Are you looking for an in-depth and honest Namecheap hosting review? You’re in the right place, then.
If you’re looking for secure, reliable and extremely cheap shared hosting to run your WordPress site, Namecheap is one of the best choices for you.
Namecheap is one of the very few hosting companies that doesn’t belong to the EIG group (Endurance International Group, which owns over a dozen hosting companies like Bluehost, HostGator etc.).
Namecheap itself is a separate entity in the hosting industry founded in 2000 and has attracted millions of customers since then.
Table of Contents
Unbiased Namecheap Hosting Review for 2021 with its Benefits, Pros & Cons.
So in this detailed Namecheap review for 2021, let’s talk about some of the benefits of using it along with the pricing, pros and cons. Are you ready? Let’s get started!
Quick note: Before jumping into the Namecheap hosting review for 2021, we want to let you know that the links used here are affiliate links. That means we earn a small commission when you purchase Namecheap shared hosting plans at no extra cost to you (you’ll also get the best possible discounts through our links, so grab them before they are gone).
Hands down, Namecheap offers the cheapest shared hosting plans on the planet right now.
In fact, their shared hosting plans are cheaper than a domain name purchase. In addition, Namecheap offers a wide range of shared hosting plans to match all the budget needs of a wide range of customers.
Apart from the stunning hosting prices and features, Namecheap also gives you;
- A free .website domain (for ex: www.yourdomain.website)
- Free WhoisGuard protection (to protect the privacy of your website domain information)
Their shared hosting plans start at just $15.44 per year and go all the way up to $49.44 per month for their ultimate hosting plan called Stellar Business (where you get ultimate hosting features like better security, faster speeds etc. from Namecheap).
You’ll find out all of the shared hosting plans along with the pricing of each one of them in the pricing section at the end of the same post.
The best part is that their basic shared hosting plan costs you just under $10, and you can install up to 3 domains! Yes, we have too many companies such as Bluehost, HostGator, JustHost etc., claiming the cheapest hosting plans, but none of them come closer to the offers given by Namecheap. So what are you waiting for?
Quick note: By clicking on the above affiliate link, you’ll be redirected to the Namecheap homepage, where you can register a domain and purchase hosting by getting a discount (we also make a small commission when you sign up using the affiliate links mentioned on this post).
2. Free hosting migration to Namecheap.
Are you using some other hosting service that you think sucks and want to migrate your website to Namecheap shared hosting? Then, you’re in good company. Namecheap offers site migration completely for free.
We all know how difficult and painful it is to migrate all your site files to a new hosting platform without losing files. If you’re a beginner, you’ll find it almost impossible to migrate. Here’s where you can use the Namecheap site migration service where your site can be migrated from an existing hosting to their hosting servers by their well-trained migration team at no cost.
They deal with all types of site migrations for free, which include;
- cPanel site migration
- A site without cPanel (iPage hosting etc.) migration
- Email transfers
- Transfer to a VPS or dedicated server etc
So what are you waiting for? Launch your website now using Namecheap or migrate from your existing hosting to Namecheap free of cost.
3. cPanel access to give you full control.
A cPanel (control panel) provides you with an easy to use interface where you can manage and maintain all the website-related stuff, including emails, databases, domain parking, site backups etc.
Here’s how the cPanel of Namecheap looks like;
You’ll notice from the above screenshot that you can access everything from email accounts to domains to file managers in one place. Even if you’re a beginner, you’ll find managing your cPanel account from Namecheap is extremely easy.
As a side note, if you’re picking any web hosting service, make sure to use only those hosting services that offer you a cPanel interface. Otherwise, it would be challenging for you to manage all your files, databases, domains etc.
You can also find out all the files and databases information from your cPanel from Namecheap, and you can modify, create new tables or delete them whenever you want (or when your storage space going up).
4. Namecheap Around the clock support.
One of the essential things to consider while picking any shared hosting platform is how good their support team availability. Fortunately, Namecheap offers 24×7 support assistance to all its hosting users and lets you connect with them in so many ways, which include;
- Knowledgebase
- Submit Ticket
- Live Chat
You can get in touch with their support team simply by logging into your cPanel account by entering your user name and password, or if you’re not yet a user of Namecheap, you can use their “Submit a Ticket” page to ask queries regarding the hosting or domain registration.
