Namecheap hosting review: Explained by Digimagg

Namecheap is widely recognized as a leading domain registrar, offering a vast selection of domain names for websites. According to Domainstate, Namecheap manages over 12 million domains, second only to GoDaddy in this regard.

However, Namecheap offers more than just domain registration services. The company provides a range of web hosting solutions suitable for various needs, from beginners seeking affordable options to businesses requiring advanced features.

In addition to web hosting, Namecheap has expanded its services to include a content delivery network (CDN), which enhances website speed for users worldwide. Moreover, Namecheap offers a budget-friendly VPN service, ensuring your security on public Wi-Fi networks and enabling access to region-locked content.

What hosting types does Namecheap provide?

Namecheap offers affordable and user-friendly shared hosting, ideal for beginners and simpler websites. They also provide promo codes to further reduce the cost.

WordPress hosting from Namecheap is optimized for WordPress sites, offering enhanced site management features and improved speed.

VPS and dedicated hosting options provide maximum performance but are more complex to manage and typically more expensive, making them suitable for business users. However, Namecheap offers some affordable options to make this technology accessible to a wider audience. 

In the following sections, we'll explore each hosting type in detail to understand their offerings and determine the best hosting type for different common uses.

Namecheap shared hosting

Choosing a shared hosting plan means your website will share a server with many others, which can be beneficial for cost savings but may impact speed as resources like CPU, RAM, and network connection are shared. Despite this, decent shared hosting plans can still handle tens of thousands of monthly visits.

Namecheap's shared hosting options are competitively priced, starting at just $1.88 per month for a two-year plan ($4.48 upon renewal). These plans offer a range of features, including a free domain, free migration, a website builder, unlimited bandwidth, and at least twice-weekly backups. Softaculous is available for easy WordPress and 150+ other app installations, while cPanel provides robust management capabilities for your web space.

Even the most affordable plan allows hosting for three websites, with the others supporting an unlimited number of sites. This is a step up from many providers that only permit a single site on their basic shared plan.

One drawback is that SSL is only free for the first year with Namecheap's shared plans. After that, it becomes a paid add-on at $5.99 per year ($6.99 upon renewal), which slightly increases the overall cost. For those concerned about this, Hostinger and HostGator offer starter prices below $3 per month, with free SSL included for the duration of the plan.

Namecheap WordPress hosting 

WordPress is a popular platform for website creation, suitable for beginners and capable of handling complex business sites and online stores.

Namecheap's shared hosting is a good starting point for WordPress hosting. If you're building a simple website, looking for affordability, or wanting to learn WordPress basics, shared hosting is a practical choice.

Namecheap's EasyWP plans are slightly more expensive but offer additional resources and are optimized for faster WordPress speeds (claimed to be at least three times faster than regular WordPress on shared hosting).

The EasyWP Starter plan includes 10GB storage, a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) for improved performance, and supports a single site with up to 50K visitors per month. Priced at $2.08 per month on the annual plan ($2.91 on renewal), it appears affordable. However, it does not include SSL, which adds at least $0.50 per month for Namecheap's basic certificate.

The higher-tier EasyWP plans include SSL for the entire plan duration and offer more storage and resources. The top-tier EasyWP Supersonic plan can handle up to 500K visitors per month, priced at $4.57 per month on the annual plan ($9.07 on renewal).

For WordPress beginners with simple websites and limited budgets, the EasyWP range is a viable option. Even the monthly billing option offers good value, with the first month free and subsequent months at only $4.88. This allows three months to learn WordPress and evaluate the service for under $10.

However, these plans have limitations. They support only one website, and they lack some WordPress-specific features compared to other providers.

For users needing more power, A2 Hosting's Managed WordPress range offers the JUMP plan at a higher price ($22.99 on the annual plan), providing 250GB of fast NVMe storage, free SSL, premium backups, and support for five WordPress sites, making it a more comprehensive choice for advanced users.

For business users, Bluehost's WP Pro range includes marketing and SEO tools in addition to managed WordPress hosting. For those requiring maximum hardware power, InMotion Hosting offers WordPress products for VPS and dedicated servers.

Namecheap VPS hosting

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting offers faster performance and more customization options compared to shared hosting. However, it is more expensive and requires more technical knowledge to set up and manage, making it less suitable for beginners with simple, low-traffic websites.

For experienced users or those with more demanding websites, VPS hosting provides significant control over the server and the ability to handle high traffic volumes, often at a lower cost than high-end shared hosting.

Namecheap's VPS hosting starts at $6.88 per month billed annually for a system with 2 CPU cores, 2GB RAM, 40GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth. However, this is an unmanaged system, meaning you are responsible for running the server yourself, including software management and server restoration, and it does not include a control panel.

