ratings
Reliability
98/100
Usability
94/100
Customer Support
88/100
Features
90/100
Hosting Plans & Pricing
Hosting Plans Offered:
The Namecheap hosting company, best known as a domain registrar in its early stages, started in 2000 by providing domain registration and services to the public. They evolved to offer more services such as web hosting services, security services, WordPress management, and more.
Xeon E3-1230 v5
$48.88
4 cores @ 3.4 GHz
8 GB DDR4
480 GB SSD
100 TB/mo Bandwidth
Xeon E-2236
$78.88
6 cores @ 3.4 GHz
32 GB DDR4
2 x 480 GB SSD
100 TB/mo Bandwidth
Dual Xeon Silver 4208
$159.88
Dual 8 cores @ 2.1 GHz
64 GB DDR4
2 x 1 TB NVMe
500 GB Backup Storage
Unmetered Bandwidth
Pulsar
$8.88
2 CPU Cores
2 GB RAM
40 GB SSD RAID 10
1000 GB Bandwidth
Quasar
$14.88
4 CPU Cores
6 GB RAM
120 GB SSD RAID 10
3000 GB Bandwidth
EasyWP Starter
$3.88
10 GB SSD storage
50k visitors/month
EasyWP Turbo
$7.88
50 GB SSD storage
200k visitors/month
1.5x more CPU
1.5x more RAM
Free CDN
Free SSL
EasyWP Supersonic
$11.88
100 GB SSD storage
500k visitors/month
2x more CPU
2x more RAM
99.99% uptime guarantee
Free CDN
Free SSL
Nebula
$19.88/mo
25 cPanel accounts
30 GB SSD
Unmetered bandwidth
Free cPanel/WHM
30-day money-back guarantee
Galaxy Expert
$36.88/mo
100 cPanel accounts
90 GB SSD
Unmetered bandwidth
Free cPanel/WHM
30-day money-back guarantee
Universe Pro
$54.88/mo
150 cPanel accounts
150 GB SSD
WHMCS Starter
Unmetered bandwidth
Free cPanel/WHM
30-day money-back guarantee
The Namecheap hosting company, best known as a domain registrar in its early stages, started in 2000 by providing domain registration and services to the public. They evolved to offer more services such as web hosting services, security services, WordPress management, and more.
They are committed to making the digital future better for its users with three data centers located in the US, UK, and EU.
Right now, there are over 1700 Namecheapers scattered across the globe, with over 13 million domains under its management and an overall satisfaction rate of 4.7 out of 5 based on over 2 million reviews.
This hosting company is certainly not new to the market; it is quite older than most hosting companies and domain registrars. So what type of web hosting service can you expect?
To get started, go to the Namecheap website.
When the window opens, you can see this colorful homepage. From the home tabs, you'll see the services offered, sign up and sign in tabs, promos, and more.
You can choose from an array of services: buying a domain name by using a domain name generator, website hosting & managed WordPress hosting options, shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated servers hosting, professional emails, SSL certificates for security, and applications to boost your site.
Click the Home tab to see more about their offers.
For this review, I chose to try their shared hosting package. Clicking the Hosting tab takes me to the following page.
I like the way they divide their web hosting plans by the user's level of experience. Here you can see options for the:
I signed up for an account under shared hosting to see how the account management works in their actual dashboard.
All you have to input is the following: username, password, your name, and your email address. Many hosting companies require credit card information but not Namecheap; you won't have to input your credit card info just yet.
The sign-up process took less than a minute to complete. A welcome message will be sent to your email account. When I tried signing in to my account from another device, it sent me another email with a verification code.
After the sign-up process, you will be redirected to your account dashboard. You can find the services, account management, shopping cart, and account information tabs here. Here is the screen I was greeted with.
I clicked the Hosting tab and chose online beginner plans. I choose the Stellar Web Hosting plan because it is good for personal use, not to mention that it is cheaper than the rest of the plans.
It can host up to three websites where I can use my own CMS. I can also access a website builder, application, and email solution.
Next, I will need to choose a domain name, so I am directed to this page where I can register a new one or use an existing one from other web hosts.
The first domain name I input was taken, so I had to choose another one. The second one I chose was accepted, so I added it to my hosting plan then added it to my cart. My assigned data center is from the US.
Here, I can customize my order regarding the length of subscription, renewal, security, and email. I did not enable the PremiumDNS for now. Once you are done reviewing your order, you can click the confirm button to proceed to payment.
