In the world of domain name registration, few names are bigger than Namecheap. Namecheap is well established in domain registration for its low prices and reliable service.
Like many other registrars, Namecheap also offers hosting services. Unfortunately, while we all know Namecheap the registrar, few of us know Namecheap I the host. This isn’t surprising, given that the company’s name directly refers to domains and not hosting, but nonetheless…
Today, you’re in luck! Because in this review I will summarise my findings from using Namecheap. And to make things extra special, I’ll talk about Namecheap as both a host and registrar.
So, how does Namecheap stack up? Is it only good for being cheap? Is it only good for managing its 10 million domains, or can it do the other part of the site equation as well?
It’s complicated, but we’ll get there. So without further ado, let’s talk about Namecheap!
NameCheap Review: Pros
Let’s start with what Namecheap has going for it, as a domain registrar and as a host.
For both domain registration and hosting, Namecheap’s most notable strength is its affordability. Though prices of course vary product to product, it’s pretty clear that Namecheap generally has some of the lowest prices on domain registration and hosting.
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Namecheap’s domain registrar side is decently-featured—you can do whatever you need to and importantly, you get free Whois privacy for a year with every domain registration (most registrars charge).
As a host, Namecheap isn’t laden with features and resources, but it’s certainly decent for the price—particularly with shared hosting, where one might already be looking for affordable options, Namecheap provides a good mix of price and resources.
One great thing about Namecheap is it’s very easy to use. Both hosting and registering a domain with Namecheap are seamless processes, with an intuitive and simple user interface largely lacking upsells.
Clearly, Namecheap is on a roll here—its customer support is good too, overall. The representatives are generally helpful and responsive, and the on-site information is decent. Nothing exceptional here, but little to complain about either.
Namecheap also has good security and is reliable as a registrar.
As a host…well, it’s time we get to the downsides.
NameCheap Review: Cons
Downsides? But Namecheap was just doing so well! Yeah, well, low prices don’t always guarantee quality in everything, unfortunately.
The main qualm I have with Namecheap is questionable uptime scores (by our measurements). Our measurements have shown uptime below industry standard. Now, this isn’t the end of the world, but it does make its hosting look less attractive.
Additionally, for Namecheap’s higher-end hosting products (such as VPS and dedicated hosting), I think Namecheap’s decent prices don’t count as much. Sure, it’s good to save, but anyone already investing in a heavier-handed hosting solution wants quality above all else.
With that in mind, it’s not that Namecheap is bad—it just might be a bit risky. If you’re looking for a more serious hosting solution, you’re probably better off checking out a company primarily dedicated to hosting.
On paper, the list of downsides doesn’t seem too long. However, they are a bit severe and may make Namecheap less attractive for some potential customers. We’ve only scratched the surface so far, though—let’s go deep into the details!
NameCheap Review: Pricing and Features:
This is a lot of information, so I’m going to talk first about Namecheap’s features and pricing as a domain registrar and then as a host. The other factors—ease of use onwards—are easier to evaluate together.
Namecheap has a registrar is undoubtedly strong. The short version: it’s got great prices, good features, and is very straightforward as a service. No wonder it manages 10 million domains.
The longer version: a single .com domain on Namecheap usually goes for $8.88 a year at the time of this writing.
This is already a few bucks below the typical price, and though the renewal fees are higher, they are not significantly more so—especially if you purchase more than one year at the very beginning.
As a matter of fact, Namecheap is one of the best options if you want to hold onto your domains for more than the first two years because renewal prices remain consistently low across the board.
You also get a free year of WhoisGuard, which is great because domain registrars tend to charge for it separately, and it’s essential for most users (WhoisGuard protects your privacy by hiding your registration details from the public registry of domains).
If you want to buy in bulk, Namecheap is still a good option. It’s got a ton of top-level domains (TLDs) to choose from, most of which are competitively priced. Namecheap’s tools are straightforward enough that even a bulk-buyer can manage things without much of a hassle.
Namecheap’s domain management apparatus also has an app store, but it’s pretty lackluster.
Without bogging you down with unnecessary information, Namecheap’s work as a domain registrar is very solid. There aren’t a whole lot of tools, but that’s pretty natural considering you’re managing domains, not websites—and as far as those tools go, they work well and are very easy to get the hang of.
Let’s talk about its hosting:
As far as hosting goes, Namecheap has a surprisingly comprehensive set of options: shared, WordPress, reseller, VPS, and dedicated server hosting are all available.
If you’re like me, you’d expect shared hosting to be Namecheap’s main point of attraction—after all, affordable hosting seems like it would naturally be Namecheap’s strength.
you pay month to month, it starts at $2.88. Although we haven’t gotten into features yet, that’s a pretty great price. But what makes it even more impressive is that it’s a month-to-month price, which is usually significantly more expensive. To have a monthly price so low means Namecheap’s shared hosting is on another level of affordability, that matched by only one or two other hosting companies.
Paying annually is even cheaper, at least for the first year. The second year, the price doubles—typical. But even here, a doubling of the price is still incredibly affordable. The renewed price of shared hosting with Namecheap is on par with first-year discounted prices on most other major hosting providers.
This makes Namecheap a truly affordable shared hosting option even after the renewal price. Okay, but is the price worth it?
Shared hosting options come with at minimum 20GB SSD-accelerated disk space, unmetered bandwidth, 3 websites, a site-builder, and the choice of a US or UK data center (though the UK datacenters cost a buck or two more a month). They also come with free domains, free WhoisGuard, and up to 50 Positive SSL certificates.
