NameCheap : Full Review, Testing, and Presentation (2024)

What is Namecheap?

Namecheap is a independent web host (that is, not owned by a large holding company) accredited by ICANN, founded in 2000.

It was founded as a domain registrar but has grown to offer a complementary range of hosting services in addition to other services.

Who is Namecheap for?

Namecheap is the best solution for you if you are looking to acquire a number of domain names at an affordable price or if you are simply trying to find the best deal for registering your domain.

Keep in mind that you will need to renew your domain registration periodically. This is true for any registrar you choose, and Namecheap has some of the best renewal rates in the industry.

If you want to buy a domain name and hosting in one place at an affordable price, Namecheap is great for that. It offers a variety of accommodation options.

Why choose Namecheap?

Namecheap hosting has a logo designer and advanced computer security, which makes the process of creating a website much easier.

Namecheap is based in California, United States, so it is highly likely that your data will be saved.

But, in the same way, theweb hosting Namecheap gives you excellent security for your information. This provider stands out for the variety of its hosting plans. It offers specialized services for WordPress with cPanel, dedicated servers, and even reseller options.

The combination of all of its features and the cheapness of its plans make Namecheap hosting a pretty tempting option to hire. So, if you need a good provider for your WordPress site that is managed with cPanel, Namecheap is a fairly competitive service.

Finding a quality international hosting provider can bring you several advantages for any project.

Server availability, loading speed, affordable payment methods, good discounts, or access to WordPress with cPanel are essential characteristics.

If you use a service that does not meet the expectations required for your project, you will encounter technical problems during its development. This will interfere negatively with the impact it may have. Namecheap can help you avoid these issues.

It should be noted that most of these providers offer admin access to their servers through cPanel. This is great for managing and installing additional add-ons on your websites. Of course, also to install WordPress and other CMS.

Ease of use

I mentioned that EasyWP by Namecheap is easy, but that's an understatement. The entire process, from signing up to WordPress, is lightning fast and requires almost nothing from you. The management dashboard is streamlined to perfection, and everything is done with a single click.

But... it doesn't really contain everything. It's actually limited to a few actions that you can do with a single click, and no other. These include deleting your website, connecting a Namecheap domain, downloading an SSL, backups, SFTP access, and database access.

What about everything that's so easy to do with cPanel, like setting up Domain Name System (DNS) configurations, accounts and mailboxes, subdomains, a browser file manager, logs, and scheduled tasks? These options simply don't exist.

And that's the main compromise with EasyWP. The things you can do are ridiculously easy to do. The rest is impossible.

Anyway, let's see what it all looks like:

WordPress registration and installation

Enrollment is the process of selecting your plan, registering, and entering payment details. You'll be asked for your personal contact details - nothing special - and after paying, you'll be immediately directed to creating your website:

If you already have a Namecheap domain, you can connect it now. If not, feel free to use the EasyWP subdomain for now and change it later.

After entering your website name and choosing a username and password, your new WordPress installation will be ready to go:

And that's all. Everything is installed, and you will be redirected to your EasyWP dashboard.

Using the EasyWP dashboard

Use the dashboard tabs to easily navigate between the various options. To access the WordPress admin panel, for example, simply click on WP Admin in the upper right corner:

If you want to activate SFTP access, all you have to do is enter the section Files and database and activate the option:

Domain connection

The connection of your domain is obviously done from the tab Domains. Remember - it's Namecheap domains or nothing. Since I already had a domain registered with Namecheap, it appeared in the dropdown menu.

Select your domain, press Change, and the process will begin. It shouldn't take more than half an hour, and mine was connected in under five minutes.

Now, I want to reiterate: I've never seen a WordPress platform as easy to use as the one offered through Namecheap.

It's just impossible to go wrong, and the few advanced features that are available are foolproof.

If that's all you need, I can't recommend it enough. If you need just one thing that's not available with Namecheap, go for classic shared hosting instead.

Namecheap comes with cPanel, and while it's a bit more complex, it offers a much more comprehensive hosting experience.

Performances

So my EasyWP was very easy to set up with Namecheap and it has great features, but it is also limited in terms of advanced possibilities. But that's not a big deal.

In the end, I got a working WordPress site in about a minute and a half. It's time to try Namecheap.

I started by using Sucuri Load Time Tester to check how fast my pages are loading around the world:

Without any optimization, my test site created with Namecheap got an A+ performance score and is in the green almost all over the world!

It's a rudimentary WordPress installation, containing only the Twenty Nineteen theme, and reinforced by EasyWP caching, but it's impressive.

From the United States and South America to Europe and even Singapore, everything is green thanks to Namecheap.

After uploading images and content to your site, it will be slower, but it's one of the best starting points I've seen for shared hosting. Unless your audience is located in East Asia, I'd say you're good to go with Namecheap.

