Expert Namecheap Review
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap’s shared hosting is incredibly good on price, but somewhat lacking in performance-related features.
Their Stellar Business plan used to be quite good, but with the RAM-based caching reliant on old PHP versions, we think this is long due an upgrade on the technical side. Overall, while we love Namecheap as a Registrar, we can’t get excited about their shared hosting. "
- cPanel with Softaculous for easy hosting management and software installation.
- Up to 50 FREE Positive SSL certificates for the first year.
- Twice-weekly backups as standard, with daily + weekly backups on their Stellar Business plan.
- 24 / 7 Technical Support via Live Chat and Ticket.
- Choice of PHP on all plans, including PHP 7.2. SSD Accelerated Hosting, with full SSD Storage on their Stellar Business Plan.
- Free drag and drop website builder included with over 200 templates.
Namecheap is a well-renowned company with a rock solid reputation. We even use them ourselves for domain name registration and private email (for old email addresses). Their support is excellent, and you will find their online chat support staff very knowledgeable. They don’t offer anything spectacular, or innovative, but, they appear to be reasonably reliable, and they offer superb value.
While our opinion of Namecheap sounds very positive, it is very predicated on their low price point. It wouldn’t even get a look in when compared with some of the more expensive premium hosting providers out there.
When we first reviewed them a few years ago (before PHP 7 was released), we would highly recommend their Stellar Business plan due to xCache, but since this only works with older versions of PHP (pre PHP 7), we feel it is in need of some technological upgrades. However, they do offer specialist Managed WordPress Hosting which is set in an optimized environment. They say that it is three times faster than standard shared hosting.
As a long time customer of Namecheap ourselves, if all you need is cheap hosting then give them a try. They are reliable, helpful, and simply one of the best registrars out there (see our other opinion on them as a registrar in the other tab).
Let’s take a little closer look at their shared hosting.
Stellar and Stellar Plus - Great introductory pricing
The two primary Namecheap plans are virtually identical apart from the amount of disk space, the number of websites allowed, and a few control panel features. If you only have a couple of websites to host, then the Stellar Plan should be sufficient. With resources limited on a per account basis, rather than a per website basis, it may be more beneficial to buy two Value Plans rather than upgrade to the Professional Plan, as this gives you twice the amount of resources. Namecheap uses CloudLinux to manage the resources for each account, which can set things like the RAM, max CPU time, and the number of concurrent server requests. Surprisingly, they scale their resource allocations, with more being given for each higher priced plan.
| Resource Type | Stellar | Stellar Plus | Stellar Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Limit, % | 20 | 40 | 60 |
| RAM Limit | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Burstable CPU Limit, % | 100 | 200 | 400 |
In terms of features, you get:
- Accelerated SSD Technology (caching of frequently accessed files on SSD storage) - 100% Uptime SLA - cPanel Control Panel - One-Click Installs of WordPress and other popular apps via Softaculous - Live Chat and Ticket Support - twice-weekly backups
Stellar Business Plan - Great for E-commerce
The Ultimate Plan is three times the cost of the Stellar Plan but allows 50GB SSD-Accelerated disk space, unlimited websites, and significantly more resources.
In addition to the features above you get daily backups and PCI compliance (required if you hold customers’ credit card data).
It also has xCache available which allows RAM-based caching, which is particularly effective with E-Commerce websites and even WordPress. The only problem with xCache is that it relies on older versions on PHP, making it a dubious choice when PHP 7 is so much faster than 5.6.
Support
They offer support via Live Chat and Ticket. Unfortunately, there appears to be no telephone support available. It very much comes down to personal choice what type of support people prefer, and for us, phone support is not that important. They also have a bustling community forum which typically receives helpful support from staff within about 3-4 hours. Also, you will find a representative (Matthew Russell) ready to help with any issues on popular web hosting forums such as Webhostingtalk.
They use a relatively sophisticated third-party support system called Kayako, which for the number of customers they service is a must. This helps them keep wait times low, as well as prioritize, follow up and monitor their response times.
It is always difficult to assess how good, or bad, a web hosting company’s support is unless you have used them for a long time. Fortunately, in their case, we have been a customer for many years. Of course, our primary dealings have been with domain registration and SSL certificates, but we do occasionally get a hosting account with them for small projects when they have some good offers available.
Take one example we had of using their support. We had a very quick query relating to our hosting account login URL and login details. Within 6 minutes of needing help, we had requested live chat support, had our question dealt with and finished the live chat conversation. Having an effective means to get quick answers is incredibly valuable, and they appear to tick all the boxes in how they deal with that. Our experience with their ticket support has sometimes kept us waiting for 5-6 hours, but recent feedback indicates they have reduced that to around 1-2 hours.
Overall, those kind of response times for ticket support are adequate for the price you pay, and a certainly over the many years we have dealt with them, we have never had any problems.
Our Namecheap Review Summary
Here is a quick list on what they get right:
Reliable web hosting services - As far as we can see when problems occur they work hard to resolve the issues and are very proactive in reaching out to people in the community who are experiencing issues.
CPanel - They use the standard cPanel, which is extremely user-friendly, and has all the tools and features that make managing your website very easy.
Great Upsells - Fantastic pricing on domains, and free SSLs.
Excellent customer support - Their support staff know what they are doing, and they reply within a reasonable amount of time. Couple with their comprehensive knowledge base, they can easily guide you through how to carry out various tasks.
Experienced Domain Registrar - This used to be their core business (and we guess still is). They have developed a comprehensive interface to manage your domains that you will find easy to use. After using them, you won’t ever want to leave.
Integrated CloudFlare - We are a big fan of CloudFlare in combination with shared hosting. CloudFlare can increase your site’s performance while reducing the strain on your server, which for shared hosting matters. We particularly like it when CloudFlare can be set up via a one-click install solution via the cPanel.
CloudLinux - Added security and stability due to isolation and limiting of hosting accounts.
Pure SSD Storage with their Stellar Business Plan
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap offer just two VPS plans. Both have full SSD and root access, although if you choose the “Fully Managed” server management service, root access is restricted. Further resources, such as RAM, Disk Space, Backup Storage can be added at additional cost.
Their VPS include cPanel for a small additional cost, and no specific server optimizations are made with the exception of various security firewalls. "
- cPanel, Softaculous and WHMCS available for a small additional cost.
- FREE .WEBSITE domain name included with VPS servers.
- SSD Storage for lower latency, and higher throughput. Raid 10 for increased performance and reliability.
- VPS servers are easy to upgrade and downgrade. Priority Support included as standard.
- Their Redundant Tier 1-powered network provides fast download and site loading speeds around the globe.
- Various server management plans are available to suit your requirements and cost. WordPress and application tuning is only available on their fully managed plan.
Namecheap offers two customizable Linux VPS servers with a choice of server management plans:
- The VPS Pulsar plan offers 40 GB Raid 10 SSD storage, 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, and 1 TB Bandwidth.
