We recommend this hosting solution for beginners and small businesses due to the cost-effective membership plans that come with attractive bonuses such as free SSL certificates, a website builder, migration, and 100% uptime.
An independent hosting service provider, Namecheap offers a range of hosting such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated hosting and WP hosting. It is one of the few hosting service providers that offers a seamless user-experience with unbeatable security and hundreds of apps that helps it create your website efficiently.
Before you get started, begin by comparing the price, benefits and user experience Namecheap offers with your personal goals. Let our experts guide you with this detailed Namecheap review below.
Namecheap Hosting Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unbeatable uptime: Powered by DELL PowerEdge™ M1000e Blade Enclosure, Namecheap promises an 100% uptime and will provide you with 1-month hosting for free if they fail to uphold this high standard.
- Hosting for multiple websites: The starting plan on Namecheap offers hosting services for 3 websites whereas most hosting providers do not offer more than one with basic plans.
- Free Migration: Namecheap offers costless migration within 24 hours; if it takes longer, you will be refunded.
- The fastest servers in the market: You will find specs like 64 GB RAM, 16 Intel Xeon CPU cores and RAID-protected SSD on every server available from Namecheap.
- It is more affordable than other hosting providers: With web hosting starting as low as $2.88 per month (can drop to $1.44 for the yearly subscription), it offers 50 positive Namecheap SSL per year for free too.
- It maintains a consistently fair price: While most web hosting services raise prices after the first discount during renewal, Namecheap sticks to the same price throughout your membership.
Cons
- Inaccessible to other domains: You can only use Namecheap domains and if you have other domains, you have to pay additional costs for transferring your domain to Namecheap.
- Lack of CDN: Namecheap does not have an integrated CDN like others and you have to spend hours setting it up on your own.
- No phone support: You can only contact Namecheap via the live chat option.
Namecheap Prices and Payment Methods
Offers:
- Discounted domain registering
- 25% off email hosting
- 13% off SSL security
The highlight of Namecheap is how it helps novices with cost-efficient pricing outstanding features. You will see three hosting plans on Namecheap- Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business, with membership lengths in both monthly and annual terms.
At the top is the Stellar plan priced at $2.88 per month with unmetered bandwidth. The interesting thing about Namecheap that sets it apart from others is how it offers free extra domains so that beginners can experiment. What’s more, you are eligible to receive50 databases, 50 FTP users, 20 GB disk space, and 30 sub-domains too. If you’re a small-business owner, Namecheap’s 30 email accounts with 10 mailing lists are also incredibly valuable. The Free SSL support for one year is also a welcome perk for newbies.
Stellar Plus is the second-tier membership plan offering everything available from the basic plan plus unlimited hosted domains at $4.88 per month. You will acquire unlimited storage space, sub-domains, FTP users, email accounts and mailing lists on this plan too.
Stellar Business is the most affordable shared web hosting plan from Namecheap with storage capped at 50 GB and priority customer support and is priced at $8.88 per month. While most web hosting service providers offer a personal nameserver on VPS hosting, Namecheap offers it on the shared plan. You will also get access to cloud storage through this premium plan.
Namecheap also proposes two VPS hosting plans- Pulsar and Quasar with three payment intervals of monthly, quarterly and yearly.
On the frontier of Namecheap’s VPS hosting is the Pulsar plan at $14.88 with free SSL protection and IP address security. You will also be equipped with 2 CPU Cores at 2 GB RAM, with 40 GB disk space, representing an impeccable value for upcoming websites. The RAID 10 security and 1000 GB bandwidth also adds to your buoyancy.
The second hosting plan is Quasar which is priced at $24.88 with all the benefits of Pulsar and beyond. Quasar uses the support of 4 CPU Cores, 6 GB RAM and 120 GB disk space, which makes it excellent for running large businesses. I recommend this more than the others because it gives you 3000 GB of bandwidth to maintain good loading times and uptime, despite using large files.
You can purchase your hosting package at Namecheap with credit cards including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Furthermore, payment can be arranged via PayPal and you can even buy your membership using bitcoin unlike other hosting service providers.
Namecheap User Experience
Being intuitive with a smooth design and flawless navigation, we appreciate that Namecheap delivers a highly beneficial user experience. This hosting provider offers something beyond compare- a complimentary website builder on the cPanel with practical functions which are instrumental for amateurs who wish to construct their own websites.
