NameCheap Web Hosting Review – Lots of Great User Reviews

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NameCheap ReviewName: Namecheap
Plans: Shared, VPS, Reseller, and Dedicated.
Website: www.namecheap.com
Summary: NameCheap is a great host. Very solid reputation with site owners. This NameCheap web hosting review shows you why.

Namecheap.com
{{ reviewsOverall }} / 5 Users Score (27 votes)
Overall4.7
Reliability4.7
Server Speed4.7
Customer Support4.6
Features4.6
Cost/Value4.7
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Check Out NameCheap
ReviewResearchInterviews

NameCheap LogoNameCheap was founded in 2000. Their CEO is Richard Kirkendall. A lot of people think of them as just a domain registrar.  Competing with GoDaddy and Network Solutions. They began offering hosting services in 2007.

NameCheap donates money and resources to Internet freedom and security.  Corporate partners with Electronic Frontier Foundation and FightForTheFuture.org.   These companies fight for basic infrastructure of the internet.

A lot of site owners have been hesitant to host with them.  Some registrars have also transitioned into the hosting industry.  This post on NameCheap at WebHostingTalk.com was started to address these common concerns. Since it is so easy to buy a domain from a host, people figure they should just go ahead and host with them.  Does this sound like you?

We have all heard of hosts that are unreliable and have poor business practices (see 1and1 review). However, NameCheap does not fall into that category.  They have built a rock solid foundation in the registrar business.  However, I am looking at their hosting plans.  This NameCheap web hosting review will show you what they offer.

I have been registering domains with them for years.  So, I am excited to check them out as a host.  First, look at their features.  Then, their uptime.  Next, their performance, Then, customer support.  Lastly, a summary.  Let’s get started.

NameCheap Features

Shared Plans

NameCheap offers four plans:

  • Value. $9.88/year. Renews at $38.88/year. Supports three sites. 20 GB SSD. Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Professional. $19.88/year. Renews at $78.88/year. Supports ten sites. 50 GB SSD. Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Ultimate. $29.88/year. Renews at $129.88/year. Supports 50 sites. Unlimited SSD. Unlimited bandwidth.
  • Business SSD. $19.88/month. $215.76/year. Supports unlimited sites. 20 GB SSD. 500 GB bandwidth.

NameCheap allows you to choose your data center. They have datacenters in the United States. Also, in the United Kingdom. Datacenters are in:

  • Atlanta, GA.
  • Phoenix, AZ.
  • Dallas, TX.
  • Clifton, NJ.
  • Chicago, IL.
  • Los Angelas, CA.
  • Nottingham, England.

NameCheap does use the unlimited bandwidth offer. I have not liked this marketing tactic for years. There are always “limits” on shared servers. According to their AUP page 300,000 for shared plans. Business plans allow 600,000 inodes.

There are limitations on these plans to:

  • 5 GB of storage for video and audio.
  • Databases can not be larger than 5 GB.
  • Executables can not be larger than 5 GB.
  • Backups can not use more than 25 GB. That or 200,000 inodes. Will be removed from their backup system.
  • 200 emails per hour.
  • Business plans can send 1,0000 emails per hour.
  • 2 GB email storage per shared account.
  • 5 GB email storage for “business” plan.

Reseller Plans

  • Reseller 1.  $16.95/mo.  25 resold accounts.  25GB disk space.  500GB bandwidth.
  • Reseller 2.  $26.95/mo.  Unlimited accounts. 75GB disk space.  1000GB bandwidth.
  • Reseller 3.  $36.95/mo.  Unlimited accounts.  150GB disk space.  1500GB bandwidth.
  • Reseller 4.  $46.95/mo.  Unlimited accounts.  300GB disk space.  2000GB bandwidth.

Each plan comes with Free cPanel/WHM.  But Reseller 3 comes with an additional WHMCS.  Reseller 4 adds SSL in addition. Thus, decisions should be based on storage versus the number of resold accounts the user is planning.

VPS Plans

  • VPS Lite – Xen. 512 MB RAM.  $19.95/month. 1 CPU Core. 15 GB. 100 GB Bandwidth.
  • VPS 1 – Xen. 1 GB RAM.  $29.95/month. 1 CPU Core. 30 GB. 250 GB Bandwidth.
  • VPS 2 – Xen. 2 GB RAM.  $49.95/month. 2 CPU Core. 60 GB. 500 GB Bandwidth.
  • VPS 3 – Xen. 3 GB RAM.  $69.95/month. 2 CPU Core. 100 GB. 750 GB Bandwidth.