Here, you have to input your account contact information, Whois Account information, and payment method (VISA, MasterCard, or Paypal) before you check out.
You will receive the receipt of the order after payment. Afterward, make sure to verify your contact information like email and contact number, then choose a two-factor authentication method.
These are the tabs found on the upper portion of the dashboard: Domain, Hosting, WordPress, Email, Apps, Security, Transfer, and Help Center.
The Domains, Hosting, WordPress, Emails, Security, Transfer tabs will redirect site visitors to the page containing the plans, prices, features, freebies, FAQs, and disclaimers. You can browse each plan to see what satisfies you regarding the digital business hosting provider.
We are now ready to check out the Namecheap control panel!
A control panel or cPanel is used to manage your website. It is a web hosting control panel software developed by cPanel, LLC, which provides a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify hosting a website. Many hosting companies offer cPanel alongside their web hosting plans. It has different sections that are arranged accordingly based on function. The cPanel also provides general information and account statistics.
You can access your cPanel by going to the Hosting List tab in the dashboard and then clicking the Go To cPanel button.
This section contains the services and tools included in the Namecheap web hosting plan. Here, you can integrate Google Apps to your website; download apps from Softaculous App Installer; create web applications using Python, Nodejs, & Ruby, contact the Namecheap support team, access the Knowledgebase, backup codes, or build a website.
In this section, you can manage all your email accounts, create an automated response, track email delivery, manage calendar and contacts, see email disk usage, filter emails, and more. You can also manage the professional Spam Filter from here.
From this section, you can access all your files through the file manager & directory, view usage & storage, backup files, manage Git Version Control, and more.
In this section, you can manage your database using phpMyAdmin and create a database using MySQL. With these tools, you can also connect your database to the website.
This is the part of the control panel where you can manage all domains, assign aliases, add-ons, subdomains, redirects, and more. The domain management and the Namecheap domain registrar FAQ can be found here as well.
The Metrics tab has the tools to help you identify how the website is doing. It shows the visitors, the complete stats, the access logs, bandwidth, resource usage, and more. Errors are also displayed here.
This section is vital for website management. This is where you can manage all security details for your hosting account such as SSH key management, two-factor authentication setup, generation, viewing, and deletion of SSL certificates, and more.
This section shows the software that can be used to improve our website. Here, you can use Python, Ruby, Nodejs, etc. You can also manage your WordPress site, install PHP PEAR packages, and more.
In this section, you can manage web cache and indexes, cron jobs that allow you to automate certain commands, view error pages, and scan for viruses.
In this section, you can see features that involve your cPanel account password, security, contact information, and language. You can also change the style of the cPanel dashboard into dark, light, or retro.
Buying a web hosting plan from the Namecheap web host gives you access to a website builder such as Canva, WordPress, and Web Builder. All these give you access to create a professional-looking website with themes that are easy to use, even for beginners.
From within the Namecheap cPanel, you can use the Softaculous App Installer to download apps. Choose from a wide list of applications, blogs, portals/CMS, Forums, image galleries, Wikis, Social Networking, ad management, calendars, gaming, emails, project management, e-commerce, and more.
When you install the WordPress website manager using the Softaculous App Installer, you can choose from many different themes, from various categories. Creating a website from scratch is also possible. WordPress plans offered by Namecheap are cheaper than with other web hosting providers and allow for easy migration.
Namecheap advertised 24/7 customer support for its user, so I put it to the test.
The button for live chat support is located at the bottom of every Namecheap site. When I clicked the button, this is what I received.
No support was readily available. I hadn't encountered this issue with other hosting providers so it was slightly concerning, however, it could very well be possible that they receive a very high number of support tickets and inquiries.
Another option was to get help from the Submit a Ticket feature. I submitted a ticket about having issues with my app.
When submitting a ticket, your support pin is needed. You can find the support pin tab when you click your account name in the upper-left portion of the dashboard.
I received an email about my request right after I submitted the ticket, but no real help was actually given.
I tried Live Chat support again after several hours. Unfortunately, no one came back to me. Guess there's no priority support to be found here.
Shared Hosting Plans
Namecheap's hosting packs under this category include Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business.
All shared hosting plans include these benefits from Namecheap:
Reseller Hosting Plan
This hosting plan allows you to buy plans and sell them to your clients. The plan includes Nebula, Galaxy Expert, and Universe Pro.
