NameCheap is definitely an independent (ie, not of a large holding corporation) an ICANN-accredited website name registrar founded in 2000. Additionally to domain registration, they provide a complementary spectrum of hosting companies.
NameCheap offers email, website builder, SSLs, as well as other services with round-the-clock support along with a thirty day money-back guarantee.
I reviewed NameCheap like a domain registrar here, but have obtained questions for a long time regarding their hosting companies. Readers ask because NameCheap Hosting is actually cheap – like, suspiciously cheap.
You should check out NameCheap’s plan and current prices here.
Although I love to keep my hosting and domain registration separate, I’d a little project to produce, and so i made the decision to use it NameCheap and find out the way the service switched out.
Here’s my NameCheap Shared Web Hosting review – structured with pros & cons according to my experience like a customer.
Skip to direct comparisons or skip towards the conclusion.
Disclosure – I receive referral charges from companies pointed out on this web site. All opinion and knowledge is dependant on my experience like a having to pay customer or consultant to some having to pay customer.
Pros of utilizing NameCheap Hosting
Listed here are the professionals (advantages) for thinking about NameCheap Hosting. There are plenty of NameCheap Hosting reviews online – usually with user-generated reviews according to anecdotes and private experience. That’s fine however i have a different approach. As I’ve stated in other hosting reviews, there’s no such factor like a “best” hosting company. The “best” may be the right fit for the project according to your objectives, budget, experience & expertise.
Prices
NameCheap’s primary advantage is the prices.
It’s cheap – like, shockingly cheap.
But cheap isn’t always just like the best value. To find that out, we must observe how hosting prices is structured.
Website hosting information mill all selling exactly the same factor – a house for the website – but every one has different plans with various caps, different bonuses and various renewal prices. For many, working out their true value needs a breakdown into various parts.
To check “apples to apples” among website hosts, I break things lower into Core hosting features and Bonus hosting features.
Core hosting features would be the “3 D’s” – domains, databases and disk space. The main reason for a hosting server would be to serve website files if somebody types inside your website name.
- Domains are the number of domains you are able to indicate your hosting account. If you would like multiple websites, you’ll wish to have multiple domains permitted. You’ll should also take a look at emails per domain – sometimes individuals are capped too.
- Databases are the number of bits of website software you are able to operate on your hosting server. A WordPress install requires one database. For those who have any apps, Listservs, etc – you’ll require more.
- Disk space is the number of files try on some your server – images, text, PDFs, etc.
- Additional features could include everything from website builder software to advertising credits to backend software, etc.
Whenever you break it lower, you can at any rate compare apples to apples and obtain a feeling of value according to the thing you need.
NameCheap has four prices tiers. Value renews at $38.88/yr Professional renews at $78.88/yr Ultimate renews at $129.88/yr and Business Pro renews at 17.98/mo.
All of the plans include absurdly low intro prices – as little as $9.88/yr for that Value plan.
The issue is the fact that all of the plans are capped on two three “D’s” – additionally with other caps.
You’ll find more within the Cons section on plan limitations, but here’s the way the plans exercise.
- Value – Restricted to 3 domains, 20GB in disk space, 50 databases and 50 email options.
- Professional – Restricted to 10 domains, 50GB in disk space, 100 databases and 100 email options.
- Ultimate – Restricted to 50 domains.
- Business Pro – Restricted to 20GB in disk space & 5000GB in bandwidth.
For much better or worse, NameCheap’s plans have a lot of limits that it is very hard to check them straight to other company’s hosting plans. But here’s the way it concludes –
If you are considering remaining under individuals caps – NameCheap is nearly always less expensive than the program you’d choose at another webhost.
If you’re not sure, then you will probably get more total value from the website hosting company with less individual caps for example InMotion, Website Hosting Hub, HostGator – or perhaps SiteGround.
In either case, NameCheap’s prices is really a solid advantage.
Company Brand & Values
NameCheap is really a independently-owned independent webhost. That’s a rarity inside a world where a number of corporations own almost all hosting brands.
Being private & independent isn’t always a great factor, and being of a sizable corporation isn’t always a poor factor.
However, where NameCheap excels being an independent clients are defining their brand values on and on for transparency inside a notoriously confusing industry.
Like I pointed out within my NameCheap or GoDaddy? domain registrar review – NameCheap has consistently donated money and sources to Internet freedom and security.
They’re corporate partners using the Electronic Frontier Foundation and FightForTheFuture.org – both organizations fighting for that fundamental infrastructure from the Internet.
NameCheap can also be transparent about all of their services and prices. I love the way they come with an expanding listing of all of their hosting features, and just how they conspicuously display renewal rates.
Overall, they’re a business which i think is reliable having a solid culture. When selecting who to use, It counts for much.
Onboarding & Account Management
As with every cool product – registering for a brand new hosting company could be both daunting and exciting.