Can use the following operating systems:

  • CentOS.
  • Debian.
  • Fedora.
  • Ubuntu.

Software add-ons:

  • cPanel. $11.00/month.
  • Softaculous Script. $1.50/month.
  • WHMCS Branded License. $8.00/month.
  • WHMCS Non-Branded License. $11.00/month.

Add-Ons:

  • 128 MB RAM. $8.00/month.
  • Disk Space. $$10.00/10 GB/month.
  • Backup. $10.00/10 GB/month.
  • Bandwidth. $10.00/100 GB/month.
  • Dedicated IP. $2.00/month.

Dedicated Plans

NameCheap offers lots of dedicated plans.  There are about 20 different dedicated servers.  They range from $58.88 to $379.88/month.  The prices do not include cPanel, though.  If you want cPanel, it’s going to cost $25/month.  Does make the price about the same as RoseHosting and Liquid Web.

Control Panel

I tend to favor hosts that use cPanel.  It’s what a lot of site owners use. Thankfully NameCheap does use cPanel, and it’s not a branded or dumbed down version of cPanel that a lot of other host use which limits the functionality. One thing I do like about their cPanel is that they use CloudLinux. Is crucial on a shared platform because you can set usage limits on the CPU usage and RAM.

Scripts are supported with NameCheap, as well. You can use Softaculous to install over 100 applications within cPanel. Makes it a breeze to install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.  For WordPress users, I have installed Headway, Elegant Themes, and Genesis on lots of their servers and they have worked great.

Email Plans

Email hosting for Name Cheap has mobile support and is Web-based. There are three packages under this feature category which each include all features of the previous plans plus an additional amount. Private ($9.88/yr), Business ($28.88/yr), and Business Office ($49.88/yr). Private is meant for solely Web-based emails with 3GB of email storage and 1GB of file storage. On the other hand, the Business plan includes mobile support with an additional 10GB of storage. All email plans include POP, IMAP, and Webmail and come with spam protection.

Domain Names

Obviously, one thing NameCheap is known for is domain names.  They are one of the biggest domain registrars and started primarily as a domain registrar.  You can register hundreds of domain extensions like .com, .net, .org, .us, etc.  You can register a domain name with them starting at $3.98/year.

A lot of domain registrars do raise the price for your domain name after your first year.  However, I have found a lot of them raise it to $15-30 per year.  NameCheap is different for .com domain names because it cost just under $11/year.  You do get a small price break if you want to register your domain name for longer than a year, though.  You can even make your domain names private.  They do offer WhoIsGuard.  I wrote an article which compares NameCheap and GoDaddy for registrars; in my article, you can see why I heavily favor NameCheap over GoDaddy.

Security

Whenever you develop a website, there is always a risk of it being hacked. As soon as you start getting some decent traffic, it seems you’re a bigger target. NameCheap does take security very seriously, though. They have partnered with a company called SiteLock. They offer a service which helps you protect your server from getting hacked. Can even restore your website to a previous point. However, I don’t recommend SiteLock, and I explain why in this full SiteLock review.

NameCheap Uptime & Performance

Uptime

NameCheap Uptime

Uptime is something you just have to rely on when you sign up for any host.  Nothing is worse than signing up for a host that doesn’t have a decent amount of uptime.  Meaning that your site needs to be up 99.9% of the time.  But, what do these numbers mean?  Means that in a month there are typically 720 hours.  A guarantee that states your website is going to be up 99.9% each month.  Would mean that your site would be down for 4 hours each and every month.  However, from the test I have run I have found that NameCheap.  Servers are down considerably less than 4 hours each month.  I have noticed that there only seems to be about 15-25 minutes of downtime each month.  Is fantastic and is right up there with InMotion and SiteGround.

Furthermore, I have checked various sources on the internet and it doesn’t seem like site owners are complaining about downtime with NameCheap.  They seem to have a very good uptime and their clients are very happy with them.