Let's see what GTmetrix has to say about our website:

I don't know what to say - the people at Namecheap are doing their job.

All server optimizations have been done beforehand, the caching plugin is working overtime, and the only points minus are for the absence of a CDN (content delivery network).

If we could just add a CDN, we'd have a perfect score! But... we can't. EasyWP simply doesn't support CDN networks.

And yet, this level of performance deserves special mention. I did some research on Namecheap's server infrastructure and only found references to the always mysterious “cloud.” I asked the help desk for clarification and discovered that this specific cloud is flying over Phoenix, Arizona.

I'm not sure what Namecheap is feeding their servers in Phoenix, but they should share it.

I tested the uptime of my website for over two weeks and was very happy to see a 99.92% result:

While Namecheap offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee for classic shared hosting, promising to reimburse you with free hosting for any downtime (determined by them...), I couldn't find any mention of an uptime guarantee for EasyWP.

The home page announces an uptime of 99.9%, but the terms of use do not promise this.

Hosting Features

The best way to get to know a service is to analyze its characteristics one by one. That is why we offer you a detailed analysis of all the features of Namecheap.

1. Domain names

Namecheap offers an excellent domain registration service.

They have the capacity to register over 400 extensions, making them a perfect option for registering domains.

The Beast mode whatthey offer on their site is also very interesting. It's a domain name generator that will give you great names. All this based on keywords that you choose and very interesting filters.

This function allows you to know directly all the available domain names related to the keywords you are interested in.

2. Email

Namecheap offers several webmail plans with very good features.

The packages for Namecheap include 3 to 10 GB of storage space, as well as anti-spam software and very good user interfaces.

In addition, your WordPress, shared, and dedicated hosting plans come with email plans. You have the ability to create an unlimited number of email accounts, automatic replies, and many other important features.

These features make it a great web email service, which is perfect for maintaining a much more serious profile as part of any project thanks to Namecheap.

3. Databases

Databases are an important part of any project.

And it's a feature that's becoming more and more limited in the web hosting world.

In the case of Namecheap, their plans have an excellent amount of databases.

In the most basic plans, we observe that they allow the creation of 50 MySQL databases, which have phpMyAdmin to be administered in a more efficient way. By increasing the scale of the plans a little more, the databases become unlimited.

4. Apps

Namecheap has several applications that can be very useful for developing any project.

They offer some like Easy WP, which allows you to install and configure WordPress in a very simple way.

They also have their own VPN service so you can surf anonymously and without limits. They offer the G suite, which is a set of Google tools, optimized to work in a much more organized way.

In addition, they offer their own web page builder, such as drag and drop. It's called canvas and it offers a very easy way to create web pages.

Most of the apps it offers are free, and you can start using others for relatively low monthly fees. Some of my favorites include the website builder at just $3.99 per month, the free logo maker, and the website uptime monitoring app, which is also free to use.

Few other domain registrars offer applications that help you beyond the process of registering a domain and buying a hosting plan. Here's an overview of Namecheap's apps you can use:

• Supersonic CDN - Ensures that your website works as fast as possible.
• Validation.com - Verify and identify customers online
• EasyWP - Easy to use WordPress site builder, ideal if you don't have technical knowledge.
• Namecheap VPN - Protect your online privacy
• G Suite - a centralized messaging solution for all your online communications
• Business Card Maker - Do you need an online business card? You can design one with their business card maker.
• Logo Maker - You can create professional logos without having to hire a designer.
• Strikingly - An easy to use website builder for all your site design needs.
• Weebly - Easily create a website with Weebly.
• Ghost Machine - A blog creation application that allows you to create a blog in the blink of an eye.
• Namecheap uptime monitoring - You can track the uptime and interruptions of your site.
• Namecheap Legal - With Namecheap Legal, you can easily incorporate your business and form a suitable LLC.
• Canvas - An easy to use website builder that you can start using in minutes.

5. Storage

The storage offered by Namecheap is fairly balanced across all of its plans. Count on each of your servers with SSDs that guarantee much better loading speed.

The most basic plans offer a minimum of 20GB of storage, which is pretty good for a basic hosting plan. The most expensive shared plans offer 50GB, which is great considering the price.

The plans VPS and dedicated hosting plans also offer significant storage, ranging from 40GB to 1TB of hard drive capacity.

Likewise, at a lower price than the competition.

6. Transfer

Transfer speed is too important because it directly affects the loading speed of your page. It is also important to take this into account based on the flow of users you expect to have on the web.

In the case of Namecheap, they offer quality bandwidth for their shared hosting plans, which means there is no limit. However, as it's shared hosting, it can be a bit conflicting for other users.

Dedicated hosting and VPS plans have fairly large bandwidths. They range from 1TB to more, which is perfect for an ambitious project.

