Namecheap is widely recognized as one of the top affordable and reliable domain name registrars, and it’s also one of the largest in the market. Besides domain registration, Namecheap offers a variety of web hosting services at very low prices. Although many people appreciate Namecheap’s domain registration services, opinions on its hosting services are mixed. Some users praise the low hosting costs, knowledgeable customer support, and decent security package. However, Namecheap’s performance issues deter many users. To assist you in making an informed decision, we created a website on Namecheap to evaluate its services. This Namecheap review covers everything from features and security to performance tests, pricing, and more.
Namecheap subscription options:
12 month plan – $1.98 per month ($23.76 total cost)
What kinds of hosting services does Namecheap provide?
Namecheap is cheap and user-friendly shared hosting, best suited for beginners or websites with low demands. On top of that, Namecheap promo codes allow you to cut down the cost even more.
WordPress hosting services are specifically optimized for WordPress, with enhanced site management features and speed.
VPS and dedicated hosting, which can give tens of thousands to millions more operations than shared servers alone (with far greater expense for these kinds of plans that is necessary mainly at the business level). But Namecheap has some less expensive offerings in this category to make these technologies available for anyone (more on that later).
In the following we will go into more detail about each type of hosting, uncovering what they provide and which use case is optimal to prefer a particular type over another.
Shared hosting from Namecheap
Choosing a shared hosting plan means your site will be hosted on the same server as many other sites. This is cost-effective, as the server expenses are distributed among multiple accounts. However, it can affect speed since you’re sharing the server’s CPU, RAM, and network connection. Despite this, good shared hosting plans can still handle tens of thousands of visits per month.
Namecheap’s shared hosting options are very affordable, with prices starting at just $1.88 per month for a two-year term ($4.48 upon renewal).
The plans come with a solid set of features, including a free domain, free migration, a bundled website builder, unlimited bandwidth, and at least twice-weekly backups. Softaculous is available for quick installation of WordPress and over 150 other apps, and cPanel provides all the tools you need to manage your web space.
Even the cheapest plan allows hosting up to three websites, while the other plans offer unlimited sites. Most providers only allow a single site on their basic shared plan.
The main drawback is that SSL is only free for the first year with all shared plans. After that, it costs $5.99 per year ($6.99 upon renewal). This means that Namecheap’s shared hosting isn’t as inexpensive as it initially appears.
If this is a concern, consider alternatives like Hostinger and HostGator, both of which offer starter prices under $3 per month with some trade-offs, but SSL is free forever.
WordPress hosting from Namecheap
WordPress is the most popular website creation platform that beginners and professionals can use to build business sites, ecommerce stores or blog.
Earlier, I also stated that Namecheap Shared Hosting is a wonderful platform to be introduced with WordPress hosting. It is great for people who want to have a simple website, an affordable solution or learn the basics of WordPress.
Namecheap offers a slightly pricier selection of EasyWP plans, more in line with prices from competitors, but you get extra resources and they’re fine-tuned for better WordPress performance (at least three times faster than regular WP on shared hosting).
EasyWP Starter comes with 10GB of storage, a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) to keep your performance up and supports one site for from 50k potentials visits per month. And when you renew, it comes to $2.91 per month and is charged at a price of $2.08 monthly back on the annual planari Plan ($34 annually). But it does not come with SSL, which at Namecheap is another $0.50 a month; only the most basic level of cert-and BlueHost and InMotion include one higher up for no extra cost.
The other EasyWP plans do include SSL for the life of the plan and offers more storage, resources as well. The upper-end EasyWP Supersonic plan can handle up to 500,000 monthly visitors and runs $4.57 per month on the annual tier ($9.07 at renewal).
EasyWP is definitely worth it if you are a beginner and have only basic needs for your site. That’s great value, even for the monthly billing option. The benefit of using Easy WP Starter is that the first month will always be free, and all other months in a year are billed $4.88 each.! So, that gives 3 months to learn how to create a website using WordPress and try out the service for under $10.