All reseller plans include the following benefits:
WordPress Hosting
This hosting plan offers 30 days free trial with no commitment Using EasyWP.
All website hosting accounts come with the following benefits:
VPS Hosting Services
Namecheap's VPS hosting packages offer two choices for users to choose from.
These two plans also have the following:
Dedicated Hosting Plan
A dedicated server is a physical server where all of your data and resources are hosted on one machine or server. There are three dedicated server plans to choose from.
For this plan, servers are categorized according to level:
You can also enjoy the following features:
A detailed table of all hosting plan features can be found on their website.
From there, you can see the plan features, email features, database features, server features, control panel features, statistics /web stats, scripts, support features, and pricing.
Some hosting packages also differ in price from one center to another. Cloud Storage is only supported in the UK data center.
Check out Namecheap's different hosting plans & current deals here.
Server speed plays an important role in making sure that visitors have a smooth and quick experience using your website.
The Namecheap hosting review conducted by Hosting Tribunal shows that the average loading speed is 0.68s and the average uptime of 99.98%.
Going online puts your site and its user at serious risk by threats from cybercriminals. That is why it is important to choose a hosting company that takes safety and security seriously. To answer this demand of utmost security, Namecheap offers the following security services:
FastVPN
FastVPN hides your IP address so no one can see your real location and stops anyone from tracking and stealing your password over wifi. It will not collect, track, or share any of your browsing activity. FastVPN allows you to download confidential & sensitive files, shop, and pay online without worrying that your information will be leaked.
In addition, FastVPN allows you to access international websites & watch international shows, sports, and TVs with unlimited bandwidth and speed. Plus, it works on any of your devices. Namecheap offers a plan for this that is 100% off for the first month and renews at $5.88 per month.
Domain Privacy Protection (Withheld for Privacy)
Namecheap partnered with Withheld for Privacy to offer free lifetime protection for your domain. It keeps the domain owner's contact information out of a public database. This privacy option is free for every domain registration and domain transfer. Since your information is not available, it prevents marketing firms, spammers, and online fraudsters from reaching your inbox.
Here is a comparison between having domain privacy protection and not having it:
Note: Due to some regulations, this Domain Privacy cannot be used in some domains such as .uk,.us, .paris, .sg, and others. Make sure to check the complete list of domain names from their website to see if your domain is eligible.
PremiumDNS
Namecheap also offers a PremiumDNS plan that starts at $4.88/yr and renews at $9.98. It is an advanced DNS for websites that allows access to the fastest DNS servers that get 100% uptime. As such, your website will be online 100% of the time.
It comes with DNS Security Extensions to prevent attacks that could affect your website's performance. You can use your PremiumDNS to protect your account even if you are using a different hosting provider. Unlike the basic DNS service, PremiumDNS offers faster performance, maximum site availability, and better security.
Free SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate verifies the security level of the website. There are different types of SSL certifications issued to websites depending on the level of protection and security features. Having an SSL certificate on your site assures users that the information they shared with you is safe and secured, thus increasing the trust between visitors and your site.
Buying an SSL certificate from Namecheap is easy. You can find more information about each certificate before you decide if it is what you need for your site.
After purchasing it, you'll need to activate, install, and then manage it in your account dashboard. These certificates come with a site seal that can be added to your site as proof of the certification issued. This is what most experienced web users are looking for in a site.
When buying an SSL certificate from Namecheap, they also offer customer service from their support team. Most of the SSL certificate offers use 128- and 256-bit encryption; the community standard for data protection. Namecheap guarantees that when you buy certificates from them and their partner - Comodo CA - they are safe, secured, and affordable.
Two-Factor Authentication
This security feature offers an additional layer of protection for your account for free. You can choose from three different 2FA methods: using a specialized USB or NFC device that contains your encryptions, using another device that regularly changes passwords, or using a mobile phone to secure your account.
In addition to the features stated above, I observe some advantages in using Namecheap hosting services.
All in all, after the research conducted and personal experiences, Namecheap is a decent hosting provider and domain registrar.
If you are looking for a web host with excellent features and offers more than one website hosting for a lower price, then this is what you are looking for. Namecheap offers are pretty good and don't cost a lot, but some features are locked behind higher prices.
Just be prepared for the possibility that you may not get instant customer support.
I hope this Namecheap hosting review helps you on your web hosting journey!
If you're in the market for a hosting account provider, be sure to check out our user reviews, our web hosting guide and our top popular hosting provider picks