The entire process of obtaining a new customer ready to go is really a critical a part of taking out the daunting part – and contributing to the thrill. Running a business jargon, the operation is known as “onboarding.” And there’s nothing and build regret just like a confusing onboarding process.
Ideally, after registering for a hosting plan, you’d immediately get the register credentials and then either visit a led tutorial or have the ability to sign in straight to your brand-new dashboard.
NameCheap does just that.
They give out a welcome email where one can login straight to the services you provide or follow directions right help sources.
Their account backends are neat and minimalist. There isn’t any flashing banners or hard upsells.
Their WordPress quick install software installs a clear form of WordPress without any additional plugins or styles.
And a straightforward, minimalist backend.
It’s something well-targeted at DIYers or beginners searching for any super-cheap but straightforward website hosting company.
Backups & Datacenter Choices
NameCheap also does several Bonus features very well.
At register, they provide an option between their US data center or United kingdom data center. It can make them a fantastic choice for non-US customers who’re serving web traffic nearer to the United kingdom compared to US.
NameCheap also does 2x weekly backups of the hosting account. While you want to do backups yourself, it’s an excellent safety internet to possess. And backups are incorporated free of charge with NameCheap. Usually it’s a compensated or limited bonus feature at competitors like Website Hosting Hub, Dreamhost or HostGator.
Cons of utilizing NameCheap Hosting
Like every hosting company, NameCheap Hosting has disadvantages. Listed here are the disadvantages which i found while using the NameCheap for hosting.
Plan Limitations
Like I pointed out within the Prices section, NameCheap places caps across domains, disk space, databases and emails.
For those who have one to two sites you know will remain small, NameCheap could be great. However for many website proprietors the issue isn’t within the caps themselves, however in how NameCheap has lots of overlapping caps.
Many website hosts tier out their plans, however they usually concentrate on a couple of caps to split up the plans. For instance, HostGator’s Hatchling Plan enables 1 domain as the Baby Plan enables limitless domains. The main difference is extremely straightforward. When you wish to include on another site, then you definitely upgrade.
With NameCheap, there are several upgrade triggers. For those who have just one site with a lot of images and video, you can hit the upgrade trigger. If you’re running several small projects on several domains, you can hit the upgrade trigger.
And ironically, should you purchase NameCheap’s top plan, you can get restricted to the quantity of disk space. They offer the program for ecommerce websites that need a ton of memory although the plan itself heavily caps disk space…which ecommerce sites require more compared to what they need multiple domains.
In either case – I possibly could continue on with further comparisons, but NameCheap’s limitations really are a disadvantage because there are plenty of of these that needs additional planning when choosing.
Allocations & Performance
Like I pointed out before, the main job of the hosting company would be to serve website files if somebody types inside your website name – but many agree that there is a missing adverb. It ought to be “to serve website files rapidly.”
To state website speed is essential is cliche, mainly in the chronilogical age of mobile. While server speed isn’t the only element in overall website speed, it’s an essential aspect.
And critically, it is also a “bottleneck” factor. Quite simply, regardless of how fast you compress or accelerate your site, you are able to only go as quickly as your server can respond.
Calculating server speed and response time is really a complicated issue. Just the network engineers at NameCheap can for sure say what’s happening with server speed – though they are doing promise “in many instances, our Shared Web Hosting is 50% quicker than another guys.”
But, anybody can measure a ballpark metric of server performance.
It’s known as Time For You To First Byte (TTFB) – and shows how rapidly a web server offers the first byte of knowledge after it gets to be a request.
Here’s how NameCheap performed your day I measured it with this site –
Here’s the exam a couple of days later –
Here’s how Website Hosting Hub (an immediate entry-level competitor) performs –
As you can tell – NameCheap isn’t horrible (well, that F around the second test is fairly bad), but it is also not “50% much better than another guys.”
Now, TTFB is better measured like a trend. Yet, simply searching at NameCheap’s server information causes it to be seem like they not just cap their plans, additionally they cap the particular servers those sites operate on.
Now – such as the plan caps – server allocations aren’t always a poor factor. For those who have a little site with couple of images, then you’ll likely don’t know the main difference.
However, I wouldn’t buy NameCheap hosting for his or her speed or performance.
Customer Care
Customer care is notoriously difficult to judge. It’s hard to be aware what is actually happening behind the curtain, and whether a business is going to be useful when *you* refer to them as.
A lot of user-provided online reviews (associated with a company) are generally naively positive or exaggerated negative encounters. Besides, with anecdotes, who knows if you’re studying in regards to a one-off or perhaps a true trend.
Rather, I argue that you ought to search for indicators of whether a business treats customer support like a cost or perhaps an investment. Quite simply, could they be attempting to keep costs lower and maximize profit for a while or could they be attempting to develop happy, lengthy-term customers?
The 2 best indicators I’ve found are availability across a variety of support channels and purchase of DIY customer care.