Unfortunately, the benefits of these plans are limited. They only support a single site and are missing the robust set of WordPress features that top competitors have.
If Namecheap doesn’t feel right for you then why not try A2 Hosting’s existing Managed WordPress collection. JUMP, which at $22.99/year is more expensive but includes 250GB NVMe storage that’s fast and secure as well as free SSLs for all your sites miles* ahead of the competition) premium backups ($49.95 standalone), support up to five WordPress installs making it much better choice for power users who need SUSTAINABLE growth optionetails here).
Meanwhile, the WP Pro range is aimed at business WordPress users and comes with additional marketing and SEO tools. InMotion Hosting has plans for VPS and dedicated servers that give you the most juice out of your hardware.
Namecheap’s VPS hosting
Virtual Private Server : VPS hosting provides greater speed and configurability than shared, but at a higher cost with added complexity of setup & management-less ideal for newer users or simpler/low-traffic sites.
VPS Hosting: For developers or those with higher-traffic websites, VPS hosting gives you full root access to your server and the resources are very good which may support upto 100K visits per month at often a lower price than high-end shared.
VPS hosting from Namecheap begins at $6.88 per month, annually billed), for 2 CPU Cores / 2GB RAM /40 GBStorage/1TB Bandwidth in the plan. This is a low cost option,but it’s unmanaged so you will have to take care of server maintenance by yourself such as Software installation and updates,server restoration etc. No control panel is included.
Managed VPS is more expensive but also has a much friendlier user interface. Their unmanaged Quasar plan starts at $15.88 per month and includes 4 CPU cores, 6GB RAM, of storage,and TB3 bandwidth The price goes up to $50.76 per month with full server management and cPanel, plus an extra monthly payment of $1.50 for Softaculous (to install WordPress or other applications).
Magnetar is the high-end VPS plan featuring 8 CPU cores, 12GB memory, a storage volume of 240GB and traffic limited to generous that measures no less than incredible TB at Namecheap. Unmanaged: $28.88 a monthManaged: $63.76 per month
As one of the most affordable options, Namecheap provides some VPS services with pricing that can’t be beaten. Here’s an example, Hostwinds sells a VPS with 2 CPU cores, 6GB RAM and yes only 100GB storage for $29/Month what the likes of Namecheap offers is far capable too.
Unusually, Namecheap only offers three VPS plans and they’re less configurable than some of the competition. If that doesn’t fit the bill other providers have better offerings.
IONOS has a budget/beginner VPS for $2 per month with 1 core and 512MB RAM, so it’s one of the cheaper ways to try out VPS technology.
Liquid Web’s VPS hosting sits at the premium end of the spectrum, and has a lot to offer demanding business users.
Hostwinds for greatest variety They have less expensive and more powerful plans compared to Namecheap as well, even if they offer Linux VPS only. The extensive spectrum results in a full range of support for different requirements.
Namecheap dedicated server services
Choosing shared or VPS hosting means you’ll share the web server with other users. However, with a dedicated hosting package, you get the entire server to yourself. All resources, including RAM, CPU time, and network connection, are reserved solely for your website, ensuring you won’t be impacted by other users’ activities.
Namecheap previously offered only a few dedicated server options, but now boasts 44 choices, surpassing many competitors. Their plans start at under $50 per month for an unmanaged server with 4 cores and 8GB of RAM, and go up to around $250 for a 16-core CPU with 128GB of RAM and 4 x 1.92TB SSD NVMe storage. All plans include free site migration and a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Similar to VPS hosting, the most affordable options are for unmanaged servers (where you handle server management). Opting for Complete Management with a cPanel Solo license adds approximately $65 to the monthly cost, which is still a good deal given there are no setup fees and it’s cheaper compared to other providers.