NameCheap even has a status page on their website so you can check to see if there are any problems or issues with your server.  Helps their customers feel more in-tuned to what is going on with server maintenance, problems, etc. Another great thing about NameCheap is they do daily backups.  Let me correct myself; they do two daily backups per day.  Therefore, I can assure you that security is a strong point with NameCheap.

Performance

How good is NameCheaps performance?  Good and I will explain why.

I like to host with a host that has decent performance.  Meaning they are using the latest hardware and do not oversell their servers, causing other websites to run slowly.  The web hosting industry has been moving towards SSD hosting for many years now.  I have been reviewing different companies for 6+ years and seen a lot of host offering SSD hosting.

As far as performance goes, it shouldn’t be an issue with NameCheap.  I do favor companies that use SSD hosting.  They do on their “Business” shared plan which is $20/month.  Sadly, I jumped on live chat with NameCheap and asked them if any of their VPS servers come with SSD.  They told me no.  Dedicated servers do have SSD (some of their plans).  What I do like is you can get a dedicated server with SSD hosting for about $70/month.

My NameCheap Web Hosting Test

I ran some test from multiple locations on NameCheap’s servers. Here is what I found:

Los Angeles 10.18 ms
Dallas 34.22 ms
New York 3.38 ms
Singapore 8.7 ms
London 2.81 ms
Amsterdam 2.27 ms
San Francisco 5.32 ms

After nine lookups, the average response time of your name server a1.verisigndns.com is 9.55 milliseconds.
Also, more test shows how quickly their servers respond for site content:

Loading Time First Byte Start Render Speed Index
First View 4.398s 0.509s 1.402s 1529
Repeat View 2.531s 0.219s 0.921s 1056

Overall the performance is good with NameCheap.  However, I do wish they would offer more SSD hosting plans for their shared and VPS plans.  Research is good with NameCheap.  Lots of sites speak highly of them.  Many NameCheap web hosting reviews.  Lots of happy customers.

NameCheap Customer Support

How good is NameCheaps customer service?

NameCheap does have 24/7 customer support.  You can get in contact with them through live chat or start a support ticket.  They have a very extensive database of how-to videos and lots of articles.   They will walk you through any and everything you could want to do.  I have spent about 30 minutes going through their how-tos and do find them to be quite good.  NameCheap does use a Kayako support system for their live chat which is an excellent resource for customer support.  Over the years I have talked to NameCheap on live chat.  They were very quick to respond to my questions.  Live chat takes about 1 minute to connect and support tickets are usually answered within 6 hours.

The only thing I don’t like about NameCheap regarding customer support is the fact that they don’t have telephone support.  Sometimes it’s nice to be able just to pick up the phone if you want to talk to an agent.  However, live chat is very helpful, and they do an excellent job at assisting their clients.  Support tickets are also very useful, and they fully explain issues to you.

Research shows customer support is great with NameCheap.  Lots of sites have positive NameCheap web hosting reviews, and nearly all speak highly of them.

NameCheap Web Hosting Review Summary

Do I recommend NameCheap? Yes!  They have a very solid resume as a registrar.  The same can be said about NameCheap for hosting.  Prices for shared hosting are a little steep for some.  Their VPS plans are right on par with other hosts.  Dedicated plans are priced fairly.  Some of them are even cheaper than other companies too.  They have a plethora of plans.  No matter how big or small a server you require NameCheap can handle anything you need them.  Their uptime is fantastic, and a lot of plans do come with SSD hosting.  Their customer support is very solid.  They explain stuff to you rather than sending you a canned response like other hosting companies.

No matter how big or small a server you require NameCheap can handle anything you need them.  Their uptime is fantastic, and a lot of plans do come with SSD hosting.  Their customer support is very reliable.  They explain stuff to you.  NameCheap doesn’t send you a canned response.  Matt Russell is their vice president who also founded WebHostingBuzz.  Another company I stand behind.

9-20 dollars a month might be too high for some, for a shared server.  Might consider reading my WebHosting Hub review.  You can get a shared plan for half the price of NameCheaps cheapest shared hosting plan.  Also, for VPS and dedicated plans, I would also read my InMotion review for another good alternative plan.

Research on NameCheap.

