Namecheap, as the name suggest is one of the most affordable web hosting provider and web services company in the U.S. They provide variety of feature-full hosting packages. In this namecheap review you won’t find on reddit, we take a look at some of those features.
Namecheap company history
Launched in 2000, Namecheap started its story as a domain registrar that dreamed to be the best of its kind. Having registered over 14 million domain names across the globe since then, we could safely say that Namecheap made its dream into reality. What is more, it has been adding a variety of services and upgrading its platform to include web hosting as well.
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Namecheap’s head office is situated in Phoenix (Arizona, the USA) from where they monitor and maintain three data centers: one in their hometown, another one close to Nottingham (the UK), and the last one in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Before going forward, let’s have a quick look at the pros and cons of namecheap.
What are the pros and cons we found?
Pros
- + Free website builder
- + 30-day money-back guarantee
- + Nice variety of hosting products
- + Free Supersonic CDN (currently in beta)
- + Entry-level plan support up to three domains
Cons
- – No telephone support
- – Price spike upon renewal
- – Stripped-down dashboard
Get your own address on the web with Namecheap
Namecheap subscription options for domains & host plans:
- .Com – $8.88 with a $12.98 renewal rate
- .Net – $10.98 with a $14.98 renewal rate
- .Org – $9.18 with a $14.98 renewal rate
- .Io – $32.98 with a $34.98 renewal rate
- .Co – $7.98 with a $25.98 renewal rate
- .Ai – $58.98 with a $68.88 renewal rat
- e.Ca – $11.98 with a $13.98 renewal rate
Shared Hosting
- Stellar – $1.58 a month
- Stellar Plus – $2.68 a month
- Stellar Business – $4.80 a month
All shared hosting plans come with unmetered bandwidth, free website builder, domain name and privacy protection, free automatic SSL certification, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Reseller Hosting
- Nebula – $19.88 a month
- Galaxy Expert – $36.88 a month
- Universe Pro – $54.88 a month
All Reseller Hosting plans come with unmetered bandwidth, Free cPanel/WHM, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
WordPress Hosting
- EasyWP Starter – $3.88
- EasyWP Turbo – $7.88
- EasyWP Supersonic – $11.88
As the company’s name suggests, Namecheap sells cheap (domain) names, but that’s not all. It also offers absurdly affordable shared hosting that starts at $1.58 per month (if you subscribe for a year), managed WordPress, reseller, VPS, and dedicated server solutions.
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With most plans, you get to select your server location, but some of these are cheaper than others. For instance, the above-mentioned entry-level shared hosting plan called “Stellar“ costs 1.58 per month, but only if you select a US-based data center. If you go with the UK or (as of late) the European one, the price will rise to $2.44, and the same goes for each plan with which you can choose a data center location. We should also note that there is a considerable price spike with all plans after the promotional period has ended.
Going for an annual or a biennial billing cycle will get you a free domain name registration, while a monthly one won’t. With “Stellar” you’ll also get support for up to three websites, 20GB of storage (SSD), unlimited bandwidth, free PositiveSSL for a year, free website migration, a free website builder, and a free CDN (content delivery network), currently in beta.
All plans (apart from dedicated server ones) come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you’ll have plenty of time to try out the services without spending a dime.
As for payment methods, Namecheap accepts credit/debit cards (MasterCard, American Express, and Discover), PayPal, Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
Getting Started With Namecheap:
To kick things off with Namecheap, you’ll have to pick out a hosting plan and tap into “Get Started”. Fortunately, Namecheap’s plans are presented in full detail and in an easy-to-understand way, so opting for one of them won’t feel like buying a pig in the poke. Just keep in mind that the UK and EU data center locations will cost you an additional $1.00, and that going for a longer billing period can give you up to 45% off the total cost.
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Now it’s time to deal with the domain name. If you want to register a new one it can cost you anything from zero to a couple of thousand dollars per year, depending on the name you want to use. A free domain feature apples for annual and biennial hosting plans and to specific TLDs only: .fun, .host, .online, .site, press, .store, .space, .pw, .tech, .website, .agency, .center, .digital, .live, and .studio. After this you can check out your cart and consider adding some add-ons, some of them cost-free but most at an additional cost.