A notable drawback with Namecheap is the limited customization options. You can’t upgrade individual components like adding more RAM or an extra backup drive; what you see is what you get. Additionally, there’s no Windows hosting available, and servers are only located in their Arizona data center, with no options for the UK or Netherlands.
If you don’t need extensive customization and require a reliable, high-performance server for high-traffic or mission-critical sites, Namecheap’s extensive range of base servers and competitive pricing make it a strong contender.
You might also consider IONOS, which, despite offering fewer server plans, provides very affordable managed and unmanaged options, along with unique features such as Windows hosting and storage servers with up to 48TB, available in both US and European data centers.
Additionally, A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting offer a broad selection of managed and unmanaged plans with flexible billing periods (1, 3, 6, and 12 months) to manage costs effectively. For top-tier performance, Liquid Web’s high-end servers, along with their 100% uptime guarantee and excellent support, are worth exploring for an ultra-reliable service.
Does Namecheap offer a website builder?
If you don’t have a website yet and find WordPress too complex, a website builder might be a good solution. You can start by selecting a design template from a gallery and then customize your page by dragging and dropping elements like text, images, maps, and contact forms.
Namecheap offers a free website builder with its shared hosting plans. It features 230 templates for various types of sites (such as business, blogs, and food) and provides a range of widgets for adding content, including image galleries, maps, forms, blogs, product listings, and payment buttons. It’s a solid option, especially given it’s free, and serves as a straightforward alternative to WordPress for creating simple websites.
Namecheap also provides a paid website builder called Visual. After answering a few questions, uploading some images, and selecting a color scheme, Visual generates your site automatically. You can then customize it by replacing default text and adding pre-built blocks for new content like forms and photo galleries.
In addition to the website builder, Namecheap offers free tools to help with logo creation, business card design, and more.
While this website builder may lack advanced features (such as web store support), it’s sufficient for creating basic personal sites, and the pricing is reasonable. Visual costs $3.88 per month, includes a free SSL certificate, 99.99% uptime, and supports a single site. You also get a free domain with a .contact, .design, or .xyz extension, though .com, .net, and other top-level domains need to be purchased separately.
For more advanced features, HostGator’s Gator website builder and Hostinger’s Zyro offer additional capabilities, including web store support. These options are also budget-friendly initially (with Zyro starting at $2.99 per month), though the best deals usually require long-term commitments and prices increase upon renewal.
Is it possible to create an online store using Namecheap?
As of now, Namecheap does not provide any specific ecommerce products but this may change soon with the launch of their new Visual site builder. You can always build an online store nevertheless with any of the shared, dedicated or VPS hosting packages from Namecheap.
For example — with shared hosting, you get Softaculous… a fantastic platform to help install different ecommerce systems (like OpenCart, PrestaShop, WooCommerce etc). Store Building ToolsNot recognized by the namecheap, so you need to learn Store building basics on your own. But else, as long as you know WordPress itself than I hope that WooCommerce should be quite easy to navigate.
If you want something simpler, check out HostGator’s Gator or Hostinger’s Zyro; the latter makes its way to website building by offering full integration with web stores. Bluehost offer a strong mid-range option in the WooCommerce plans and has additional business-friendly marketing features; Wix meanwhile provides nice templates, extensive capabilities, but less flexibility.
How quick is Namecheap?
We evaluate a hosting provider’s performance by subscribing to a shared hosting plan, setting up a basic WordPress site, and running a series of rigorous tests.
We use Uptime.com to check our site’s accessibility every five minutes, recording the results and the server’s response time. Namecheap achieved a flawless 100% uptime and had an average response time of 0.436 seconds, ranking it 8th out of 15 in our most recent tests.
Then using GTmetrix we measure the load time of a single page taking into account the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). A lower LCP means your pages are loading quicker and the experience on your site is better for everyone.
The site’s LCP was within a fraction of 0.789 seconds, just on the slower end: not as good as Flywheel (fastest at around or below 600ms), but competitive with many others we’ve seen recently (1-2s is average). It’s a tick below average, which is disappointing; but still faster than some budget options like iPage (1.6 seconds).