- The VPS Quasar plan offers 120 GB Raid 10 SSD storage, 4 CPU cores, 6 GB RAM, and 3 TB Bandwith.
Both plans come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 20 GB Backup Storage (free with the Full management option), Root level access (not with full management), and 14-day money back guarantee.
Optional extras include cPanel, Softaculous, and WHMCS. These can be ordered when you first sign up, or at any time after that.
Let’s take a look at some of the more important aspects of Namecheap’s VPS Hosting:
Server Configurations
If you decide to self-manage your server, you can choose from a range of Operating Systems, including CentOS 7, Ubuntu (multiple versions), Debian (multiple versions) and Fedora 28. If you select server management, then CentOS 7 will be installed and configured for you.
When signing up, you have the option to choose the following:
- Operating System - Choose from the O/S described above, plus whether to install the LAMP or cPanel version.
- cPanel - When you select the cPanel operating system, this will automatically update to cPanel VPS Optimized.
- Server Management - Choose from Self Managed, Managed, or Fully Managed. We discuss these options further below.
As you can see from the screenshot below, the sign-up process is straightforward. Log in or sign in to your existing account, choose your domain, and then configure from the few options indicated above.
Server Management
As you can see above, the server delivered by Namecheap is vanilla. There are no optimizations, or custom caching installed. Out of the box, these are not suited for beginners, and to make the most of them you would need some server admin knowledge.
If you need help with your VPS server, Namecheap does offer Server Management Plans, as follows:
Self Managed - This is free as you will be doing all the work. It includes the initial setup when ordering, and then free reinstallations of your Operating System and cPanel software.
Managed - This is suitable for people that know a little about server management, but may need some help from time to time. It includes full root access. Here you get free reinstallations of your operating system, pro-active monitoring, and support for core LAMP stack features. This costs $30 per month.
Fully Managed - This is suitable for beginners, but at the cost of $75 per month, you may wish to consider more newbie-friendly VPS or Cloud hosting elsewhere that comes with full management as standard. It restricts root access as Namecheap will take care of everything. You get pro-active monitoring, LAMP stack support, 20 GB off-site backups, priority support, and popular application support and tuning (i.e., WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, ZenCart, and Opencart).
It is difficult to know what Namecheap means by application tuning with their Fully Managed server management, but we suspect it includes some kind of RAM-based caching, and maybe NGINX as a reverse proxy. It is worth checking this before purchasing.
Final Thoughts
Namecheap’s VPS offerings are competitively priced when looked at from an unmanaged point of view. Digital Ocean, for example, will set you back $15 per month for a comparable system (with an extra 20GB SSD Storage).
Where Namecheap could do better is with their fully managed VPS hosting. You only have to look at the likes of SiteGround, A2 Hosting or TMD Hosting to see how a fully managed VPS or Cloud product can be offered out the box, fully tuned with advanced caching for around the same price of Namecheap’s offerings when including the $75 per month full management.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap’s reseller hosting is targeted towards both resellers and web developers looking to host client websites. They utilize cPanel and WHM for managment.
Their reseller hosting is very basic, with standard HDD storage, and no special performance-related features. Only the Universe Pro plan comes with WHMCS starter for billing automation. Namecheap use high-powered servers for the reseller hosting, including 24 CPU cores, 32 GB RAM, and Raid 10 HDD. "
- FREE cPanel Control Panel and WHM to manage user accounts and packages.
- Free WHMCS Starter with their Universe Pro Plan to automate billing and account setup.
- Servers are protected with hardware and software firewalls alongside their own in-house security package.
- Access to Namecheap’s SSL reseller program, white label marketing tools, and more.
- Anonymous Nameservers for a more professional image to end users.
- 14-day money back guarantee. Free transfers from other cPanel-based providers.
Namecheap offers Linux based reseller hosting with the WHM \ cPanel control panels to manage all aspects of the account.
Hosting is available both in the US and the UK, and three plans are available for each. All plans include unlimited Bandwidth, but with the following differences:
- Nebula - This includes just 25 resold accounts and 30 GB HDD storage.
- Galaxy Expert - This includes unlimited resold accounts, double the CPU and RAM as the Nebula plan, and 90 GB HDD storage
- Reseller - This includes unlimited resold accounts, triple the CPU & quadruple the RAM as the Nebula plan, and 150 GB HDD storage.
Namecheap uses CloudLinux to manage the resources for each reseller account, which can set things like the RAM, max CPU time, and the number of concurrent server requests. As we indicated above, they scale their resource allocations, with more being given for each higher priced plan.
| Resource Type | Nebula | Galaxy Expert | Universe Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Limit, % | 800 | 1600 | 2400 |
| RAM Limit, GB | 4 | 8 | 16 |
Accounts can be upgraded or downgraded at any time.
Configurable Options
When signing up for one of Namecheap’s Reseller Hosting plans, you will have the option to choose between a US or UK data ($1 per month more), whether you would want personal nameservers, and whether you would like a WHMCS Starter Licence (free with Universe Pro). You can see these options in the screenshot below:
Reseller features
We have set out below a few of the most interesting features:
All of Namecheap’s reseller plans do not carry their name or company logo. You can easily market your own brand, with custom nameservers or custom cPanel branding, but failing that, you can use the default anonymous nameservers and vanilla cPanel branding.
While there are no performance related features built into the server, your end users can utilize CloudFlare free CDN to speed up their website significantly.
Generous resource allocations mean that you can easily host many client websites on your reseller plan. Furthermore, you can easily upgrade as you grow.
The Softaculous application installer will allow your end users to install web applications such as WordPress easily. Namecheap’s servers also support languages such as Perl, Ruby on Rails and PHP.
End users can use cPanel to manage all aspects of their hosting account. Let them manage their email accounts, instant backups, and automatic CodeGuard backup solutions among many other features. You can even customize which features they can access, and create custom hosting plans for your clients.
Support can be obtained via live chat or ticket. You also can use their extensive knowledge base to help with many tasks should you wish to do things yourself.
Namecheap Reseller Review Final Thoughts
Their reseller account is about as standard as you can get.
With the popularity of even basic enhancements such as SSD storage, you may struggle to compete with competitors if starting your own hosting company.
If you are a developer, surely it is in your interest to impress your valued clients with fast hosting, otherwise, they may think your web design is slow.
Overall, their reseller hosting fits in with the budget nature of their other offerings. If you want something cheap, then go ahead. If you want something you can easily resell or impress your clients, you may want to think again.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap have recently updated their dedicated hosting offerings with three customizable servers. Couple that with a range of superbly priced management plans, they represent excellent choice and value.
They are extremely well-priced, even when you add in the Complete management plan at just $50. This should definitely make your shortlist. "
- Optional WHM + cPanel Control Panel, Softaculous, and WHMCS.
- Range of management options with proactive response.
- Priority support by live chat or ticket.