Creating an account with Namecheap is both swift and simple. After filling a form with your information and making a payment, you can expect to see your account activated in a matter of seconds. While you’re biding your time, be sure to check out your email for a welcome message backed by a few how-tos aimed at novices.
Namecheap’s dashboard is as simple as they get but seems useful enough for monitoring and managing products you’ve purchased and adding new ones. From there you can enter your control panel, which should be an industry-leading cPanel with which you’ll easily install all the apps you want (thanks to Softaculous), check your SSL certificates, manage your backups, make use of the drag-and-drop website builder, get in touch with the support team, and more.
Namecheap Default Themes:
Namecheap’s no-code site builder is loaded with basic yet beautiful templates (over 200 of them), and the user-friendly editor will enable you to fill your newly created site with images, videos, social media content, maps, calendars, countdowns, and much more.
Namecheap Speed:
Although Namecheap doesn’t brag about having a blazing-fast speed, the results of the speed test we carried out on its official site show that it would have a good reason to do so. According to multiple tests done via GTmetrix, the site took just 2.5 seconds to completely load, and 62 requests at the same time, both of which are a case in point for a presentable performance. What is more, all other vital speed measuring metrics crowned the speed performance of Namecheap’s site with an impeccable A (100%).
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In terms of uptime, Namecheap promises 100% of monthly uptime with all shared and dedicated server plans and 99.9% of it with reseller and VPS plans. For every hour of downtime exceeding these limits, users are entitled to one day of free hosting added to their service.
After monitoring the uptime of Namecheap’s official site for two weeks via UptimeRobot, we recorded a total of 11 minutes of downtime and few major spikes in response time. This isn’t something you should worry too much about, since the site was up 99.94% of the time.
Namecheap Support Team:
If you find yourself in need of a helping hand, go to Namecheap’s “Help Center ” for it will present you with a couple of choices. If you are someone who values self-sufficiency, your first destination should be the knowledgebase in which you’ll also find a variety of how-to video guides.
The knowledgebase consists of hundreds of easy-to-follow guides neatly organized into 17 categories that cover everything from basic beginner-type questions to more expert-level issues. Most of these how-tos seem to be considerably detailed and supported by suitable screenshots.
Although phone support isn’t among the options, you can reach Namecheap’s support team via live chat or ticket system, both of which are available 24/7. What is more, you won’t have to waste time by trying to find Namecheap’s support manually, since both live chat and knowledgebase are linked directly from your cPanel.
Namecheap Apps:
What exactly are Namecheap apps? Namecheap apps are a relatively new feature that lets you buy applications to help make your site a success.
Many of the apps they offer are free, and you can start using others for relatively low monthly fees. Some of my favorites include its website builder at only $3.99 a month, its free logo maker, and its website uptime monitoring app, which is also free to use.
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Not many other domain registrars offer apps that help you beyond the process of simply registering a domain and purchasing a hosting plan. Here’s a look at the Namecheap apps you can use:
- Supersonic CDN – Ensures your website is running as fast as possible
- Validation.com – Verify and ID online customers
- EasyWP – Easy WordPress site builder that’s great if you aren’t tech-savvy
- Namecheap VPN – Protects your privacy online
- G Suite – a centralized email solution for all your online communications
- Business Card Maker – Need an online business card? You can design one with their business card maker
- Logo Maker – You can create professional logos without having to hire a designer
- Strikingly – An easy-to-use website builder for all your site design needs
- Weebly – Easily build a website with Weebly
- Ghost Machine – A blog building app that makes creating a blog a breeze
- Namecheap Uptime Monitoring – You can keep track of your site’s uptime and downtime occurrences
- Namecheap Legal – With Namecheap Legal, you can easily incorporate your business and form a proper LLC
- Canvas -An easy website builder you can start using in minutes
Namecheap Security:
Without a doubt, one of Namecheap’s best differentiators is its dedication to privacy and site security. Features like two-factor authentication, the ability to safely unblock content with its VPN service, and personal privacy and browsing protection ensure your safety online.
Other domain registrars don’t put as much care into their safety features and not many offer free privacy protection when you purchase a domain from them.
That should give you a better idea of what their business is all about.