Managed VPS hosting is easier to use but comes at a higher price. The unmanaged Quasar plan is $15.88 billed monthly for a system with 4 CPU cores, 6GB RAM, 120GB storage, and 3TB bandwidth. Adding full server management and cPanel increases the price to $50.76 per month. The top-tier Magnetar VPS plan offers more power with 8 CPU cores, 12GB RAM, 240GB storage, and 6TB bandwidth, priced at $28.88 per month for unmanaged and $63.76 with managed services.

One of the main advantages of Namecheap's VPS hosting is its affordability compared to competitors like Hostwinds. Hostwinds' VPS range starts at $29 per month for a less capable system (2 CPU cores, 6GB RAM, 100GB storage).

However, Namecheap's VPS options are limited to three plans and are not as customizable as some competitors. If Namecheap's offerings do not meet your requirements, other providers like IONOS and Liquid Web offer more basic and feature-rich VPS hosting, respectively. Hostwinds provides a wider range of plans, including both cheaper and more powerful options that are more configurable and available in both Linux and Windows versions.

Namecheap dedicated hosting

When you choose shared or VPS hosting, you're sharing your web server with others. However, with a dedicated package, the entire server is reserved for your website, including RAM, CPU time, and the network connection, ensuring you're not affected by other accounts' activities.

Namecheap previously offered only a few dedicated server deals, but now they have 44, more than many competitors. Prices start at under $50 per month for an unmanaged 4-core, 8GB RAM system, and go up to around $250 for a 16-core CPU with 128GB RAM and 4 x 1.92TB SSD NVMe storage. All plans include free site migration and a 99.99% uptime guarantee.

Like with VPS hosting, the lowest prices are for unmanaged systems, where you manage the server yourself. Opting for the Complete Management option (Namecheap maintains the server for you) with a cPanel Solo license adds around $65 to the server cost per month. However, this is still great value, especially with no setup fee, and you might pay significantly more elsewhere.

One drawback of Namecheap is the lack of configuration options. You can't customize a base server by adding more RAM or an extra backup drive; what you see is what you get. Additionally, there's no Windows hosting option, and servers are only available in the Arizona data center, so you can't choose the UK or Netherlands.

If you don't need special configuration and want to run a high-traffic or business-critical site where speed and reliability are crucial, then Namecheap's variety of base servers and value should be considered. Also, consider IONOS, which offers some very cheap managed and unmanaged deals, including Windows hosting on some servers and storage servers with up to 48TB storage in US or Europe data centers.

A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting offer a wide range of managed and unmanaged plans with flexible billing options (1, 3, 6, and 12 months). For high-powered servers, Liquid Web is a good choice, with servers capable of handling demanding tasks and a 100% uptime and power guarantee, along with excellent support.

Does Namecheap offer a website builder?

If you're new to website creation and find WordPress daunting, a website builder might be the solution. With a website builder, you can choose a design template and easily add content to your site by dragging and dropping elements like text, images, maps, and contact forms.

Namecheap offers a free website builder with its shared hosting plans. This builder provides 230 templates for various types of websites, along with a range of widgets to enhance your site with features like image galleries, maps, forms, blogs, product listings, and payment buttons. While not as powerful as WordPress, it's a solid option for simple site building tasks.

For those looking for more advanced features, Namecheap also offers a paid website builder called Visual. This tool creates your site based on your preferences, and you can then customize it further by adding your own content and pre-built blocks like forms and photo galleries.

While Visual may not have the same level of functionality as other website builders (such as support for web stores), it's suitable for basic personal sites and comes at an affordable price of $3.88 per month. This includes a free SSL certificate, 99.99% uptime guarantee, and support for creating a single site. Additionally, you'll receive a free .contact, .design, or .xyz domain, though top-level domains like .com and .net must be purchased separately.

Comparatively, HostGator's Gator website builder and Hostinger's Zyro offer more features, including support for web stores. These services are also inexpensive initially (Zyro starts at $2.99 per month), but long-term contracts are often required for the best deals, and prices may increase upon renewal.

Is it possible to create an online store with Namecheap?

Namecheap doesn't currently offer dedicated ecommerce products, although it's possible that the new Visual website builder may introduce this feature in the future. However, you can create an online store using any of Namecheap's shared, dedicated, or VPS hosting plans.