Let’s explore each of them briefly so you’ll better understand how to resolve your hosting or domain registration-related issues when they arise.
Knowledgebase: It is the largest base where you’ll find all the video tutorials, articles and answers to all the questions which are related to your web hosting related stuff.
Submit Ticket: If you don’t find an answer or solution to your query or issue on the Namecheap knowledge base, you can use the “Submit Ticket” system to resolve your issues. Then, you can enter your cPanel details and attach the files or images (if any) and submit them to resolve your web hosting related issues.
Live Chat: Using their Live Chat feature, you can pick a category where your related problem is (hosting, billing, domain-related etc.) and enter your queries to start chatting with the customer staff to resolve your issues with Namecheap.
5. Namecheap Most secure hosting servers.
The hacking of websites is becoming common practice these days. There are literally thousands of websites getting hacked every day, which means so much loss in sales.
If you don’t want to deal with all that security breaches on your site, you need to pick the hosting choice that prioritises securing their sites and hosting environment.
Namecheap exactly does that by providing their hosting servers with SSL certificates, WhoisGuard, incredible OS and data servers. Both SSL certificates and WhoisGuard features are provided for every Namecheap customer free of cost.
- SSL certificates: These will protect your website’s customers against identity theft (useful for online transactions)
- WhoisGuard: This keeps every domain owners’ contact information safe and out of the public Whois database
6. Access to Premium DNS.
If you’re running an eCommerce store or dealing with high traffic websites, you must need a high-performance premium DNS over free or ordinary DNS. Namecheap offers premium DNS for website security enhancements powered by Verisign.
With Namecheap, you can get access to their premium DNS by paying just $5 a year, but there’ll be a ton of useful benefits you’ll get with their premium DNS. A DNS (Domain Name Server) directly impacts your website security and performance, which include;
- Redundancy
- Speed of queries
- Security
Usually, other domain registrants, such as GoDaddy, charge hefty rates for premium DNS. In contrast, Namecheap offers it at a low price, allowing anyone to try it on their sites.
A quick tip: If you’re running an eCommerce store, digital media agency or anything that you consider as a serious online business, try to get a premium DNS (Namecheap offers it just for $5 a year, so it’s not expensive) and it will give you a ton of benefits as discussed apart from 100% uptime and full security.
The best part about using Namecheap for hosting and domain registration is that SSL certificates are installed for all new domains, subdomains, and addon domains, giving you enhanced security for all your domains and websites.
What are SSL certificates?
SSL, also known as Secure Sockets Layer, is simply a standard security protocol for establishing encrypted links between a web server and a browser.
These SSL certificates are usually used to secure all the credit card transactions performed through your sites, logins information and other data transfer stuff. So a site that uses SSL certificates is considered safe and secure to shop around online.
Did you know that SSL certificates (URLs with HTTP) usually improve your search engine rankings and are good for your website’s SEO? Yes, it’s true.
Https is a search engine ranking signal since 2014, so if you want a better SEO for your site, SSL certificates are a must.
HTTPS (SSL encrypted) sites load much faster than HTTP (non HTTPS) sites and tend to give you better search rankings on Google because Google rewards the faster loading web pages to give their users a better experience.
These SSL certificates give you protection in 3 layers which are listed below.
- Encryption ensures that your website user’s activity cannot be tracked
- Data integrity prevents your website files from being corrupted as they’re transferred
- Authentication protects against all the DDos and hacking-related website attacks
So there you go, that’s what we can talk about now about SSL certificates, so who can all qualify for FREE SSL certificates from Namecheap shared hosting?
You can qualify;
- If you’ve created a new shared hosting account with Namecheap
- If you are using a shared hosting plan with your newly created hosting account
- If you are adding new domain names (addon domains) to your existing hosting account with Namecheap shared hosting plan
Quick note: You will get one free SSL for every unique domain and subdomain from Namecheap hosting, and there is a maximum of 50 free SSLs per cPanel account.
Click here to launch your blog on Namecheap.