- Choice of Operating Sytems, including CentOS and CloudLinux.
- Root, Reboot, and IPMI Access, unless you select the Complete Management plan.
- Enterprise Intel Xeon Servers - E3-1230, E3-1270 or E5-2620 with optional SSD Storage.
Namecheap has recently updated their server offerings to provide just three customizable servers:
- Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 with 4 x 3.4 GHz CPU Cores, 8 GB or 16GB RAM, and choice of hard drives, including SSD.
- Intel Xeon E3-1270 v3 with 4 x 3.5 GHz CPU Cores, 8 GB or 16GB RAM, and choice of hard drives, including SSD.
- Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4 with 2 x 8 x 2.1 GHz CPU Cores, 32 GB or 64GB RAM, and choice of hard drives, including SSD.
They still offer some of the older style servers but renamed them as clearance servers. We suspect these will get removed once they reach the end of life and retired. As such, we shall focus on their newer servers.
By reducing the number and type of their dedicated servers, they can now offer same-day setup within 4 hours of your order being placed.
Let’s take a look at some of the more important aspects of Namecheap’s Dedicated Server Hosting:
Server Configurations
If you decide to self-manage your server, you can choose from a range of options: Operating Systems, including CentOS 7, Ubuntu LTS, Debian or CloudLinux.
When signing up, you have the option to choose the following:
- RAM amount - two options are given.
- Hard Drive type - Choose from a range of options, including Raid 1 SSD.
- Port Speed - Choose between 100 Mbps or 1Gbps.
- Operating Systems - Choose either CentOS 7, Ubuntu LTS, Debian or CloudLinux. Server Management plans require either CentOS or CloudLinux.
- cPanel Control Panel, and Softaculous application installer.
- WHMCS billing platform license - Various licenses are available.
- Server Management Plan - Choose between self-managed, Basic, or Complete. Additional work can be requested at any time for a set hourly rate. Prices are displayed when choosing your management plan. We will discuss these plans below.
- Bandwidth - Choose between 100 TB, 110 TB and 120TB.
Once you have finished selecting your server configuration, you can proceed to payment.
Server Management plans
The servers delivered by Namecheap are vanilla. This means they come with a basic configuration, and that you will be required to make any specific optimizations yourself. Fortunately, Namecheap offers three server management plans that take care of things for you, with very cheap hourly pricing ($10 - $20 per hour) for items that are not covered by your specific plan.
The plans are as follows:
#1. User-Responsible
As the name indicates, choosing this shows that you will be self-managing your server. For this, you should have some system administration knowledge, including familiarity with the Linux command line. You are entirely responsible for every aspect of your dedicated server.
The following support is available:
- Initial server setup and configuration
- Detection and resolution of hardware issues
- Server reboot (by request)
- Full root access
Additional help is available for Core Software Changes (OS reinstallation, software version changes, etc.) for the following fee:
- 1 hour – $20.00 flat rate
1 hour – $10.00/hour
If you require help fixing a server failure, where their tech support will investigate the root cause, it will cost the following:
- 1 hour – $20.00 flat rate
1 hour – $10.00/hour
As you can see, despite being self-managed, help is available should you need it.
#2. Basic
The Basic management plan is only available to customers who elect for either the CentOS or CloudLinux operating system, and have cPanel installed. Namecheap will proactively monitor your server and automatically respond to issues should a server failure occur. The following support is available:
- Fixing of unplanned service interruption, but no root cause analysis will be undertaken.
- Vendor updates
- Support for core server services (Apache, Exim, MySQL, FTP, cPanel, DNS)
- Support for tuning core issues in such popular applications as WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, Magento, Zen Cart, and Opencart
Additional help is available for Core Software Changes (OS reinstallation, software version changes, etc.) for the following fee:
- 1 hour – $15.00 flat rate
1 hour – $10.00/hour
If you require help fixing a server failure, where their tech support will investigate the root cause, it will cost the following:
- 1 hour – free
- 2 hours – $15.00 flat rate
2 hours – $10.00/hour
#3. Complete
The Complete management plan is only available to customers who elect for either the CentOS or CloudLinux operating system, and have cPanel installed. Also, you will be required to choose a storage configuration containing at least two hard drives and Raid 1 mirroring. With the Complete plan, Namecheap will take care of everything for you. You will only have WHM reseller access. Root, reboot, and IPMI access will be restricted. In addition to the services contained in the Basic management plan, the Complete plan includes:
- Core software changes
- Incident root cause fix
- Weekly backups to an offsite backup server (50 GB for Dedicated Servers)
- WHM and cPanel Super User (Reseller Level Access)
- Priority support
All diagnostics and root cause analysis are included in the monthly fee. Overall, with the off-site backups included, and all the management taken care of, the Complete plan represents excellent value.
Dedicated Server Review Final Thoughts
Namecheap’s dedicated server offerings are incredibly well-priced, even when you add in the Complete management plan. We don’t know why the management cost is cheaper for dedicated than their VPS servers.
While we were critical about the fully managed VPS cost, we think Namecheap have got their dedicated server offerings spot on, especially with the new dedicated server offerings.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap offer Managed WordPress Hosting powered by the Cloud. It features easy backups and updates, a custom easy to use control panel, and one-click WordPress installation.
Their WordPress servers are optimized in a containerized cloud server, preventing sluggishness from noisy neighbors, and are said to be x3 faster than regular hosting by using Varnish, OPcache, and Redis Caching.”
- EasyWP Plugin takes care of dynamic caching using Varnish, OPCache, and Redis.
- Simple WordPress Updates and on-demand snapshots.
- Hosted on a NGINX configured isolated Cloud Server
- Get notified on resource hungry and unnecessary plugins to help speed up your website.
- 10GB of SSD Storage for reduced latency and a more responsive website.
- Simple control panel (no cPanel) that makes managing your site easy.
Namecheap’s WordPress hosting is very simple. With a custom dashboard and a plan that consists of just one Website (you can add multiple plans), you can easily manage your WordPress install without the distractions of a complex control panel.
You can see the control panel below:
Namecheap does not reveal the specifics of their server configuration on their website, so it is difficult to know if they use SSD Storage, NGINX, OPCache, Memcached or anything of that nature. We took the trouble to dive into their knowledge base and found the following:
The EasyWP plugin was built from the ground up, both to be compatible with our Cloud platform powering EasyWP and to make your WordPress websites faster. It has three levels of advanced caching (Varnish, Opcache, Redis object cache), delivering much faster performance than many of the traditional WordPress caching plugins.
It would appear that much of the functionality of their WordPress Hosting is delivered via a custom plugin that you install within your WordPress installation. It takes care of the caching as mentioned above, but it also blocks plugins that are unnecessary on their platform and which might negatively impact the performance of your website. You can view the full list of plugins here.
