select a yearly plan and you’ll be rewarded with 1 month’s free web hosting if you want to pay a year upfront.

The prices shown below are based on 20i’s entry level web hosting packages and don’t include VAT.

STARTUP SHARED HOSTING Best Price

Single site hosting with lots of room to grow including 10 GB SSD Webspace, 50 GB Monthly Bandwidth & FREE SSL Certificate.
£1.00£4.99 BUY NOW

WORDPRESS SHARED HOSTING

Perfect for new blogs and small business sites including 10 GB SSD Webspace, 50 GB Monthly Bandwidth & FREE SSL Certificate.
£1.00£5.99 BUY NOW

MANAGED CLOUD HOSTING

Deploy and manage all your sites across multi-platform cloud hosting (20iCloud, AWS & Google Cloud) for Unlimited Websites & Apps with Unlimited Databases, Unlimited Mailboxes, FREE SSL Certificates & FREE Automatic Backups.
£9.99 BUY NOW

Taking everything into account that I have discussed throughout this extensive review, I would recommend 20i web hosting if you’re not fussed about cPanel as they do have excellent server performance.

Even if you buy and are not happy with it, you have a 30 day money back guarantee so you can signup risk free and beyond the 30 days, you can cancel anytime without any problems.


Closing thoughts:

Thank you for taking the time to read this 20i Hosting Review and I hope you found this a valuable resource during your research. I have spent many hours putting this research together for your benefit.

I would really appreciate it if you could share this post on your social media so I can reach other people within your circle who could also benefit from this research.

If you decide to join 20i Hosting after reading this review, please return to this page in the future and share your own review of 20i Hosting with my readers so we can create a better resource together.

20i Hosting Reviews

Editors & user reviews of 20i hosting.

9.4 Total Score
Best Affordable Web Hosting

20i hosting offer an easy to use web hosting service that delivers fast website loading speeds, above average uptime statistics, highly responsive web hosting support and more affordable hosting plans for small businesses owners.

Features
9.0
Price
9.6
Uptime
9.5
Speed
9.5
Support
9.5
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Aden Clark

Aden Clark

For more than a decade as a WordPress freelancer I’ve personally built or managed 100’s of websites across more than 50 different web hosting providers. After realising how many people had unreliable web hosting I decided to test, track and compare the performance of the UK's most popular hosting companies to discover the best.

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