Namecheap
Namecheap is a web hosting provider as well as a domain name registrar with ICANN accreditation. Founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall, up to now it has over 3 million clients and manages 1.5 million+ websites of every size and budget. Its headquarters is based in Phoenix, Arizona, US. Namecheap provides hosting services like shared, WordPress, VPS, dedicated, email, and reseller hosting at an affordable price. It has good uptime and stable servers around the US as its data center is located in Phoenix, Arizona, US. Besides that, Namecheap has two colocation data centers: the UK data center in Nottingham, Midlands, and the European data center in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Both data centers can be chosen according to your potential traffic with an additional fee of $1/ month.
Why should you choose Namecheap?
Cheap & basic plans
The starting price for Namecheap hosting is at $1.58/ month including a 45% discount for Stellar shared hosting. Cheap price doesn’t mean that Namecheap limits the hosting features included. Even with the cheapest plan, you still get all the basic features needed, such as, unmetered bandwidth, cPanel access, and apps like WordPress, free SSL certificate, twice-a-week backups, and 50 MySQL databases, which is way more than what most companies offer on a similar plan. These basic features in a $1.58 price surely can add up to huge cost savings over time.
Fair renewal price
Unlike many other hosts who raise fees considerably once it is time for renewal, Namecheap renewal price doesn’t rise. Namecheap offers a cheap initial price and it remains the same when you renew your subscription.
Bitcoin Payment
Since March 2013, Namecheap has accepted Bitcoin as a payment method for its hosting services. Besides that, its payment methods also use credit cards, PayPal, and Dwolla.
Free Site Migration
If you already have a website in other providers, Namecheap can help you migrate the service for free. For a full cPanel migration, Namecheap guarantees to do it in less than 24 hours and with no more than 15 minutes of downtime. If it fails or you’re not completely satisfied with it, the company will credit your account with the value of your first purchase of shared hosting.
Free Backup
All Namecheap plans include backups free of any additional charges. Unlike other web providers, Namecheap generously gives backups twice a week. Moreover, there is an auto backup for free if you subscribe to Stellar Plus and Stellar Business plans.
Security and Privacy Protection
Any hosting plans by Namecheap already include a full package of security and privacy protection. You will get free WhoIsGuard, a security feature that hides your name, address, email, and contact number from the public registry of domains. This stops hackers, spammers, and marketing companies from contacting you or accessing your precious data. Not only that, Namecheap has Leech Protection that allows you to set the maximum number of logins that can occur in a 2-hour period. Protects your site from brute force attacks. Also, the CodeGuard feature is an add-on service for monitoring, backup, and restoration services. On top of that, Namecheap provides firewalls, an in-house security system, virus scanners, hotlink protection, an SSL certificate, and DNSSEC.
Nonetheless, there are several reviewers in g2 stating that this extra security occasionally flags many people’s accounts as fraud.
What are the main features of Namecheap?
- 100% uptime SLA
- Latest server technology by Dell, HP, and Supermicro
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Free email accounts
- SpamAssassin
- Softaculous installer
- 100+ single click apps
- Free Website Builder, CDN, SSL certificate
- cPanel
- Free twice a week backups
- Free site migration
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 24/7/365 live chat support
What does Namecheap offer?
Namecheap offers 5 hosting services that match your needs: Shared Hosting, WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, and Reseller Hosting.
Shared Hosting
The shared hosting has 3 plan choices: Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business. These plans are available monthly, yearly, or 2 years of subscription. In addition, Namecheap allows you to choose the data centers location, either US, UK, or Europe.
All plans include features like unmetered bandwidth, free website builder, domain name & privacy protection, free automatic SSL installation, free CDN, and personalized email service. The main differences are in the number of websites and SSD storage. Both the Stellar Plus and Stellar Business have unlimited websites and auto-backup features.
Namecheap’s shared hosting price starts from $1.58/ month with a yearly Stellar plan. Find out more about Namecheap’s shared hosting plans, features, and prices here.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress hosting has 3 choices of plans: EasyWP Starter, EasyWP Turbo, and EasyWP Supersonic. Also, you can choose the bill for monthly or yearly.
All plans already include 1 WordPress website, 90 seconds installation, Namecheap Cloud, seamless scalability, 99.9% Uptime, easy-to-use dashboard, backups and restores, SFTP, and database access. The main differences are in the number of SSD storage, visitors per month, CPU, and RAM. Other than that, the free CDN and SSL are only included in the Turbo and Supersonic plans.
You can start using Namecheap’s WordPress hosting service with a free trial of 30 days. If you get the EasyWP Starter plan then you can renew it for only $3.88/ month which is the cheapest of the other WordPress hosting plans.
Find out more about Namecheap’s WordPress hosting plans, features, and prices here.
VPS Hosting
The VPS hosting has 2 plans: Pulsar and Quasar. The subscription is available monthly, quarterly, and yearly. You can get it cheaper if you choose the yearly bill.
The features included in all plans are full root access and Operating System (OS) selection, Server Management, and top security standards. Moreover, you can choose between InterWorx or cPanel for your web panels. The main differences are in the number of CPU cores, RAM, SSD storage, and bandwidth.
You can get the cheapest VPS hosting, the Pulsar plan that costs $7.88/ month with yearly billing. Find out more about Namecheap’s VPS hosting plans, features, and prices here.
Dedicated Hosting
The dedicated server has many plans available for you that are divided based on server level to match your needs: Entry, Medium, Advanced, and Outlet. Also, you can choose whether you want monthly, quarterly, or yearly billing.
The server is hosted in the PhoenixNAP data center in the US. You will get basic features like server management options (user-responsible/ basic/ complete), airtight security, and an optimized network powered by Cisco/Juniper that’s connected to Level3, Highwinds, HE, Cogent, and Integra. The plans’ features vary in the number of the CPU core, RAM, SSD storage, and bandwidth.
You can get the cheapest Namecheap’s dedicated hosting with the Xeon E3-1230 v6 which costs $49.88/ month.
Find out more about Namecheap’s dedicated server plans, features, and prices here.
Reseller Hosting
The reseller hosting has 3 choices of plans: Nebula, Galaxy Expert, and Universe Pro. These plans are available as monthly, quarterly, or yearly billing. In addition, you can also choose your preferred data locations between the US (free) or the UK (+$1.00/month) data center.
All plans already include basic features like unmetered bandwidth, unlimited domain & subdomain, free cPanel/WHM, Softaculous installer. The differences between plans are only in the cPanel accounts and SSD storage.
You can get the cheapest plan for reseller hosting with the Nebula that costs $17.88/ month with yearly billing.
Find out more about Namecheap’s reseller hosting plans, features, and prices here.
Pros :
- Cheap hosting plans
- Free site migration & daily backups
- Protection for privacy and site security
- No upsells and same renewal price
Cons :
- Sloppy customer support
- Faulty AI security system
- Unimpressive speed
- Unsuitable for high traffic site
Summary
Namecheap is a decent web hosting provider despite being an accredited domain name registrar. It offers cheap-priced hosting plans with basic features needed for web hosting. We recommend Namecheap for you who have a couple of small websites with not-so-busy traffic and are on a tight budget. But you must oversee its sloppy customer support as many reviewers complained about it being disorganized, hit-or-miss, and refer them to another person.
References :
Explore Docs
Related Post