8. Offers excellent website performance.
It doesn’t matter which hosting platform you prefer, but you need faster and secure website performance to keep your site safe from hackers and all the other security threats.
Here’s where Namecheap offers an excellent shared hosting environment for all its users.
Namecheap shared hosting environment uses the best in the field CloudLinux operating system, which makes all the shared hosting servers extremely reliable and increases their website performance rapidly.
This sharing hosting OS has its own benefits, which include the following;
- It helps to secure the hosting environment servers from slowing down due to the activities of one or more clients.
- It also separates all of its shared hosting server users from one another to limit security breaches by providing bulletproof security to all the users.
- It often limits the malware and virus within any client’s website whose files are stored in their servers and databases (so enhanced security from security threats).
Apart from that, every one of their hosting servers has at least;
- 2 processors
- 16GB of RAM
- 4 hard drives with RAID protection
Overall, Namecheap shared hosting servers are located in a safe, faster and better OS environment, which saves your website from all the security threats such as DDoS attacks, brute force attacks, malware etc.
9. Uptime? You can expect 100% uptime from Namecheap.
Namecheap offers a monthly uptime guarantee of 100%, which is great. If you get any downtime issues, you can claim for their uptime guarantee. In addition, you will be eligible for a Service cycle prolongation when the service was unreachable (max of 1 month of free hosting from Namecheap).
For all the non-scheduled maintenance and downtime issues from Namecheap shared hosting environment, they will offer you a 1-day Service cycle prolongation for each hour of downtime experienced.
What is uptime? Why is it important?
Uptime tells you how long the system or hosting environment has been running. It simply means how fast and often your website visitors can access your website without any issues. The more uptime a hosting company offers, the better experience you can give your website visitors because no one likes to visit a site that crashes or goes down frequently.
So why is it important?
If any web hosting company offers a 99% or more uptime guarantee, you can consider that the sites hosted on their platform will rarely go down, which is good news.
Having better uptime has the following benefits.
- Better user experience
- Your website will often run (without any crashes or slowing down)
- Better user retention rate etc
10. It Gives you effortless integration with a ton of useful apps.
Namecheap integrates with over 100 incredible apps seamlessly. These apps include everything from website building apps to productivity. Here are a few of them, just in case if you want to know.
Uptime monitoring from Namecheap: This free app lets you monitor your website’s uptime. You can easily track all your downtime issues, report them easily and track your website’s overall uptime activity.
Strikingly: This is a paid app (which costs $10/mo) that helps you easily turn your normal website into mobile responsive effortlessly. Namecheap supports this app, so you can easily access it from your cPanel dashboard.
Canvas: This is a fantastic website builder which is completely free for Namecheap users that you can use to build stunning websites, including image galleries.
So let’s talk about what’s good and bad about Namecheap hosting. Here are some of the noticeable pros and cons of using Namecheap shared hosting to run your WordPress sites at an affordable price.
Pros of Namecheap Hosting:
- Cheapest shared hosting plans (which costs less than a domain)
- 24/7 customer support access
- Claims excellent uptime of 100%
- Free website migration
- Supports 3rd party apps
- FREE SSL certificates for 1 year
- Easy to use interface and cPanel access
- Enhanced security features to safeguard your site
Cons of Namecheap Hosting:
- Not fast enough
- Extra cost for website backups
- It gets expensive after 1 year of your hosting renewal (it’s still not much expensive when compared to other hosting services, though)
So how much does Namecheap shared hosting cost you?
Without talking about the cost of their hosting plans, this detailed Namecheap shared hosting review will be incomplete.
Namecheap offers you the following plans in their shared hosting environment.
- Stellar
- Stellar Plus
- Stellar Business
Now, let’s discuss each of the above shared hosting plans from Bluehost along with features and pricing so you can easily decide which plan suits you the best.
1. Stellar Shared Hosting Plan from Namecheap: This is the starter shared hosting plan from Namecheap, which is also the cheapest plan, and it costs you just $15.44 for the first year. Yes, you heard it right.