In terms of other features, this is what they offer:
- 1x WordPress website installed and ready to go
- Powered by Namecheap Cloud
- 10GB of SSD Storage
- 50K recommended visitors a month
- Easy Backups and Updates
- SFTP Files Access
- Temporary EasyWP free domain
- Support for your Namecheap domains
- 14-days money back guarantee
- 24/7 Namecheap Support included
Managed WordPress Review Final Thoughts
It is clear that Namecheap is offering a budget managed WordPress product, but with some really cool features. With RAM-based dynamic caching utilizing Varnish, Opcache, and Redis object cache, they are ticking all the boxes that we expect from a Managed WordPress Hosting product.
Sure it is cheap, but it is countered by the fact that only one website per plan is allowed. This is a great way to do it.
For simplicity, the control panel looks very clean and easy to use, and they have easy integration with any domains hosted with Namecheap. You can get your site up and running with a temporary domain, and they provide easy access for backups and updates.
If you are interested in hosting with Namecheap, and you run a WordPress website, we highly recommend choosing their managed WordPress plan.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“Namecheap offer an easy to use proprietary drag and drop website builder. It is suitable for small business, online portfolios, and personal websites.
Coupled with various plugins, responsive layouts on over 200 templates, and even E-Commerce payment options it has everything you need to get started. "
- Simple sign up to any shared hosting plan and install.
- Easy to get started with walk-through videos showing how to build a site from scratch.
- 24 / 7 Technical Support via Live Chat and Ticket.
- Easy to use drag and drop website builder with over 200 templates.
- E-Commerce ready with various payment options included.
- Fully mobile ready with responsive design. Various Social Media, Payment and other plugins.
Namecheap offers a very easy to use drag and drop website builder with all shared hosting plans. At the time of this review, they have 198 different templates across 23 different categories.
In terms of hosting features, as this is part of the shared hosting product offered by Namecheap, please see our shared hosting opinion and reviews in our other tab in this section.
The website builder has the following features:
- Drag and drop solution for small businesses, online portfolios, personal websites, and much more.
- Choose from many different plugins to extend the functionality of your website, including Social media, payment functionality, video widgets, Google map widgets, and more.
- Multi-language functionality allows you to choose from 45 different languages.
- Fully responsive designs, so your website automatically adjusts to all devices.
- Almost 200 different templates. You can view all the templates here.
- E-Commerce ready. Seven E-Commerce templates area available, along with various payment options, dynamic attributes, and customizable views.
Namecheap SiteBuilder Interface
The site builder is very easy to use with an intuitive interface. You can add images, shapes, lines, buttons, forms, menu items, social media blocks, and even custom HTML. Just take a look at a screenshot below:
The site builder is SEO friendly, with the ability to set the Title, Description, Keywords, user-friendly URL, and image for each page. You can even enter your Google Analytics Tracking ID (including Anonymise IP setting for GDPR-friendly cookies), and Google Webmaster Tools code.
After building your website, you can publish it to the web, or preview it first.
Overall, the site builder looks good and feels easy to use, at least on our limited play around with it.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“A reputable domain name registrar that offers additional extras at no extra cost.
Each domain comes with private registration, email storage, free SSL Wildcard. They are one of the few registrars that offer 30-day money back promise for domain names.”
- Private Registration. Protect your Whois data for free. Helps prevent spam.
- 2 GB of email storage. Free email address for your domain.
- Free SSL Wildcard Certificate with all domains.
- 1-Click Activation to connect your domain to your hosting account.
- Create up to 10,000 Subdomains for each domain name.
- 30 Day Money Back Promise for domains.
Namecheap has for a long time been one of the most popular domain registrars, used to host millions of domains. We can personally attest to how they take security, and the ease of use of their interface, as long-time users.
Not only does Namecheap offer some of the most competitively priced new domains, but their renewal prices are consistently among the lowest.
You can even get a new .com domain for just $0.88, as well as 10% off all their domains with our exclusive coupons here.
Namecheap domain search
As well as the usual (.com, .net, .info, .org) Top Level Domains, or TLD’s, Namecheap offers a vast range of new domain extensions. You can explore all the new TLD’s by using their explore tool here, or just using their standard domain name search, and clicking the “New” tab, as shown below:
The search functionality will show you those domains that are available, as well as upcoming releases so that you can pre-order them. Preordering new domain names is a request to register the domain when it becomes available, but does not guarantee you will receive your domain name as many people may try to get the same domain if it is popular.
If the domain is not available, the “Make Offer” option appears. This will take you to a premium service called “DomainAgents” which works with Namecheap to contact the domain owner to try and negotiate the purchase.
Free, Basic and Premium DNS Hosting Services
| FreeDNS | Basic DNS Plan | Premium DNS Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLA | None | None | 100% |
| Anycast | No | No | Yes |
| DNSSEC Zone Signing | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly queries | 500K | 1 million | 2 Million |
| Price | Free | Free | $4.88 per year |
The FreeDNS is open to everyone, including users that have their domain registered elsewhere. If you purchase your domain through Namecheap, you will automatically qualify for their Basic DNS Plan, which permits more monthly queries and comes with DNSSEC Zone Signing.
For their FreeDNS and BasicDNS, they use geographically dispersed name servers to increase the speed and performance of DNS lookups, making your website load faster. It is unclear how this differs from their PremiumDNS which features AnyCast.
If you have a Worldwide audience, or appreciate security, uptime and most importantly speed above all else, then we highly recommend signing up to their Premium DNS Plan. This comes with the following benefits:
- 100% DNS Uptime Guarantee
- DNS served from 17 fully redundant, globally distributed Anycast locations
- Advanced DNS DDoS Protection
- Works with any domain at any registrar
- Complete DNSSEC support for DNSSEC-signed TLDs
- New Analytics Dashboard will soon be released providing access to reports for queried hostnames, record type, and country.
The following table was produced by Namecheap and shows how their DNS stacks up against the competition:
As you can see, the price is extremely competitive, and only GoDaddy’s Premium DNS comes close for the features offered, albeit at seven times the cost.
Easy to use Administrative Interface
One thing that has made Namecheap so successful was their very easy to use, yet feature-rich administrative interface. By this, we mean that no matter what task you need to do, such as setting up new A records, or custom nameservers, you can do it extremely quickly and easily.
The Namecheap interface went an overhaul in October 2015, and while it took a little getting used to and a few improvements on Namecheap’s end, it is just as intuitive and easy to use as their previous interface.
You can see a an overview of their dashboard below:
Main Dashboard:
Domain List:
Advanced DNS Control Panel:
Reasonable Support
You can get immediate assistance with your domain issues via their live chat support. If you are happy to wait a few hours, then you can use their ticket-based support.
As a long time user of their service for domains, we have never had an issue with their support. Their live chat staff are fairly knowledgeable, and you do not have to wait long before they accept your chat request. If they do not know something, they will often speak to a support technician while you wait instead of just opening a ticket.