7. Multisite

This is another feature that makes Namecheap stand out. All of the hosting plans they offer have the capacity to store multiple sites. That makes it a fairly flexible hosting provider.

The most basic plans offer hosting for up to 3 domains. By increasing the price, all plans above the basic plan offer space for an unlimited number of domains. This feature is very well supported as many other providers limit it.

8. SSL certificate

Another point where Namecheap offers a very good service.

All of this provider's plans offer Positive SSL certificates, which is one of the most sought after on the market. This will make your website look much more reliable for everyone.

They also sell this service without the need to rent accommodation. But the price is a bit high, starting at 7 euros for each certificate. It is much more convenient to acquire them through a hosting plan.

Services Offered

Namecheap offers the following services on its website. It should be noted that each of these can be divided into subcategories, which may be more specialized in what you are looking for.

1. Hosting

Namecheap offers various services ofweb hosts.

These range from traditional shared hosting to optimized WordPress plans. They also offer VPS and dedicated servers with great features.

2. Website builder

This service is completely free with the rental of any hosting plan.

It is a software that will allow you to design your website using visual elements, by dragging and placing them where you want them.

This service offers numerous templates, store optimization, payment gateways, and other features such as responsive designs and social media.

3. Webmail

Namecheap offers specialized email plans. These allow you to choose custom domains, manage your accounts through a great interface, and offer good tools to help you fight spam.

4. VPN

This provider has its own service VPN, which is priced at £1.70 per month.

It is perfect for changing the IPs of your servers at your convenience. It has a large number of sites and the connection speed is quite good.

5. Logo creator

Namecheap offers a very good logo maker that will help you give a good image to your website.

It is worth mentioning that this service is completely free, you can create and upload your logo at no cost.

Customer Support

It has been a rollercoaster of emotions so far! After the performance, you need to ask yourself how is the support? Is it fantastic? Terrible?

Well, the support is just a little bit there. He is neither bad, nor rude, nor wholly ignorant, but sometimes support agents need your... assistance.

Let me explain it to you.

First of all, support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no phone numbers or emails you can contact, but live chat is accessible from almost any screen, and there's also a support center with a ticketing system.

My first interaction with support was prior to the purchase of my plan. I opened a live chat session and an agent reached me in about a minute. I asked general questions about the difference between EasyWP and regular shared hosting, and it took him a minute or two to respond to my messages.

When we talked about SSLs that are not included in EasyWP, Rouslan agreed with me that this was not well described in the features. Points for the franchise.

My second interaction with Namecheap support came after I was unable to connect my Namecheap domain to the plan.

I knew the reason - I had changed the name servers to BlueHost detailed review - but I wanted to see if support could find the solution.

The agent understood that the problem was with the name servers, but directed me to the wrong tab. I sent a screenshot of this page, and she realized her mistake. She then directed me to the right tab.

My experience with the ticketing system was less successful as it took over an hour to get a response.

The agent did not answer my last question, but in general the answer was satisfactory.

During my last live chat interaction, I attempted to ask for the difference between “monthly visitors” and “bandwidth” in the EasyWP plan. Although the representative tried to provide complete answers, he took some time to get the information and did not fully understand the questions.

In summary? If you stick to live chat and are patient enough, support can help with basic questions. If you're going to rely on them for more complex problems, you might not be as lucky.

Pricing

Namecheap is affordable for everyone. Its diversity of plans for services like WordPress is great, as is the inclusion of cPanel.

Namecheap has a large number of hosting services for any type of need. This variety is a great option for choosing a plan that is perfect for your project.

The shared hosting service offered by Namecheap is great for anyone starting out in the world of web development. All plans come with unlimited bandwidth, an SSL certificate, a 30-day warranty, and free domain registration.

Namecheap's shared hosting plans include the following:

• Stellar : $1.31 per month, 20GB SSD, and 3 domains.
• Plus : $2.22 per month, unlimited SSDs, and unlimited domains.‍
• Business : 3.48 per month, 50 GB SSD, and unlimited domains.

Namecheap also offers hosting for WordPress, which is great because it is optimized for this CMS. All offer pre-installed WordPress, an available control panel, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and automatic backups.

The WordPress cPanel hosting plans offered by Namecheap are as follows

• Easy WP Starter : $3.53 per month, supports 50,000 visitors.
• WP Turbo : $7.17 per month, supports 200,000 visitors.‍
• Supersonic WP : $10.81 per month, supports 500,000 visitors

In addition, Namecheap offers hosting services for resellers starting at $17 per month. It also has VPS services starting at 10.81 euros per month. Finally, they offer a dedicated hosting service starting at $36.88 per month.

Onboarding

As with any new product, signing up for a new host can be both daunting and exciting.

The process of getting a new customer on board is a critical part of eliminating the intimidating part — and adding to the excitement.