Not only are one-off load times meaningful, but we do need to see at what level site performance remains consistent. On our testing site with k6 (a stress-testing Site using HTTP scripts) we simulated 20 visitors within a span of time and waited for the results.
Namecheap – performance is a little bit lower than the average, 12 requests per second on average with maximum of 16.33 (usually other providers cope from 14 to 16 req/sec and limit at about 20)
PerformanceOur tests show Namecheap mid-range shared hosting was fairly slow. While it’s nowhere near the fastest, its performance is more than sufficient for many personal and small business sites.
(These stats and comparisons are shared hosting plans only. Update Other BackupProcesses (Results will differ for VPS, dedicated or different plans.)
How simple is Namecheap to use?
When you login to Namecheap for the first time, your account control panel may look like a mess of lists and icons everywhere. But you take a little walk around and it all starts to make sense after all.
So in one section, you will see a list of your domains and hosting panels elsewhere or other useful pages. The info bar contains your Disk Space, Bandwdith Allowance (how much data passes in and out of the server), Server Hostname, IP Address/Port Number Info,Data Center Location cPanel Launch Button Shortcuts to Generate Accounts Usage Stats AutoRenewal Settings Cancel
Not having to search through an amalgam of key settings and options is a vast improvement over many providers out there.
Bottom line, you should spend more time managing your website than worrying about its hosting plan – and Namecheap is good at that as well. While IONOS, iPage and a few other hosts used in-house tools to serve the need of customers – Namecheap takes industry standards:-Softaculous for installing & managing 1-click WordPress installs-cPanel for setting up domains, emails etc.
This is good for a couple of reasons. On one hand, it is a quality assurance because these tools are industry standards. The second point is that all this simplifies everyone’s life. It feels familiar if you have use cPanel or Softaculous in the past. Note: If you have not, this is still a guide for the cPanel basics so it will help to familiarise yourself with some of them beforehand as most hosting providers uses cPanel and your knowledge isn’t tied down to any one.
How is Namecheap’s customer support?
Namecheap offers 24/7 support through its website, live chat, and ticket system (but no phone support).
The web knowledgebase is extensive, with articles categorized into common hosting topics: email, SSL certificates, domains, EasyWP (Namecheap’s WordPress range), and more.
Selecting a section like WordPress brings up articles in subsections: 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.
The knowledgebase is both comprehensive and easy to navigate. Scrolling down the WordPress category page reveals articles many users will find helpful, such as ‘What’s the difference between managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting?, How to access your WordPress dashboard?’, ‘How to improve WordPress website security’, and more. It’s not just for troubleshooting; it’s also a great resource for learning about the product.
For more immediate issues, the Live chat is an option. We found the live chat to be readily available (three minutes wait only) and its agents are efficient in identifying problems while giving clear instructions.
Our test ticket response was slower (about 90 minutes) but nevertheless welcome: it provided a summary answer to what we needed, in one paragraph at most and accompanying the option of picking up further information via some support link.
The lack of phone support might be a deal-breaker for some, but Namecheap is still one of the most affordable options. For those of you for whom support is a must, YouCanSend will offer the tools that allow prospects to browse through their fleshed-out Support pages even if not users.
Final assessment
Namecheap’s hosting may not match the power or features of the top competitors, but it can be a cost-effective option for beginners with simpler websites or businesses that can benefit from its more robust dedicated hosting options.
Namecheap hosting frequently asked questions
What payment methods does Namecheap accept?
Namecheap accepts payments through credit cards, PayPal, and Bitcoin.
Does Namecheap provide refunds?
Namecheap’s refund policy is more complex than most providers, featuring numerous special clauses and exceptions. For comparison, Scala Hosting explains its money-back guarantee in under 140 words and Hostwinds in under 180, while Namecheap requires over 1,500 words.