Domain Marketplace
The domain marketplace allows you to sell and buy premium domains. They have a great choice of expensive premium domains, as well as many cheaper domains for sale.
You can see a screenshot of the main search screen below:
As with many domain marketplaces, many of the domains are overpriced or not overly inspiring. With the sheer number of new TLD’s available it is not overly difficult to find a suitable domain for your project or business.
Where the marketplace really comes into its own, is with the more expensive premium domains, and coincidentally, it is where we purchased “thewebmaster.com” at a premium.
The overall purchasing process was straightforward. We just added the domain to cart and purchased like any other domain. After, Namecheap asked for verification due to the sums involved (five figures) after which the domain was acquired and placed in our account. The whole process took around 4 or 5 days.
Selling a domain on Namecheap is just as easy. Simply click manage next to your domain on your domain list:
Then, click “Sell Domain” and enter your asking price, the number of days to list the sale, and the listing category:
Namecheap will charge a 10 percent commission for arranging the sale.
Namecheap Registrar Review Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a great domain provider, then we would highly recommend choosing Namecheap. In fact, they are the only registrar we currently recommend, although this is not to say other registrars are not any good.
We say this for a many reasons:
- The prices are among the best in the industry.
- They are not prolific upsellers like GoDaddy, but even when offers are promoted, they are useful and worthwhile. An example is their free WhoisGuard (to hide your personal information) and cheap SSL certificates.
- They use a Global DNS in partnership with VeriSign for excellent speed and performance for DNS lookups (with their Premium DNS) - All domains include free email forwarding.
- Namecheap provides a powerful but easy to use domain management interface.
- Apart from the features and pricing, Namecheap are big supporters of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns for internet freedoms.
- There are no hidden fees.
Users Reviews
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 1 Cloud Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 1 Reseller Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
I have been using Namecheap for a few months, and have had about 5 minutes of downtime between about 50 websites. (in the middle of the night) For the cost of what they offer (I am using multiple re-seller accounts) and the fact that your domain and DNS is right there too, it’s super-convenient and a great value. OF course you really aren’t supposed to put all your eggs in one basket. But… 10.00 versus 15.00??? (Domain Registrations) As long as you are plenty technical-savvy. If not, it’s not the best choice for a host. I migrated from Bluehost which has turned to be a nightmare in 2015/2016. (BH used to be awesome, 2013-2014) at least for me. Took weeks to migrate everything correctly by myself, but it was worth it.
- PROS: 2.00 SSL
- CONS: No Phone Support
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 24 Domain Registrar Reviews left by our readers.
I purchased around 17 domains with namecheap in Nov 28, 2014, my last update to renew the domains was invoice ID 23231187 on Oct 25, 2016. Today i noticed something weird with one of my domains, the emails was not working and the mx records and nameserver changed, but when i logged in to my namecheap account the nameservers was still correctly pointing to the custom name servers i have set when i bought the domain. So i contacted live support and first was told that this domain is no longer registered with Namecheap. There is ghost record in our system !!!! so i asked how is it possible, since i renewed it and it is still showing active in my account on namecheap. I was then told – “According to our check, the issue was caused by a one-time glitch in our system, as the result, the domain renewed in the order 23231187 on 10/25/2016 did not have its expiration date updated to one more year, regretfully.” So that mean all 17 domains i renewed and paid for is now lost because of a glitch !!!!!!!!! I renewed the domain domain on Oct 25, 2016 and it is still showing active in my account !!!!!!!!!! I was then offered a coupon to register a new domain === what a slap in the face — i had 7 sub domains on the lost domain, each with 5000 mail accounts , so it mean 35,000 email accounts is now lost and i need to go explain to my customers that all their mails are gone…. and that is just 1 of 17 domains !!!!!
I have always spoken highly of namecheap but this is really outrages when your registrar lose 17+ domains of yours because of a glitch then they offer you a $20 coupon . I am sorry but i think that it is time to move to the competition with all my domains .
Will wait and see what their investigation comes up with
Please see Namecheap support ticket : BED-388-82546
I’ve never had so much trouble setting up a website and email before registering my domain name with this company. I’ve literally wasted a month trying to get my website and email up and running!!
When I do live chat with them, they’re barely there answering. It can take up to 10 minutes for them to answer a simple question. when I write"are you still there?", they answer after a minute or so, “yes”. I then have to ask if they read my last question and then it’s silence again. Worst customer service ever.
I want to cancel with them but they won’t refund my money because that’s their policy. They keep the money and that’s your tough luck. Go somewhere else and save yourself the headaches!
Terrible support. Issue with Google Apps left me absolutely furious
When I bought my domain from Namecheap, I bought 1 month of Google Apps (no option to auto renew at point of purchase).
The subscription expired and I had to access to my emails, files, calendar etc. Clients were contacting me and I was losing potential business. I spent literally days on live chat with Namecheap, paid them more money to re-activate the subscription, but after 3 whole days, nothing had been done, even after taking my money.
There was also a “critical” support ticket that received very slow, unhelpful responses. I was just told to wait and wait and wait.
In the end I contacted Google directly who are now asking them to disconnect my account so I can be billed by Google directly.
I will never use Namecheap again and advise that no-one else does either. In a time when I really needed help, and with an issue that should only take 1 hour to fix, even after taking my money, they absolutely left me feeling abandoned and in the dark.
I have purchased two domains through NameCheap however in the past year I stopped managing one of the sites and assumed I would just let the domain run out/lapse. I received an email saying my WhoisGuard would be renewing in 1 month (from the email date). I did not receive any notification that the domain itself had renewed, which took place on the day the email was sent.
I contacted customer support and asked if they could cancel the renewal and refund the money. The first support agent I spoke with simply told me “That is not our policy” and the chat ended. I then got an email saying that I had ended the chat before it had finished and that they do offer a “one-time” reversal, but it’s subject to review by their staff and isn’t guaranteed. They also kept mentioning that it would be $200 to get the domain back later on if I wanted to renew it (which I had no intent of doing, but they kept warning me about the $200 fee). After chatting with another support agent for twenty minutes they were able to authorize the reversal but asked me to hold while they contacted billing. Another twenty-five minutes later the agent sent a message “I’m sorry, is there anything else I can help you with today?” So I sat there for 45 minutes waiting for them to resolve this and they forgot they were even talking to me.
A couple days later I received confirmation from their billing department saying that the reversal was approved and that the funds “had been credited to my account funds.” I checked my NameCheap account and the money was not refunded to my bank account, it was simply credited to my account on their site. So I contacted support for the third time, told them the whole process is ridiculous and demanded they refund the money to my bank account. “Sir, it is not our current policy to refund to bank accounts….” they replied. I informed them of both previous conversations I had with agents and said I expect my money to be refunded. They then informed me they can refund it but there’s a $0.99 processing fee. I demanded they refund the money and not charge me for it. I stated that I wasn’t informed of the renewal, I wasn’t informed that the “refund” wasn’t going to my bank account and that I will not be paying to have the money refunded.
