June 13, 2024
Fast, secure, and affordable hosting
- NameCheap
- Editorial Score7.4
- Performance and uptime
- Hosted websites offer generally reliable uptime around 99.8% with quick load times
- 8.0
- Features
- Solid set of features including one-click installs, sufficient storage and bandwidth, and essential security features
- 7.0
- Security
- SSL certificates, regular monitoring, and basic security features
- 7.0
- Scalability
- Standard scalability with options for shared and VPS hosting
- 7.0
- Customer support
- Extensive customer support with long hours, available through phone, live chat, and email
- 8.0
At a Glance
Namecheap is a feature-filled, cost-effective website hosting solution with plans to suit businesses of all sizes. You can quickly build your site code-free with its customizable templates and drag-and-drop editor, and get a custom email address for professional use. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, 24/7 support, free website migration, and a free SSL certificate to secure your website.
Bandwidth: Unmetered
Free marketing offer: Free website migration
Uptime: 99.99%
Website builder: Yes
Money-back guarantee: 30 days
Price per month: $4.48
PROS
- Affordable pricing
- User-friendly interface
- Free website migration
- 24/7 customer support
- Multiple hosting options
CONS
- No phone support
- No central pricing page
Overview
Founded in 2000, Namecheap offers affordable domains and hosting solutions for individuals and businesses to build and manage their websites. You get the flexibility of paying for monthly or annual plans, or even quarterly plans, in some cases. Plus it offers free hosting migration, SSL certificate, and website builder tools.
Namecheap ensures your website has consistent uptime and performance due to its state-of-the-art infrastructure and multiple network paths for data to travel through. It also protects your business’s security using regularly updated software and firewalls. And if any issue arises, you can get 24/7 support to fix your problem quickly.
Best Suited For
Namecheap works for individuals and businesses of all sizes because of its wide variety of hosting plans. These offer a range of hosting types at different price points and can be scaled depending on your needs.
Individuals can get started with shared hosting because it’s affordable and has ideal features, such as content management systems (CMS), for blogging. Meanwhile, businesses from small to large can use its dedicated or VPS hosting services, which give them greater control, customization options, and servers able to handle their performance needs.
Hosting Types
Namecheap has the following types of hosting:
Shared Hosting
Namecheap’s cheapest offering is its shared hosting plan. This involves sharing a single server with several other users. Purchasing a plan will give you several tools to build a website and get you online quickly.
The introductory plan will limit you to three websites, no automatic backups, and limited storage space, compared to the higher-priced plans, which have more unlimited options and advanced features.
VPS Hosting
If you don’t like the performance limitations of shared hosting, Namecheap’s virtual private server (VPS) hosting operates as a separate environment on a physical server, enabling you to access more resources and scale your online business.
It’s fully customizable with an operating system of your choice, control panels installed, and the use of solid state drives (SSDs), which are faster and perform better than traditional hard disk drives (HDDs).
Dedicated Server Hosting
With this option, you get a physical server dedicated to your business only and can customize it to suit your needs. For example, you can change server configurations, boost performance and security, or install new software. Namecheap will provide same-day setup and help you migrate from your previous hosting for free.
Reseller Hosting
Namecheap allows you to purchase its hosting resources wholesale and resell the shared, VPS, or dedicated server hosting services to other 3rd-party websites. You’ll get features like unmetered bandwidth to deal with online traffic and a web host manager to manage your clients’ accounts.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Namecheap has a managed WordPress hosting service called EasyWP. This frees you from the technical aspects of running a WordPress website because Namecheap will handle it for you.
Hosting Features
Some of the top-notch features on Namecheap include the following.
Website Builder
You can create your website without any coding skills by using the website builder tool. It’s a drag-and-drop editor with themes and templates, pictures, and other elements to help you design your website.
cPanel
The control panel (cPanel) feature enables you to manage multiple accounts on the server and upload files to a website. You can manage emails and databases, check website statistics, and install the Softaculous app auto installer.
Hosting Migration
Namecheap provides free website migration from your current hosting provider to one of its hosting plans. It guarantees you’ll get the first year free if your site isn’t moved within 24 hours. The process begins by submitting a support ticket with your account profile information, account access details, and your preferred migration date.
Hosting Quiz
Namecheap has a helpful hosting quiz that asks you a series of questions to help you decide which type of hosting is best suited to your needs. It only takes about a minute and is especially helpful for beginners.
