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Is Namecheap Good for Domains & Shared Hosting?

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Namecheap was founded in 2000 as an independent, ICANN-accredited web service company. Although they were originally founded to register domain names, they have since expanded to provide a range of hosting services.

Namecheap Pricing

Namecheap offers a variety of hosting plans. Here is a quick overview of each.

They offer a variety of promotions for their services. See Namecheap’s most recent promotions and deals.

Domain registration

Namecheap was originally founded as a domain registrar, but they quickly expanded to other services. They can support almost every possible domain name extension. Namecheap allows you to not only register domains, but also transfer them.

Namecheap provides this service for no cost to protect your WHOIS privacy. Namecheap is my favorite domain registrar. Although they are not the most affordable, they offer the most options in terms price, features and domain name options.

Register a Domain from Namecheap

Web Hosting Plans

Web hosting (also known as shared hosting) is the mainstay of website hosting. Each account is a separate account on a Linux server. They can run WordPress and any other application on a LAMP Stack. It is a reliable and cost-effective way to host most websites. This guide explains shared hosting. Namecheap offers three great shared hosting packages.

* Prices per month for 12-month subscription

Get Namecheap Web Hosting

Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress can be run on shared hosting. However, many hosting companies offer WordPress hosting plans to meet customer demand and WordPress’s hardware requirements. Many hosting companies offer WordPress hosting that is identical to their shared hosting plans.

Namecheap’s WordPress Plans differ from their Web Hosting Plans. These plans run on Namecheap Cloud and include WordPress-specific resources. Only problem is that each plan only allows for one WordPress install. You also don’t get all the bells and whistles offered by other WordPress hosts. It’s great value for one WordPress site.

* Prices per month for a 1-month subscription

Namecheap WordPress Hosting

VPS Hosting Plans

VPS hosting allows you to have a set amount of server resources without the need to lease an entire server. Your website can live on the same server that other websites, but you are in complete control of what resources you use. This guide will help you learn more about VPS Hosting. Namecheap offers affordable VPS plans with managed and unmanaged options.

Dedicated Hosting Plans

You can lease a server, get support and bandwidth along with dedicated hosting. This is the best way to host large sites with predictable traffic. Sites with unpredictable traffic tend to choose cloud hosting. Namecheap offers a variety of dedicated server options, depending on your expertise and resources.

Reseller Hosting Plans

Reseller hosting can be described as a shared, VPS or dedicated server plan that allows for third-party billing and management. Reseller hosting allows anyone without having to start a hosting business. This guide provides more information about Reseller Hosting. This is a great way to earn recurring revenue for your agency and add value to clients. Namecheap offers a variety of reseller hosting services.

Email Hosting Plans

Namecheap offers a very interesting email hosting plan that isn’t tied to Microsoft or Google. This is a great way for businesses to save money and still have an @company email address. View their plans.

Website Builder

Namecheap developed its own template-driven website creator. This is included with any hosting plan. It offers many of the same benefits as a hosted website builder, such as Wix and Weebly. WordPress.com or Jimdo, but you have complete control over your server. You can see their website creator here.

Namecheap’s Web Hosting vs. WordPress Hosting

Here’s the deal. The industry’s move to “WordPress hosting” services has been a confusing, maddening, and messy mess. I have a whole post about Web Hosting vs. WordPress Host, Explained. But here’s the quick version.

1. WordPress is simply software that runs on any Linux server running PHP (or ” regular Web Hosting”).
2. Again WordPress can and does run perfectly on shared hosting plans.
3. WordPress uses some server resources at a higher than average rate, while others are used at a lower level.
4. WordPress has many predictable issues & needs. It must be updated regularly. It is database-driven, not static. It adds functionality using plugins. This is great, but it can lead to temporary security issues.
5. Hosting companies realized the opportunity to set up whole clusters of servers hosting only WordPress sites.
6. Because they were all in one place, they could provide support at a reduced rate and specific WordPress add-ons.
7. Thus, the “WordPress Hosting” plans were created. This added an additional opportunity for pricing specialists and marketers.

WordPress Hosting plans have been a way for some companies to increase their revenue and decrease their costs, while adding little value.