Bigger than that, we were impressed with the effortless drag-and-drop solutions ideally suited for beginners without coding skills. It is straightforward to design websites with the help of their 300 fully equipped templates. For newbies who need language-assistance, Namecheap goes the extra mile with its multilingual feature, supporting over 45 languages.
Regardless of which hosting plan you select, Namecheap guarantees top-notch user experience with the help of 100% uptime. It is reliable such that your customers will always find you online and spammers won’t touch you. Their responsive layout automatically adjusts to the devices used by your page visitors, which adds to the wow factor.
Moreover, with WordPress one-click install, you can launch your brand in one stroke with Namecheap. Add a Namecheap promo code or Namecheap coupon to your membership plan to access even more bargains and discounts.
Namecheap Load Times and Reliability
One of the best features of Namecheap is quick loading for sites which ensure that your customers can easily access your site around the clock. When we assessed the loading time of Namecheap, it ranged from 210 milliseconds to 920 milliseconds. While this is half of Hostgator, Namecheap did ping within 200 milliseconds a few times too, coming in well below Google’s recommended page load speeds. Combined with their 100% uptime, it still guarantees above-average user experience.
We believe that security is one of the biggest priorities when selecting your web hosting service. The most attractive thing about Namecheap is its 2-factor authentication with TOTP or Time-Based One-Time Password to safeguard your cPanel and account. They are also one of the few hosting service providers which offer free SSL certificates regardless of the membership plan, making it even safer. Additionally, you can also get a premium DNS for an extra cost to increase the defense against attackers.
From RAID protection for servers to DDoS protection, get the WhoIsGuard totally free for a year with your Namecheap plan so that you can prevent spammers from finding your sensitive information. We have a lot of respect for Namecheap because it is one of the few brands that regularly donates to internet security and net neutrality activities as well.
For entrepreneurs wondering how Namecheap backups your data, we will simplify it. Your account will backup twice a week if you select Stellar membership. On the other hand, Stellar Plus offers twice a week backup in addition to auto-backup, identical to the Stellar Business plan. Even if you forget to backup, all is not lost. Namecheap can recover lost data for an additional $15 fee.
Namecheap Main Features
- Good for coding beginners
- Advanced website builder
- Over 400 apps on offer
If you’re a beginner unfamiliar with coding, Namecheap is a very straightforward option. To make it easier, they use the latest technologies designed by giants Dell, Supermicro and HP to simplify functions. Moreover, Namecheap pricing is perfect no matter your budget.
Regardless of whether you subscribe to the cheapest or the priciest membership, Namecheap offers an advanced website builder tool fully integrated with pre-built templates and intuitive drag-and-drop tools for both.
Another attractive feature of Namecheap is its Softaculous Installer with more than 400 apps. This streamlines the process of setting up your WP website in the blink of an eye. What drew my attention most is how Namecheap features excellent domain privacy with free Namecheap SSL.
Namecheap Customer Support
Namecheap customer support begins at the main support page where you will find popular articles and FAQs for troubleshooting. You can also browse the knowledge base page with 15 different sections on Namecheap to uncover the answers on your own.
Unfortunately, you will be unable to contact Namecheap via phone given that live chat is the only available support option they offer. Breaking all the odds, we found the Namecheap live chat function to be lightning-fast when we got in touch. Their customer is available 24/7/365 without fail, so you can easily get in touch at any time.
Namecheap Hosting for Free
While Namecheap does not offer any free trials, they have an ironclad money-back-guarantee that works as a free trial if you want to give it a try. It gives you the right to discontinue your Namecheap account within 30 days and get your money back in case you are not satisfied.
You can try your hand at the perks such as Namecheap free SSL, Namecheap free domain and Namecheap free emails to assess if it’s the right fit for your brand.
Our Final Thoughts on Namecheap
Our Namecheap hosting review revealed the positive traits and room for improvement from Namecheap. It is tailor-made for beginners but perhaps not as good a match for businesses due to the lack of advanced hosting solutions. Still, we appreciated valuable perks such as discounts with Namecheap promo codes, the best uptime available in the market, and a free Namecheap SSL certificate.
To see more about Namecheap’s guarantees and benefits along with the experiences of subscribers, visit our Namecheap reviews submitted by users to compare this solution with other advantageous hosting providers.
