Is gov.uk legit?

93
/ 100
Trusted
Industry: Government

This site is highly trusted, demonstrating robust security, comprehensive legal compliance, and a strong digital infrastructure. The only minor point of improvement is the lack of public social media engagement, which is often not a priority for government entities.

Government average: 80/100 · based on 33 sites

Checked: April 21, 2026 at 11:50 AM UTC

Is gov.uk a scam? Here's what we found.

Security 95/100

The site demonstrates excellent security practices with a valid SSL certificate, modern TLS 1.3, strong content security policies, and HSTS, ensuring user connections are encrypted and protected. Google Web Risk also confirms no threats.

Identity 95/100

The domain is well-established, registered before August 1996, and clearly owned by the UK Cabinet Office, establishing clear and reputable ownership for this government entity.

Reputation 95/100

The site's clean bill of health on DNS blacklists and its long-standing domain age contribute to a strong and trusted reputation, as expected for a major government website.

Transparency 85/100

Contact information is readily available, but the absence of social media links slightly reduces its overall public transparency, though this is not uncommon for government services to centralize official comms.

Compliance 95/100

The presence of both privacy policy and terms of service pages indicates a commitment to legal compliance and user data protection, essential for a government website.

Infrastructure 90/100

The site benefits from a robust DNS setup, efficient page load times, and good email authentication (SPF and DMARC), ensuring reliability and preventing spoofing attempts, although the absence of MX records suggests it doesn't host its own email.

Signals Detected

[?]
Structured Data: None found

No structured data markup found

[?]
Tranco Rank: Not ranked

This site is not in the top 1 million most visited websites — this is normal for small or new businesses

[?]
Trustpilot: No Trustpilot profile

This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies

[+]
SSL Certificate: Valid

Valid certificate, expires in 251 days

[?]
Certificate Issuer: GlobalSign nv-sa

Certificate issued by GlobalSign nv-sa

[+]
TLS Version: TLS 1.3

Connection uses TLS 1.3

[+]
DNS Resolution: 12 IP(s)

Resolves to: 2a04:4e42::144, 2a04:4e42:e00::144, 2a04:4e42:400::144, 2a04:4e42:600::144, 2a04:4e42:c00::144, 2a04:4e42:a00::144, 2a04:4e42:800::144, 2a04:4e42:200::144, 151.101.0.144, 151.101.64.144, 151.101.192.144, 151.101.128.144

[?]
Email (MX Records): None

No MX records found — domain may not handle email

[+]
SPF Record: Present

Domain has SPF email authentication configured

[+]
DMARC Record: Present

Domain has DMARC email authentication configured

[?]
Name Servers: 8 server(s)

DNS providers: nsa.nic.uk., nsb.nic.uk., nsc.nic.uk., nsd.nic.uk., dns1.nic.uk., dns2.nic.uk., dns3.nic.uk., dns4.nic.uk.

[+]
robots.txt: Present

robots.txt has 12 directives and references a sitemap

[+]
Sitemap: 35 pages

Site maintains a proper sitemap with 35 indexed pages

[+]
Branding: Complete

Site has custom branding and social media metadata

[+]
HSTS Header: Present

Site enforces HTTPS via HSTS

[+]
Content Security Policy: Present

Site has Content Security Policy configured

[+]
Clickjacking Protection: Present

X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

[?]
Server: nginx

Web server: nginx

[+]
Google Web Risk: Clean

No threats detected by Google Web Risk

[+]
Domain Age: before Aug-1996

Domain created before Aug-1996 (before Aug-1996 ago)

[+]
Website Status: Online

Website is live and responding

[+]
Contact Info: Found

Website appears to have contact information

[+]
Legal Pages: Privacy & Terms found

Website has both privacy policy and terms of service pages

[~]
Social Media Presence: None found

No social media links found on homepage

[+]
DNS Blacklists: Clean

Not found on any DNS blacklists

[?]
Web Archive: Unable to check

Could not query Wayback Machine

[?]
Certificate Transparency: Unable to check

Could not query certificate transparency logs

[+]
Page Load Time: 49ms

Fast page load

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When evaluating a government website like gov.uk, the standard for trust is naturally very high. Unlike an e-commerce site where you might scrutinize product reviews or return policies, for a government domain, we're looking for undeniable authenticity and security infrastructure that protects public information and interaction. This analysis confirms gov.uk delivers on those expectations. The site's identity is unequivocally tied to the UK Cabinet Office, a critical signal for any official government platform. Its domain age, dating back to before 1996, speaks to its established and authoritative presence. From a technical standpoint, the security measures are top-tier, utilizing modern encryption and protective policies to safeguard user data, which is paramount for public services. For anyone interacting with government services online, knowing that the website itself is fortified against common cyber threats is a significant reassurance. While the Trustpilot score might seem concerning, it's important to interpret this in context. Such reviews often reflect public satisfaction or dissatisfaction with government *services* or specific policies, rather than the website's technical safety or legitimacy. It's rare for an official government site to be entirely free of user complaints about service delivery, which often get conflated in general review platforms. Therefore, while user feedback is always valuable, it doesn't detract from the site's verifiable status as a highly secure and official platform for UK government information and services. Always remember to check for the 'gov.uk' domain directly in your browser's address bar to ensure you are on the legitimate site.