WordPress Hosting Plans was a way for companies to add value and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Customers also benefit from the savings. It was mixed for other companies. It was all very confusing.

Namecheap WordPress Hosting plans differ from their Web Hosting plans. Although the plans only allow for one website, resources are managed on cloud servers.

However – The key takeaway here is to determine your needs and goals instead of going with a company’s “WordPress hosting” plan.

Convenience is wonderful, but it’s important that you understand the true cost of your purchase so you can set realistic expectations.

This Namecheap Hosting review will examine the pros and cons of Namecheap’s web hosting plan (since they can also host WordPress) as well as direct rivals in the WordPress Hosting space.

Namecheap offers email hosting and website builders. They also offer SSL certificates and other services that include 24-hour support and a 30-day guarantee of satisfaction.

I compared Namecheap’s domain registration service with GoDaddy here but have been receiving questions for years about their hosting services. Namecheap Hosting is very affordable – almost suspiciously so, according to some readers.

Although I prefer to keep my domain registration and hosting separate, I had a small project that I wanted to launch so I put it on Namecheap to see how the service performed.

Here is my Namecheap Hosting review. It’s based on my customer experience.

Namecheap Alternatives

Namecheap is not the only way to register your domain name. You can actually bundle your hosting with domain names and often get it free.

Register Your Domain for Free

When you sign up for web hosting from the below providers, you can get a one-year free domain name. Here is a list I recommend:

• Bluehost
• HostGator
• InMotion Hosting

This will definitely save you money over buying both your domain name AND hosting separately. You are required to either pay a cancellation fee or stay for a certain period of time in order to keep your domain name. This is usually a better deal than purchasing separately.

These are some alternatives to Namecheap if you’re looking to purchase a domain name or bulk buy.

GoDaddy Review

Rating

8.0/10

No cost DNS

Yes

No cost domain privacy

No

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Dynadot Review

Rating

8.5/10

No cost DNS

Yes

No cost domain privacy

Yes

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Google Domains Review

Rating

8.5/10

No cost DNS

Yes

No cost domain privacy

Yes

Promotion

20% Off Promo 

Search for the Best Domain Registrars

Namecheap Pros

These are the advantages and cons of when you consider Namecheap Hosting. Namecheap Hosting reviews are plentiful online. These reviews often include user-generated reviews that are based on personal experience and anecdotes.

This is fine, but I have a different approach. As I have said in previous hosting reviews, there is no “best” web host . Based on your needs, budget, experience, and expertise, the “best” web host is the one that will work best for you.

Cheap Pricing

Namecheap’s main advantage is its pricing.

It’s affordable – shockingly inexpensive.

Cheap is not always the same as good value . We need to understand how pricing for hosting is set up in order to figure this out.

Although web hosting companies all sell the same thing, a website home, they offer different plans, with different caps and bonuses, as well as different renewal prices. Most people find it difficult to determine their true value without a breakdown of the various parts.

I have broken down the Core hosting features into Bonus hosting features to make it easier for you to compare hosting companies.

The “3 D’s” are the core hosting features – domains and databases as well as disk space. Hosting servers are designed to host website files.

• Domains refer to the number of domain names that you can point at your hosting account. Multiple domains are required if you plan to host multiple websites. It is also important to consider email addresses per domain. Sometimes, these are also capped.
• Databases show how many pieces you can run on your web hosting server. One database is required for a WordPress installation. You will need additional databases if you have Listservs or apps.
• Disk Space refers to the maximum number of files that you can place on your server, including images, text, and PDFs.
• Other features include website builder software, cPanel management and software to manage unlimited bandwidth, unlimited websites, SSD storage, and a free SSL certificate for premium DNS.

This is how you can compare apples to apples, and get a sense for value based on your needs.

Namecheap offers three pricing tiers. Stellar renews at $30.88/year; Stellar Plus renews for $52.88/year; Stellar Business renews for $98.88/year.

All plans include ridiculously low intro pricing, as low as $2.88/year for the Stellar plan.

All plans are limited to two of three “D”, in addition to other caps.

More information can be found in the Cons section about plan limitations. Here’s how the plans work.