NameCheap is mediocre on.
For availability, they’ve chat and helpdesk. My chat wait time is generally very good. Also it’s usually good service for me personally. But may text-based support could possibly get tiresome if you have an elaborate issue.
So far as DIY customer care sources, there is a decent knowledgebase, though it’s focused mainly on domains – not hosting.
This time segues in to the next point about NameCheap’s product focus.
NameCheap Doesn’t Focus on Hosting
NameCheap is first of all a website registrar. Actually, a primary reason I utilize them for domain registration is they allow it to be very easy to buy a website and point it to hosting or email services elsewhere.
Within the broader Internet services industry, domains and hosting are natural complements. But I’ve never really seen a business do both super-well.
Website hosts that provide domain registration usually over-cost them making domain management a discomfort. Domain companies usually do not have the expertise or sources to operate a global-class hosting infrastructure.
That’s not saying it can’t be achieved or that some companies don’t compare. However, it appears like hosting and domains are just like coffee and breakfast.
They must be offered together, but it’s not often a perfect situation. Starbucks attempts to do breakfast…but it isn’t quite there. McDonald’s attempts to do coffee…but it isn’t quite exactly the same.
Even when NameCheap’s hosting was incredible – I’d be reluctant the way it puts my Internet-presence components with one company.
For diversity’s sake, I love to keep my domains and hosting at different companies. Though that always pertains to website hosts not holding domains, additionally, it pertains to domain companies running my hosting servers.
Bonus Features
While NameCheap includes a fairly complete set of features for every plan, they are doing exclude some bonus features.
First, their cash-back guarantee is extremely short. NameCheap does fourteen days. But corporate hosting competitors like HostGator do 45 days. And independent competitors like DreamHost, InMotion and Website Hosting Hub all do a minimum of 90-day money-back guarantees.
Second, they overprice a few of their upgrades like dedicated IP addresses (usually essential for installing SSL certificates). You pay $24/yr when a lot of companies charge $2 or bundle it free of charge.
Neither of individuals points is a big disadvantage, but together they form another disadvantage to understand.
NameCheap Hosting Comparisons
From the best-known web hosting companies that I’ve utilized as a person or consultant, here’s how NameCheap Hosting compares straight to each. Or skip towards the conclusion.
NameCheap Hosting versus. GoDaddy Hosting
GoDaddy has probably the most recognized brands in the market because of their TV, offline and everywhere advertising. Though they’ve improved previously couple years, GoDaddy includes a status for upsells, confusing backend and poor performance. I reviewed GoDaddy Hosting here. Like NameCheap, they’re a website registrar first which offers hosting.
Between NameCheap Hosting and GoDaddy Hosting, I’d opt for NameCheap. They’re less expensive than GoDaddy – and GoDaddy doesn’t from the difference with better performance or customer care.
NameCheap Hosting versus. iPage
iPage is really a sister make of HostGator focused on budget website hosting. They belong to Endurance Worldwide, but unlike HostGator, it normally won’t appear to become receiving active investment. Their primary factor is very cheap short-term prices. Their support and gratifaction are sub-componen. Despite iPage’s limitless features, I’d opt for NameCheap in virtually every situation.
NameCheap Hosting versus. HostGator
HostGator is an extremely well-known brand within the hosting industry. They’re also of Endurance Worldwide, causing them to be another sister brand to Bluehost/iPage. They are among Endurance International’s primary brands and also have a solid balance between cheap lengthy-term prices, good support and good performance.
HostGator has less plan limitations and comparable degree of performance and support. If you’re managing a single small website, I’d opt for NameCheap. If you’re building several or an increased website, I’d opt for HostGator. You can observe HostGator’s current prices w/ 45% off discount here
NameCheap Hosting versus. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is among the largest and fastest growing independent (ie, of employees not really a large corporate holding company) website hosts. This website utilizes a VPS server with InMotion. I reviewed InMotion here. InMotion has better customer care, better performance and plans features than NameCheap. They’re more costly than NameCheap overall. I’d choose whichever one fits your priorities. Take a look at InMotion here…
Side note about InMotion – additionally they possess a starter hosting brand known as Website Hosting Hub that provides better limitless prices than InMotion with great performance. They compete mind to mind with NameCheap. They’re still more costly, but additionally make a great starter webhost if you would like a completely independent webhost. You should check out Website Hosting Hub here…
Conclusion & Next Steps
Overall, I discovered NameCheap Hosting to become a good budget hosting option. If you’re beginning a really small website, concerned much more about cost than plan limitations, NameCheap works well.
If you’re searching to have an independent shared web hosting company with better performance, customer care, and plan options i then recommend checking out InMotion Hosting here…
If you’re more confused than ever before – then take my BuzzFeed style hosting quiz here or use this site setup guide here!
The publish NameCheap Shared Web Hosting Review w/ Pros & Cons made an appearance first on ShivarWeb.
“”