“Positive”

WhoIsHostingThis.com

WhoIsHostingThis.com is a hosting review site. It has lots of reviews on lots of hosts. There is an editorial review and then a user review section. The following compliments and complaints were left on NameCheap:

NameCheap Compliments

  • Excellent customer support.
  • Fix issues quickly.
  • The interface is very user-friendly.
  • Cheap price tag.
  • Lots of loyal customers.
  • Great uptime.
  • Site’s load quickly.

NameCheap Complaints

  • Support didn’t help with Google Apps.
  • Renew packages are expensive.
  • Not easy to point DNS to Six or third party email providers.
  • No phone support.
  • Horrible risk management support.

Overall, NameCheap has gotten 4.1 out of 5 stars. You can read their NameCheap reviews by clicking here.

WebHostingGeeks.com

WebHostingGeeks reviews hosts. They provide information about the features offered by the host.  Along with the historical rating over the last few months. Following this, you see overall rankings of the host, based on a five-star ranking.  With five being the best score.

Overall Score

WebHostingGeeks.com gives NameCheap an overall score of four out of five stars. The majority of customers give it five stars.  With some scoring it lower. Four stars were allotted to all categories, including price, reliability, software, customer support, and user-friendliness.

Pros

Most customers like the price tag. It is on the low side of pricing in comparison to other hosts. Another solid point with NameCheap is the reliability and uptime.

NameCheap also has a money back guarantee. NameCheap promises 99.9% uptime.  As well, with cPanel hosting. Uptime receives high ratings from most customers.  With good speeds. Some clients report 100% uptime.  With a quick response from customer service. Some customers like the customer service.  Good and reliable help.

Cons

Several customers said that their accounts were blocked by NameCheap, with no notification or explanation. Other accounts were banned. Other customers say that the customer service is very poor, with long waits for resolutions.

Overall, NameCheap does get good feedback. As a whole, they get 3.9 out of 5. They have 40 5 star ratings. 11 4 star ratings, 2 3 star ratings.  7 2 star ratings.  And 11 1 star ratings. Over 70% of the ratings are positive on NameCheap.  They have the most NameCheap reviews I have seen so far.

ShivarWeb.com

Nate Shivar wrote a very in-depth NameCheap review. He reviewed their shared hosting plan. Then he gave the pros and cons to using NameCheap.

NameCheap Pros

  • NameCheap is very inexpensive.
  • Each plan can support multiple domains, databases, and disk space.
  • Transparent with their pricing.
  • Independently owned.
  • Easy to use after signup. Commonly, called “onboarding.”
  • WordPress quick installs.
  • No upsells.
  • Choices between the United States and the United Kingdom data centers.
  • Free backups are included.

NameCheap Cons

  • A limitation to their plans.
  • Good for sites that are small.
  • Slow TTFB (time to first byte) and inconsistent TTFB stats.
  • Low server memory caps.
  • Only offer live chat and support desk.
  • NameCheap doesn’t specialize in hosting.  Started as a registrar.
  • Short 14-day money-back.

Overall, NameCheap is a good “budget” host. There are some limitations so only smaller sites. They get 3.5 out of 5.

“Negative”

WebHostingReviews.com

WebHostingReviews reviews hosts. They offer a screenshot of the service they are reviewing.  Along with scores for various features. Their scoring is based on a ten point scale.  With ten being the highest score. Here, we’ll see what WebHostingReviews.com has to say.

Overall Score

WebHostingReviews.com gives low scores to NameCheap, with the highest score of 5.16 for server and connection speed. The rest of the scores are 4.36 out of ten for uptime.  4.77 for value for the money you spend.  4.69 for customer support and tech expertise.  4.86 for billing.

Pros

NameCheap offers a free dedicated IP, and backups are free too. They also offer a 90-day guarantee.

Cons

Customers report frequent downtimes lasting thirty minutes or more. The server also delivers 403 messages quite often.  According to a couple of clients.

Other customers complained about the email hosting.  They say that despite a significant amount of work.  Their emails were still sent to spam consistently. All email is treated as spam.  Also, customers reported that they received lots of spam.

They also don’t give refunds quickly.  Despite their money back guarantee. Several customers complained that they could not get their money back.

Customer service is not very knowledgeable. Users of this service say that the tech support is unable to get their websites back online.  Can’t seem to fix the problem with spam labels.

Overall, 21 people have left feedback on NameCheap. Most of it has been very negative. Just under 40% of the people would recommend NameCheap to others.