In summary, Namecheap generally offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for most shared and VPS hosting packages, and a 7-day period for dedicated hosting. Add-on products and services are mostly not covered, with some exceptions (e.g., some domain name renewals are refundable within five days of purchase).
While we would prefer a simpler policy, Namecheap’s 30-day refund period is standard for the industry. If you need a longer period, HostGator offers 45 days, and InMotion Hosting provides an exceptional 90 days on many plans.
Does Namecheap provide an uptime guarantee?
Namecheap provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee for its VPS and reseller accounts, and a rare 100% uptime guarantee for its other shared and dedicated hosting plans.
For each hour of unscheduled maintenance or downtime in a month, Namecheap will give you a day of free hosting, up to a maximum of one month’s free hosting.
However, this isn’t as advantageous as it appears. Most other providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which allows for about 43.83 minutes of downtime per month. While Namecheap promises a 100% uptime guarantee, they only begin compensating after your site has been down for a total of one hour, effectively permitting more downtime.
Even so, Namecheap’s offer is still better than many others. For instance, GoDaddy offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but if they fail to meet it, you can only receive a maximum credit of 5% of your monthly fee.
Where are Namecheap’s data centers located?
Web hosts operate and maintain their servers in facilities known as data centers. A quality web host should have multiple data centers globally and allow you to choose the one closest to your audience. For instance, if your audience is in California, selecting a US data center will offer significantly better performance than one in Australia.
Namecheap’s data centers are located in the USA, UK, and Netherlands. However, there’s an extra $1 per month charge for choosing the UK or Netherlands locations for certain plans (be sure to check carefully in the shopping cart when selecting a data center to avoid unexpected costs). If you can accept this additional fee, these locations should provide good performance for both North American and European customers.
However, Namecheap’s locations may not be ideal for users in Asia, and some providers have a broader global presence. For example, GoDaddy has data centers in North America, India, Singapore, and Europe.
What is my IP address with Namecheap?
Knowing the IP address of the server hosting your website can be helpful, such as when you need to point a domain registered elsewhere to your Namecheap web space. Regardless of your reason, finding the IP address is quick and easy. Here’s how to do it:
- Log into your Namecheap control panel at ap.www.namecheap.com.
- Click on ‘Hosting List’ in the left-hand sidebar.
- In the Hosting Subscription list, find your plan and click the ‘GO TO CPANEL’ button on the right.
- In the General Information box on the right, your server IP is listed as the ‘Shared IP Address’.
(If you don’t see a General Information box, look for and click the Server Information link).
What are the nameservers for Namecheap?
If you have a Namecheap shared hosting package (Stellar, Stellar Plus, or Stellar Business), you need to use the nameservers dns1.namecheaphosting.com and dns2.namecheaphosting.com.
For other plans, refer to Namecheap’s support document titled ‘How to connect a domain to a server or hosting’ for further details.
How can I cancel a Namecheap product?
Log into your Namecheap control panel at ap.www.namecheap.com.
Click on ‘Hosting List’ in the left-hand menu.
To let a plan expire at the end of its subscription, turn off Auto-Renew by clicking the appropriate option.
To cancel a plan immediately, click the arrow next to the ‘GO TO CPANEL’ link and select Manage.
Click on Cancel Service to access the cancellation page and follow the instructions provided. Make sure to read all the information carefully, as it may include important details such as refund eligibility and any additional steps needed to complete the cancellation.
Where can I locate my Namecheap support PIN?
If you need to contact Namecheap support for any account-related issue, the agent will ask for a support PIN—a confidential number that confirms you are the legitimate account owner.
If you’ve forgotten your PIN, log into the Namecheap account panel at ap.www.namecheap.com. Hover over (or click) your account name in the top-left corner of the screen. The Security page will appear, and your support PIN will be listed on the left side in the Access section.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the Security page by clicking Profile, then Security in the left-hand sidebar.