• Stellar – Limit to 3 websites, 20GB disk space, 50 databases, and 30 email accounts.
• Stellar Plus – Unlimited domains, Unmetered disk storage, Unmetered database and Email accounts.
• Stellar Business – Adds personal nameservers, priority service and guaranteed 50GB disk space.

Namecheap’s plans are so limited on Stellar, it’s hard to compare them to other companies’ low-priced hosting plans. Their mid-tier is still competitive with other offerings. Here’s the conclusion Namecheap is usually cheaper than any plan offered by another hosting company if you intend to stay under these caps

If you’re not certain, you’ll likely get more value from a web host service that has fewer individual caps like InMotion or Web Hosting Hub – or SiteGround –

Namecheap’s pricing has the primary advantage.

Company brand & values

Namecheap, a privately owned independent hosting provider, is one of the few. This is a rare find in a world where only a few corporations control nearly all of the hosting brands.

Privateness and independence are not always a good thing. However, being part of a large corporation does not make you a bad person.

Namecheap’s strength as an independent company lies in their ability to define their brand values and pursue transparency in a confusing industry.

As I have mentioned in my Namecheap and GoDaddy domain registrar reviews, Namecheap has always donated money and resources for Internet freedom and security.

They are corporate partners with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and FightForTheFuture.org – both organizations fighting for the basic infrastructure of the Internet.

Namecheap also makes pricing and information transparent for all services. They have a large list of hosting features and prominently display renewal rates.

They are trustworthy and have a strong culture. It is important to me that the culture of a company you do business with is respected.

Amazing Onboarding

Signing up for a web host is like buying a new product. It can be both scary and thrilling.

It is crucial to remove the fear and make the customer feel at ease. The process is known as “onboarding” in business jargon. And nothing will make buyers regret it more than a confusing process for onboarding.

After signing up for a hosting plan you will immediately receive your login credentials. You can then either access a tutorial or log in to your new dashboard.

Namecheap does exactly this.

You will receive a welcome email with instructions to log in to your services.

The account backends of their accounts are simple and clean. They don’t display flashing banners and do not push upsell.

The WordPress Quick Install Software installs a clean WordPress version without any plugins and themes.

A simple, minimalist backend.

This service is perfect for beginners or DIYers looking for an affordable, yet simple web hosting company.

Datacenter Options

They offer three Data Centers from Namecheap when you sign up

• Phoenix, Arizona (USA)
• Nottingham, England
• Amsterdam

Arizona’s data center is free. The UK and Amsterdam data centers cost $1 more per month, but you can still choose.

US data center or UK Data Center. They are a great choice for non US customers who serve web visitors more close to the UK than the US.

Backups

Namecheap also performs weekly backups of your hosting account. Although you should always backup your hosting account, it is a great safety net. Namecheap backups are free. It’s usually a bonus feature that is paid for or limited at competitors such as:

• Web Hosting Hub
• HostPapa
• GreenGeeks
• Dreamhost
• HostGator

Namecheap: Cons

Namecheap is like any other web host. It has its disadvantages. These are some of the cons I discovered while using Namecheap as a hosting provider.

Limitations on Hosting Plans

Namecheap caps domains, disk space and email addresses, as I have mentioned in the Pricing section.

Namecheap is great for small sites. Namecheap’s many overlapping caps is the problem for many website owners.

Namecheap’s new plan structure has improved, but they still have a high cap on the lowest tier. Although the middle and top tiers appear to be competitive, they are only available for a small number of hosting customers. To ensure that you get a solid value, it is important to carefully consider features and allocations.

Ironically, even if Namecheap’s top plans are purchased, other limitations could apply. Hosting is sold for eCommerce, even though Stellar Plus isn’t technically PCI Compliant.

I don’t care if you choose to go with me – I could continue making comparisons but Namecheap has limitations that are disadvantageous because so many of them require extra planning when buying.

Poor Performance

As I said, the main job of a web host is to provide website files for anyone who types in your domain name. However, most people agree that there is a missing adverb. It should read “To serve website files rapidly.”

Website speed is not important, especially in this age of mobile. While server speeds are not the only important factor for website speed overall, they are an important one.

