Fasthosts vs Krystal (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Fasthosts and Krystal share a 1.6 GPA, neither has a free plan, and Fasthosts starts cheaper, at about $7.70 a month against about $9.38 a month.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Fasthosts
UK web hosting, domains, VPS and dedicated servers
Which one is for you
Pick Fasthosts if
- Fits if you run one UK business site and want hosting, domain and email from one supplier
- Works for agencies that need up to 100 sites on the Pro plan
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you stay past the offer: Start renews at £5.75 and Pro at £20.50 a month, excluding VAT
- Watch out: the first-year domain is free, then it renews at the normal price, and it only covers .com, .uk, .co.uk and .online
- Skip it if you want to try before paying, as there is no free plan or trial
- Watch out: the VAT footnote on the plans page is garbled, so check the total at checkout
- Tight if you need a second email address on Start, which includes just 1
Pick Krystal if
- Fits if you are in the UK and want a host you can phone
- Makes sense if you want hosting on renewable power
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free trial, as none is listed
- Tight if you have several sites, because Amethyst has 1 and Ruby 5
- Pricey if you cannot commit, since the discounts need annual or two-year terms
- Watch out: domain costs are not refunded under the 60-day guarantee, and prices are in pounds
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAFasthostsWeak | 1.6GPAKrystalWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStart is £5.75 a month after the intro offer, excluding VAT, which puts it in the middle of what web hosts charge. The £1 for 3 months is a teaser, not the price. | CAmethyst is £7 a month billed monthly, about $9, above the $5.28 cheaper-quarter line for web hosts. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial. The 30-day money-back guarantee is a refund, not a free try. | FNo free plan or trial. A 60-day money-back guarantee is not a trial. |
| Features | CFour shared tiers with unlimited bandwidth, a free first-year domain, SSL and email. The listing does not record VPS and server prices, and Start gives you 1 site and 1 email address. | CcPanel, backups, free SSL and migration, and phone, chat and ticket support. Amethyst hosts one site with no free domain. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You pick a plan, point a domain and install your site, so there is setup to do. | CNo store rating on record. cPanel, DNS and migration are yours to run. |
| Platforms and integrations | CA web control panel only, with links to WordPress, Acronis and Microsoft 365. No API or app is listed. | CWeb only, with WordPress, Drupal, OpenCart and LiteSpeed support. |
| Best for | cheap UK shared hosting for a first year | UK cPanel hosting with phone support |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Fasthosts and Krystal. How we grade
Price against what you get
Fasthosts starts at about $7.70 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Krystal starts at about $9.38 a month and scores 2.0.
They score the same, and Fasthosts starts $1.68 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 21 score higher than Fasthosts for less, and 25 score higher than Krystal for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Fasthosts also covers app builder.
- Krystal also covers malware protection.
At a glance
| Fasthosts | Krystal | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| Starts at | £5.75 per month after a first 3 months at £1, excluding VAT (Start) | £7 per month, billed monthly (Amethyst) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Fasthosts | Krystal Hosting Ltd |
| Price read from | fasthosts.co.uk | krystal.io |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Fasthosts
- Prices shown appear to exclude 20% UK VAT, but the page's VAT footnote is garbled; the site offers a toggle to show VAT pricing.
- The advertised £1 and 99p prices apply to the first 3 or 12 months only; the plan then renews at its regular price.
- The free domain is for the first year and covers .com, .uk, .co.uk and .online.
- VPS, dedicated and cloud server pricing is separate and was not recorded here.
Krystal
- Prices are in pounds sterling. Annual and two-year billing save 16% and 25%, but the page shows only the monthly figures.
- Amethyst hosts one site and has no free domain; the free domain starts at Ruby.
- Emergency phone support is listed from Sapphire up; the cheaper plans have standard phone support.
- Domain costs are not refunded under the 60-day money-back guarantee, though the domain can be transferred away.
Key features
Fasthosts
- Four shared hosting tiers
- Plans scale from 1 website on 100 GB to 100 websites on 500 GB, all with unlimited bandwidth and the OneClick app installer.