As you’d expect, higher tiers give you unlimited sites, AutoBackup option and more SSD disk space. Back-ups are decent—twice a week for the first two tiers, and 6x a day every week for the third tier. As is common with other providers, you can add a dedicated IP for an extra $2 a month, and you get access to an app store that has a good amount of free apps.
The main problem I have with the features is the third tier is limited to 50GB of pure SSD disk space. This is a good amount, but for a third-tier, I still think it could be higher.
All in all, I’ve got to say shared hosting looks pretty solid in terms of its features. How about everything else?
WordPress hosting is also very well-priced. Of course, the monthly price is higher than the yearly price, but nonetheless, it’s certainly at or below the market price for WordPress hosting.
Namecheap’s WordPress hosting runs on Namecheap’s cloud, and supposedly this makes it much faster than using WordPress on a normal shared hosting account. Aside from that, it doesn’t look feature-laden but has decent enough pricing that it’s fair.
It looks pretty similar for reseller hosting.
The prices are still pretty low, and if you know what you’re doing, you can easily make a tidy profit. I do wonder if the first tier could use some more disk space, but it’s okay.
VPS hosting is still pretty affordable, but a little more in the “normal” range.
The resources allocated to the VPS plans aren’t bad, but there are other providers that have higher quality VPS options for similar prices, or at least prices not significantly more expensive.
Last but not least, dedicated server options with Namecheap are alright. You can choose from clearance (lower end) servers, or “new” servers (guess what that means).
Clearance servers are surprisingly affordable. Yes, even for products categorized as “clearance” servers. You’ve got 32 options with decent specs.
NameCheap Review: Ease of Use
Note: Sorry for the censor! It’s a top-secret project I’m not ready to show the world…yet!
Anyway, ease of use is a little more important for hosting in my opinion. Yes, hosting is similar to domain registration in that you’re basically looking for the right allocation of resources for the right price, and then you can let your host do the job for you.
However, hosting is a bit more complicated because of all the various things involved: you might be using a site builder or integrating with WordPress, or you might be managing SSL certificates or email accounts or any number of other things. Plus, there are a lot more things to manage the hosting of your website.
So it’s similar, but a different beast. Luckily Namecheap makes it as easy to manage your hosting as the best of them. Namecheap’s user interface for hosting is very similar to its domain management user interface (pictured above).
Here’s another thing that’s both good and bad: Namecheap makes it very easy to connect your domain with hosting, if you want to use Namecheap for both. Why is this bad? Because it means some upselling that can get annoying, though it’s not too much.
On the bright side, if you want to couple your host and domain, it’ll be a breeze with Namecheap. Once you actually begin to use Namecheap’s web hosting service, I’d say it’s pretty straightforward.
Like its domain registrar, Namecheap is intuitive to use and has an easy user interface. The included cPanel will simplify everything and Namecheap’s skins will ensure the experience stays smooth.
Plus, Namecheap’s shared hosting packages come with a website builder included. This is pretty normal, but Namecheap’s site builder is particularly intuitive and efficient.
One thing I like about Namecheap is its relative transparency. True, Namecheap isn’t placing a huge banner on its landing page that says “YOUR HOSTING PACKAGE WILL RENEW AT X PRICE!”
But it’s still a company that keeps things mostly straightforward for the user. This is true for the domain registration process and the post-registration domain management process. It’s also true for hosting: it’s very easy to examine your account’s settings and modify them as needed.
In conclusion: Namecheap’s domain registration is about as easy as can be—only Google Domains is any simpler—and its hosting is about as easy to use as Namecheap’s main competitors.
NameCheap Review: Customer Support
One cannot, of course, always rely on a product being easy to use. Sometimes technical difficulties arise, or sometimes software is easy to use but you need to know how to do something unusual, make a change to your account, etc.
Customer support is therefore essential—does Namecheap’s affordability come at the cost of good customer support? Let’s see.
Note: keep in mind that Namecheap’s customer support resources are shared between the domain and the hosting side.
First off, you have a few options for contacting representatives directly. You can do this via a ticket or live chat—no phone support currently, unfortunately. However, the ticketing and live chat have worked out pretty well for me in the past
NameCheap Review: Do I recommend Namecheap?
All things considered, how is Namecheap?
As a registrar, Namecheap clearly deserves its spot as one of the top dogs. It’s got good prices, an easy interface for managing domains, and has good deals all along the spectrum of single-domain purchasers to bulk-buyers.
As a host, Namecheap is considerably more complicated. On one hand, Namecheap is very affordable for lower-end hosting products, the shared or WordPress hosting packages.
These packages have really low prices and decent resource allocations. They’re pretty good deals for those who are willing to risk some potentially iffy uptime.
The higher-end tiers look good on paper, but I would leave it to a company that specializes more directly in hosting.
Namecheap seems great, but our uptime measurements have been a light Achilles heel. Particularly if you have ecommerce needs, Namecheap might be a bit risky.
If having top-tier site uptime is less important to you—typically you’d be a hobbyist or perhaps a business that wants a site but does not find a site essential to the business—then Namecheap could still be a decent option that saves you money.
In short, my conclusion is that Namecheap is a risky option for those with intense hosting needs, and a steal for those who don’t. As a registrar, it’s mostly great all around. But if you’re still unsure, just try it risk-free for 30 days!
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