In business jargon, this process is called “onboarding.” And there's nothing that can make buyers regret like a confusing onboarding process.

Ideally, after having subscribe to a hosting plan, you would immediately receive your login details and you could either follow a guided tutorial or connect directly to your new dashboard.

Namecheap does just that.

They send a welcome email where you can connect directly to your services or follow the instructions to access appropriate help resources.

Their account background is clean and minimalistic. There are no flashing banners or relentless sales.

Their quick WordPress installation software installs a clean version of WordPress, without plugins nor themes additional.

And a simple, minimalistic backend.

This is a service well suited for DIYers or newbies looking for a super cheap but simple web hosting company.

Data Center

Upon registration, they offer a choice between Namecheap's three data centers:

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

The Arizona data center doesn't cost more. In contrast, data centers in the United Kingdom and Amsterdam cost $1 more per month.

American data center or British data center. This makes it a great choice for non-US customers who serve visitors who are closer to the UK than the US.

Backups

Namecheap also does 2x weekly backups of your hosting account.

While you should back up yourself, it's a great safety net to have.

And backups are included for free with Namecheap. Usually, this is a paid or limited bonus feature with competitors like:

• BlueHost
• HostPapa
• GreenGeeks
• Dreamhost
• HostGator

Alternatives to Namecheap

I've used several well-known web hosting services as a consultant and consumer, and here's how NameCheap's hosting compares directly to each of them.

1. iPage vs. NameCheap

HostGator has a distinct sister brand called iPage, which focuses on cheap and economical web hosting. This company is owned by Endurance International but, unlike what happened with HostGator, their investments don't seem to be as active. The main goal of iPage seems to be to provide users with incredibly low short-term prices. While this is a great thing for those who want to save money, it is a fluke when it comes to their poor performance and lack of decent customer support. Even though iPage offers unlimited features, my choice is still NameCheap.

2. HostGator vs. NameCheap

In the accommodation sector, HostGator is incredibly well known. This is another company owned by Endurance International, making it another sister brand to iPage and Bluehost. HostGator is one of the main brands owned by Endurance International and is known for its solid balance between good support, long-term pricing, and decent performance.

Users will find Hostgator's support and performance much better, as well as fewer plan limitations with HostGator. However, if you manage a single small website that you don't expect to have a lot of traffic on, I recommend using NameCheap. For those who intend to create several larger sites, the optimal choice is HostGator.

3. InMotion vs. NameCheap

When it comes to the fastest independent businesses in the industry, meaning they're owned by employees and not by a big corporation, InMotion is one of the biggest companies to achieve this goal. I have used a VPS server in the past through InMotion. Users will find that InMotion has better features for their plans, better customer support, and better performance compared to NameCheap. Their prices are higher than NameCheap for everything, but you really get what you pay for, so I would choose InMotion.

One thing users should note about InMotion is that the company also has a startup hosting brand called Web Hosting Hub. This company provides users with great performance and unlimited price options that are much better than those of InMotion. These two companies are in direct competition with NameCheap. Although they are always more expensive, they are a great option for those who prefer to work with independent hosting companies.

FAQs

Does Namecheap offer free trials?

Namecheap offers a 30-day free trial with all of their WordPress hosting plans. It's worth noting that the free trial deprives you of all other launch rates, so you'll have to pay full price to sign up after the trial period.

If you'd rather get started, Namecheap also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans. You can sign up and test everything Namecheap has to offer without making a commitment for a year or two.

How much does Namecheap cost per month?

Shared hosting plans are competitive, even with the most affordable hosting providers such as Hostinger.

Starting at $2.41/month, Namecheap is worth considering by budget-conscious people.

For those who want to use a British or European server, pay attention to the higher cost. When I compared the servers for my shared hosting site, I noticed that the British servers all cost a bit more than the American servers. It's not a huge extra cost, but you have to think about it.

If you need to save money, check out our best cheap web hosting services - not only are they the most profitable suppliers at the moment, but there are also some great deals to be had on this list.

What is the cheapest hosting service?

Despite Namecheap's extremely affordable prices, it's not the cheapest web host I've found. Hostinger is the most economical hosting provider currently available.

Not only are its plans even cheaper than Namecheap's, but it also comes with better features like LiteSpeed server technology and other additions that are great for WordPress hosting.

Final Verdict

A vast majority of Namecheap reviews are positive. Many users point out that the quality/price ratio is excellent.

On the other hand, their services are very fast and their customer service helps them if there are any problems during their use.

Namecheap allows you to create multiple websites with very cheap plans, which is great for creating and managing multiple projects. All with SSL certificates and a free domain name. You can also set up important applications such as your webmail or WordPress via cPanel.

Undoubtedly, Namecheap's features provide a quality service. This is a great option for anyone who doesn't have a hosting provider yet.