Namecheap Review

If you’re looking for a reliable web hosting provider or you’re curious about what Namecheap has to offer, I’ve got you covered. After reading this review, you’ll know what Namecheap brings to the table and if it can be the right solution for your website.

So, without further ado, I’ll be covering the following topics in this Namecheap Review:

What Is Namecheap?

Namecheap is a Phoenix-based domain registry company and web hosting provider founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall. The company first started as a domain registrar, gradually adding other services over time. 

According to its website, Namecheap has registered more than 14 million domain names up until now. The company, indeed, established its brand presence worldwide.

Today, Namecheap has data centres in the United States (Phoenix, Arizona), the United Kingdom (Nottingham), and the Netherlands (Amsterdam).

Namecheap’s services are known for being affordable and reliable. The company provides a suite of value-loaded hosting packages, affordable domain names, numerous security, and other features.

Main Features

If you’re new to the web hosting terms, it can be complicated to understand which ones are critical. So, check out Namecheap’s main features below to learn more about their function.

cPanel

Namecheap uses cPanel which is the industry-standard one and the most popular web hosting control panel software. Worry not; this management dashboard is user-friendly and won’t cause you a headache. You can access it within your Namecheap account or through the homepage.

Site builders

Namecheap provides an equally easy-to-understand drag-and-drop website builder. It allows you to create a whole website smoothly, with a few mouse clicks. The builder is compatible with the cPanel, and you can easily launch a new website regardless of your coding knowledge or experience.  

Domain-specific email addresses

Namecheap also offers a personalised email service, allowing you to have a domain-based email address. What’s more, all of its email hosting plans come with free domain-specific email addresses.

Uptime

Interestingly enough, the company offers a monthly uptime guarantee. This warranty means prolonging your service cycle if it doesn’t deliver the promised uptime values.

Namely, Namecheap provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee for its reseller and VPS accounts and a 100% uptime guarantee with its shared and dedicated server accounts.

Cloudflare integration

Cloudflare is a robust global network that enables its users fast content delivery, performance, and security. Luckily, Namecheap provides Cloudflare for your domain names. Moreover, its team laid out detailed guidelines regarding the enabling process in its comprehensive website knowledge base.

SSL certificates

SSL certificate, simply said, is an indication for Google and users that a website is trustworthy and secure. It’s, in a way, digital proof that sensitive and personal information is encrypted and thus – protected.

Namecheap provides a 1-year free-of-charge SSL certificate for all of its new shared hosting plan users. Also, the company offers a multitude of different paid SSL certificates, such as:

Each of the paid SSL certificates is specific, and it should answer your website needs and the following factors:

Servers

As already mentioned, Namecheap has data centres in the United States (Phoenix, Arizona), the United Kingdom (Nottingham), and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). However, the company always suggests choosing servers closest to your target audience.

Hosting and Services

After introducing you to its main features, the next step in this Namecheap review is to tell you more about its hosting plans and services. That way, you’ll be able to determine which of the following options could be the best choice for you. 

Shared Hosting

Namecheap’s shared hosting packages (Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business) are among the cheapest on the market. These solutions are ideal for everyone starting their personal, local, or online small business website.

Shared hosting means renting a percentage of a physical server together with other websites. This basic hosting option refers to sharing data centre resources with other users, and that’s why it’s so affordable.

WordPress Hosting

The company also offers managed WordPress hosting packages (EasyWP Starter, EasyWP Turbo, EasyWP Supersonic). These plans are specifically designed for the users of this popular content management system.

All three packages are managed and will protect you from occasional downtimes and other adversities that shared hosting users can suffer from occasionally.

VPS Hosting

Namecheap hosting also includes VPS hosting packages (Pulsar and Quasar). 

VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a next-level solution compared to basic hosting plans. You’ll still be sharing resources with other websites, but you’ll have much more control while using your virtual space.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is perfect if you want a server with all of its resources dedicated entirely to your website. These packages are for all those having high-traffic, content, and performance-demanding websites.

Namecheap has 29 dedicated servers at the moment that come at different prices and levels.