It’s also critical because it can cause a bottleneck. This means that no matter how fast your website is compressed or speeded up, your server will only respond as fast as you can.

It is difficult to measure server response time and speed. Namecheap’s network engineers can only tell you the truth about server speed. However, they promise that “in most cases, our shared hosting is 50% faster than other guys”.

It is possible to measure server performance in a rough range of metrics.

It is called Time to First Byte (TTFB). It shows how fast a server responds to a request.

Here’s what Namecheap did the day I measured it using my website.

This is Web Hosting hub, a direct competitor at the entry-level.

Namecheap isn’t bad, as you can see. In fact, they are almost tied with their direct competitors. They do better than many larger brands. They often perform better on other metrics like bandwidth and uptime.

TTFB can be best described as a trend. Namecheap’s server information shows that they have not only capped their plans but also the servers on which the websites are hosted.

Low server allocations, like the plan caps, aren’t necessarily a bad thing. A small site with few images will likely not tell the difference.

If you want to expand your website or increase your site traffic, you will need to understand what’s under the hood. Namecheap’s is pretty limited.

They may, for example, install an (very) outdated version of PHP as a default on their latest packages.

They have limited memory allocations for their new accounts (and – note that this is a brand new Stellar Plus account).

Those allocations can be compared to InMotion Hosting default allocations for their shared web hosting accounts.

Low allocations can be fine if your goal is to balance your network. But, limiting this to a few accounts often means that they have lots of accounts on their shared servers and are able to charge low prices.

You can actually get around some of the limitations if you only plan to host a few WordPress-powered sites with their EasyWP product. Although they limit storage, they manage other resources to ensure that your visitors are the primary concern and not your bandwidth/memory usage (similar to WP Engine or Kinsta).

This is the best option for you if you have a simple, low-traffic website. Namecheap hosting is not fast or reliable.

Poor Customer Service

It is not easy to judge customer support. It is difficult to judge what’s really happening behind the scenes and whether a company will respond positively when you contact them.

Many user-submitted online reviews of any company are either exaggerated positives or naive negatives. Anecdotes can be a great way to find out if you’re reading about a single incident or a trend.

I believe that you should consider indicators to determine if a company views customer service as an expense or investment. So, is the company trying to cut costs and maximize profits in the short-term or do they want to create happy customers over time?

Two of the best indicators I have found are availability in a variety of support channels , and investments in DIY customer service.

Namecheap is average on both.

They offer live chat and helpdesk for availability. The wait time for live chat is generally quite short. It’s always a good service. Sometimes, however, text-based support can become tedious if you have a complex issue.

They offer website setup and transfer assistance.

They have decent customer support resources for DIY customers, but it focuses primarily on domains and not hosting.

This leads to the next point on Namecheap’s product focus.

Web Hosting is not their specialty

Namecheap is a domain registration site. One of the reasons I use Namecheap for domain registration is because they make it easy to buy a domain name and point it to hosting or other services .

Domains and hosting are natural compliments in the wider Internet services industry. However, I have never seen companies do either of these things super-well.

Domain registration is often overpriced by hosting providers and makes domain management difficult. Domain companies don’t usually have the resources or expertise to manage a top-notch hosting infrastructure.

It’s not impossible, but it’s not impossible for some companies to do it. It seems like domains and hosting are like coffee and breakfast.

Both should be sold together but it is not always an ideal situation. Starbucks attempts to offer breakfast… but it isn’t quite there. McDonald’s attempts to make coffee…but it’s just not the same.

Even though Namecheap’s hosting is amazing, I would still be cautious simply because all my Internet-presence components are in one place.

To ensure diversity, I prefer to have my domains and hosting hosted at different companies. This applies to hosting companies that do not hold domains but it also applies for domain companies hosting my hosting servers.

Namecheap Hosting: Is it Good?

Namecheap hosting is a great affordable hosting option. Namecheap is a great choice if you’re looking for a small website and are less concerned about the price than the plan limitations.

View Namecheap’s current plans & pricing

I highly recommend InMotion hosting if you’re looking for a web host that is independent and offers better customer service, performance, and plan options.

If you are still unsure, then see my top web hosting services rating and Namecheap’s best domain registrations recommendation.