It has been 30 minutes and I’m still waiting for the agent to reply. They said they were contacting billing.
their auto renewal process is broken, lost two domains to redemption. Unforgivable.
you cannot call a number and talk to a senior exec. should have checked this before starting with namecheap.
they are reselling for enom, so are limited in terms of what they can do when problems like this arise.
Pros: reasonably cheap and efficient… but see cons. I have been a customer for many years but will now leave.
Cons: 1. their auto renewal process is broken, lost two domains to redemption. Unforgivable.
you cannot call a number and talk to a senior exec. should have checked this before starting with namecheap.
they are reselling for enom, so are limited in terms of what they can do when problems like this arise.
No issues transferring domains. I have a few domains, and ssl packages through name cheap and I’ve never encountered any confusion. The service is incredible. Maybe you got unlucky and ended up with a poor knowledgeable rep.
Pros: Everything is a PRO
Cons: No cons located.
Transferred from Google to them and I do say that the transfer was a very unpleasant experience. I wasn’t sure what was happening and what was being transferred. When I moved from Godaddy to Google all my DNS settings were moved across. These numpties couldn’t do it and had lots of excuses. My biggest beef was that nothing is explained before the transfer so you are left completely in the dark. Avoid.
Pros: nice interface I guess. But you pay extra for masked whois
Cons: rubbish transfer process and useless support
On 11/10/2013 I purchased a domain name on Namecheap.com, paid $10.87/year and received a confirmation of account approval from them.
Ten days later, I found I couldn’t log in with my ID and password, and therefore I contacted Namechaep. As a result, they said I was flagged as fraud by their system, so they locked my account and canceled my purchase. I’m not fraud! I’m just a normal person buying a domain for my own business.
I was not notified when they canceled my purchase, which was authorized and the payment was received by them. My domain name was then released to the market and was purchased by someone else. As of now, the domain name I legally purchased from Namecheap is owned by a Chinese website. I not only lost my domain name, but lost all my business because that domain name was what I purchased for my business. That was my business name.
I asked for a reason why I was flagged fraud but they refused to do so. I contacted their customer service but they ignored me. They don’t reply to my email in timely manner and try to ignore my questions and requests.
As of now it is December 2015 and I am still struggling on this issue with them. So I asked to delete my account because I couldn’t trust them and did not want to have any business with them. But they keep ignoring my request and refuse to delete my account.
What they did wrong:
- They refused to provide a reason why I was flagged as fraud. Fraud is a crime. They need an evidence to accuse me so.
- They canceled my purchase and released my domain name that I paid for without noticing me. I lost my domain name and it caused serious damage to me.
- They refuse to delete my account. I am the account owner, I have the right to have it deleted.
- They ignore my request and refuse to contact me or provide a phone number that I can call.
Pros: Cheap
Cons: 1. They cancel your account without notice 2. They release your domain to the market without notice. So if you are buying to domain for business or serious purpose, avoid Namecehap. 3. It took them more than one day (>24 hours) to reply your question. And they don’t understand your question. They even ignore you on purpose. If you need any help, including technical support, it will be a nightmare.
A few years ago I transferred all my domains (over 70) from godaddy to namecheap. Things were fine for a while however in the past couple of months they have changed their customer interface for domains. I contacted support and was told, sorry, get used to it. No option for the previous version of the account interface. New version is not intuitive and makes me have to do two or three steps for what used to take only one.
Sorry namecheap. I will now transfer my domains elsewhere!
Pros: Affordable domain names
Cons: Doesn’t offer a quick way to transfer out your domains to another registrar. Holds on to them as long as they can.
N/A
Pros: cheap, good sales, never a problem with domain.
Cons: I strongly disagree with the fact that they advertise their business on your new domain. And i also strongly dislike how they allow random ads to come up on your domain you just purchased for which they properly get revenue for. ITS MY DOMAIN, DONT USE IT FOR ANYTHING.
The support folks say they will help you with services they do nto list like DNSSEC. This is a lie and do not fall for it like I did, I waited weeks for support to do a two minute update. Their security is downright bad….their renewal rates and transfer fees are higher then most registrars. NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!
Pros: They are cheap with an easy interface
Cons: Support is awful No DNSSEC support
I give them a score of no more than a two, and here’s why:
Pros: competitives prices
Cons: Namecheap has stolen upwards of 10,000 traffic from me by suspending my account. After having over several domains accounts registered with them for close to 10 years, they claimed that I did not verified my whosi guard which I had 10 days to do so, since I did not do it within that time frame.
Therefore I was subject to their 2 Factor Authentication.
I had recently changed my cell phone and my old cell phone number was listed in my Namecheap account. So I could not access it to update it with my new cell phone number, nor could I change it by way of getting a text message from them with my old cell phone. I explained to them they sould have a better system to assist customers to make it as convenient as possible and not to handle the situation like a suspected criminal.
“They claim that they regret to cause inconveniences to me, but this document is necessary for us to make sure that you are the rightful account owner since client security is our highest priority.” Really?
I explained to them that I still can not gain access my account folowing their instruction of “2 Factor Authentication feature”
Namecheap states that once I log into my account I can update via the 2 Factor Authentication feature?
They stated If I am not able to log into your Namecheap account and wish them to remove 2 Factor Authentication feature, please provide them with the following details to verify my account and disable 2 Factor Authentication:
Local address under account: Email address you signed up with: Zip code: Namecheap order ID: Depending on the payment method used - First 4 and last 4 CC digits / PayPal unique transaction ID and email associated with PayPal (if you paid with PayPal or Google Wallet) / transaction reference ID (if you paid with Bitcoin): Domain name:
I had ask their team support previously to by pass this stupid BS step so I can get into my account and update my info, but they insisted to annoy me by taking a firm stance
So who is the real thieves here?
Namecheap claims that they are protecting me from who?
The real crooks have already done their dirty work…..
I have yet to receieve any reply from them since I sent over my Driver License (blocking out my id# like they suggested I do)now I quess they will want my SSN?
Everything was going great, and then I made a big mistake. I purchased a domain name on behalf of a friend, and used their card. That is what I believe must have caused the problem anyway. Namecheap said I had to reply to an email in two days that they sent me about a charge back. I don’t read my email every single day, so I missed it. Then they sent me an email stating that I had lost that domain name I purchased.
I figured I could just use their reliable support. No, I couldn’t use chat support. They locked me out. There also isn’t any phone support. I tried logging into my account. However, they had suspended by entire account. My domain names were all now suspended. There was just one thing I was still able to do which was to open a support ticket with the help desk.
That’s when I really got upset. They took 3 or 4 days to respond to me. All they did was tell me things I already knew. There was no agent assigned to my ticket for around 20 days. I didn’t receive any information about whether or not I would be able to reactivate my domain. So all of my domains and account were deactivated and sitting in limbo. I had to just wait. I was so frustrated and thought I had lost my domains forever. It included a domain that I had an active business site on.