Reseller Hosting

If you’re thinking about starting your own web hosting business, the company’s reseller program is an option worth considering. The great thing is that you’re free to establish your own pricing and branding. On top of that, you don’t need to have technical experience or knowledge. 

Namecheap offers three reseller hosting packages (Nebula, Galaxy Expert, and Universe Pro).

Private Email Hosting

Email hosting is a service that allows you to rent a robust email server. That way, you get a high-quality email interface, superb email deliverability, security, support, and flexibility.

Namecheap’s private email hosting packages come in three variations: Starter, Pro, and Ultimate.

Migrate to Namecheap

The company guarantees migration in under 24 hours and with a maximum of 15 minutes of downtime. Otherwise, it will provide you with a year of shared hosting for free.

The process of migration is straightforward and consists of three steps:

Domains

Namecheap is also a well-known domain registry company with years of relevant experience and a high reputation. The company provides affordable domain names and a multitude of domain-related services, such as:

It offers continuous guidance, user-friendly domain management, easy setup, 24/7 customer support, and strong privacy and security protection. 

Security

Namecheap provides two main layers of security:

1. A domain privacy service for all of their domain owners, and
2. A wide choice of different SSL certificates for its users’ site visitors.

If you’re curious to look at its more detailed offer, the specific privacy and security services the company provides are the following ones:

Apps

The company also provides integration with some of the most popular services on the market, such as:

Once you choose the app you want, you just need to add it to your Namecheap account, open it within your account’s ‘’Apps’’ section, and you’re ready to go!

Transfer to Namecheap

Besides the option of migrating from another hosting operator, the company offers three migration processes as well: domain transfer, WordPress migration, and email migration.

Speed and Performance

When choosing your web hosting provider, you should be aware of three critical performance indicators: performance (speed test results), uptime, and server response time.

The average values in the table below show that Namecheap is a reliable and relatively fast hosting solution. Namely, the average server response time should be less than 200 ms, and the best hosting company shows an average speed of 340 ms. 

In addition, I’ve compared Namecheap’s average values with some of its top-rated competitors.

Namecheap Prices and Plans

Namecheap provides relatively cheap hosting plans (starting from £1.20/month for the most basic one) and a suite of domain-related services.  

Let’s first talk about its hosting offers.

Shared Hosting

The company offers three different shared hosting packages:

You can choose a monthly, yearly, or 2-year billing cycle. For example, when choosing a 2-year term, the pricing is as follows:

As you can see, the company does provide cheap hosting plans, some of the most affordable in the industry. In addition, each of them is loaded with some interesting and valuable features, such as:

WordPress Hosting

For all of the WordPress users out there, Namecheap provides three managed WordPress hosting packages. Both monthly and yearly billing options are included.

Here are the plans:

The company guarantees impressive benefits with all of its WordPress hosting plans mentioned above, such as:

VPS Hosting

If you’re looking for hosting packages that are slightly more reliable than the basic ones (and still relatively cheap), Namecheap offers two VPS hosting packages: Pulsar and Quasar.

The benefits that come with these Namecheap programs are:

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting guarantees 99.99% uptime, free migration, and same-day setup. The pricing depends upon the chosen server level, which can be:

To get the sense of it, take a look at some of the dedicated hosting packages that are currently on sale (monthly billing cycle option):

Reseller Hosting

Namecheap’s reseller hosting packages come as:

All of the plans include unmetered bandwidth, free cPanel/WHM, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Namecheap’s reseller program is a great option to start and build your web hosting business stress-free.

Private Email Hosting

The company also offers private email hosting packages, providing its users with a professional email address, increased control, flexibility, and high email success metrics.

There are three different variations of this hosting program:

All of the packages are billed yearly:

Domains

As already mentioned, the company started its business journey in 2000 as a domain registrar. Today, it is a recognised player in the industry. Namecheap offers a wide variety of generic and country-code affordable domain names to this day.

These are just some of the most popular ones:

Security

Namecheap has devoted considerable attention to the privacy and security of its services.