If you’re a beginner looking for the cheapest hosting plans, you should go for this plan, but it only allows you to host up to 3 websites in 1 hosting account. Here’s a list of all the features you get with this starter plan from Namecheap shared hosting.
- You can host up to 3 domains (and add up to 50 subdomains)
- 20 GB SSD disk space
- 3 FREE SSL certificates included
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Unlimited parked domains
- Twice a week backups
- Access to 100+ free apps with 1 click installs
- Create up to 50 FTP users
- Create up to 50 email accounts, forwarders and autoresponders
- Manage up to 50 MySQL databases
What about the pricing after 1 year?
The renewal cost is for this plan is $30.88 for 1 year.
Click here to start your blog on Namecheap today!
2. Stellar Plus Shared Hosting Plan from Namecheap: If you want a cheap yet better feature equipped shared hosting plan from Namecheap, you should try Stella Plus.
It costs you just $26.44 for the 1st year and allows you to install unlimited sites on the same hosting account.
Here are few incredible features that you get with this plan.
- You can host unlimited sites on the same hosting account
- Unmetered SSD disk space
- FREE SSL certificates included
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Unlimited parked domains
- Add unlimited domains
- Twice a week backups
- Access to 100+ free apps with 1 click installs
- Create unlimited FTP users
- Create unlimited email accounts, forwarders and autoresponders
- Unlimited MySQL databases
What about the pricing after 1 year?
The renewal cost is for this plan is $52.88 for 1 year.
3. Stellar Business Shared Hosting Plan from Namecheap: This shared plan from Namecheap is the most recommended. It gives you a wide range of ultimate hosting features, including daily backups, priority support and so on.
This plan costs you just $49.44 for the 1st year, where you can install any number of sites you want.
Here is a list of few great features that you can avail yourself of with this shared hosting plan from Namecheap.
- You can host unlimited domains
- 50 GB Pure SSD disk space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- FREE SSL certificates included
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Unlimited parked domains
- Add unlimited subdomains
- Access to 100+ free apps with 1 click installs
- Create unlimited FTP users
- Create unlimited email accounts, forwarders and autoresponders
- Unlimited MySQL databases
- 6 x Daily + Weekly Backups
What about the pricing after 1 year?
The renewal cost is for this plan is $98.88 for 1 year.
Quick note: All the shared hosting plans from Namecheap come with a 24/7 customer support live chat option. Stellar Business Shared hosting plan also offers you priority customer support.
Does Namecheap share hosting offer monthly hosting plans?
Yes, it provides monthly shared hosting plans and here’s the breakdown of their pricing plans if you’re going with their monthly option.
- Stellar (monthly hosting costs you $2.88 per month)
- Stellar Plus (monthly hosting costs you $4.88 per month)
- Stellar Business (monthly hosting costs you $8.88 per month)
Namecheap shared hosting includes excellent features like 100% uptime, WordPress and cPanel is included in all the plans, which make it easier for you to manage all your emails, databases, files etc., in one place.
A quick tip: Already hosting your website somewhere else? Do you want to migrate your site from your existing web host to Namecheap? Namecheap offers you a free website migration service where your websites will be migrated within 24 hours with no more than 15 minutes of downtime.
Can you cancel your shared hosting plans from Namecheap?
Yes, you can cancel your shared hosting plan and cPanel user account with Namecheap at any time you want, but you’ll get your money back only if you ask for a refund within 14 days (first 2 weeks). Your purchasing date.
You can cancel your account from your cPanel from Namecheap or contact their support team through live chat or ticketing system to finish the cancellation process. Of course, you won’t get any money if you ask for a refund after 14 days of your hosting purchase, but you can cancel your account at any point in time.
Can you upgrade or downgrade to a better-shared hosting plan in the future?
Namecheap offers a ticketing system where you can log in to your cPanel account and contact their support team to upgrade or downgrade your shared hosting plans. You need to provide the current package’s domain name and the package’s name to which you wish to upgrade or downgrade, and their billing customer staff will take care of the rest.
You’ll have to pay extra money if you’re upgrading to a better-shared hosting plan. However, in case of downgrading your hosting plan, the difference between the two packages will be credited to the Namecheap account balance that you can use to purchase domains or future hosting for your business.