Private Email
For an additional cost to your web hosting package, you can get a professional email address through the private email feature. This enables you to protect your data and gives you a customer support option in case of a hack or password loss.
Plans and Pricing
Namecheap offers five hosting solutions, starting from $4.48 for the shared hosting plan. Dedicated server hosting prices begin from $53.88, VPS hosting from $9.88, and managed WordPress hosting from $6.88. Reseller hosting plans begin from $19.88, but you’ll also incur a $1 fee if you want to use UK-based hosting.
Shared hosting has 3 pricing plans and you can pay monthly, yearly, or for 2 years. If you’re based in the UK, the hosting price starts from £3.56 to £7.53 per month for data centers in the US and from £4.35 to £8.32 per month when the data center is in the UK.
| Stellar | Stellar Plus | Stellar Business | |
| Monthly price | $4.48UK: £4.35 | $6.48UK: £5.94 | $9.48UK: £8.32 |
| Websites | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | 20GB SSD | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Mailboxes | 30 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Auto backup | No | Yes | Yes |
First-time Namecheap hosting purchasers get a 30-day money-back guarantee, whereas those who buy the dedicated servers option have 7 days to get a refund.
Free Offerings
Namecheap’s free offers include a website builder, a content delivery network (CDN) to load content faster, and free website migration. Moreover, it has free automatic secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate installation, which ensures that data transfers through a server remain private.
Uptime and Performance
Namecheap offers a 100% monthly uptime guarantee for shared and dedicated server accounts, and 99.9% for Reseller and VPS hosting accounts. Its status update page announces service issues or scheduled maintenance activities.
If the service does go down due to an equipment or infrastructure failure, you can contact the billing department within 10 days of the event to request more time be added to your subscription. However, cyberattacks and acts of God, among other events, don’t fall under the uptime guarantee, so they aren’t eligible for compensation.
Namecheap’s standard security features include DDoS protection to thwart cybercriminals and 2-factor authentication (2FA) for safer logins. It also has custom security notifications, a domain lock for preventing unauthorized domain transfers, and password recovery. Its technicians work to ensure your websites are live and operational 24/7, and firewalls are in place to thwart hackers and viruses.
Technology
Namecheap uses top-notch technology to serve its customers. It installs Nagios Software on all its servers to monitor server stats and performance in real-time. The servers use Dell or Supermicro hardware with the latest Xeon processors to ensure high-level performance.
Moreover, its servers run on CloudLinux 6.x Operating System, which is ideal for shared hosting because it boosts server stability. It also has the lightweight virtualized environment (LVE) feature to ensure shared hosting users have adequate resources on their server space and prevent server overloads affecting their online business. Finally, Namecheap has a protected data center in Phoenix.
Ease of Use
Even for beginners, Namecheap is straightforward to use and has a user-friendly website with an extensive range of menu options. These are clearly labeled and will take you straight to the solution you’re looking for, whether it’s to purchase a domain name, hosting plan, or other feature. Namecheap doesn’t have a central pricing page, but you can obtain the pricing details by going to a page associated with a hosting type.
Once you begin using the service, you’ll see an account dashboard that gives you control over your new website. Namecheap will help you every step of the way—from signup, website creation or migration, to integrating top features and apps into your site. Plus, its high-quality customer support can help you instantly if you get stuck.
Support Services
Namecheap offers several customer service options, but not phone support. Live chat is available 24/7 for general and user inquiries. The response time was immediate, and I found the agent well-informed and friendly.
You can also submit a support ticket 24/7, which typically has a 2-hour response time.
While you write your question, detailed explanations relating to your issue will pop up from Namecheap’s knowledge base. You can also access the knowledge base by clicking the Help Center menu on the website. There’s a blog with informative articles, a helpful how-to videos section, FAQ page, plus expert guides on starting and growing your e-commerce business.
In Conclusion
Namecheap works well for individuals and businesses of all sizes to set up and manage their websites. It has several hosting options, including shared and managed WordPress hosting, and the ability to pay monthly, annually, or sometimes even quarterly. It also offers free hosting migration and a free SSL certificate.
Its technological and security features ensure consistent uptime, performance, and site security. Plus, if you encounter any challenges, its friendly and informed customer service agents are available 24/7 to help you. Overall, if you’re looking for a cost-friendly, feature-filled hosting solution, then Namecheap is worth considering.
Get started now, visit NameCheap