The company provides one year free of charge SSL certificate for its basic hosting plans. Additionally, it offers advanced, paid versions.

Depending on your website’s exact protection needs, the price for a paid SSL digital certificate ranges from £4.43/year (for its PositiveSSL certificate) to £89.24/year (PremiumSSL Wildcard).

Apps

As noted earlier, the company provides a marketplace with multiple popular tools and services. Some of the services (EasyWP, SupersonicCDN, Fast VPN, Logo Maker) come free of charge, whereas certain ones like the Business Card Maker start from £13.94.

Transfer to Namecheap

Last but not least, Namecheap provides several migration processes:

Registration Process and Privacy

The Namecheap registration process starts with choosing your preferred hosting plan.

The next step is to connect your existing domain name (or a new one) with the chosen hosting plan.

For example:

Then, after clicking the Connect To Hosting button, you’ll see something like this:

(As you can notice, you have the option of live chatting with the Namecheap support team at every step of the registration process).

Once you confirm your purchase by clicking the Add to Cart button, you’ll be transferred to check the details of your order, to enable or disable certain options, and choose the commitment period:

You’ll also have the option of improving your website performance by choosing some of the additional features, like the following ones:

Finally, you’ll click the Confirm Order button, after which you’ll log in to your account (or create an account if you’re new to Namecheap) and fill in your payment details.

When it comes to its Privacy Policy, Namecheap claims to keep all your browsing and sensitive personal information safe from any potential misuse.

Furthermore, Namecheap provides free Whois protection and private domain registration. Whois protection is especially interesting since it hides your personal information and displays generic ones.

Namecheap Competitors

Namecheap vs GoDaddy

When it comes to the domain registration market, GoDaddy is the number one player. The company owns the biggest market share. Furthermore, GoDaddy has registered approximately eight times more total domain names compared to Namecheap.

In terms of pricing, Namecheap’s domain services and web hosting plans are slightly cheaper than GoDaddy’s. The same goes for its renewal prices.

Additionally, Namecheap provides free valuable protection and backup features, while GoDaddy charges them as premium add-ons.

Performance-wise, both companies offer a monthly uptime guarantee of 99.90%, with Namecheap even promising 100% uptime values for its shared and dedicated plans.

Namecheap vs Bluehost

Bluehost’s cheapest hosting plan starts at £3.59/month (for a 3-year term), whereas Namecheap’s most affordable package comes at £1.20/month (for two years). So, the winner in the pricing category is pretty obvious.

In terms of uptime values, even though Bluehost doesn’t provide a guarantee, the company claims an uptime of nearly 99.99%. On the other hand, Namecheap guarantees 99.90% and even 100% uptime for the aforementioned hosting plans.

Also, while Bluehost charges website migration fees, Namecheap doesn’t.

Namecheap vs Hostinger

Both Namecheap and Hostinger offer budget-conscious, if not – cheap hosting plans. However, Hostinger’s hosting packages are more affordable, including more SSD storage.

Regarding uptime, Hostinger guarantees a 99.99% uptime, while Namecheap claims 100% uptime for some of its hosting plans (mentioned above).

Both companies offer free website migration, free domain, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and 24/7 customer support.

While Hostinger doesn’t have dedicated hosting plans in its offer, Namecheap doesn’t offer cloud web hosting programs.

Customer Reviews

One of the main reasons customers across the globe trust and use Namecheap’s services is its affordable pricing. Another reason is an excellent experience with the company’s customer support team. 

Besides that, many customers praise Namecheap’s value-loaded packages, easy-to-use control dashboard, and intuitive drag-and-drop website builder.

On the other hand, some unhappy users complained about the lack of phone support and pricey renewal rates.

Wrap Up

Overall, Namecheap is an excellent choice for those on a tight budget who still want reliable, feature-rich hosting packages. What’s more, privacy and security are some of the company’s main priorities.

On top of that, this hosting provider is beginner-friendly since its control dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. So it’s also a good solution for small to medium businesses.

Finally, I hope this Namecheap review has provided you with the information you were looking for and showed you that this company’s services are worth your investment.