- UK data centres
- The site says hosting runs from UK data centres, with a Tier IV-certified Worcester facility and ISO 27001 certification.
- Free domain and SSL
- Each plan includes free first-year domains and free SSL certificates; Scale and Pro certificates last for the life of the package.
- Servers beyond shared hosting
- VPS, cloud VPS with pay-per-minute billing, dedicated servers, bare-metal servers and GPU servers are listed in its menu.
- WordPress and site builders
- The site also sells WordPress hosting, a website builder, an ecommerce builder and an AI App & Site Builder.
- 30-day guarantee
- A 30-day money-back guarantee is stated on the web hosting page.
Krystal
- cPanel control panel
- Plans come with cPanel, one-click installs of more than 380 applications including WordPress, Drupal and OpenCart, and a drag-and-drop site builder.
- Own cloud servers
- Hosting runs on Krystal's own Dell cloud servers with LiteSpeed caching and NVMe storage. Plans state their CPU and RAM allowance.
- Security and backups
- Servers are scanned for malware and protected by firewalls, CloudLinux and DDoS protection. Backups run daily on the smaller plans and as often as every 4 hours on the larger ones.
- Free migration
- The team moves a site from another host, whether it uses cPanel, Plesk or its own system, at no charge.
- Phone, chat and ticket support
- UK-based support answers by ticket, live chat and phone. Sapphire and the plans above it add emergency phone support.
- Other hosting lines
- Krystal also sells business hosting from £19 a month, managed WordPress from £15 a month, VPS from £10 a month, reseller hosting and a public cloud.
Plans
Fasthosts
Start£5.75
per month, excluding VAT, after a first 3 months at £1
1 website, 100 GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, 15 databases, 1 email address and a free first-year domain. Advertised at £1 a month for 3 months.
Grow£8
per month, excluding VAT, after a first 12 months at 99p
3 websites, 250 GB SSD storage, 45 databases, 2 email addresses, 2 free domains and 2 free 1-year SSL certificates. Advertised at 99p a month for 12 months.
Scale£13.75
per month, excluding VAT, after a first 3 months at £1
10 websites, 350 GB SSD storage, 150 databases, 4 email addresses and 3 free domains, with Marketing Radar free for the first year.
Pro£20.50
per month, excluding VAT, after a first 3 months at £1
100 websites, 500 GB SSD storage, 1,500 databases, 8 email addresses and 5 free domains, with Marketing Radar free for the first year.
Krystal
Amethyst£7
per month, billed monthly
1 site, 1 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB NVMe, unlimited mailboxes and bandwidth, daily backups and free SSL.
Ruby£11
per month, billed monthly
5 sites, 2 CPU, 4 GB RAM and 25 GB NVMe, with a free domain.
Emerald£19
per month, billed monthly
Unlimited sites and NVMe storage, 3 CPU, 6 GB RAM, 12-hourly backups and PCI DSS scan compliance.
Sapphire£37
per month, billed monthly
Unlimited sites, 4 CPU, 8 GB RAM, 4-hourly backups and emergency phone support.
Diamond£67
per month, billed monthly
Unlimited sites, 6 CPU, 12 GB RAM, 4-hourly backups and emergency phone support.
Tanzanite£97
per month, billed monthly
Unlimited sites, 9 CPU, 18 GB RAM, 4-hourly backups and emergency phone support.
Ways to pay less
Fasthosts
- Other savings
£1 for the first 3 months on Start, Scale and Pro
The web hosting page advertises £1 a month for the first 3 months on Start, Scale and Pro, and 99p a month for 12 months on Grow.
Krystal
- Annual discount
Save 16% on annual, 25% on two-year billing
The hosting page offers Annually and Biennially billing options that it says save 16% and 25% against paying monthly. The page shows the monthly price only.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Fasthosts or Krystal?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Fasthosts is cheaper to start with: about $7.70 a month, against about $9.38 a month for Krystal. Fasthosts starts at £5.75 per month after a first 3 months at £1, excluding VAT (Start), and Krystal starts at £7 per month, billed monthly (Amethyst).
Which has a free plan, Fasthosts or Krystal?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Fasthosts nor Krystal has a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.