Choosing a reliable web hosting for your website can be an uphill task – especially if you are a beginner who is just starting. Truth be told, most people only consider the prices instead of critical things like uptime, loading speed, customer support, site security, and all that. NameCheap Hosting will take care of all the things you need.
On the other end, all web hosts claim to offer the best services ever. In that case, you may be tempted to opt for the cheapest offer while overlooking the useful things we have mentioned.
If you are still finding it difficult to choose the right hosting provider for your individual or business website, then this NameCheap web hosting review will help you decide whether the company is a smart option for you or not. Read on.
NAMECHEAP HOSTING OVERVIEW: WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?
NameCheap was founded by Richard Kirkendall in Arizona, US in 2000. The company is laser-focused on offering high-quality web hosting solutions to individuals and businesses across the world.
As the name suggests, NameCheap is one of the cheapest web hosts we have around. Right now, the company manages over 10 million domains, making it one of the top web hosting companies of the 21st century.
Is NameCheap any better?
NameCheap provides an array of unique domains and feature-packed hosting plans. Their plans feature top-notch site security tools like WhoisGuard privacy, SSL certificates, and more. Additionally, NameCheap is among the few web hosts with up to 100% uptime guarantee.
Besides shared hosting, Namecheap offers reseller packages, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and email hosting as well.
GENERAL INFORMATION
SPEED:
687 ms (February 2019 – February 2020 )
UPTIME:
99.995% (February 2019 to February 2020)
SUPPORT:
FAQ, live chat, ticket system, email
APPS:
Drupal, Joomla, WordPress Weebly, Canvas, Logo Maker, among others
FEATURES:
Softaculous app installer
Free emails
Unlimited bandwidth
Plenty of SSD storage
Databases
Auto-responders
Dedicated IPs
PLANS:
Shared hosting
Reseller hosting
WordPress hosting
VPS hosting
Dedicated server hosting
SITE TRANSFER:
Free migration service
PRICING:
The most basic hosting plan from NameCheap costs $1.58 per month.
THE PROS AND CONS OF NAMECHEAP HOSTING
Pros Of Using NameCheap Hosting
Namecheap is well known for its cheap hosting plans, free domains, easy site migrations, advanced security features, and other things listed below. Take a look.
1. Free domain
As far as domain names and domain registration are concerned, NameCheap is a smart choice. After all, they are the leading domain registrar.
2. Competitive pricing
Besides being the most popular domain registrar and hosting provider, NameCheap is also known for its inexpensive pricing.
However, this does not mean that what they offer is of low quality. If you look closely at the web host’s packages, you will realize that they are rich in features. Talk of advanced domain security, free professional emails, lots of storage space, etc., all for a very affordable price.
3. Beginner-friendly user interface
Just like most things, getting started with a new hosting provider can be a challenging task, right?
NameCheap features a very easy dashboard created with beginners in mind. Ideally, the web host provides a user with login credentials immediately after signup. The welcome email contains detailed instructions and directions to resources.
The backend and admin dashboards are minimalist with no aggressive upsells. That aside, the classic cPanel features a quick app installer known as Softaculous.
Generally, NameCheap is well-tailored for newbies looking for an inexpensive but pretty straightforward hosting provider.
4. Site backups
NameCheap conducts two weekly backups of users’ accounts. The good thing with that feature is that you don’t have to do the backup yourself as it occurs automatically!
Plus, the backups are free with all hosting plans. With NameCheap, it is not easy to lose your website files in the worst-case scenario.
5. Datacenter options
Yet another bonus feature from NameCheap is the option to choose your preferred datacenter.
When signing up, they offer you a chance to choose to pick their UK or the US datacenter. This brings convenience at the doors of users who are not close to the US but are near the UK.
6. Additional domain security
As we had said earlier, NameCheap is famous for among other things, their top-grade security standards.
No matter the hosting plan you opt for, you get a free WhoisGuard security tool for the first year. After that, you will need to only pay $2.88 to keep the tool. On top of that, you get a huge discount on the web host’s premium SSL certificate plus useful security alerts sent to your email.
7. Decent performance
Besides an excellent uptime of 99.99%, NameCheap has been able to offer a page loading speed of 687 ms. Although the speed is way below what some of NameCheap’s competitors offer, it is still a good result.
8. Money-back guarantee
If you change your mind a few days after subscribing, NameCheap will allow you to cancel your hosting and seek a refund within the first 30 days.
Cons Of Using NameCheap Hosting
NameCheap doesn’t offer customer support through the phone. This may be an inconvenience to people who prefer making phone calls to sending tickets.
HOSTING PLANS
SHARED HOSTING
- Stellar. Costs $1.58 per month. This plan comes with 20GB SSD storage, three websites, and a free domain name.
- Stellar Plus. This plan costs $2.68 per month and it offers unmetered bandwidth and storage, site backups, and a free domain name.
- Stellar Business. For $4.8 per month, you get 50GB storage, unlimited websites, cloud storage, site backups, and a free domain name.
All these plans come with a free site builder, unmetered bandwidth, free domain name and protection, free SSL installation, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
WORDPRESS HOSTING
This category includes the EasyWP Starter, EasyWP Turbo, and the EasyWP Supersonic plans. Their prices are $3.88, $7.88, and $11.88 per month respectively.
RESELLER HOSTING
Under this category, we have three plans: the Nebula, Galaxy Expert, and Universe Pro. They cost $18.88, $32.88, and $48.88 per month respectively.
VPS HOSTING
This offering comprises the Pulsar and Quasar hosting plans. Their prices are $8.88 and $15.88 per month respectively.
DEDICATED SERVER HOSTING
This category has Xeon E3-1230 v5, Xeon E-2136, and Dual Xeon E5-2620 v2. The prices for these plans are $48.88, $87.88, and $98.88 per month respectively.
THE VERDICT
NameCheap Hosting is without a doubt a decent hosting provider who provides an array of unique domains and feature-packed hosting plans. Their plans feature top-notch site security tools like WhoisGuard privacy, SSL certificates, and more with up to 100% Uptime Guarantee.
We recommend it for people who are operating on a tight budget and those who are just starting. By signing up with NameCheap, you get a whole of useful features for very affordable prices.