“Neutral”

Besthostnews.com

BestHostNews reviews web hosting services, much like tbwhs.com does. They provide a very thorough analysis of the hosting services. Besthostnews.com gives the host a score based on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest score. They provide both an editor’s score as well as a customer’s score. Then, a thorough study of the host follows, with recommendations and customer reviews. Here, we’ll see what Besthostnews.com has to say about Namecheap.

Overall Score

Besthostnews.com’s editor gives Namecheap a score of 8.7 out of ten. Pretty good score. However, customers give it a rating of 6.3, which is lower than the editor’s review. Averages out to an overall score of 7.5.   Still a pretty decent score.

Pros

  • Namecheap has a very solid reputation as a registrar.  The same can be said about their web hosting plans.
  • Namecheap is a very reliable web host.  They get issues resolved very quickly.  They have a great community section where they help respond to costumers issues.
  • Namecheap offers four different hosting packages in two categories.  Shared hosting and business SSD. The yearly pricing ranges from $9.88 to $19.88.  Price is fair.
  • They also use cPanel.  Which users find to be very easy to use.  SSL certificate, domains, and other features are well priced.
  • Namecheap is an experienced domain registrar.  Offer Cloudflare.  Ideal for shared hosting plans.
  • Security is good.  Because they limit the number of accounts, they host. They use Cloudlinux and XCache.

Cons

  • People find that customer service is a time consuming.  Slow resolution of severe problems.
  • Namecheap also has a short money back option. Fourteen days is short.

Overall, the editor review on Besthostnews.com is great.  As mentioned above they do get an 8.7/10.  However, the user reviews are low  They get a 6.3/10.  B barely a passing grade.  Overall the average is 7.5. 

Interviews with NameCheap clients.

“Stephanie”

I’m a Registered Pharmacist and Online Marketer and have been building a business online since 2014. I currently own 3 WordPress websites and work on helping others start an online business from scratch as well as building websites/blogs for their business. You can find more information at www.PreciousNewStart.com

When did you use NameCheap?

I started using Namecheap back in February 2015, and have been using them ever since. I initially signed up to register a domain, as I already had a hosting provider. Then after a few months, I went ahead and purchased a hosting plan too.

What appealed to you about NameCheap that made you sign up with them?

Initially, I didn’t know anything about Namecheap. My first knowledge of them was when I became a member of Wealthy Affiliate (an online business training program). They recommended using Namecheap to register my domain because they were affordable and offered a quality service. I trusted the program and therefore trusted their recommendation. I registered my domain right away, and I felt the price was affordable, about $10/year, so I went ahead and purchased it.

After a while, I wanted to be able to host my site away from Wealthy Affiliate, and due to my previous experience of Namecheap, I decided to use them as my hosting provider. The starting price was less than $10 for the year, and it meant I could host up to 3 sites. It was definitely within my budget, and I felt it suited my needs very well.

Overall, it was the price and the recommendation from others that made me sign up with them.

What hosting plan did you have with NameCheap?

I chose the value shared hosting package with Namecheap as I didn’t require too many features, and it was within my budget range at the time.

What were some things you liked about NameCheap?

There are quite a few things I like about Namecheap. I like the price because it’s affordable, and the renewal prices are within a reasonable limit. I also like that the value hosting package can host up to 3 sites.

My experience of Namecheap has been very positive since joining them. I like that my sites run smoothly and the customer service staff are very supportive and friendly.

What were some things you don’t like about NameCheap?

I haven’t got anything bad to say about Namecheap. I’ve not experienced any unexpected charges or any issues with my hosting and domains. It’s been a very good experience.

Can you describe what NameCheap’s customer support was like?

I’ve only had to contact NameCheap’s customer support a couple of times, and both times I’ve found the staff very friendly and extremely helpful in my queries. Overall, I felt like a valued customer, and they were able to support me and my websites.

Would you recommend NameCheap to others? Why?

I would highly recommend NameCheap to others. They offer affordable domain and hosting, and a quality service to go with it. There are no crazy high renewal prices, and the customer support is very helpful.

Go To NameCheap
All content on tbwhs.com are opinions and not facts. I have thoroughly reviewed each company and then provide my personal opinions on them. It’s up to you as the consumer to do your due diligence and do more research if you feel something might be inaccurate.
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