Eventually I got a response. About 3 days later they fixed the problem. I got all of my domains back. However, I didn’t get any useful information from them, and all of my domains had been down for nearly a month. No business should have to put up with that.
Ratings:
With the exception of Risk Management, they had great support. I don’t ever want to have to deal with that kind of problem again in my life. It was the absolute worst. I have to rate it 1 star because it was so bad.
The user interface was easy to use and had all the necessary features.
Until the Risk Management problem, uptime was great. All of my website were down for more than 20 days, and I had no idea if or when the problem would be resolved. That is an unacceptable amount of downtime.
Value. I can highly recommend them if you aren’t trying to run a business and don’t mind if your site could potentially be down for nearly a month. Otherwise, I highly recommend you use a host that offers business class support.
TL; DR: They are great until you can’t use their standard support because you’ve been locked out. My sites were taken down by Risk Management for more than 20 days. During that time, they weren’t answering any of my questions.
You cannot get better for domain registrations. Namecheap really know what they are doing and you really can’t get cheaper domains anywhere else, especially with free Whois privacy. I have raised several tickets previously seeking help with installation of SSL certificates and they always respond swiftly with all the information needed.
Whilst I don’t have any of their hosting, I would highly recommend them based on my experiences with hosting all my domains and SSL certificates there.
I recently bought an SSL certificate from namecheap.com and I tried setting it up on my vps. For some reason it didnt work so I ended up contacting online customer support chat.
Talked to 1 of them he didnt know what he was doing so passed me on to another guy. I talked to him he walked me through all the steps and tried making out that I am a fool and don’t know what I am doing. After being a web designer for over 16 years and managing my own and clients servers for a living Im pretty sure I know how to install a simple ssl certificate… anyway I followed everything he said after 30 minutes of him guiding me through it 2 times he passes me on to his colleague. The colleague guides me through all the steps again and then suddenly cuts me of the chat and it says something like this person has ended the chat. Im like wtf. So I just wasted an hour chatting to them for nothing all the messages are gone that some other staff member could have followed up on and helped me out.
Contacted another guy again he basically made out that I wasn’t the admin of my own vps so hes basically calling me a liar and that I dont even know if im an admin on my own server what??
Anyway I end the chat and contact them again hoping to get someone decent on the line. The next guy I just say Hi to him and hes like I am aware of your case. The problem is your not an admin on the server what??? I hadnt even said anything to this guy yet and hes talking to me about what the other guy said.
So theres basically no such thing as confidentiality everyone internally just talks about you.
Anyway after all this I said I just want a refund. They wouldnt even give me a refund through customer services chat. They said open a support ticket requesting a refund.
I open a support ticket requesting a refund and they say ill get the refund credited to my account as credits.
What? did I ask for credits? I want my money back. I want to leave just the way I came.
Anyway after further arguing in support tickets they said I will get a refund. It takes 5-7 working days for their finance department to process my refund. What? More like their going to use my money in a high interest account for a week.
I made a complaint and asked for it to be forwarded to the manager.
The manager of the ssl department replied and apologized. Whats the point though?
I was still charged over £2 pounds in international transaction charges. transaction charges for taking the money from my bank account and then putting the money back added more charges. So in the end I didnt even get a full refund.
I recently stupidly again decided to trust them and decided to buy a .uk domain. I thought its a domain right whats the worst that could happen it wont be available and it wont let me register it. Well turns out the truth is even worse.
I basically searched for the .uk domain, Added it to my cart because it was available. logged into my account to check out.
It took the money from my account im thinking great its bought and then I see a red error message. You cannot buy this domain because the whois details for a .co.uk domain dont match with the .uk domain im trying to buy.
So it turns out you have to own a .co.uk domain to be able to buy the .uk domain. Well why didnt it tell me that first?
Why did it say its available and then charge me and everything and now all of a sudden its not available?
So again they took my money for a service they are failing to provide.
after this happened I have checked with other domain providers such as 123-reg.co.uk and they wont let me do the same it shows it clearly as unavailable.
I contacted their customer support chat and the first message i get is:
Hello, thank you for contacting Namecheap Live Support! Due to a large number of support requests, our response time is longer than usual. We apologize for this delay and thank you for your patience. I am reviewing your initial message now and will do my best to assist you quickly.
And I had to wait 7 minutes for someone to even reply to me.
Anyway finally I asked them what happens to my money now. They said it is refunded directly to the source. So I should get a refund in 48 hours.
The problem is I am still going to be charged an international transaction charge. Probably another £2 eaten by them because of their stupid system that allows you to buy domains that are simply not available.
That is simply false advertising, terrible customer service that tries to make out your a liar and don’t know anything and your not the admin of your own server your paying 30 something pounds a month for, they are robbing customers at the end of the day.
Id say stay away from them they are terrible, terrible.
Features
Namecheap offers cheap hosting that is rather standardized, and in many cases simple. You will find a few premium features such as xCache and full SSD on the higher priced plans. Overall though, they try to balance better technology with price. As such, the cheaper shared plans are only SSD accelerated, and Reseller Plans just contain normal HDD storage.
On the plus side, their dedicated servers can be customized with plenty of RAM and SSD storage, and are fairly good value compared to their competitors.
Server Technology
- They use the latest Dell Server Technology, with their shared hosting running off a M1000 Blade, with multiple redundancies including power supply, and network.
- Apache, PHP (versions 5.2 - 7.2), MariaDB with Accelerated SSD is their basic stack. Pure SSD, xCache, and PCI compliance are only available on their most expensive shared hosting plan.
- They utilize CloudLinux for account isolation, and to prevent any single account hogging too many resources.
Software & Ecommerce
- cPanel, the most popular control panel is provided free with all their shared hosting and reseller, and as an optional extra for VPS and dedicated servers. Their WordPress Hosting uses a custom control panel.
- Softaculous is provided as standard, allowing you to deploy WordPress or one of 100’s of other apps with a few clicks. Softaculous also allows for easy updating and custom backups.
- Namecheap’s website builder can be installed on their shared hosting platform. It is an easy drag and drop solution that has many plugins to extend functionality, such as Social Media integration and payment options.
Backups & Security
- Namecheap offers backups on their shared hosting twice per week on their cheaper plans. Their most expensive plan offers 6 daily + weekly backups. You can sign up for CodeGuard from within their control panel (additional cost).
- Their control panel is protected by 2-factor authentication which will send you a code via text when you wish to log in. This is particularly important for a domain registrar.
- While Namecheap does not provide details, they do confirm that their hosting is protected by hardware and software firewalls, alongside their own security package.
Support & Reliability
- Support is available 24/7 by Live Chat and Ticket. You can also read their comprehensive knowledge base to learn how to do an array of tasks.