For instance, with shared hosting, you'll receive Softaculous, a platform that can assist in installing ecommerce systems like OpenCart, PrestaShop, or WooCommerce. While Namecheap doesn't provide specialized tools or support for building stores, you can use these platforms to set up your store with some basic knowledge. If you prefer a simpler solution, consider HostGator's Gator or Hostinger's Zyro website builders, both of which offer easy site creation with the option to add a web store. Bluehost's WooCommerce plans are another good option, offering additional business-friendly marketing features. Additionally, Wix provides a wide range of templates and features to build almost any kind of website, including online stores.

How fast is Namecheap's hosting?

We assess the performance of a hosting provider by creating a shared hosting account, setting up a basic WordPress site, and subjecting it to rigorous testing.

Initially, we use the monitoring service Uptime.com to try accessing our site every five minutes, recording the outcomes and the server's response time. Namecheap achieved a flawless 100% uptime, with an average response time of 0.436 seconds (ranking it as the 8th fastest out of the last 15 tests, which is fairly average).

Following that, we utilize GTmetrix to access a sample page and determine the time it takes for the main content to load, referred to as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). A lower LCP indicates faster page loading in the browser, leading to a better user experience.

Namecheap's LCP was slightly slower than average at 0.789 seconds, placing the company 11th in our last 15 reviews (most providers range from around 0.6 to 0.8 seconds). While this is a bit disappointing, it's still within an acceptable range and far ahead of some budget competitors (the last-place iPage scored 1.6 seconds).

While one-off load times are crucial, it's also important to gauge how a site performs under heavy traffic. Using the stress-testing site k6, we subjected our test site to 20 simultaneous visitors to observe its performance.

Namecheap's results were slightly below average, handling an average of 12 requests per second with a peak of 16.33. (Most providers averaged 14-16 requests per second with peaks around 20.)

Our tests indicate that Namecheap offers lower mid-range shared hosting performance. While it may not lead in speed, Namecheap's performance is still suitable for many websites, providing ample power for personal and small business sites.

How user-friendly is Namecheap?

Namecheap's account control panel may seem cluttered at first glance, with its multitude of lists, sidebars, menus, and icons. However, upon closer inspection, it quickly becomes more intuitive.

For instance, there's a list of your domains in one area, hosting panels in another, and some pages offer incredibly useful information. When you visit the Manage panel for your hosting plan, you'll find details like disk space and bandwidth allowance, server hostname and IP address, data center information, a cPanel Launch button with shortcuts, usage statistics, auto-renewal settings, and even a Cancel button.

This setup is a significant improvement over many other providers where crucial settings and options are scattered, making it time-consuming to find what you need.

While you'll likely spend more time managing your website than your hosting plan, Namecheap excels here as well. Unlike hosts like IONOS or iPage that use proprietary management tools, Namecheap relies on industry standards like Softaculous for WordPress management and cPanel for domain and email setup, among other tasks.

This approach has several advantages. Firstly, it ensures a certain level of quality, as these tools are industry standards for a reason. Secondly, it makes life easier for users. If you're familiar with cPanel or Softaculous from previous hosting experiences, you'll feel right at home. Even if you're new to these tools, the time you invest in learning them won't go to waste. Should you switch from Namecheap in the future, chances are your new provider will also use cPanel, meaning you'll already be familiar with the interface and how to perform essential hosting tasks.

How effective is Namecheap's support?

Namecheap offers 24/7 support through its website, live chat, and ticket system (there's no telephone support).

The web knowledgebase is a vast collection of articles organized into common hosting categories such as email, SSL certificates, domains, EasyWP (Namecheap's WordPress range), and more.

Selecting a section like WordPress displays articles in subsections like Getting Started (Dashboard Overview, How to create a website, etc.), WordPress migration, plugins and themes (How to install a new theme), database access, domains, and more.

It's incredibly comprehensive and surprisingly user-friendly. Scrolling down the WordPress category page reveals articles that many users will find useful: 'What's the difference between managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting?', 'How to access your WordPress dashboard?', 'How to improve WordPress website security', and many others. This isn't just a troubleshooting resource; it's a place where users can learn about the product.

When you need to solve an immediate problem, live chat is available. In our experience, chat was always accessible, with a maximum wait time of around three minutes, and the agents were adept at identifying our issues and explaining the next steps clearly.

Although our test ticket took a little longer to receive a response, we still got a reply in about 90 minutes. The response was helpful, summarizing everything we needed to know in a single paragraph and providing a link for further information.

The lack of a phone support option might be a drawback for some, but overall, Namecheap's support was effective, especially considering the low prices. If support is a top priority for you, it's worth exploring Namecheap's support site, even if you're not a customer, to get an idea of how the service could benefit you.

Namecheap's hosting may not match the power or features of top competitors, but it could be an attractive option for newcomers with simpler websites or businesses that can benefit from its robust dedicated hosting options.