- You may find that support technicians make extensive use of the knowledge base when answering your query by directing you to an article. This may or may not help depending on your experience with hosting. Don’t worry though; you can always ask for further help.
- Namecheap offers a 100% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) on shared, Business and dedicated hosting. For VPS and Reseller, they only offer a 99.9% guarantee. For all eligible non-scheduled downtime they will give one day’s credit for each hour of downtime.
Server Locations
A data center near your users you can decrease server response times. Namecheap has data centers in the following locations:
North America
- Pheonix, US
Europe
- Nottingham, UK
Asia
- None
Australasia
- None
Africa
- None
South America
- None
Support
We have also found their support team to be helpful, and while it is slower than many premium hosts, the response times are still very respectable. We believe their support is more than satisfactory for the price you pay.
If you are a complete beginner wanting someone to hold your hand, then you may want to consider paying for a more premium service. For everyone else, Namecheap is perfectly fine.
Support Methods
- Ticket support is available via their ticketing system. Response times can be measured in the 1 - 2-hour range. Priority support is available on some of the more expensive plans. This is reasonable for their price point.
- Live chat support is available and may be more useful if you have a quick query that a lower level support technician can help with.
- They have a comprehensive knowledge base that can help with the majority of simple tasks. It is divided simply, yet very helpfully, into multiple sections making it easy to find what you need. Their knowledge base is one of the best around.
Response Satisfaction
- Namecheap is not the fastest hosting provider around when it comes to their support. They target a cheaper price point than many of the premium hosts we have reviewed, so this is to be expected.
- There are a few complaints that support technicians rely too much on their knowledge base, by merely linking the relevant article in response to queries. This should be considered a good thing, and you can always ask them on live chat to take you through the steps further if you have difficulty.
- We recommend checking out our users’ reviews about their support for further insights.
Speed
Cutting Edge Technology
- SSD - While their cheaper Shared Hosting comes with Accelerated SSD (partial SSD), their Stellar Business PLan uses full SSD Storage. Their VPS and Dedicated (optional) also comes with full SSD storage. Solid State Disk storage increases the performance of your website, but decreasing latency, I/O input, and throughput, as well as improving reliability.
- PHP 7.2 - The latest version of PHP is almost twice as fast as the previous version 5.6.
- MariaDB - MariaDB is a fork of the popular MySQL, and is slightly faster than MySQL. For database intensive software such as WordPress, this is a good thing.
Performance Caching
- xCache - XCache is an open-source cacher which will accelerate the performance of PHP on your server. However, this is only compatible with the slower PHP 5.6 version. XCache is only available on their Stellar Business Plan.
Uptime
Namecheap offers a 100% uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) on shared, Business and dedicated hosting. For VPS and Reseller, they only offer a 99.9% guarantee.
For all eligible non-scheduled downtime they will give one day’s credit for each hour of downtime.
Value
Typical Namecheap Prices
| Hosting Type | Price Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | $2.88 - $8.88 | 3 plans |
| VPS Hosting | $14.88 - $24.88 | 2 plans |
| Reseller Hosting | $16.88 - $36.88 | 3 plans |
| Dedicated Hosting | $82.88 - $188.88 | 3 plans |
| Domain Hosting | $0.88 - $12.98 | See all |
| Managed WordPress Hosting | $1.00 - $1.00 | 1 plan |
Payment methods accepted: VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PayPal, Google Checkout and Bitcoin also available. Dwolla is available in the US.
Namecheap Hosting Plans
VPS Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS Pulsar [1] | 40 GB | 2 CPU Cores | 2 | 3000 GB | $14.88 | More Details |
| VPS Quasar [2] | 120 GB | 4 CPU Cores | 6 | 1000 GB | $24.88 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] Root / Reseller depending on Management Type. 1 Dedicated IP. cPanel extra.
- [2] Root / Reseller depending on Management Type. 2 Dedicated IPs. cPanel extra.
Reseller Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | No. of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nebula | 30 GB | Unlimited | cPanel / WHM | 25 | $16.88 | More Details |
| Galaxy Expert | 90 GB | Unlimited | cPanel / WHM | Unlimited | $26.88 | More Details |
| Universe Pro [1] | 150 GB | Unlimited | cPanel / WHM | Unlimited | $36.88 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] WHMCS Starter included.
Dedicated Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Explorer [1] | 500 GB | 4 Cores x 3.4 GHz | 8 | 10 TB | $82.88 | More Details |
| Voyager [2] | 300 GB | 4 Cores x 3.5 GHz | 8 | 100 TB | $100.88 | More Details |
| Enterprise [3] | 1000 GB | 2x8 Cores x 2.1 GHz | 32 | 100 TB | $188.88 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5. Management Available on all plans. No Root access on Managed servers. All plans are customizable for HHD \ SSD, Raid, and RAM.
- [2] Intel Xeon E3-1270 v3
- [3] Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4
Managed WordPress Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | No. of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed WordPress [1] | 10 GB | Unlimited | Custom | 1 | $1.00 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] Price for first month. $3.88 monthly.
Domain Hosting
| Suffix | Free Domain with Hosting | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com [1] | Yes | $10.98 | More Details |
| .net [2] | Yes | $12.98 | More Details |
| .us [3] | Yes | $0.88 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] Price quote is at first registration. Renewal cost is $12.98
- [2] Price quote is at first registration. Renewal cost is $14.98
- [3] Price quote is at first registration. Renewal cost is $10.48
Frequently asked questions
Does Namecheap offer Windows Hosting?
No, Namecheap only offers Linux hosting at this time.
Can you host multiple websites on a single web hosting plan?
Yes, all their plans allow for the hosting of multiple websites. Their cheapest shared hosting plan only allows three websites to be hosted. As an exception, their Managed WordPress hosting only permits one site per plan.
What control panel is used on their servers?
They use the cPanel control panel, which is one of the most popular control panels in use, and allows you to control all aspects of your hosting account, including taking offline backups.
What are the benefits of their SSD Business Hosting Plan?
Namecheap’s business plan offers greater speed and reliability. It uses SSD storage for greater speed, as well as xCache. They backup twice a day instead of once per day on other plans. The business plan is also PCI compliant which is essential if you intend to store credit card details on your server.
Unfortunately, xCache only works with earlier slower versions of PHP, so this plan is now a little dated.
Will prices increase when I renew?
While there are no hidden fees, you should be careful to note the introductory or discounted pricing when you first sign up. Most hosting packages and domains will increase in price when you renew.
Jonathan Griffin Editor, SEO Consultant, & Developer.
Jonathan Griffin is The Webmaster's Editor & CEO, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all our publications. Jonathan writes about Development, Hosting, and SEO topics for The Webmaster and The Search Review with more than nine years of experience. Jonathan also manages his own SEO consultancy, offering SEO developer services. He is an expert on site-structure, strategy, Schema, AMP, and technical SEO. You can find Jonathan on Twitter as @thewebmastercom.